8 Disturbing WWE Raw Moments You Totally Don't Remember

3. Seven Kinds Of Wrong In A One Pint Glass (19 March 2007)

Nick Dinsmore's 'Eugene' character was always a problematic gimmick: an enthusiastic wrestling fan with severe learning difficulties that kept his mind at the level of an excitable child, he would mark out when meeting his heroes, and often copy their signature and finishing moves when competing in the ring. That was questionable enough - but given that the character's major utility appeared to be getting beaten up by vicious heels to accrue heat, in order that an heroic babyface could then save him, WWE's use of the gimmick (fairly predictably) made the whole thing ten times worse.

The most glaring example of this car crash tendency occurred in spring 2007, when gearing up for WrestleMania 23. Vince McMahon was due to face future President Donald Trump at the big show with their hair on the line - or rather, their respective surrogates Umaga and Bobby Lashley were due to face each other, for which future generations of wrestling fans could only be absurdly grateful.

As usual, Vince had to be seen to be completely, rabidly out of his gourd in the last couple of weeks before the money-making event. That's why he arranged a match between the Samoan killdozer Umaga and poor, innocent little Eugene, who only wanted to do Hulk Hogan and Randy Savage impressions in between zooming around backstage playing with Transformers and pretending to be an aeroplane.

I say 'match' - naturally, it was a slaughter, the bout only existing as a pretext to get to the post-match beatdown and head shaving. Despite Eugene's pathetic, horribly childlike pleading and crying, he'd be choked out, strapped down and have his head partially shaved in a segment that seemed to go on forever, while McMahon jeered at him, growling out half-assed taunts.

Now yeah, I know - Nick Dinsmore was acting, 'Eugene' is only a character on television, it built up heat for the celebrity match at WrestleMania, and pro wrestling is a work. That doesn't change the fact that, if you buy into the segment sufficiently to want McMahon to lose two weeks later, you're buying into a 'special' guy being tortured by a powerful billionaire and his vicious cronies. A man with the mind of a six year old. That's so not cool.

To make matters worse, kayfabe style - where were all the RAW babyfaces? Every other time Eugene found himself slapped about by a villain, a hero came cheerfully bounding in right on cue to white knight the crap out of the segment and set up a match. Lashley was backstage, the guy on the opposing side to McMahon, and was conspicuous by his shiny-headed absence. John Cena had the main event that night against a babyface Chris Benoit, but neither man popped his head out of gorilla to make so much as a 'tsk' face. This didn't reflect well on anyone, in real life or in the storylines.