10 Worst WWE Moments Of 2003

By 2003, it was clear the end of WCW wasn't good for wrestling

The WWE had realized they could take their foot off the gas, and the end result was a drop in quality

Wasn't a big surprise, everybody does need a break, but as WWE were the only game in town

they assumed they would keep their audience regardless. Wasn't true, but it would take a little while before they picked up on that

Now, of course, that doesn't mean that WWE was all bad in 2003, but man, there were some doozies

So I am Simon Miller, I have no hair, and let's look at what came out at the bottom of the heap

Number 7, WWE says they're boring. That's right, in 2003, everybody knew what wrestling was, was predetermined entertainment

Therefore, anything we saw on screen came from Vince McMahon and the creative team

This was their choice. Then in June 2003, when Lance Storm was having a match

then General Manager Steve Austin walked out and said, Lance Storm, you are boring

That's right, he basically stopped the fight too. So let us get into that, because it's absurd

It could have worked if you picked a comedy character that was going to lean into all that, but Storm was already the opposite of boring

He was serious, sure, which was part of his catchphrase, but my gosh

He was such a good in-ring performer, and if you wanted to believe in what you were seeing

you went and watched Lance Storm. Given he was from Canada, he almost felt like a new-age Bret Hart

That's how much Storm could get you to buy in. There was no fluff. And sure, I think he'd be the first to say his promos weren't of Dusty Rhodes levels

but who cares? Wrestling is great because you get all sorts. Go and watch Lance at ECW

It's perfect. The most legit mother hubbard. But yes, as Vince McMahon didn't get this

he sent the biggest star of all time out there to just suck it all away

There was no way the rattlesnake agreed with this either, because he must have watched Storm's work

And of course, the follow-up was a ha-ha-hee-hee team with Goldust. Nothing wrong with that either

but there are just better paths to take to get there. I mean, push somebody's strengths and all of that

It just felt like Vince thought this would be funny and that he enjoyed embarrassing people on live TV

It was really dumb. This is why you do need competition. Always give talent the choice

Number nine, the Redneck Triathlon. I mean, the title of this one alone

how do you even get to say those words in a sentence for a wrestling show

It does start with Eric Bischoff and Steve Austin being the co-general managers of Raw

because won't that be funny? They had some real life heat after Bischoff fired Steve from WCW

We can lean on that. It was for most of 2003 and come June, Austin was so mad

He told Eric it was time for the redneck triathlon. Such challenges included were burping, a pie-eating contest and a sing-along

I'm not joking, this was on pay-per-view too. WWE wanted you to spend money on this stuff

It's Bad Blood 2003 where we also got Ric Flair vs Shawn Michaels

It's bizarre. Halfway through the Austin Bischoff stuff as well, Mae Young came out to give Erica Bronco Buster 2, so I suppose that was a twist. There was another

one as well. The karaoke was switched to a pigpen contest, so Austin threw Bischoff into some poop

Great. Methinks that somebody may not have been totally over world championship wrestling

I'm sure Austin was still getting used to the fact he couldn't wrestle anymore, but WWE was not using him right at all. The rattlesnake was fine with doing comedy

but this was not good. And again, it was on pay-per-view, $50 to throw Bischoff into some..

Well, you know the word. It rhymes with bit. Number eight, Al Wilson dies from sex. I mean

I don't know how else to say it. WWE brought in Al Wilson, who was Tori's dad, and then killed him

off. This was her real-life father as well. They didn't even get an actor. This did start in the

latter part of 2002, but 2003 was way worse. Dawn Marie, who was obsessed with Tori for some reason

decided that she would attack her personally by wooing Al and then marrying him too

That's right, we got hitched on live TV, even though the age difference must have been close to 35 years

Don't worry though, we also made sure to make plenty of erectile dysfunction jokes the whole time

I mean, you do have to tick every box. I suppose that tied in as desperate to please his wife

Al tried everything before he had a heart attack And yes he died while having sexual intercourse Now I bet at one point somebody suggested to put Viagra on a poll because WCW had done that in 2000 but thankfully we didn

Although we did have a backstage segment where everybody was grieving. I suppose that's only

fair as well. A pensioner had died because he wanted to please his wife. It was just a garbage

storyline though and somehow just got worse and worse because yes, soon after the fact

it basically turned into a lesbian angle too. Even if that was always the plan, there are other ways

to do it than by bringing in somebody's dad and then murdering them

Well, he wasn't murdered, but he did die. I just do not understand who would tune in for this

That was really dumb. Number seven, Brock Lesnar's WrestleMania mistake. So if you do go back and watch the main event of WrestleMania 19 now

between Kurt Angle and Brock Lesnar for the WWE title, you will go hot damn as a damn good bout

That's because it was. And in terms of the WWE roster, Brock and Kurt were probably two of the best

It was the right thing to do as well because we were essentially making new stars here, especially Brock Lesnar who continues to climb the ladder

When you get to the final move, oh my gosh, it's the most terrifying thing you've ever seen in your life

Now, long in the internet rumor mill, people had said that Brock was able to do a shooting star press

even though he is built like a mountain. I suppose because it was WrestleMania 19, it was time to show that off

So he went to the top rope and my gosh, he got three quarters of the way through the move before something went wrong

It does look like he slipped and he landed right on his head

Obviously, he was knocked out instantly and had a concussion, but if he hadn't been built the way that he had been built

I think it's fair to say that Lesnar would have been in way worse shape. I mean, a smaller person could have died. I'm not kidding

You can even find behind-the-scenes footage that WWE shot of this, and Brock Lesnar is like an absolute crazy person because he can't get his bearings

Again, I would warn you before you do go and tune in to see this if you haven't seen it before

it's absolutely horrific. It is just watching somebody land right on their skull

The story got worse as well because Kurt Angle shouldn't have been competing in this match either

because he was scheduled for neck surgery, which meant you just get the last five seconds of two broken men figuring it out

Fair play to the Olympic gold medalist because he just shouts F5 at Brock, who does get it done, but yeah

Surely they both wish they could redo this one. It's not what you want, especially not in the main event of WrestleMania

Now, nobody ever chooses to make a mistake, so you have to throw that one in there too, but this was bad just from a scary point of view

reminds you how dangerous wrestling can be. That's why they all deserve our respect

They genuinely do put their lives on the line every single time. Number six, Hulk Hogan becomes Mr. America

So it is back to WrestleMania 19 here, which, yes, had Vince McMahon versus Hulk Hogan

Given the history of those two individuals, it was pitched as a pretty damn big match

I mean, you could call it decades in the making for obvious reasons. And actually, you won't be disappointed

if you do go watch this fun brawl in Seattle. I think both guys knew what they were and weren't capable of

They just go out there and have some fun. What made no sense, however, is that after the fact, these two decided to keep the program going

It meant that Vince's on-screen character reacted to losing by firing Hogan

And then, yes, on the 1st of May 2003 SmackDown, we had a brand new character debut on Piper's Pit, Mr. America

This wasn't random either. WWE had spent weeks of vignettes teasing his arrival

Now, obviously, you can see the image on the screen right now, but I need to make this clear. nothing was done to hide the person's identity it was literally hulk hogan in a mask like if wwe

had released his action figure beforehand the title would have read now you can buy hulk hogan

in a mask and oh my gosh it's blue the real issue from a kayfabe point of view though is that every

heel in the company went out of their way to try and prove to you this was hulk hogan even though

every single person on the planet including your nan could just look at it and go well yes i'm aware

of that why do you even need to do any investigating to begin with somehow that led to a judgment day

match between Hulk Hogan and Roddy Piper. Look, I don't want to be horrible here, but it was one of

the worst matches of 2003. What's even worse is that Hulk Hogan and Vince McMahon fell out before

this storyline even finished, so Mr. America just vanished into the dust. I really don't know what

the payoff was going to be, or why Hulk Hogan couldn't have just been Hulk Hogan, but let me

know in the comments below I mean at least one of you was probably 10 watching this likely thought it was the best thing ever Number five the unmasking of Kane Now I can totally understand why on the 23rd of June 2003 Raw Kane Vince McMahon and everybody else decided it finally time to take off the mask

The Big Red Machine had been wearing that since 1997. And if he was going to be a character that had serious longevity, well that's just wrestling dude

It was always going to happen eventually. So I can only talk about this from my vantage point

But during that moment and even now as I sit here today, I just think it was a massive mistake

Sometimes you can just get a character and a gimmick and a story so well

that you don't actually need to tinker with it at all. I mean, I would use The Undertaker, but of course he went on a transformation of his own

But even in June of 2003, well, I was happy for Kane to keep that damn thing on his face forever

Now, I think there's probably more to this as well, because in 2002, what storyline had Kane been subjected to

Two words, my friends, Katie Vick. I've talked about that on other videos, so I won't go into it here

But the headline is, it was about necrophilia. So if Glenn Jacobs did get a year down the line and was desperate to get away with that

and the best way to do that was to show his face, well, believe you me, I get it

The other thing we did do here is that we just threw the entire Kane law down the toilet

because as soon as you could see his face, there were no burns, so we had to sell this as psychological

I wouldn't think about that too much, because it doesn't make sense as to what happened with The Undertaker and Kane when they were kids

But once again, it is wrestling. Sometimes they just don't care. Now you can't fault it too much, because the Kane character essentially went on for another two decades

But also after this, he electrocuted Shane McMahon's testicles. Maybe the peak was always going to be 1997 and 1998, because as debuts go, well it's pretty much perfect

One of the best character arrivals of all time. Number four, the sad reality of Scott Steiner

Now I don't want to take too many shots at Scott Steiner after he debuted at the Survivor Series in 2002

because everybody wanted this to begin with. the real shame is that he didn't walk in during the invasion angle that would have been massive

much like scott look at his biceps those peaks the problem with 2003 though as styler did move up

into the main event scene is that he just wasn't the man he once was because injuries and the

wrestling lifestyle had caught up to him i mean he barely only had one foot it meant really that

if wwe were gonna book him in bigger bouts all of these should have gone short when we got to the

triple h feud and yeah they just went on and on and on even if some of the elements were pretty

decent, after a while you kind of just tuned out because again, Scott wasn't able to keep the same

pace he used to be able to. And around this juncture I'm going to tell you to watch his main event run

in WCW because you will see a totally different performer, but that's why this one was so damn

disappointing. He was struggling with drop foot so could only move at half the speed that he used to

do, and think how tough that must be, nothing else is going to affect your mental game. It just meant

the two matches he had with Triple H at Royal Rumble and No Way Out are not worth your viewing

and that's a real shame because in a different year, it probably would have been absolute bangers

I know that most people are excited to see Scott Steiner back in the WWE as well

especially as Big Papa Pump. We probably should have pulled the trigger early with this

My gosh, you can say that about a lot of people. We've waited too long

Number three, Vince McMahon versus Stephanie McMahon. The best way to sum this up is twofold

One, WWE would never do this today. And two, I dare you to show this to somebody that doesn't watch wrestling

you won't do it because you'll be embarrassed and you'll cry into your cornflakes

Given that we had done every single other McMahon scenario, though, I suppose this was always going to happen with the family

And at No Mercy 2003, Vince McMahon went into an I Quit match against his own daughter Stephanie

A pre-match stipulation also called for the loser to immediately vacate their position as an authority figure

But actually, Stephanie technically didn't quit. Instead, her mother Linda chucked in the towel while Vince choked his own flesh and blood with a lead pipe

You can now see this image on the screen now, how much Vince McMahon seems to be enjoying it

If you feel uncomfortable, don't worry, because I do too. No, the truth was the McMahon family melodrama had peak years before this, likely around WrestleMania 17

That is one of the issues that people had with WWE in 2003. Why do we keep going back to it

We also run out of ideas which is why we did move to the shocking and repulsive Believe you me if you watch all of this and some of the promos you are going to sit there with a slack jaw We also do have to throw in as well because Stephanie McMahon talked about this in a documentary

It was also this period, where we had one abandoned creative pitch

which was for Stephanie McMahon to have a baby. And who would the father be

That's right, it would be Vince. And surprise, surprise, Steph said, no dad, we're never doing that

because that's totally flubbed up. Instead, she got whammed in the head with a lead pipe

I guess that's just WWE. Number two, Booker T versus Triple H

So we have talked about this time and time again, but it's important to keep the flame alive

Although we have to say this, Booker T has always come out and said he was totally cool with it

And his opinion probably should matter the most. I mean, he was one of the guys in it

For a fan like me, though, back in 2003, especially moving into WrestleMania 19

I was desperate to see Booker walk away with the World Heavyweight Championship

just because I think this is what sports entertainment should be. Triple H and Ric Flair had been awful to this man

so you get to the big show and the babyface proves you can't be a bully, it doesn't work out

The reason this one is more than bad booking and still gets brought up today is because WWE really leaned into the race angle

Like at one point the game even said to Booker, people like you, and had some terrible words to describe the hair on his head

There was other things in here as well, all of which will make you raise an eyebrow, and none of it was handled with that much grace

I really do think it would be easy to defend if Booker T had beaten this guy at WrestleMania

Yeah, we've already talked about that. He didn't. And just to add fuel to the fire, I'm sure you've heard of this one

After Triple H hits the pedigree, he takes around about 45 seconds before he pins Booker T

I mean, it really didn't make any sense at all. If nothing else, there was zero need to inject race into this story anyway

because Booker T absolutely could have been the guy coming from WCW that finally wanted his shot at the top of WWE

He worked great with Triple H as well, because these two could go. but to throw all the other stuff into the mix

well, it was a mistake, it was offensive, and it just did not work out at all

Number one, Eric Bischoff and Linda McMahon. So before we do get into it

you need to think about it for just one second. Vince McMahon, who once again was writing the scripts

told old enemy Eric Bischoff it was time for him to get intimate

with both his wife and daughter on camera in several ill-advised and really quite unfortunate pre-taped skits

Eric Bischoff also talked about this in his 83 Weeks podcast and said when Vince described his kiss with Linda

he wanted it to look very forceful. Did your stomach just turn

Because mine most definitely did. Now the idea was that McMahon wanted fans to be so irate

that when we did get to SummerSlam, they were desperate for Shane McMahon to beat up Eric Bischoff

But once again, there's better ways to do this. It was the August 18th, 2003 Raw

when Linda was shown speaking remotely on camera to Jim Ross. And yes, she was at home

The doorbell then rings and who happens to be there? it's Eric Bischoff who somehow had her address

We have to throw in that Linda was recovering after being hit with a tombstone by Kane

when, I mean, I can't think of other ways to put it, Eric sort of forced himself on her

while saying things like, you are a big-breasted beauty. I feel sick again

The funny part to all of it is that Shane saw this happening on the big screen so got in a car to drive to save his mother

The issue was he was at Raw in Grand Rapids and Linda McMahon was in Michigan

that's around a 12 hour drive i don't think you're gonna make it eric also said on that podcast that

vincent man was cooking eggs in the kitchen throughout all of this so there's some trivia

you didn't need and i suppose the best way you can see how awful this is is by watching it for

yourself once again i can't believe this was bringing anybody in to increase the ratings

and it just felt creepy and weird it didn't get me more interested in eric versus shane

it made me want to turn off my tv it was also really over the top and unbelievable and not in

good way and it was just in bad taste. I know that makes me sound like an old man but it was

You want wrestling to be entertaining man and seeing the Raw GM try to kiss the boss's wife

Well that ain't for me. I would rather have anything else. Know of any other awful things that happen in WWE come 2003? Well you can now let us know in

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