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WWE nuked ECW, screwed CM Punk and tried to kill off Vince McMahon AGAIN in 2008.
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00:00When we bring up 2008 in the WWE, I would imagine that most fans think of the Ric Flair-Sean
00:04Michaels retirement match. You remember how I'm tired, I love you. It was a great moment.
00:09And then Ric, of course, ignored this stipulation and he kept on wrestling. Of course he did.
00:13Hanging up the boots in sports entertainment has at best, I would say, a 34% success rate.
00:18You also get CM Punk becoming the World Heavyweight Champion, and we are going to talk about that
00:21later, and that amazing John Cena return at the Royal Rumble. So there were plenty of good moments,
00:26and you had The Undertaker edge view too. Yeah, it was really fun.
00:30It was also the year where WWE started to go PG, however, and that brought about some issues.
00:34Vince McMahon especially went PR stunt crazy, and that was not the best idea.
00:38So I am Simon Miller. I don't have any hair. Let's go through 2008 and see where it all fell
00:43down.
00:44Number 10, Brandon Walker
00:45Let us not get this wrong. Chris Harris in TNA was quite the dynamic performer.
00:49Fans really warmed to the guy because he knew what he was doing, and as one half of America's
00:53most wanted, him and James Storm were a reason to tune into the show.
00:57They kept that up for most of 2007, so early in 2008, boom, we learned that Harris had signed
01:02with WWE. It hit shaky ground instantly because Chris didn't wrestle until March, and that
01:07was a house show, and it wouldn't be until July when he turned up in ECW.
01:11That's six months of nothing. I can do maths. The flub is happening.
01:14He reappeared as Brandon Walker when he confronted Armando Estrada, so it was time to find out what
01:19his gimmick was. And yep, he told bad not-not jokes. I'm not kidding, that's what he did.
01:24You could hear the collective sigh in the room. Estrada, to his credit, played along, and Walker's
01:29punchline was, I'm going to knock your brains out. Alright, this is a strange way to go about
01:34things. And we all know if you are going to tell bad jokes, you go with, there's two fish
01:37in a tank, and one says to the other, can you drive this? He did win the match and defeated
01:41James Curtis, too, in August, when, if you can believe it, he got let go. So that was his entire
01:46run.
01:46It just made no sense because no thought had been put into this at all. It felt that the
01:50left hand wasn't talking to the right, and Brandon's highlight reel could fit on a YouTube
01:53short. In fact, that would be too long. So it was just the ultimate use of bad talent,
01:58and it helped nobody. And it also told TNA wrestlers, maybe you should Celine Dion this
02:02and think twice about jumping. You may get buried.
02:059. The Royal Rumble Fiasco
02:07The 2008 Royal Rumble is fun because John Cena had that return, but it does mean it overshadows
02:12other talking points. Hornswoggle, for example, entered at number 9, and realizing he
02:16was going to get murked, he hid under the ring. He did that a lot.
02:20He saw a dangling arm at one point and pulled DeMiz to the floor in a ha-ha-that-was
02:23-funny
02:24moment, but also kind of exposed him to Mark Henry and Big Daddy V, so they went and got
02:28him. They were big, he was small.
02:30That prompted Father Fitvenny to walk out before his plan number 27 entry, and sure,
02:35I get this, he wanted to save his son. But then they'd just left. The announcers were
02:39baffled when somebody sent word that Finley had been disqualified for using his shillelagh,
02:43as well as ignoring his official entrance time.
02:46Now, disqualifications in the Rumble can do one straight away, but come on, man, don't
02:50enforce these other rules either. The best thing about this match is how ridiculous it
02:54can be. This genuinely felt disappointing.
02:57The best statistic is that Swoggs was out there for almost 30 minutes, whereas Shelton
03:01Benjamin got 18 seconds. 2008 was so crazy, there were some interesting ideas, but loads
03:07that were jettisoned as soon as they didn't become the most popular concept ever. I mean,
03:11most of the time, we gave it three weeks.
03:12Number 8, Hornswoggle gets whipped.
03:14So now I'll stick with the horn as well, because 2008 in many years was his year. It
03:19was after being outed as Vince McMahon's illegitimate son in 2007, so I suppose there was a need to
03:23follow up on that.
03:24The story here was McMahon was embarrassed that a small person was his offspring, which is just
03:29such low-hanging fruit. On the 18th of February Raw, however, he was going to teach him a lesson
03:34in a steel cage. The long term here was actually Fit Finley versus JBL at WrestleMania, but before
03:39then, yeah, it was Vince and Hornswoggle. I wouldn't say it was that good. Vince also destroyed
03:44Swoggle during this too, including some horrific belt shots, and Fit was handcuffed to the ropes
03:49during all of this, so it was especially brutal when JBL joins in, but I think they were trying to
03:55kill him as Finley vowed revenge. It would have been sort of fine if this didn't go on for weeks,
03:59but my god, it just went on and on, and nobody seemingly acknowledged it as a proper match.
04:04There's no rating on cage match or anything like that. There's barely any reviews. It's
04:08essentially one big mad angle.
04:10But still, watching McMahon murder this guy on TV wasn't all that enjoyable, even more so
04:15because you knew proper revenge was never on the cards. It felt unbalanced. It also wasn't very good.
04:20That Mania match, though. Fair play to Fit in JBL. You should go watch that instead.
04:247. The Divas Title
04:25Was this a bad thing? Not in principle. If you do want to have a women's championship
04:29with a specific name, that doesn't have to be the death nail. I mean, the name Diva isn't great
04:33given the connotations of such a word, but if it's just branding, fine. But now when we look back,
04:38not so much. It got introduced to the Great American Bash when Michelle McCall defeated Natalya,
04:42and guess how long that match went? Less than five minutes. It did mean Michelle was the first ever
04:47Divas champ when Vince McMahon forgot about it. Yep, because this pay-per-view was in July,
04:52and it wasn't defended again until October and September. Instead, the fans knew where the pecking
04:57order was. The rest of the year isn't that great either. It sort of feels like an afterthought.
05:01It somehow lasted until 2016, when finally the women's division got the serious upgrade it needed.
05:06And just go and read the stories now. The female division had to fight tooth and nail to get
05:11anything greenlit, and it just wasn't all that good. By 2008, women's wrestling should have been taken
05:15way more seriously. It wasn't Japan that even TNA had established a solid foundation. So for the main
05:21promotion to be going backwards, well, it weren't great. Number six, McMahon's Million Dollar Mania.
05:26All right, we talked about this briefly. Vince McMahon decided to get fans back. He should do a
05:32real-life competition and give away $1 million. Talk about transparency. Please will you watch my show?
05:38We did this live on Raw, too, with McMahon ringing people up, and good grief, it was painful.
05:42Sometimes there was no answer. We got voicemails picking up instead, and it took up so much TV
05:47time. Surprise, surprise. We've already talked about it. It lasted a grand total of three weeks.
05:52It was always flipping three weeks. I think Vince realized it had to be switched around,
05:56so of course he went back to what he tried to do in 2007. Kill himself. Because during the 23rd
06:01of
06:01June Raw, he was crushed in the set as it all fell down, as he cried out to Triple H
06:05and called him
06:06Paul. Therefore, it must be real. Of course, McMahon also said he couldn't feel his legs, which kind of
06:10feels a little bit overboard. But nobody bought this. It was so obviously rigged, and much like
06:15the competition, it didn't get anybody to come back to Monday night. If anything, it underlined
06:19the issues with WWE. What were we doing, especially with the Night of Champions pay-per-view on the
06:24way? Maybe we should have used this time to promote that instead. It just wasn't the right thing to do,
06:29hence why it was over so fast. And all of this was such an odd time to be a fan.
06:33We were all over the
06:34place. What were we meant to do? 5. Vladimir Kozlov
06:37So I don't necessarily blame Vladimir Kozlov for this. We talk about not being given time to try
06:42and make things work. Also, wrong place, wrong time. A foreign menace heel in 2008? Come on.
06:48It also started with squash matches that felt like they were from the 80s, and from nowhere,
06:52Kozlov was on top. He worked Triple H and Jeff Hardy at the Survivor Series, and everybody said the
06:57same thing. Why is he here? Just do the game versus Jeff, that's fine. Turned out it was all part
07:02of an
07:02where Hardy actually got attacked beforehand, and that was terrible as well. WWE.com ran the story
07:08like Jeff had actually been hurt for real. I have some news, don't do that. Vicky Guerrero also walked
07:13out after 10 minutes and went, haha, Edge is now being thrown in here instead. And it was such a
07:18mess. And look, when we did have Kozlov and Triple H, let's all just be kind here. It wasn't great.
07:23Vladimir was even allowed to be the Undertaker on SmackDown, and for better or worse, that never
07:27happened. It was frustrating because everybody could see this wasn't clicking, but we carried on
07:31regardless. It was an early taste in McMahon doing whatever he wanted to inspire the fans.
07:35I mean, if I was going to sum it up today, I could give you six simple words. Do not
07:38watch it in 2025.
07:41That was about 42 words, but no, no you shouldn't. There were just so many other people ready to go,
07:45and even now you'll kind of get annoyed. 4. JBL is poopy
07:49So earlier we talked about the switch to PG programming, and yes, John Cena was going to be the
07:53poster boy for this in good grief. For some reason, McMahon took the idea of what Family TV was,
07:58and turned it into toilet humor. We didn't need to do that. In the mid-2008s though,
08:03Cena and Crime Time were teaming together before WWE basically forgot about it. That was a shame.
08:08It sort of proved that Shant, Gaspar and JTD had something, but we just didn't bother.
08:12Alright, the whole audience was turned off by it, although it wasn't due to that.
08:16It was because on the July 7th Raw, Cena banalized JBL's limo, and he did indeed write
08:21JBL is poopy on the side. He didn't even go for poop,
08:25which would be grammatically more correct. Just JBL is poopy. I don't even think a 5 year old
08:30would have done this. It's a big reason why John started to get booed as well,
08:33because a lot of fans still going to the shows were adults. They were already worried about PG,
08:37and now they were getting this? The dream was dead. It didn't help that the announcer
08:40had sold like Cena had kidnapped a child, but even JBL sucks would have been fine. That's a standard
08:46phrase. We only did poopy, because McMahon has a very strange, and let's face it,
08:50in a tall sense of humor. 3. Mike Adamely on commentary
08:53So I've mostly included this for one reason, because yes, Mike Adamely on commentary did not
08:57work. It was even worse as he replaced Joey Styles, and fans loved that guy. It was just so WWE.
09:03Get rid of the popular figure to bring in someone that was more of a sports guy.
09:07It never works, and it's not what the audience wanted, especially because this was on the revived
09:10ECW brand. With Styles on the call, at least that spirit could never die.
09:14It really was McMahon just trying to pick apart what Paul Heyman liked about his promotion,
09:18and I think Mike would be the first to tell you this didn't click. But look at what we learned
09:22later. Adamely, a former football player, was suffering with major CTE issues, and of course
09:27that would have affected him here. I'm not saying it would have been ideal even without all that,
09:31but you do have to give him some leeway when you learn that news. That's terrible.
09:34I don't think Adamely was that up on his wrestling knowledge either, and surely that should be on
09:38your CV. Doesn't matter what you look like. As a lead announcer, you have to gain the trust of the
09:43crowd. So if you're getting facts wrong, not good. It didn't work. Yet WWE kept on with this model for
09:49years anyway. Number two, then he became the general manager. And they literally carried it
09:53on here as well, because yes, on the 20th of July Raw, Mike Adamely became the general manager
09:58of Monday nights. The sheer fallout from this went on for the entire three-month run too.
10:03Any time a mistake was made, kablammo, here we go. What made it even more curious is that Shane
10:08McMahon announced Adamely as the new GM, and that was a role Shane could have done. Because trust me,
10:13this was like watching a fish out of water. I'm sure Mike wasn't over the moon about it either.
10:17He would have known where he was with his wrestling knowledge, and nobody wants to be put in a
10:20difficult situation. Nothing else, he just made fans question who was this for, because it damn sure
10:25wasn't for them. Before all of this as well, Adamely had been a perfectly fine backstage interviewer,
10:30so why couldn't we have left him there? Instead, we pulled the rug out from underneath him,
10:33and he went all over the place. I mean, you could have given him some training and then seen,
10:37but nope, this all happened basically overnight, and shock horror didn't click.
10:41WWE knew this as well and changed direction pretty quickly, and I just don't get what the plan was,
10:46unless the plan was actually to annoy the fans. It sounds ridiculous, but a lot of people from this
10:51time have said Vince McMahon did have periods where that was his only focus. Let's just get a rise out
10:56of the crowd. This worked, social media lost it. Number one, CM Punk loses the world title,
11:01without losing it. To this day, this one is mad.
11:04Because 2008 should have been a banner year for CM Punk, because it finally looked like WWE was going
11:08to see where he could go. He won the WrestleMania Money in the Bankmash, and cashed in on Edge on
11:13the 30th of June Raw to become the World Heavyweight Champion. If you were a Ring or Honor fan,
11:17this felt seismic. Punk had gone all the way.
11:19Killy WWE never saw him as a proper main eventer though, as from here, he had to jump through so
11:24many
11:24hoops to worse coming at the end, because he's another guy we just pulled the plug on as fast as
11:29we could.
11:29It came before the scheduled scramble match at Unforgiven, and WWE had built this up like,
11:33oh my gosh, how will CM Punk survive six other people vying for his belt? The truth was,
11:38he wasn't going to be okay with one. Because backstage, before we even got to the bout,
11:43Randy Orton kicked his ass, and Punk was barred from competing. Chris Jericho was then moved into
11:47his slot, and Y2J actually won the title. Imagine we did this to any other champion. Well, you can't,
11:53because it wouldn't have happened. Now Punk did get a TV revenge match against Jericho down the
11:57line, but he lost that, of course. Then he got thrown into a random tag team with Kofi Kingston,
12:03who was such a 180 and surely annoyed Punk a little bit. It was needless. And you would never
12:07get away with this in 2025, especially with a hardcore fan favorite. If you don't want Punk to
12:12be ch... Also, if you want to take the belt off Punk, put him in the scramble anyway and have
12:16somebody
12:16else win. This made no sense. It's 2 plus 2 equals potato.
12:20No other elements of 2008 that need to be discussed, I suppose in negative terms. Let me
12:24know in the comments below. Before you like the video, share the video, damn it, subscribe.
12:27You can then click the video on the screen to get even more years where we do talk about the
12:30worst
12:31parts of WWE. But otherwise, my friends, have a terrific day. I will talk to you again soon.
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