10 WWE Experiments That Completely Failed

Remember when they did the Large Hadron Collider experiment a few years ago, and the press tried to convince us that it was going to result in the end of the world as we knew it?

Of course, all the science nerds who actually knew what they were talking about played down the level of risk. This is because those involved had taken the necessary precautions to ensure it didn't go too badly wrong - unlike, say, WWE in 2001, who decided to turn Stone Cold Steve Austin, their biggest star, into a bad guy on a complete whim.

Admittedly, the world didn't quite end, but it can hardly be classified as a success either. The fans had no interest in booing the Texas Rattlesnake, regardless of the company he started keeping or the horrible, cowardly things he did to try and turn us against him.

Moreover, many historians have cited this decision, and the subsequent loss of a focal marketing emblem, as one of the factors behind the death of the Attitude Era, WWE's last real boom period. Short of blowing up the planet, experiments don't get much more disastrous than that.