10 Worst WWE Moments Of 2004

'Noooooooo! Please, Undertaker! Pleeeeeeeease! Noooooooo!'.

That was the sort of shrill screaming Paul Bearer did towards the end of a critically-panned Great American Bash pay-per-view back in the summer of 2004. The stipulation heading into the show said that the glass prison Bearer was standing in would be filled with cement if The Undertaker lost to the Dudley Boyz. ’Taker actually won the handicap match, but flipped a switch to encase his manager anyway.

WWE claimed afterwards that Bearer had survived (somehow), but he wasn’t spotted for years after the angle. It was a thoroughly miserable set piece, and a decidedly naff way to end the pay-per-view. Bringing back an old WCW PPV was one thing, but WWE didn’t need to go WCW style with the blow off moment! Nitro, Thunder or events like Halloween Havoc and Starrcade would've been proud of this nonsense in 2000.

Footage was filmed earlier that WWE used to splice in with the live feed. In other words, Paul Bearer wasn't physically present for the cement-inspired suffocation ritual they'd decided to put in the main event slot. It's pretty wild that JBL vs. Eddie Guerrero was bumped lower down the card for this, to be honest.

Creative backed themselves into an unnecessary corner with the stip. They didn't want Undertaker to lose, but still wanted to give folks the payoff of seeing Bearer get flooded. So, they nonsensically had 'Taker do the honours even though he'd beaten both Bubba Ray and D-Von in a crumbling 2-on-1 headliner.

This was Goldberg vs. Kronik levels of rubbish. Again, WWE showed itself up as a latter day WCW wannabe with this sort of storytelling.