After reading this node, I realized I needed to add my own pick. Although it is fairly recent, it is up there with the worst moments WWE has ever produced.
The Katie Vick Saga, WWE, October 2002 When
Kane became the number one contender for
Triple H's World Heavyweight Championship, it was assumed that
WWE would produce a
storyline in which the two would fight each other over, you know, the title. Then again, this is
Vince McMahon we're talking about.
Common sense has never come into play that much with Vince.
So Kane and The Hurricane won the Tag Team Championship on Raw, and successfully defended the belts in a TLC match against Chris Jericho and Christian, Rob Van Dam and Jeff Hardy, and The Dudley Boyz. After the win, Triple H comes out with the microphone. And nothing good can ever come of that. Triple H closes the show with these cryptic comments:
"Katie Vick is dead Kane. And you killed her. You are a murderer."
At first glance, this could work as a storyline. You see, for five years, Kane has been presented as an unstoppable monster. He supposedly spent his life up until 1997 in a mental hospital, and I could conceivably see Kane breaking out and killing a girl in a fashion similar to Lennie in Of Mice and Men. But that would make sense, and again, we're talking about Vince McMahon here. So they took another option: completely contradicting five years of character development. They had Kane walk out to the ring and discuss how, 10 years ago, he wasn't locked up in a mental hospital, but just breaking into the wrestling business and going to keggers. Apparently, Katie Vick and Kane were friends and met at a party. Kane said Katie had too much to drink and attempted to drive her home. Kane said he was unfamiliar with a manual transmission, and that it was dark, and a deer jumped out in front of him, causing him to crash. Ms. Vick was killed instantly.
Triple H then came out to make an intelligent rebuttal to Kane's statements. First, he claimed Kane had beer on his breath. Second, he claimed there were beer cans in the backseat. Finally, and most damningly, were his claims that, when the autopsy was performed, some of Kane's semen was found in Katie's body. Then, Triple H asked Kane if she waited until Katie was dead to "give it to her".
I rolled my eyes when Jerry Lawler started making penis jokes. I groaned when Christopher Nowinski made comments about busting through Molly Holly's hymen. But semen has no place in professional wrestling.
The scary thing is, Vince McMahon loved the angle, and ordered it to continue. So continue it did. First, Triple H produced a video of himself, dressed like Kane, going to a funeral home, taking off all his clothes, climbing into the casket, and simulating sex with a dummy. The "hilarious" punchline had Triple H reaching down, producing a pink goo, throwing it at the camera, and saying "I JUST SCREWED YOUR BRAINS OUT!".
Again, McMahon loved the segment, so next week he had Triple H bring out a coffin, produce a Katie Vick dummy, and perform a horrible ventriloquist act. The show culminated with Kane locking Triple H in the trunk of a car and driving off, saying he was going to "screw him", and the big question would be whether or not Triple H would be dead when it happened. So, the big news to come from that episode was that, apparently, Kane is gay.
So after all Triple H put Kane through, coupled with the fact that Kane was a babyface and Triple H a heel, and that Triple H wasn't drawing as champion, you'd think Kane would beat the hell out of Triple H and win the title. Wrong. Instead, Triple H won, then lost to Kane in a non-title casket match, then promply beat him again in a string of house shows.
This was a horrible angle for several reasons: First, necrophilia and professional wrestling shouldn't mix. Second, it was a giant, calculated "fuck you" to the fans who paid attention to storylines, the hardcore fans who kept the WWF afloat in 1996 when it seemed that they were on the verge of bankruptcy. Third, it was horribly acted, with porn level performances by both Triple H and Kane.
In my twelve years as a wrestling fan, this was the most horrible thing I'd ever seen.