10 Worst WWE Moments Of 2008

WWE actually has a fairly solid record when it comes to picking workers deserving of a main event push in the modern era, but they got it spectacularly wrong with Vladimir Kozlov. He was an old school anti-USA heel who felt passé, but that wasn't the biggest problem. Rusev came along and did that with aplomb years later. No, the real issue was that Vlad was straight up boring.

His squashes were dull, and no-one was fooled by commentary claims that he'd be a force to be reckoned with by the biggest stars on the roster. Regardless, WWE shoved Kozlov awkwardly up the ladder and booked him in a Triple Threat match vs. Triple H and Jeff Hardy for Survivor Series '08. Come crunch time, Jeff was posted missing the bout due to an attack angle staged before the match.

That, rather unfortunately, meant that Trips had 10-12 minutes to try squeeze a passable match out of Vladimir. It was an uphill task, to say the least. Vickie Guerrero didn't show up until late on to announce that Edge was taking Jeff's place, which meant a bored live crowd had to sit through Hunter struggling to get anything out of Kozlov. That 10 mins or so felt like a lifetime.

Indeed, everything about 'Vladimir Kozlov - Vince McMahon Pet Project #8,263' was crummy. Exposing him in a singles bout like this (even against one of the most established names in the company) on a major pay-per-view was a terrible decision. McMahon and his lieutenants surely regretted this one straight away.

Big Koz should've had a few extra z's behind his name. "Kozzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz". He put people to sleep.