- 6 minutes ago
WWE said goodbye to cherished in-ring greats and any remaining creative good taste in 2005.
Category
🎥
Short filmTranscript
00:002005 is always a difficult year to chat about due to the passing of Eddie Guerrero.
00:04I mean, what really matters on camera when a legend like that was gone too soon?
00:08It's always important to mention it as well.
00:10As long as we keep him in the conversation, he's never truly gone.
00:13It was a mad 12 months for WWE, though, because they just continued to struggle creatively.
00:17The attitude era was long gone, so what the hell was going to be the new secret sauce?
00:21I mean, just three years after this, they would be going PG.
00:24Sums it up. Wasn't working.
00:26So what truly hit the floor and likely stopped some people watching?
00:29Thank you for joining me, my friends.
00:30My name is Simon Miller. I am a bored a-hole.
00:33Let's find out.
00:34Number 10. The Big Show Goes Sumo
00:35There must be more to this because it was so weird.
00:38At WrestleMania 21, the Big Show was told he would be having a gimmick match and facing sumo legend Akebono.
00:44If this had been a somewhat silly wrestling bout, I'd have understood it more.
00:47But we were going to go the other way.
00:49This was a full-on sumo wrestling match on the biggest card of the year.
00:53Akebono was never going to agree to a work contest either, given his background, so it was legit.
00:57Surprise, surprise. It lasted eight seconds.
01:00Paul White didn't have any experience here.
01:02He got wrecked.
01:03Be telling me to go into a hair contest.
01:05I'm losing.
01:06I suppose it was cool seeing the ring turn into a sumo arena, but getting the Big Show to put
01:10on a Mawashi,
01:11I don't know, didn't feel like we were respecting the sanctity of the sport.
01:14Amazingly, this is also sandwiched between Kurt Angle vs. Shawn Michaels, JBL vs. John Cena.
01:21That's a nuts card.
01:22I get wanting to buffer those two to keep the fans engaged, but go and watch this one for yourself
01:26and make up your own mind.
01:28It is over so fast because Akebono throws the Big Show away.
01:31The truth is, the fans didn't really care about this, but they also really hadn't been given a reason to
01:36either.
01:36Three years after this, where Big Show did it again with Floyd Mayweather, it made way more sense because the
01:41build-up was treated like it was life or death.
01:43Akebono was not granted the same privileges.
01:46He likely should have been.
01:47Number nine, all the non-wrestler wrestling matches.
01:49So make no mistake about it, this was Vince McMahon just torturing people he didn't like.
01:54Nobody was desperate for authority figures to fight, yet we got loads of it in 2005.
01:58Even Eric Bischoff knew that doing him vs. Teddy Long on the Survivor series was mad.
02:02And look, they tried, bless them I suppose, but they are not trained in-ring performers, so what's the best
02:07we really could have hoped for?
02:09Of course, fans tempered their expectations too, but go and watch it for yourself and remember, people paid for this.
02:15With that in mind, oh my gosh.
02:17Teddy mocked Bischoff's martial arts background, which seems weird all things considered, and Eric spends a long time choking Long
02:23with his belt.
02:24So I suppose he wasn't going to use his skills anyway, but also sounds a little bit kinky.
02:28The finish saw the boogeyman help Teddy get the win, and don't forget Palmer Cannon on the outside.
02:33I don't even know why he was there, just because.
02:36Make a new franchise in that.
02:37This went on second from last too, and it's as above.
02:41WWE felt like this would just reset the audience before the main event, but I think most people were stunned
02:45it even happened to begin with.
02:47Some of the crowd would also just give up on the promotion after stuff like this, especially if you'd gone
02:52down there and dropped some money.
02:53It's not what you wanted.
02:54Once more, Eric has talked about this on his podcast, and with no actual wrestle out there, it was five
02:59minutes of people not wrestling.
03:01Before you say, but what about the boogeyman?
03:03He literally arrives and ate some worms, and I actually think that makes this worse.
03:08If we did it today, the fan base would have a meltdown, or so than usual.
03:11Number eight, the Royal Rumble finish.
03:13So I love this, and I think most people do.
03:15I mean, it was a mistake, but looking at it this way, if you are going to make an error
03:18at the Royal Rumble, this is the way to do it.
03:20Make sure you do go watch this if you've never seen it before, but John Cena and Batista topple over
03:25the top rope and literally hit the floor at the same time.
03:29That wasn't the plan.
03:30Big Dave was meant to win.
03:31You can't tell something is off, though, because everybody panics, and it's the aftermath that wasn't ideal.
03:36The referee stalled for time as one raises Cena's hand, so another raises Batista's hand.
03:40As the crowd tries to work out what's next, well, I'm going to tell you.
03:44Because an irate Vince McMahon essentially breaks cave fame and comes marching to the ring, and we do not talk
03:49about this enough.
03:50He wasn't part of the story.
03:52He just emerged through rage.
03:54The whole thing then became a meme for the rest of our lives, because, yes, as Vince slides in the
03:59ring, he tore both of his quads.
04:01To this day, I don't know how he did that.
04:03It's basically impossible.
04:05Obviously, we didn't know that, so the next few minutes are surreal.
04:07McMahon sits on the ring mat and yells at John and Dave like they had played truant that day and
04:13he was the dad telling them off.
04:14It's unreal this happened.
04:15And after scolding the match officials, too, it does get restarted and the animal wins.
04:20How this wasn't planned, I'll never know.
04:22Well, it kind of feels like it was.
04:23Batista was so worried he thought he was going to get fired, and Adam Copeland just talked about how insane
04:27it was backstage.
04:29I mean, at least it was entertaining, but again, because they hit the floor simultaneously, we just thought this was
04:34some weird script WWE was trying.
04:36Why, I struggle a little bit to justify it in this list, but yes, from a Vince McMahon point of
04:40view, this must have been down there.
04:43His entire plan went out the window.
04:45Number seven, the new Legion of Doom.
04:47The word new in front of a tag team is death, so do the opposite of Nike and just don't
04:52do it.
04:52Most fans don't even want an updated version anyway.
04:55The reason you're even trying to breathe life into a name is that they were legends.
04:59Respect what they did, but try and reimagine it.
05:02Hilariously, this got out of control in 2005, because WWE tried this with the flippin' Legion of Doom, the Road
05:09Warriors, a team so over that they had big crowd reactions named after them.
05:13Now, to be fair, it was most of the commentary calling them the new LOD, but it was still said,
05:18and yes, while Animal remained, his new partner was Heidenreich.
05:23Hawke was gone.
05:24Nobody liked this, even more so because after Heidenreich had joined in July, he had some kind of weird special
05:30ceremony in August where he also got given his spikes.
05:33And the whole thing felt so forced.
05:35It was also stupid because we'd already tried this with Droz years prior and it hadn't worked then.
05:39It was just a Vince McMahon pet project.
05:42He liked Heidenreich, so whatever we gotta do was really quite reductive.
05:45We also gave them new face paint which wound people up and their spikes were now white, I don't know,
05:51just strange as they won the tag team titles, and then months later Heidenreich got released anyway.
05:56Amazingly, after that two-animal embarked on a singles run, nobody remembers that.
06:00It just wasn't treating a legendary team the right way.
06:03Sometimes, just leave it the flub alone.
06:067. Vince McMahon insults Jim Ross
06:08This was always bad, and yet it happened a lot.
06:11But every now and then, from nowhere, Vince McMahon would dedicate a serious chunk of TV time to insulting Jim
06:15Ross.
06:16It was no story, there was no point.
06:18Nobody enjoyed it apart from one guy.
06:20It was a little bit maddening.
06:21You can see this for yourself on the 24th October 2005 Raw, and I promise you, you won't believe it.
06:26JR was at home recovering after colon surgery, which Vince thought was hilarious for some reason.
06:32He then turned up on the show in Doctors Scrubs and dubbed himself Dr. Heine.
06:36I know, I hate myself a little bit for saying that.
06:38He was also in a hospital that had a nurse with him, when he proceeded to quite literally pull things
06:43out of a fake Jim Ross's ass.
06:46I'm not joking, one of the items was even JR's own head, because, you know, he has his head up
06:50his ass.
06:51Of course, Ross didn't find any of this funny, as he watched on like everybody else.
06:55And this goes on for ages.
06:56It's not a quick skit, it's mammoth and gets worse and worse.
07:00This would have cost thousands too.
07:02TV time is expensive.
07:03It also wasn't a laughing matter, as Jim was pretty damn sick.
07:07He also dedicated a large part of his life to the company.
07:10Feels like he could have been shown a little respect.
07:12Also turned the fans off in droves.
07:13That is not the point.
07:15Number five, the Tim White suicide skits.
07:17So this is even worse, and please do skip this entry if it's not for your brain.
07:21I get it.
07:22It really is bottom of the barrel offensive stuff.
07:24But all you need to do is copy and paste it into a 2025 world.
07:28It would never happen.
07:30The public outrage would be huge.
07:31During this period, though, WWE started uploading videos to its official website featuring ex-referee
07:37Tim White.
07:38Admittedly, most of that was in 2006, but it all kicked off the year before Armageddon.
07:42Announcer Josh Matthews had gone to visit the man at his friendly tap bar and discovered
07:46that Tim was depressed.
07:47He was struggling after getting hurt at Judgment Day 2002.
07:51And that was legit, by the way.
07:52He had suffered such a bad shoulder injury, he wasn't able to do his job anymore.
07:56So it's pretty sad to begin with when, I kid you not, White grabbed a shotgun and threatened
08:01to end it all live on pay-per-view.
08:03The cameras then went dark, and it was widely insinuated he had killed himself.
08:07Even back then, I couldn't believe it.
08:09It was awful.
08:10Of course, the show itself then just cut right to Kid Cash vs. Hooventud Guerrera.
08:14As if this didn't matter at all, let's just call it out for what it is.
08:18Using suicide for clicks and engagement.
08:20It's terrible.
08:21Of course, we've made jokes all the way this too.
08:23Pun after pun, I will never understand it.
08:25Do not say it was a different time either, because you can Google this.
08:28People were just as appalled 20 years ago as they would be today.
08:32You also don't want to see this on wrestling TV.
08:35Poor Tim White as well.
08:36I don't think it helped him at all.
08:37Number four, Charvo Guerrero becomes Kerwin White.
08:4010th of September 2005, Sunday night heat.
08:43From nowhere, we got a vignette from Charvo Guerrero as he pondered if life would be better
08:48if he was White.
08:49Yep, how WWE got away with this, I do not know.
08:52And look, it was scrapped as soon as Eddie Guerrero passed away.
08:55And that sums it up.
08:57If this wasn't controversial, they wouldn't have stopped it.
08:59It literally saw Charvo start dressing like some rich golfer too as he took shots at his
09:03past Mexican roots.
09:04I have no idea if Guerrero was happy to do this or not, but I can't imagine he could
09:08be that high on it.
09:09It had no upside.
09:10Kerwin White was not going to main event WrestleMania.
09:12His catchphrase was literally, white is right too.
09:16Let's not get this twisted.
09:17It was Vince McMahon deliberately prodding the bear because that's how he wanted to get
09:21ratings.
09:22Pure anger and controversy.
09:23Forget 2005 as well.
09:25Go watch the whole thing.
09:26This is all time bad.
09:28Never do it again.
09:29Number three, bestiality sex.
09:32So this video is now going to get banned on YouTube, which is probably for the best.
09:35Anchor Angle has talked about this after the fact.
09:37He hated it, as he should have done.
09:39It was bad.
09:40And let's not forget that ever since he burst onto the scene in 1999, he went on to
09:44quickly become one of the best of all time.
09:46I mean, he was great in the ring and he had the character down too.
09:49We could all hope to be as good as the Olympic gold medalist.
09:52In 2005, he had done a lot, though, when he finally entered a feud with Booker T.
09:56And this made sense.
09:56This was fine.
09:57You could certainly make something of it.
09:59But given that Booker was alongside wife Sharmel, well, I suppose once again, Vince
10:04McMahon wanted to make noise for all the wrong reasons.
10:06I so just try and explain it as best as I can, but it is shockingly bad.
10:10Kurt would kidnap Sharmel one night and tell her the reason he did this was to have bestiality
10:16sex.
10:17It's absolutely embarrassing, defensive, insulting, and many other words.
10:21And once more, if you were a fan watching this and decided, you know what?
10:23I've done with WWE.
10:25Nobody would have blamed her.
10:26Later on too, Angle started to claim in promos that Sharmel had fondled him behind Booker T's
10:31back.
10:31And the whole plot was totally unnecessary.
10:33Given it was Kurt Angle and Booker T, they could have had great matches in their sleep.
10:37You didn't need any of this on top.
10:39It was a real pity because, of course, it was one of Kurt's last major WWE feuds before
10:43he left for TNA.
10:45But we should really never talk about it again.
10:47Although don't sweep it under the carpet.
10:49Sometimes it does need to be brought up.
10:51Otherwise, you just know we'll get a part two.
10:53That cannot happen.
10:54Number two, the WWE Muhammad Asan attack.
10:57So on the 7th of July 2005 Smackdown, the Muhammad Asan character essentially had his last
11:02proper moment because WWE aired what to this day must be one of the most controversial
11:07things ever.
11:08I mean, screw controversial.
11:09It just sucked.
11:10Now, by this point too, the WWE had taken this character and totally reimagined it.
11:15Any nuance it had when it did debut, well, now it was just leaning into stereotypes.
11:19Asan still got into a feud with The Undertaker and on this evening, a group of hooded men ran
11:24out to the ring to conduct a seriously violent attack on the dead man before they carried
11:28his unconscious body out in a ceremonial fashion.
11:31I'm sure there's a picture on the screen right now too.
11:33You can absolutely understand what WWE was aping here.
11:37And no, it wasn't a mistake.
11:38What really made it bad though is that during this week, we also had the 7-7 London bombing
11:42attacks where many people died due to a terrorist situation on a tube.
11:47Given that Smackdown had already been pre-recorded, nobody had to air this.
11:50And yet, for some reason, WWE did it anyway.
11:53Now, Bruce Pritchard would later claim on his podcast there was nothing that could be done.
11:57But personally, I don't believe it.
11:58It was such a PR disaster, UPN rang WWE and told them they were not happy.
12:03And if the Muhammad Asan character wasn't gotten rid of, well, there would be serious consequences.
12:08We then got to the Great American Bash and The Undertaker essentially murdered that persona
12:11and we never did see it again.
12:13So yeah, not only was the timing was atrocious, not only was this an insult to your fans,
12:18but it was a massive mistake.
12:19Otherwise, WWE would have fought back and they didn't.
12:23It was done.
12:23Number one, the death of Eddie Guerrero.
12:25So we've talked about this a few times through the video and I think it is massively important
12:29because it is one of the most tragic passing aways in the history of professional wrestling
12:33because even in 2005, most people realized Eddie Guerrero was one of the best wrestlers of all time.
12:39It was the 13th of November 2005 when he did pass away in his hotel room.
12:44And of course, many subsequent episodes of Raw and Smackdown were dedicated to the man
12:48and so they should have been.
12:49It really was the worst timing because apparently Eddie had turned his life around
12:52after struggling with personal issues.
12:55But even if we just focused on what he was doing in the ring, my gosh.
12:58Towards the end of the year, some of his work was absolutely monumental.
13:03The man could make you laugh.
13:04The man could make you cry.
13:05And when he did win the World Heavyweight Championship from Brock Lesnar,
13:08well, just to use my own stupid catchphrase,
13:11made you feel warm and fuzzy in your tum tum.
13:12There was also a rumor that just before this,
13:14the WWE were going to try him again as the world champion
13:17because he just kept smashing it out of the park.
13:19Very sadly, we never got there.
13:21We do have to remember is that I am recording this in 2025
13:24and the memory of Eddie Guerrero today is probably stronger than it ever has been,
13:28especially as newer generations go back and watch his work
13:31and they also realize, oh my gosh, he's one of the best to do it.
13:34If we are going to talk about 2005 in any of these videos, though,
13:37it will forever be remembered as the year that one of the greats left us.
13:40And as we've already said, I think that is important
13:43because if we do keep talking about Guerrero,
13:45well, he can never truly be forgotten.
13:47And if anybody has deserved that, right, is this guy.
13:50Know of anything else in 2005 that made you roll your eyes?
13:52And there is quite a lot because WWE was unhinged.
13:55Make sure you let us know in the comments below.
13:57If you like the video, share the video and subscribe.
13:59You can also click the video on the screen
14:01to get even more wrestling information in your life.
14:03But otherwise, my friends, I just hope you have a terrific day.
14:06I'll talk to you again soon.
Comments