WWE 2002 – A Year of Shame: What a year it has been. What should have been considered a ‘rebuilding’ year turned out to be a year of crumbling down further and further. As the new year began, the WWF realized that business was down, and they had to find something to kickstart the company to make money (more money) again. So the circus began, with numerous attempts to win back fans who left during the slump. But some of the things they tried were just downright idiotic!
I’m Pregnant!
Triple H had just made his big return to the WWF. Fans quickly realized Triple H had put on some extra muscle, and this slowed him down in the ring, and he wasn’t quite so entertaining. Writers scrambled to keep Triple H in the spotlight, so they created some tension between HHH and his wife, Stephanie. Steph, feeling she was losing her meal ticket, made up a lie that she was pregnant! This turned the typically intense Triple H into a goofy idiot. Of course, we all know that this led to the divorce and Triple H’s monster face run that was squashed by a poorly times heel turn later in the year.
new World order
The WWF was going downhill fast, so the desperation began with the signing of three notorious troublemakers named Hulk Hogan, Scott Hall & Kevin Nash. The plan was to reform the original nWo to invade the WWF, hoping they could recreate the original success of the nWo in WCW. It didn’t work. surprise surprise. Hulk Hogan quickly bailed on the group, turning face at Wrestlemania and leaving Hall & Nash high and dry. Nash was a horrible worker and barely ever wrestled matches, and Hall, a great in-ring talent, had his usual personal demons hurting his career. The nWo wasn’t taken seriously and flopped even after adding XPac, Big Show, Booker T, and Shawn Michaels.
Billion Dollar Booty Contest
Okay, so this one isn’t so much the WWF’s fault but the fans. But can you blame them? By this time, the WWE had bored them and annoyed them so much that they had to figure out ways to keep themselves occupied. Not that we here at OWW agree with this behavior. However, in March, fans at College Station, Pennsylvania, started circulating an email challenging fans to jump the rail and strip Stephanie McMahon naked and get pictures for a reward. This led to WWF management writing Stephanie out of storylines, so I guess it wasn’t all bad.
Brand Extention
This was a step in the right direction. The WWF had a massive roster, and many talented wrestlers were getting lost in the shuffle. The draft was so poorly done (not realistic) that fans had a hard time believing the storyline. Add to the confusing nature of the rules not to mention the return of Stephanie McMahon and the debut of Eric Bischoff, which led to many, many other smelly moments in the WWF/E.
Tag Team Division
As part of the roster split, a few tag teams were split up as each was drafted to separate brands. The Dudley Boyz & the APA were hardest hit. The Tag Team titles were assigned to Smackdown, leaving the Hardy Boyz (on RAW) without a purpose.
Stone Cold Walks Out on WWE
Stone Cold’s frustration peaked in June when he was booked to job to up-and-comer Brock Lesnar.. Austin had been unhappy for months before and decided to leave the company that made him famous hours before a live television program. Austin’s selfishness was compounded by his behavior in the following weeks. On a night when WWE programming covered Austin’s controversial decision to walk out on the WWE, police were called to William’s (Steve’s actual name) house, where they found Debra with bruises on her body and Austin nowhere to be found.. — pathetic.
Kevin Nash
WWE management spent much time sitting on the toilet trying to pinch this log. Kevin Nash has to go down as the most significant waste of money in the history of wrestling. Back in January, the WWF signed Nash, Scott Hall & Hulk Hogan to high-priced contracts, hoping to turn the company’s misfortunes around. It was over a month before Nash wrestled his first match. With a few matches under his belt, Nash went down with a torn bicep and took three months off, and returned for one match, where he tore his quad muscle four seconds after entering the ring.. $700,000 down the frickin’ drain.
Triple H World Champion
With titles dropping left and right, holding a championship began to mean a little more. They axed the European & Hardcore title after losing the Undisputed title to Smackdown!.. So, to even out the odds, RAW General Manager created its world title, bringing back the old WCW title belt. Not only does it confuse the situation with two world champions, but they decided to give it to Triple H (who’s dating the boss’s daughter) without having to earn it. How difficult would it be to host a tournament and create a little prestige for the world title?
Hot Lesbian Action
HLA will go down as possibly the most desperate attempt at ratings in the history of RAW (and that covers a lot of ground). The entire show was used to hype the possibility of seeing two lesbians have sex live on RAW. The lesbians came out and undressed and started kissing but were attacked and beaten up by Rosey & Jamal. To anyone who believed the ladies would have sex on TV, you are an idiot. The backlash of the content was intense, especially from the TNN network and TSN (in Canada), who showed the sleazy part but edited out the beating – hypocrites.
Gay Wedding
They started innocently enough. The Billy & Chuck ambiguously gay duo gimmick had run its course and needed a way out. So the WWE writers sat down and said, “Hey, let’s alienate the Gay and Lesbian community!”.. Chuck came out on Smackdown!, and through encouragement from Rico, he asked Billy to marry him, and a “commitment ceremony” was scheduled for the following week. The week was full of media coverage and incredibly fortunate publicity everywhere, including praise from many gay and lesbian organizations. The ceremony was a lie and a joke that angered everybody who fell for the publicity stunt.
Hot Rikishi Action
WWE management failed to take the hint from fans who did not enjoy the HLA content of the recent shows. They followed through with the HLA, and Stephanie was forced to perform Hot Lesbian Action with the biggest, ugliest lesbian in the universe. Eric Bischoff was the only person in the country who didn’t know that the lesbian was Rikishi in drag because he was shocked to see Steph kiss the lesbian, who turned around and kicked Bischoff in the head and delivered the most extended stink face in the history of the WWE.
Kane The Murderer
RAW had started to suck the few weeks prior, so they decided to put all their eggs in one basket and provide an action-packed show filled with mostly entertaining gimmick matches. The night was capped off with an incredible TLC match that showed incredible effort by the seven wrestlers involved. Kane won the match, and after a 10-second celebration, Triple H came out to the stage to steal the spotlight, as usual. Triple H quickly got to the point, accusing Kane of murdering a woman named Katie Vick about ten years ago. Fans everywhere were disgusted with the obvious desperate moves of WWE writers, but the worst was yet to come.
https://youtu.be/r4HQRJ4fra4?si=PjhARSIt4YP5BHXW
Undertaker’s Affair
Smackdown was becoming the flagship of WWE television. In the last two weeks, fans were entertained by four athletic-oriented matches, and it looked like WWE writers had a good thing going. Oh.. Wait. As if the Undertaker / Brock Lesnar feud didn’t have enough fuel already, they had come up with something disgusting to ruin it. Paul Heyman brought out a woman named Tracy, who claimed she had had an affair with Undertaker for three months, resulting in Undertaker’s marriage being put at risk.
Necrophilia World Order
WWE writers went one step further in the most disgusting storyline in wrestling history. Triple H came out and added another accusation to the mix, stating that he had reason to believe Kane raped Katie Vick on the night that she was killed. The only question in Triple H’s mind was if Kane raped her before she died or AFTER! Yes, it WAS as ridiculous and as offensive as it sounds. Just when you thought it couldn’t get any worse, the following week (After their PPV match that HHH won), Triple H staged a parody of what he thought happened, wearing a Kane mask and crawling into the casket with a ‘dummy’ that was supposed to represent Katie Vick. What the hell, Brian Gerwitz? What the hell! [more]
The Enema from Hell
The preverbal “straw that broke the camel’s” back, or at least the blowing off of the worst angle ever. The night started pretty bad but got progressively better. After an extended Triple H promo, we saw him carry on a conversation with a mannequin that represented the corpse of Katie Vick, as well as making several lewd sexual comments towards her. However, the fun was only beginning as they played a video of HHH (someone with a HHH mask on) getting an enema while doctors pulled a series of items out of his butt; a Sledgehammer, a hand (god bless Mae Young), a squirrel, a gear shift, a steering wheel, and a wax figure of Triple H’s head to which he said: “You pulled my head out of my ass!” Horrible, horrible stuff, but it seems to be the conclusion of this crappy, crappy angle.
[Hall OWW Shame Inductee]