Bottom of the barrel

[Lorne Malvo]

1 hour ago, DavidB6937 said:

I could never get past Jack Swagger as a world champion, even if it was the shit belt.

This has reminded me that I was looking through old PPV cards a few weeks back and at some point in 2016, Baron Corbin vs Jack Swagger made it onto PPV. 

I guess 'Corbin vs Swagger' alone could qualify for this thread. How bad was their roster than matches like that were making it onto PPV? 

[TheScarlettChad]

2 hours ago, DavidB6937 said:

I could never get past Jack Swagger as a world champion, even if it was the shit belt.

He went from goof to super serious heel in the span of two weeks. Bizarre. 

[air_raid]

2 hours ago, DavidB6937 said:

I could never get past Jack Swagger as a world champion, even if it was the shit belt.

The fitting thing there was that Swagger just seemed to be growing into it, when they took it off him. The match he lost the title to Rey was very good, even though the Kane cash in meant he was forgotten by the next TVs.

[TheBurningRed]

1 hour ago, Lorne Malvo said:

This has reminded me that I was looking through old PPV cards a few weeks back and at some point in 2016, Baron Corbin vs Jack Swagger made it onto PPV. 

I guess 'Corbin vs Swagger' alone could qualify for this thread. How bad was their roster than matches like that were making it onto PPV? 

 

1:18 for the start of one of the most hilariously bad promos from Swagger. 

[CleetusVanDamme]

22 hours ago, sivy said:

How about September 2011 when on ppv Triple h beats CM Punk.

I love that match. A great brawl with some of the wildest fuckery, unpredictable from start to finish. The Conspiracy Era was the brief reprieve from all the actual bottom of the barrel stuff that was most of 2009-2012.

[BomberPat]

Becky Lynch & Seth Rollins vs Baron Corbin & Lacey Evans. As a main event programme.

[RIDDUM_N_STYLE]

6 hours ago, TheScarlettChad said:

He went from goof to super serious heel in the span of two weeks. Bizarre. 

Not even two weeks, the literal second the bell rang on the 3 count, his facial expression changed 

[Callum1993]

On 8/6/2025 at 8:12 PM, Callum1993 said:

‘The Learning Tree’ 

On that topic:

 

[Merzbow]

Aces and Eights were already shitting up the fed to the max at this point and then Tito Ortiz turned up to what may be world's smallest pop ever recorded, he looked so unthreatening on his tod and no-one gave a shit about MMA in the arena.

At least it gave us the best thing Ken Anderson has ever done...

[SuperBacon]

1 hour ago, Merzbow said:

Aces and Eights were already shitting up the fed to the max at this point and then Tito Ortiz turned up to what may be world's smallest pop ever recorded, he looked so unthreatening on his tod and no-one gave a shit about MMA in the arena.

At least it gave us the best thing Ken Anderson has ever done...

Amazing work this.

[LaGoosh]

13 hours ago, Callum1993 said:

On that topic:

 

Heartbreaking that Kenny's likely final full-time run was spent doing this shit.

[d-d-d-dAz]

There are a few things that stick in my mind, where when I saw them I thought WWE must be creatively bankrupt.

The Vince McMahon million dollar giveaway was definitely one, but the one that really sticks in my head happened over one show and then didn't really get mentioned again.

They'd clearly internalised some criticism that Raw had become too 'safe' or 'predictable', so one Raw they kept banging on about how 'anything could happen on Monday Night Raw'. And, to illustrate this point they... had a mic stand fall over backstage during a segment, and had a 'fan' run up during a Batista promo and do the Batista pose before going back to the commentators who said, you guessed it, 'anything can happen on Monday Night Raw.'

It just felt a bit sad.

[HarmonicGenerator]

29 minutes ago, d-d-d-dAz said:

There are a few things that stick in my mind, where when I saw them I thought WWE must be creatively bankrupt.

The Vince McMahon million dollar giveaway was definitely one, but the one that really sticks in my head happened over one show and then didn't really get mentioned again.

They'd clearly internalised some criticism that Raw had become too 'safe' or 'predictable', so one Raw they kept banging on about how 'anything could happen on Monday Night Raw'. And, to illustrate this point they... had a mic stand fall over backstage during a segment, and had a 'fan' run up during a Batista promo and do the Batista pose before going back to the commentators who said, you guessed it, 'anything can happen on Monday Night Raw.'

It just felt a bit sad.

Was it one of those bits that ended the million dollar giveaway, when part of the tron fell down on top of Vince while he was doing the giveaway? Then he was fine, then they did the car blowing up a few weeks later?

[davertfnewman]

It's well past the point where I cared, but what about Rey's eye being injured by Seth Rollins, resulting in a match where the only way to win is for the victor to pop the eye out of the loser's head? Rey has to wear a mask with a gimmick to make it look like his eye was Vadered, which he's obviously made a total recovery from since.

[Carbomb]

51 minutes ago, HarmonicGenerator said:

Was it one of those bits that ended the million dollar giveaway, when part of the tron fell down on top of Vince while he was doing the giveaway? Then he was fine, then they did the car blowing up a few weeks later?

If memory serves, they did that because the initial OMG VINCE IS DEAD angle had to be aborted because of the Benoit murders. The limo blowing up was their attempt to revive the angle after a "respectful" period.