Tasteless Angles in Wrestling

[Guest Duke_The_Dog]

Some options:

 

At a local show just after Mike Von Erich died, at the arena Fritz tried to pass it off as if Brian Adias did it. But this angle was dropped because Mike's death made much bigger news than he had expected.

 

David dies and Fritz forges his signature on autograph photos to sell to fans for over a year after his death. Also His father, Fritz, responded by selling 8x10 glossies of David AT HIS FUNERAL to the fans who came to pay their respects

 

At the Von Erich memorial show for 1986 Fritz booked two woman to wrestle in scantily clad outfits in a vat of mud. (mind you this is predating attitude by 11 years)

 

Fritz faked a heart attack to draw fans back in 1988 to help his dying promotion. Fritz's health declined any week that attendence was poor.

 

in Florida in 1985, booker/owner Eddie graham commited suicide. Months later, his son Mike declares he's going to win the NWA title in honor of his father. the Freebirds come out and make fun of Eddie, then beat up his son. Wahoo McDaniels booked this mess.

 

Atsushi Onita declaring he was going to avenge Brody's death and then doing a stabbing angle in a fued with Brody's murderer.

 

I'll add more in a bit, but I haven't evn touched NWA,WCW,WWE yet...

[Guest Duke_The_Dog]

Off my own topic but some fucked up stories from the Von Eriches upbringing:

 

Mike was the brother who’d never wanted to wrestle. He and Chris were so much younger that they had grown up as their own entity. Mike was a mama’s boy and fairly unnerved when, at age five, he was introduced to baby brother Chris. According to Doris, she cured that by ignoring the baby when she brought him home. She told Mike that no one wanted Chris, so Mike took it upon himself to become Chris’s protector. As the two entered their teens, they grew even closer, tied together in part by their failure to imitate their brothers’ athletic success.

 

When Mike commited suicide he left a note behind and left a bag of Placidyl for Chris to take when he was ready to get out.

 

According to an old friend of Kerry’s, to toughen them up, Fritz would tie them (the teenage boys) together by their feet, hang them from a beam, and have them fight upside down.

 

Kevin on finding Chris' body: "I thought, ‘Oh, man, he’s taken a bunch of pills or something.’ So I put my hand behind him to lift him up and said, ‘Come on, Chris. Stand up, walk around.’ My thumb went into his head. You could’ve put a coffee cup in that hole. There was no doubt—”

 

 

----

 

On topic:

 

Fritz booking the Spike Dudley sized Mike VE as a legit threat and putting him over Race and Flair. Then Mike got real sick and was in the hospital for months and then Fritz made Mike go out to the Stadium, barley able to stand or walk as he was so frail. They declared Mike "The Living Miracle" and went back to pushing him hard.

[Guest Duke_The_Dog]

Robert Fuller presented Brickhouse brown (His stablemate) with a Watermelon as a gift. (After giving the white stablemates watches or somesuch)

 

Dirty White Girl faking that Tony Anthony beat her to make Gordon Solie help her draw out Tom Prichard just so Prichard could be sneak attacked by Anthony.

 

Lawler telling Kamala and other black heels "I'm going to read you Roots backwards so it has a happy ending"

[Guest Duke_The_Dog]

WWF of course had the:

 

Katie Vick Saga

Sarge as the Iraqi during the Gulf War

Muhammed 's Taker terrorist assault...

[BruiserKC]

AWA...Colonel DeBeers vs. Derrick Dukes. If DeBeers won he would paint Dukes (black man) white. If Dukes beat DeBeers, he would paint the Apartheid savior black.

[Guest Frank_Nabbit]

This got much more love and discussion over at DVD

[snuffbox]

Kurt.

[Dobbs 3K]

How about DX appearing on the titantron on one episode of RAW, and making it appear that Billy Gunn was raping Stephanie McMahon?

[Si82]

How about DX appearing on the titantron on one episode of RAW, and making it appear that Billy Gunn was raping Stephanie McMahon?

When was this?

[MikeJordan23]

How about DX appearing on the titantron on one episode of RAW, and making it appear that Billy Gunn was raping Stephanie McMahon?

When was this?

 

 

Around late 99. Then they said it was some "College slut" or something on SmackDown.

[haVoc]

So they didn't kayfabe?

 

Remember when Vince spray painted NWO over his fathers face?

[EdwardKnoxII]

Here's one the buildup to the HHH-Booker T match. Lets see you have HHH come out and talk bad about "his kind of people" and how he's not a wrestler, make fun of his hair, and tells him to do that little dance he does. And then to top it off you have HHH talk about the time he robbed a Wendy's and even shows the mug shot. Hell with the way the angle was going I'm shocked they didn't have HHH, wearing a white robe and hood, burn a cross in front of his house. So, of course, Booker T jobs a WM.

 

And as a spinoff from that angle you have Lawler ALWAYS bring up Booker's run in with the law afterwards. Always, making these tasteless jokes and Booker never did anything about it. I mean would it have hurt to have Booker get in Lawlers face and tell him to shut up just once.

[Jericholic82]

Here's one the buildup to the HHH-Booker T match. Lets see you have HHH come out and talk bad about "his kind of people" and how he's not a wrestler, make fun of his hair, and tells him to do that little dance he does. And then to top it off you have HHH talk about the time he robbed a Wendy's and even shows the mug shot. Hell with the way the angle was going I'm shocked they didn't have HHH, wearing a white robe and hood, burn a cross in front of his house. So, of course, Booker T jobs a WM.

 

And as a spinoff from that angle you have Lawler ALWAYS bring up Booker's run in with the law afterwards. Always, making these tasteless jokes and Booker never did anything about it. I mean would it have hurt to have Booker get in Lawlers face and tell him to shut up just once.

well booker was SUPPOSED to win originally, but even if he did it wouldnt make the angle any less offensive or stupid (which I found it to be, more stupid than offensive, actually lazy booking)

[MikeJordan23]

They tried to make the Booker/HHH angle seem non-racist on the pre WM show, when Triple H was being interviewed and said "When I said you people, I wasn't talking about black people". Then he had a couple humorous jokes towards Michael Cole and the audience. Pretty lame, imo.

[Hunter's Torn Quad]

Here's one the buildup to the HHH-Booker T match. Lets see you have HHH come out and talk bad about "his kind of people" and how he's not a wrestler, make fun of his hair, and tells him to do that little dance he does. And then to top it off you have HHH talk about the time he robbed a Wendy's and even shows the mug shot. Hell with the way the angle was going I'm shocked they didn't have HHH, wearing a white robe and hood, burn a cross in front of his house. So, of course, Booker T jobs a WM.

 

And as a spinoff from that angle you have Lawler ALWAYS bring up Booker's run in with the law afterwards. Always, making these tasteless jokes and Booker never did anything about it. I mean would it have hurt to have Booker get in Lawlers face and tell him to shut up just once.

well booker was SUPPOSED to win originally, but even if he did it wouldnt make the angle any less offensive or stupid (which I found it to be, more stupid than offensive, actually lazy booking)

True, but at the least the payoff would have seen the racist proven wrong.

[Guest Hass of Pain]

Definitely Eddie Graham's suicide being made into an angle by Wahoo McDaniel to get Eddie's worthless son Mike over. I have my thoughts on the whole story in detail on my blog linked in my signature, but just the way that Eddie died and what he meant to Florida made it really sickening, even for wrestling.

[Lil' Bitch]

Buff Bagwell's return in 98 following his injury.

 

Here's one the buildup to the HHH-Booker T match. Lets see you have HHH come out and talk bad about "his kind of people" and how he's not a wrestler, make fun of his hair, and tells him to do that little dance he does. And then to top it off you have HHH talk about the time he robbed a Wendy's and even shows the mug shot. Hell with the way the angle was going I'm shocked they didn't have HHH, wearing a white robe and hood, burn a cross in front of his house. So, of course, Booker T jobs a WM.

 

Go fetch me a towel!

[EdwardKnoxII]

They tried to make the Booker/HHH angle seem non-racist on the pre WM show, when Triple H was being interviewed and said "When I said you people, I wasn't talking about black people". Then he had a couple humorous jokes towards Michael Cole and the audience. Pretty lame, imo.

 

So what the hell did Triple H mean when he said "you people"?

[The Niggardly King]

WCW guys.

[EdwardKnoxII]

WCW guys.

 

I guess it could have been taking that way seeing how in that interview HHH also made fun of Booker for being the WCW champ. Of course, that was just as dumb seeing as how A) you have RIC FLAIR standing right next to H and B) H was holding the big gold belt which is associated with WCW.

[Lil' Bitch]

So what the hell did Triple H mean when he said "you people"?

 

Certain midcarders.

[Guest Manus]

I didn't see much of a problem with the HHH/Booker angle. It was basically about HHH calling Booker T a low class person and not about his skin color.

 

The Katie Vick angle was stupid as hell, but it provided several hilarious moments. Kane's long promo in the ring explaining the whole thing was one of the corniest things in wrestling history, but funny nonetheless. And who can forget HHH screwing a fake corpse. Classic.

[Guest Thrashist]

Triple H/Booker T was comically racist. It wasn't blatant or overt, but there's a reason when people look back at it they think it was built on racism. People might say all of the talk of Booker's criminal history, "you people" and promos where Triple H looked down on Booker, were all part of the story making WCW Booker out to be the underdog, but no other high-profile feud Triple H has been in has ever had rhetoric or a dynamic close to that feud. Maybe it's just circumstantial and a coincidence, but it just so happens that the opponent happened to be Triple H's only major black opponent. The fact that Booker T lost made it even more hilarious. Just awful.

 

I wouldn't necessarily call it tasteless either (let alone one of the worst), but just as someone else said, lazy writing.

[Special K]

And who can forget HHH screwing a fake corpse. Classic.

No.

[daileyxplanet]

I think the Cutting Edge last night was quite tasteless considering Guerrero died less than a month ago, and Edge was ragging on Michael Hayes about his former tag team partner.

[Just John]

WCW giving Scott Hall an alcoholic gimmick when he had real life alcohol problems.

[Lil' Bitch]

Jerry Lawler pouring alcohol on Jake Roberts at SummerSlam 96.

[CanadianGuitarist]

I think the Cutting Edge last night was quite tasteless considering Guerrero died less than a month ago, and Edge was ragging on Michael Hayes about his former tag team partner.

 

Yeah, even I from a mark standpoint was hating Edge, and I'm an Edge=head.

 

Hayes was great though, once he got out of the 'you kids have no respect' cliche and started really tearing into him.

[CanadianGuitarist]

In retrospect, there was no need for the quote in my previous post.

 

Summerslam 96 and Roberts/Lawler was one of my first thoughts actually.

[Art Sandusky]

Remember when Vince spray painted NWO over his fathers face?

Whoa, I have no memory whatsoever of this. Refresh please?

 

I also forgot the DX/Stephanie thing, but that was more conscious I'm sure.