Muhammad Hassan's terrorist-like attack on Undertaker.
Wow, a fake terrorist beheading sounds really bad but why is this WOAT you ask?
It aired the same day as terrorist attacks in london. A segment so bad with such backlash they didn't air it europe. Not only was the character barely heard from again (he sporadically showed up until undertaker beat him down at the PPV then he was immediately sent down for repackaging) it also gave WWE an immediate worldwide PR fiasco worse than United's best efforts.
Further, the biggest loser in the mess wasn't WWE but Copani, since plans were to make him youngest world heavyweight champ ever and instead he gets released a few months later and is never heard from again as he immediately retired from wrestling.
A segment so terrible, character is gone soon, guy who played it immediately retires, and company getting worldwide scorn.
I was planning on taking this around round 6 or so. In the end, we decided that the timing wasn't the company's fault, as it was pre-taped and just really bad luck on WWE's part (although they certainly could have decided not to air it).
UPN insisted that Hassan never appear on their network again, so he got powerbombed through the stage by Taker at the Great American Bash and that was it. It's a real shame, although I was reading an article on Copani from last year while researching this and he seems happy with his life and at peace with what happened.
I think it holds up as a terrible angle even if you ignore that context. The entire point of Hassan's character was that he wasn't a terrorist and felt prejudiced against by Americans. Running a terrorist angle with him was awful for the character and would be tasteless any time they did it imo.
That (thankfully quickly aborted) angle where Daniel Bryan's personal trainer confronted Brie Bella and told her she was banging him would have been a worthy pick, but it seemed like it overlapped too significantly with the AJ/Claire Lynch stuff.
there was so much nonsense to draft that i never got the chance to take my "really, really long feud for the modern era that nobody cared one bit about, had terrible matches, and made no sense" pick of sin cara azul v sin cara black
And I didn't get around to picking the "Jeff Jarrett becomes the fifth Horseman, WCW runs weekly editions of the exact same 'can Jarrett and Mongo get along??' segment for months on end" angle. I've already been tortured enough by having to write about that.
Oh, but if I wanted to shoehorn more Boss Man in, the concept of Nailz was ridiculous even when you set aside the fact that his promos were incoherent and that he couldn't work at all. Escaped prisoner shows up and brutally assaults former prison guard, suddenly has job as a full-time wrestler rather than being returned to prison.
I almost took the Red Rooster. Not for the initial part with Heenan trying to prove he could manage any idiot to success, which was actually pretty good. But when he broke free and turned face, instead of going with his actual name, he not only keeps the Red Rooster name, but dyes his hair to resemble a rooster's comb and starts crowing and strutting like a chicken? Gold, Jerry.
I love that JR used it ten years later when Taylor tried to clear him out from ringside during his "heel turn" against Michael Cole: "What, Red Rooster gonna get a little cocky? You gonna peck me to death?"
No matter who you think was right (or even if you think like I do and everyone gets a big share of the blame), this was bad and I'm surprised (though not shocked) it wasn't picked.
No matter who you think was right (or even if you think like I do and everyone gets a big share of the blame), this was bad and I'm surprised (though not shocked) it wasn't picked.
This made me furious when it happened, but when I considered it for this draft, it was sort of the opposite of the "what?" pick...the long-term results were too good to make it a regrettable moment in hindsight.
We could also pick the entire 2015 RR, the 2016 Rumble and Roman leaving under his own power for the better part of 35 minutes or so, and the 30th entrant of the 2017 Rumble. Also, wrt 2016 RR: HHH making himself a babyface by just having to go over and do the ****ing crotch chop when he eliminated Roman.
Japanese legend Misawa dying in the ring also comes to mind.
Seems to fall under the Owen rule earlier.
I don't know who the participants were and there's a video on YT but I'm not going to link it. In the mid 2000's, in CZW, some guy used a real weed wacker on his opponents stomach. It was not pretty and probably falls under NSFW.
I don't know who the participants were and there's a video on YT but I'm not going to link it. In the mid 2000's, in CZW, some guy used a real weed wacker on his opponents stomach. It was not pretty and probably falls under NSFW.
The creation of CZW would seem to be a quality candidate for WOAT moment.