6 Ups And 6 Downs From WWE Backlash 2016

5. Poop Jokes

Poor Heath Slater. The man is on a PPV competing for a title and he has to play court jester to make Vince McMahon laugh.

Heath’s story about wanting a job and needing to win it all in a tag tournament would be a fun, compelling story to get fans invested in him and actually undo years of abuse and perennial jobberdom. You could almost see fans rallying to him as he struggles to achieve something big. Instead, an offhand line about having seven kids was played out in “hilarious” sketches with him living an unsophisticated life in a trailer with a less-than-attractive wife.

And then at Backlash, he made a comment (thinking the cameras were off) about indigestion and using the bathroom several times Sunday. Yes, a poop joke. Heath Slater, now a tag team champion, was reduced to making poop jokes. (And this was mentioned again multiple times during the match, with David Otunga really worrying about an Uso headbutt to Slater’s stomach.)

So instead of actually caring about him as a character, he’s a punchline for Vince’s brand of lowbrow humor and playing out his stereotypes of people who lives in trailers. You could have Slater be a comedic character without resorting to poop jokes.