20 Dumbest Gimmick Matches In WCW History
16. The Family Gauntlet Match
This was a bizarre, supposedly impromptu match that was one of the worst segments in Nitro history. "Rowdy" Roddy Piper, in the depths of his mid-life crisis feud with Hollywood Hogan, decided that he needed some backup to take on the nWo in a "Triangle Elimination Match" we'll discuss shortly. Instead of enlisting the his then-allies the Four Horsemen, Piper declared that he needed fighters, not wrestlers, and issued an open challenge for amateur tough guys to enter the ring and fight him.
As if on cue, "local tough guys" that looked suspiciously like jobbers and stuntmen in denim cut-offs began to file out to be beaten up by Piper. After each clumsy street clothes jobber squash, Piper would grab the mic and ask the fans if this guy deserved to join his "family," and the fans' reactions to his repeated queries ranged from stunned silence to vitriolic hatred. This went on for TWENTY MINUTES. Twenty minutes of Roddy Piper badly pretending to shootfight pretend shootfighters. The payoff was Piper picking a team of scrappy rookies that included (secret?) veteran pro wrestler John Tenta and two of his direct-to-VHS stuntman pals.
Defining Moment: Piper spending a third of an hour on this garbage only for WCW to go "yeah, no" and make him team with the Horsemen instead.