10 Worst WWE Moments Of 2004
1. WWE Then Tries To Turn Kane Babyface
Seriously, what the hell were they even thinking here?
Future foot enthusiast Gene Snitsky hit Kane with a chair on the 13 September 2004 Raw and caused the 'Big Red Machine' to fall on Lita. As a knock on effect, that caused her to miscarry the baby. Subsequent skits showing Kane crying at Lita’s bedside as she disassociated from the whole thing were torturous to sit through. Why on earth did they think trying to put sympathy on Kane was the way to go?!
OK, so WWE didn't go full pelt towards the 'cheer for Kane' prompts, but they not-so-gently nudged viewers into sympathising with him as a grieving would-be father who'd just lost his kid. Good lord - producing a miscarriage story on wrestling telly would've been challenging enough without adding in the fact that Kane had forced himself onto Lita in the first place and laughed maniacally about the suffering he'd caused for months.
Hopping from that towards the idea that he was the one people needed to feel sorry for was a wretched stretch that everybody involved should feel ashamed about. Lita was caught in no man's land between being relieved that she wouldn't birth Kane's demonic spawn and being distraught about losing a child she'd been carrying.
It's understandable when the industry attempts to tell broader stories than just 'Wrestler A wants Wrestler B's title so they're gonna fight about it', but this was awful stuff from WWE. Depicting an implied rapist as someone worthy of the sympathy vote (even temporarily) is so offensive it's almost impossible to think this ever aired on episodes of Raw at all.
What other WWE moments from 2004 belong here? For more wrestling, check out 10 Worst WWE Moments Of 2003 and 10 WWE Fates Worse Than Death!