- 6 days ago
Times when WWE, AEW and WCW came up with the dumbest excuses imaginable.
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00:00So much like in life, sometimes wrestling makes a mistake.
00:03That's mostly okay.
00:05I mean, even if you offend somebody, if you come out after the fact and say,
00:08listen, I didn't mean to do that, please accept our forgiveness.
00:12Well, maybe that's what you're going to get.
00:14But as you already know, nine times out of ten, the industry turns around and says,
00:18no, we have an excuse for that.
00:19And then they start to make it worse.
00:21It basically comes down to the fact that not all excuses are valid.
00:24So hello, my friends.
00:25I am Simon Miller.
00:27Let us sit down.
00:28Stand.
00:28It's totally up to you.
00:30And talk about the worst excuses for terrible wrestling moments.
00:33So what happened here?
00:35Well, James Ellsworth, who did go on a bit of a run on the WWE main roster,
00:39was involved in the first ever women's money in the bank match.
00:43That made sense.
00:43He was friends with Carmella.
00:45He can just stand outside the ring and look like a buffoon.
00:48Why the flub not?
00:49And then during the 2017 pay-per-view, it was actually Ellsworth that shimmied his way up
00:54the ladder, grabbed the briefcase, and pulled it down before tossing it to his now best pal.
00:59On television, WWE explained this by sending Daniel Bryan, the then SmackDown GM, out there
01:04so he could say, well, this is actually super-duper great because now we can do a rematch and
01:09won't that be awesome?
01:10You could all watch it on free TV.
01:12Oh, no, that did not sit well with fans at all because most people said, uh, excuse me,
01:17did you just have a male wrestler win the first ever female money in the bank contest?
01:22And the answer, in a roundabout way, was yes.
01:24It was pretty damn dumb.
01:26Now listen, James Ellsworth could have got involved over and over again with other competitors
01:30throwing him out the ring.
01:31But it really did take a historic moment and flushed it down the toilet.
01:35And if you've watched any of the Attitude Era, you know that's the last thing the WWE
01:39needed to be doing, especially in 2017.
01:42Let's just face it.
01:43This was a massive mistake.
01:45But don't pretend getting a rematch counts as making it all right.
01:48Number nine, WWE didn't write an anonymous GM conclusion.
01:52So you all remember this one, because in 2010, Vince McMahon decided what the WWE really needed
01:57was an anonymous Raw general manager who would make decisions.
02:01If you're brand new to wrestling and wondering how that worked, well, there was a laptop next
02:05to Michael Cole.
02:06And when it made a noise, the lead commentator would go over and read an email.
02:11If you're now screaming into the abyss, don't worry, we all were too.
02:14The idea totally got killed in 2011 before from nowhere returned in 2012, because Vince
02:19decided that porn swoggle should be the culprit from all of this, meaning years and years'
02:23worth of television was meant to be a joke.
02:26In fact, I'm sure you can figure this one out as well, but the excuse that WWE gave us
02:30behind the scenes was that when Vince McMahon came up with this idea, he didn't have an
02:35ending, so there was no one actually chosen.
02:37Now listen, it doesn't matter whether it's wrestling, some kind of TV show, or a movie.
02:41You can't write a story if you don't know the conclusion.
02:44So we should have picked someone here and decided, ha ha, we're going to push you at
02:47the end of this.
02:48And in fact, we did the opposite and we just pissed everybody off.
02:51I mean, imagine you watch The Wizard of Oz and when you get into his special chamber,
02:54it's just a blank seat.
02:56I mean, maybe you could have assumed it was John Cena, but I doubt it.
02:59And I suppose some of you could argue, well, at least then we did get Hornswoggle.
03:02But I would tell you to go and watch this today, and you can tell me if you think it's good
03:07television.
03:08I can tell you you can't change my mind.
03:10I thought it sucked.
03:11Number 8.
03:11The Fiend and Seth Rollins need a rematch stipulation.
03:14So given that Seth Rollins had been pushed to the brink by Bray Wyatt's hijinks in 2019,
03:19they did compete in Hell in a Cell when Seth decided to smash Bray Wyatt's face with a
03:24sledgehammer.
03:24The referee then stopped this contest, which sent the world into meltdown.
03:28Because yeah, this was the Hell in a Cell.
03:30And the whole point was, you don't get a stoppage.
03:33It can just go on and on and on until we get a winner.
03:36It was absolutely ridiculous.
03:37And this got so bad that fans actually booed the finish, and it affected Seth Rollins so
03:42much we had to abandon his babyface turn and turn him heel.
03:45I mean, that is proper bottom of the barrel stuff.
03:47Now, of course, WWE did this for two reasons.
03:49The first being, they thought this was going to protect Bray Wyatt's Fiend character.
03:54Now, I'll tell you a better way to do that.
03:56Just have him win.
03:57The second one they came up with is that they thought it handed creative an easy route to
04:00get to a follow-up match in Saudi Arabia at Crown Jewel.
04:03And sure, they did that and Bray Wyatt became the world champion.
04:06But at the same time, don't take the Hell in a Cell stipulation and flush it down the
04:11toilet.
04:11You'll never be able to convince me that they didn't see this coming.
04:14The best part about round two as well is that we got told this match cannot be stopped for
04:18any reason, but they forgot to say pinfalls.
04:21So really, it should be going on right now.
04:23The truth, of course, is that WWE just booked a stupid finish for that Hell in a Cell and
04:27then had to get out of jail as quickly as they possibly could.
04:30But this ruined WWE television for ages.
04:33And poor Seth Rollins took forever before he found balance again.
04:37Don't like to use bad words.
04:39But let's just say it was unforgivable S-H-I-T-E.
04:42And once again, you don't have to believe me.
04:44The evidence is all there.
04:45Number seven, AEW's big explosion goes out with a whimper.
04:49So if you tuned into AEW Revolution 2021 for the Kenny Omega John Moxley barbed wire explosion,
04:55oh my gosh, can you believe it match?
04:57Well, you've probably finished the night being very confused.
04:59Because just when the whole ring was about to go kaboom, instead we just got some sparklers.
05:04Felt sorry for Eddie Kingston as well, who had run down to the ring to protect his best friend.
05:08Then he had to lay there like he was about to be engulfed in fireworks.
05:12But no, I think a child could have handled this.
05:14Now, of course, this was awful and AEW knew it too.
05:16Just go and watch the subsequent dynamite.
05:19And I suppose to try and save some faith, the company said,
05:21hey man, we bought on a pyrotechnic team and everything was fine in rehearsals.
05:25We don't understand what happened.
05:27This was one of those occasions we've already talked about, though,
05:29where you do just have to hold your hands up and say,
05:32all right, we dropped the ball here.
05:34We're just going to dust ourselves off and carry on.
05:36What made it even worse is the Japanese wrestling explosion legend Atsushi Anita
05:40was literally talking about this during the build.
05:43And man, you don't want to crap on his legacy either.
05:46Now, fair play to everybody involved in this,
05:48because they did go on dynamite and kind of made it a funny funny.
05:51But yeah, fans were really mad about this.
05:53And I understand why.
05:54You paid a lot of money for the pay-per-view.
05:56Number six, the Usos blame a WrestleMania time cut.
05:59So, of course, back at WrestleMania Saturday in April 2024,
06:02we did get the big Uso match as Jimmy took on J.
06:05Good grief.
06:06A lot of people did not like this.
06:08Though I will say it definitely didn't hit expectations,
06:11but it's nowhere near as bad as some people made out.
06:13But given that it did go down on WrestleMania,
06:16yeah, sure, it was a little bit forgettable.
06:18That's not what you want.
06:20Looking back now, of course, it was also meant to take J.
06:22Uso up to the next level, and we didn't achieve that ever.
06:24So, it's just one of those things that didn't come together.
06:28I think Jay and Jimmy knew this as well.
06:30And when they were asked about it in an interview,
06:32they said, well, you know what?
06:33Our time got cut, and we should have gone longer.
06:36And, of course, the fans responded to that by going,
06:38no, man, we didn't want to see any more of this.
06:41That definitely wasn't the issue.
06:43Now, of course, wrestlers are very delicate when it comes to time,
06:45which I can completely understand,
06:46because if you've got a story you want to tell,
06:48you don't want to all of a sudden lose a bunch of minutes.
06:50But this is yet another one of those situations
06:53where you just look at the floor and you walk away,
06:55and you go back out on the next pay-per-view,
06:57and you absolutely kill it,
06:58and then the crowd's going to move on anyway.
07:00We see it all the time.
07:01I do want to end this one, though,
07:03by saying the aftermath has made this far worse than it actually is.
07:06It's like a very average match
07:08that just so happens to go down on the show of shows.
07:11It is most definitely not the worst thing you will ever see.
07:14Number five, WWF just couldn't get those WCW big names.
07:18So when the WWF bought out WCW in March 2001,
07:22everybody got excited because we were about to have the invasion angle.
07:25Can you imagine Goldberg, Ric Flair, Sting, Hulk Hogan, Scott Hall,
07:28and Kevin Nash actually coming to the World Wrestling Federation,
07:32starting a war?
07:33This was going to be the best moment in sports entertainment history.
07:36And it was totally crap because none of the guys I just talked to you about
07:38actually turned up.
07:39Now, the reason for this is because if you worked for WCW and it did close,
07:43your contracts were actually covered by AOL.
07:46So if you just wanted to stay at home and make your money,
07:48you didn't have to do a damn thing,
07:50and the money was still going to come in the mailbox.
07:52It meant that Vince McMahon and co. would have to overspend to get these stars,
07:56so they decided against it,
07:57mostly because they didn't want to break the WWE wage structure.
08:00I mean, if all of a sudden they paid these individuals more,
08:03Steve Austin would be knocking at the door too.
08:05And while I can understand all that,
08:06do you understand what a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity this was?
08:10The WWF was about to make monster money anyway in 2001,
08:14so we should have opened that damn checkbook
08:16and signed every single one of them to WWF deals.
08:19It means now when we did look back at the invasion,
08:21we wouldn't be crying into our cornflakes,
08:23and we probably would be saying,
08:24my gosh, that was the best thing that has ever happened bar none.
08:28It got even more ridiculous because of course the years after this,
08:30they all did turn up anyway,
08:31usually to a lesser impact.
08:34This was dumb,
08:35and this was stupid,
08:36and all you really needed was the NWM and Goldberg anyway.
08:39I mean, wonders never cease.
08:41Number four,
08:41nobody would predict David Arquette.
08:43So I'm sure you've heard of this,
08:44but on the off chance you haven't,
08:46on the 26th of April 2000 episode of WCW Thunder,
08:50Vince Russo thought it would be a great idea to make David Arquette,
08:53yes, the actor,
08:54the WCW world champion.
08:56Now every time I do talk about David,
08:58I like to point out,
08:59he took all his wrestling money
09:00and gave it to wrestling families who had suffered a tragedy.
09:03So that guy is awesome.
09:04It's also proper shenanigans
09:05because somehow Arquette won it in a tag team match.
09:08And why did we do this?
09:10Because we thought it would shock so many people,
09:12they would tune into Nitro.
09:14I can tell you this,
09:14my friends,
09:15they did not.
09:16Now yes,
09:16while it was Tony Schiavone who came up with this idea,
09:18I'm 99% sure he was joking.
09:21And in terms of Vince Russo,
09:22he loved it for the same reason
09:24he loved everything that was a swerve.
09:26The audience is never going to see it coming.
09:28But by that logic,
09:29you can make an elephant the WCW champion.
09:32I don't think anybody's going to see that coming too.
09:34Even Arquette,
09:35when this was presented to him said,
09:36yeah,
09:37I don't think we should do that,
09:38but he went along with it anyway.
09:40And fans absolutely hated it.
09:42I mean,
09:42if you were into WCW,
09:44the last thing you wanted was WWE sports entertainment BS.
09:47And that's what you got.
09:49But hey man,
09:49it's a swerve bro.
09:51Nobody's going to see it coming.
09:52Flab off.
09:53Number three,
09:54Cody Rhodes needed better facials.
09:56Now listen,
09:56no,
09:56I'm not about to start talking to you in sexual innuendo,
09:59but I am going to go back to the February 2024 edition of SmackDown.
10:03When yes,
10:04Raw Rumble winner Cody Rhodes walked to the ring and said,
10:06you know what?
10:07I am not going to fight you Roman Reigns because The Rock's going to instead.
10:11Quite funny when you do watch that show now,
10:13the fans are well into this.
10:14And over the weekend,
10:15it all went nuts.
10:16That's because people decided they didn't want Cody Rhodes to go away.
10:20So the We Want Cody hashtag began.
10:22And after the fact,
10:22all the WWE bigwits got together to talk about this.
10:25And they even made a documentary about it.
10:27Now,
10:27I don't know whether XWW writer and The Rock's main man,
10:30Brian Gewurz,
10:31meant it like he did say it.
10:32But he said the reason he felt like this didn't go to plan is because Cody Rhodes
10:37didn't have the right facial expression.
10:39Now,
10:39Cody does look very sad as he is walking to the back.
10:41But that's because he was sad.
10:43The real life Cody Reynolds absolutely wanted that match.
10:45The thing is,
10:46I do not buy the fact that if the American Nightmare did skip away pumping his fist,
10:50the fans would have reacted any differently.
10:52They just wanted to see Cody finish his story.
10:54And they wanted to see it at WrestleMania 40.
10:57This wasn't anything even to do with The Rock's.
10:59We all know that he's an old timer anyway.
11:01It's just where we were in our lives.
11:03Sometimes wrestling fans can be very stubborn.
11:05So everybody don't know why Gewurz said that.
11:07And again,
11:07maybe it was just for the documentary itself.
11:09But yeah,
11:10there's nothing Cody could have done here.
11:12Because a wrestling fan wants what a wrestling fan wants.
11:15Number two,
11:15AEW airs the CM Punk footage.
11:17So everything that happened with CM Punk and AEW at the end of his tenure there was bad.
11:22And yes,
11:22once he had left,
11:23there was a horrible cloud over the promotion.
11:25Doesn't matter whether you think that's a good thing or a bad thing.
11:28That's just what happened.
11:29And sometimes businesses do get affected by outside ongoings.
11:32There was so much controversy about this from both sides that on the 10th of April,
11:352024 episode of Dynamite,
11:37Tony Khan did decide to air the footage backstage at Wembley.
11:41When yes,
11:41CM Punk and Jack Perry got into it when they had a little bit of a scuffle.
11:45Back then,
11:45people didn't really understand why he was doing it.
11:48And even today,
11:49well,
11:49doesn't really feel like the best choice.
11:51The Young Bucks introduced this segment as well,
11:53which of course tied into the story away from the ring,
11:55which is also a little bit confusing.
11:57And mostly this came off the back of a CM Punk Ariel Hawane interview,
12:01where AEW wanted to put their side forward.
12:04Now,
12:04I could understand that because again,
12:06there was a lot of mudslinging here,
12:08but sometimes I just think it's better to turn the other cheek.
12:11And in hindsight,
12:12I think AEW would agree too.
12:14There is some logic because you should have the right to reply.
12:17When the fans don't like it and the fans are the most important thing,
12:20ah yeah,
12:20it's not the best look.
12:22And it certainly didn't help after the facts.
12:24But look,
12:24it's all calmed down now.
12:26So if you ever want to see it,
12:27well,
12:28you absolutely can.
12:29Number one,
12:29Vince wanted to give Mennelly Pillman time.
12:32So if you were watching wrestling back on the 6th of October,
12:341997,
12:35you would have been hit by the news that Brian Pillman had been found dead in his hotel room.
12:39It was absolutely horrible.
12:40And one of the early wrestling tragedies that left you feeling cold.
12:44For some reason,
12:4424 hours later,
12:45Vince McMahon decided he was going to interview his wife,
12:47Mennelly on the air.
12:49And well,
12:50it was one of the most sensationalist things that Raw has ever done.
12:53And no,
12:53it was not good.
12:54I mean,
12:55even if this was done for the right reasons,
12:56I don't think you should put a grieving widow on TV just one day later.
13:00And when Bruce Pritchard talked about this on his podcast,
13:03he basically implied that the man genuinely just wanted to give Mennelly a chance to tell her story.
13:08And that's totally fine.
13:09But my gosh,
13:10at least wait a couple of months so she can get her thoughts together.
13:14And seeing somebody this upset being grilled on live television,
13:17well,
13:18it was really,
13:18really bad.
13:19Some people even called it a blatant exploitation.
13:22I do think it'd be hard to argue against that fact.
13:24And let's not forget what Raw,
13:25SmackDown,
13:26Dynamite,
13:26or New Japan is meant to be.
13:28It's a distraction from your real life.
13:30So when all of a sudden you do pour this stuff into it and present it as entertainment,
13:34that's not good.
13:35It's very bad.
13:36And we should never do it again.
13:38And I'm quite confident sitting here in August,
13:392025,
13:41that that is not a problem we will ever have to address.
13:43Know of any other times where we did get silly excuses for mistakes made on television?
13:47Well,
13:47make sure you let us know in the comments below before you like the video,
13:50share the video and subscribe.
13:52You can then click the video on the screen to get even more wrestling information in your life.
13:55But otherwise,
13:56my friends,
13:56I appreciate you and I will talk to you again soon.
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