10 WWE Ideas So Awful Even Legends Couldn't Get Them Over
8. Planet Of The Apes
The year 2000 in WWE remains an example of how important momentum is for a product such a professional wrestling - and not the type Michael Cole persistently bangs on about Titus O'Neil building during a moribund Monday Night Raw match. Everybody was over. Everybody. Everything was over. Everything. The Too Cool pairing of Brian 'Too Sexay' Christopher and Scott 'Scotty 2 Hotty' Taylor were trotted out as sub-Public Enemy heels in 1999, and danced their way to a worthy Tag Team title reign less than a year later. Stood between them was ex-Headshrinker Fatu repurposed as a miniature Yokozuna with an interest in hip hop. Everybody was over. Everything was over.
WWE had plugged into an audience that absolutely adored WWE. The only problem? They had absolutely no interest in anything else, especially when the product fell off a cliff a year later.
Chris Jericho and Stephanie McMahon found this out in mid-2001. The chemistry the prior year had been sublime, with the 'Billion Dollar Princess' a valuable entity in 'Y2J's rivalry with Triple H. It was dynamite enough for the pair to be forced out on Raw to take part in a transparent 'Planet Of The Apes' cash-grab segment that resulted in the prop primates shoving a pie in her face. Very few of the company's dancing monkeys over the next 17 years were afforded quite the recompense.