The WORST Wrestling Moment Every Year (1989 - 2025)

24. 2002 | Katie Vick

Terri Runnels
WWE

The Katie Vick angle is on some level funny. Not ha-ha funny - it was the opposite of that - but it was funny that WWE felt the need to resort to it. A very unpleasant and incompetent institution that luxuriated in killing the Invasion angle a year earlier, eating sh*t because everybody thought it was failing and desperate? 

Come on, there’s at least an element of schadenfreude to the Katie Vick angle which, if absolutely nothing else, explored subject matter that while utterly depraved and grotesque is not as systemic within society as, say, coerced sex. WWE would arrive at that in a couple of years, because of course they would. 

Triple H accused Kane of accidentally causing the death of his high school crush and opportunistically violating the corpse. The idea of Kane as a hormonal high schooler was very funny, if nothing else. Kane would have been 17 in 1984, and as somebody harbouring the delusion that he had been incinerated, he was more likely than not a social outcast. Perhaps he was playing the Smiths in his car, comforted that at least Morrissey gets him, on the fateful night drive that claimed Katie Vick’s life. You can picture Kane, at the mall, trying to accessorise his tuxedo with his red and black mask, before giving up because nobody was going to go with him to prom anyway.  

After making the accusation, Triple H dressed up as Kane and pretended to bonk a mannequin dressed up as the corpse. This was disgusting, but WWE has done much worse without getting anywhere near as much grief.

Contributor
Contributor

Michael Sidgwick is an editor, writer and podcaster for WhatCulture Wrestling. With over seven years of experience in wrestling analysis, Michael was published in the influential institution that was Power Slam magazine, and specialises in providing insights into All Elite Wrestling - so much so that he wrote a book about the subject. You can order Becoming All Elite: The Rise Of AEW on Amazon. Possessing a deep knowledge also of WWE, WCW, ECW and New Japan Pro Wrestling, Michael’s work has been publicly praised by former AEW World Champions Kenny Omega and MJF, and current Undisputed WWE Champion Cody Rhodes. When he isn’t putting your finger on why things are the way they are in the endlessly fascinating world of professional wrestling, Michael wraps his own around a hand grinder to explore the world of specialty coffee. Follow Michael on X (formerly known as Twitter) @MSidgwick for more!