Top 10 WTF Moments in WWE

Charles Wright saw a lot of success as The Godfather during the WWE’s attitude era, but the man who once worked the streets was previously saddled with a different gimmick. Wright was Papa Shango, a voodoo practitioner whose feud with The Ultimate Warrior resulted in this infamous promo segment. The Warrior was in the midst of an interview with “Mean” Gene Okerlund when a viscous black liquid began to emanate from his head. This wasn’t all, either, as Shango’s voodoo “curse” had previously caused Warrior some serious stomach pains, to the point where he actually vomited on camera!

The extremity of the Attitude Era has been well documented by WWE/WWF fans over the years. As a result, the laundry list of storylines that were done in poor taste is MILES long. The feud between The Big Show and The Big Boss Man definitely falls in this category, as it all centered around Show’s kayfabe mourning of his father. Boss Man, for some reason, took umbrage to this, and focused on making Big Show’s life an absolute hell. The apex of the feud came during an outdoor segment (shot at a real graveyard, by the way), with Big Show literally riding on top of a coffin, as Boss Man was dragging it away. If we didn’t watch this segment live, we honestly couldn’t even believe it was real.

It seems incredulous, even all these years later, that the WWF actually thought they could get away with this one. Kevin Nash and Scott Hall had already left the company, yet the WWF was determined to keep the Diesel and Razor Ramon gimmicks alive. As a result, Jim Ross (playing a heel character) brought in two other wrestlers to carry on the characters. Glenn Jacobs (the future Kane) and Rick Bognar did their best with this misguided gimmick, but the fans saw through this ruse immediately, and Fake Diesel/Fake Razor soon were abandoned to the mists of pro wrestling folklore.

Long before Donald Trump became the President of the United States, he was collaborating with Vince McMahon and the WWE. This WTF moment, however, didn’t even involve the real Trump, but wrestler Ace Steel. Steel portrayed The Donald on the January 8th, 2007 episode of “Monday Night Raw,” performing in a gimmick match against a woman playing actress and talk show host Rosie O’Donnell. Trump and O’Donnell were in the midst of a public feud and war of words around this time, so WWE decided to strike while the proverbial iron was hot. The end results were as cringeworthy as one might imagine, and probably shouldn’t be rewatched by anyone.

It was a WWE moment that would live on forever, in infamy. It was Edge and Lita’s Live Sex Celebration on the January 6th, 2006 episode of Raw. The Rated R couple were celebrating Edge’s first world title win at New Year’s Revolution, and did so in a most outlandish fashion. The segment was tawdry and provocative by that era’s standards, never mind placed against the current wrestling landscape. Lita and Edge were a couple off-screen too, at that time, and their foreplay left little to the imagination. Ric Flair and John Cena would eventually interrupt the segment before it went, ahem, “all the way,” but the shenanigans didn’t stop. Cena tore the covers off of a (now clothed) Lita, and gave her an F.U. for her trouble.

It seems almost cliché at this point to reference The Gobbledy Gooker and the WWF. It’s a WTF moment that never seems to go away, no matter how much everyone involved might wish it would. There was a lot of build-up to what exactly was in this giant egg that was due to hatch at the 1990 “Survivor Series.” Was it going to be a debuting new wrestler? A returning favorite? What. Was. In. The. EGG? Well, it was a member from one of wrestling’s royal families, Héctor Guerrero…just dressed in a giant turkey costume. The WWF reportedly intended The Gooker to be a mascot for the company, but he just didn’t take with fans (who called foul), and quickly became a walking, clucking punchline.

John Bradshaw Layfield was no stranger to storylines that leaned hard into cultural stereotypes. This was the same superstar whose feud with Eddie Guerrero featured a segment shot at the “border,” after all. This segment was a little less mean-spirited than JBL booting migrants in the butt, but still culturally insensitive, for sure. It revolved around an episode of “WWE Smackdown” that was airing from Japan. JBL had been accidentally shot with a tranquilizer gun (don’t ask), and hallucinated that a blow-up Godzilla doll was real. He challenged it to a match, even stripping down to his undies in order to, we presume, fight it better? The segment is debatably pretty funny, but it’s definitely not for the easily offended.

Was there any Attitude Era character that best exemplifies that period in WWF history than Val Venis? The adult film actor gimmick was tailor made to that era’s boundary pushing storytelling, such as this infamous feud with the Kai En Tai stable. Venis had seduced the wife of Kai En Tai’s leader, Yamaguchi-San, and the stable vowed vengeance. It all came to a head as an episode of “Raw” closed out with Venis being held hostage by Kai En Tai and their newest member, Taka Michinoku. The image of Michinoku and Kai En Tai holding down a nude Venis (shown from behind) and their threats were burned into the eyes and ears of WWF fans for all time.

We’ve discussed a lot of WWE moments that have been WTF for silly, gross or strange reasons. This one, however, still manages to shock, so many years later. Brian Pillman’s “Loose Cannon” persona blurred the lines between wrestling reality and fiction so well, that even those close to him were never exactly sure what was real. This is what made Pillman’s feud with “Stone Cold” Steve Austin so terrifying: it’s unpredictability. It officially went beyond the pale into WTF territory, however, when a home invasion segment was shot for “Raw.” The image of Austin breaking into Pillman’s home, and the latter brandishing a freakin’ GUN on The Texas Rattlesnake nearly cost WWE everything during its original airing, and it’s STILL wild to watch today.

We’re thankful that we can send off this list for you guys with an entry that’s substantially less dark, but no less WTF. Mae Young was a certified wrestling legend who could go with the best of them, regardless of gender. She was also totally game for comedy angles too, such as the storyline that saw her in a relationship with “Sexual Chocolate” Mark Henry. The on-screen romance even resulted in Young becoming pregnant, although her delivery would be a segment for the ages. Mae Young didn’t give birth to a bouncing baby boy or girl, but…a hand. There was no explanation given, although The Wrestling Observer’s Dave Meltzer has insinuated that it could perhaps be a reference to a sex toy. Double-U Tee Eff.