50 Absolute Worst Things WWE Has Done In The 21st Century

Fans watching the then-WWF's product at the time might agree it feels like only yesterday The Rock was winning the 2000 Royal Rumble and celebrating in front of a packed Madison Square Garden. It wasn't. It was over 25 full years ago, which is a downright scary thought. Even younger fans will have their very own, 'Wait...that happened 'x' number of years ago?!' moments when looking back on WWE's past.

That Rumble 2000 show remains one of the company's finest hours of the past quarter century, but how about the worst? There were some real heavyweight contenders for worst promotional clanger ever when scouring everything WWE bosses like Vince McMahon and Triple H have produced since the turn of the millennium. Obviously, given the sweeping improvements he brought about and the smaller window of time he's been in charge, Trips has yet to do anything that'd top McMahon's nonsense.

Let's not rewrite history: Vince was once one of wrestling's best creative minds, but when things fell apart they fell apart. One year in particular (you can probably guess which!) gets a lot of attention in these pages. It really was a thoroughly miserable time to be a fan.

Nothing was safe from scrutiny. There are regrettable angles, outright stupid creative decisions for brand new members of the roster, insulting and even offensive pieces of television that shouldn't have been aired, and much, much more. The law of averages says everybody gets something wrong every now and then, but a lot of this stuff was unacceptably bad.

So, WWE's worst creative brainfarts between 2000-present day. GO!

WWE has been sporadically obsessed with doppelgänger warfare for a long time. In 1994, "The Underfaker" temporarily replaced The Undertaker and set up a SummerSlam clash that almost bored people to sleep. Bizarrely, it was supposed to be even longer than it was, but Bret and Owen Hart went over their allotted time inside a steel cage. Thank God they did.

Approx 12 years later, creative recycled the idea for 'Taker's kayfabe brother Kane. He'd unmasked and turned into the bald psychopathic horror movie character who burned testicles and set announcers on fire by 2006, so some fans were missing the classic mute masked man of yesteryear. Good news! He was back. Well, sort of.

It was actually Luke Gallows in an unconvincing mask, wig and Halloween outfit combo who attacked on the 29 May '06 episode of Raw. That led to a singles bout between real and fake at Vengeance in June. The real deal actually lost that scrap, but then kicked "Masked Kane" into touch on the following night's flagship. Meanwhile, fans wondered why the promotion thought a repeat of Undertaker's clanger of a story from the mid-90s was going to fly with them - this was not a successful gimmick WWE was trying again.

Gallows was nowhere near as imposing as the original Kane had been when he first started showing up in 1997. He was a cold, almost-mechanical monster. This version was like someone's gangly uncle had decided to delight the kiddies by showing up to little Johnny's 10th birthday party as the 'Big Red Machine'.

Here's hoping WWE shelves such doppelgänger stuff in the future.