10 Worst WWE Moments Of 2005

2005 is always a difficult year to chat about due to the passing of Eddie Guerrero

I mean, what really matters on camera when a legend like that was gone too soon? It's always important to mention it as well

As long as we keep him in the conversation, he's never truly gone. It was a mad 12 months for WWE, though, because they just continued to struggle creatively

The attitude era was long gone, so what the hell was going to be the new secret sauce

I mean, just three years after this, they would be going PG. Sums it up

Wasn't working. So what truly hit the floor and likely stopped some people watching

Thank you for joining me, my friends. My name is Simon Miller. I am a board a-hole

Let's find out. Number 10, The Big Show Goes Sumo. There must be more to this because it was so weird

At WrestleMania 21, The Big Show was told he would be having a gimmick match and facing sumo legend Akebono

This had been a somewhat silly wrestling bout. I'd have understood it more. But we were going to go the other way

This was a full-on sumo wrestling match and the biggest card of the year. Akebono was never going to agree to a work contest either

given his background, so it was legit. Surprise, surprise, it lasted eight seconds

Paul White didn't have any experience here. He got wrecked. Be telling me to go into a hair contest, I'm losing

I suppose it was cool seeing the ring turn into a sumo arena, but getting the Big Show to put on a Mawashi, I don't know

didn't feel like we were respecting the sanctity of the sport. Amazingly, this is also sandwiched between Kurt Angle versus Shawn Michaels

JBL versus John Cena. That's a nuts card. I get wanting to buffer those two to keep the fans engaged

but go and watch this one for yourself and make up your own mind. It is over so fast because Akebona throws the Big Show away

The truth is, the fans didn't really care about this, but they also really hadn't been given a reason to either

Three years after this, where Big Show did it again with Floyd Mayweather, it made way more sense because the build-up was treated like it was life or death

Akebona was not granted the same privileges. He likely should have been. Number nine, all the non-wrestler wrestling matches

So make no mistake about it, this was Vince McMahon just torturing people he didn't like

Nobody was desperate for authority figures to fight, yet we got loads of it in 2005

Even Eric Bischoff knew that doing him vs. Teddy Long on the Survivor Series was mad

and look, they tried, bless them I suppose, but they are not trained in-ring performers

so what's the best we really could have hoped for? Of course fans tempered their expectations too

but go and watch it for yourself, and remember, people paid for this. With that in mind, oh my

gosh, Teddy mocked Bischoff's martial arts background, which seems weird all things considered

and Eric spends a long time choking along with his belt. I suppose he wasn't going to use his skills anyway

It also sounds a little bit kinky. The finish saw the boogeyman help Teddy get the win

and don't forget Palmer Cannon on the outside. I don't even know why he was there

Just because. Make a new franchise in that. This went on second from last too and it's as above

WWE felt like this would just reset the audience before the main event but I think most people were stunned it even happened to begin with

Some of the crowd would also just give up on the promotion after stuff like this

especially if you've gone down there and dropped some money. It's not what you wanted

Once more, Eric has talked about this on his podcast, and with that actual wrestle out there

it was five minutes of people not wrestling. Before you say, but what about the boogeyman

He literally arrives and ate some worms, and I actually think that makes this worse

If we did it today, the fan base would have a meltdown, or so than usual. Number eight, the Royal Rumble finish

So I love this, and I think most people do. I mean, it was a mistake, but looking at it this way

if you are going to make an error at the Royal Rumble, this is the way to do it. make sure you do go watch this if you've never seen it

before, but John Cena and Batista topple over the top rope and literally hit the floor at the same time that wasn the plan Big Dave was meant to win You can tell something is off though because everybody panics And it the aftermath that wasn ideal The referee stall for time as one raises Cena hand

so another raises Batista's hand. As the crowd tries to work out what's next

well, I'm gonna tell ya. Because an irate Vince McMahon essentially breaks cavefabe

and comes marching to the ring. And we do not talk about this enough. He wasn't part of the story

He just emerged through rage. The whole thing then became a meme for the rest of our lives

because yes, as Vince slides in the ring, he tore both of his quads

To this day, I don't know how he did that. It's basically impossible. Obviously, we didn't know that, so the next few minutes are surreal

McMahon sits on the ring mat and yells at John and Dave like they had paid truant that day, and he was the dad telling them off

It's unreal this happened. And after scolding the match officials too, it does get restarted and the animal wins

How this wasn't planned, I'll never know. Well, it kind of feels like it was

Batista was so worried he thought he was going to get fired, and Adam Copeland has talked about how insane it was backstage

I mean, at least it was entertaining, but again, because they hit the floor simultaneously

we just thought this was some weird script WWE was trying. Why, I struggle a little bit to justify it in this list

but yes, from a Vince McMahon point of view, this must have been down there

His entire plan went out the window. Number seven, the new Legion of Doom

The word new in front of a tag team is death, so do the opposite of Nike and just don't do it

Most fans don't even want an updated version anyway. the reason you're even trying to breathe life into a name is that they were legends

respect what they did but try and reimagine it hilariously this got out of control in 2005 because

wwe tried this with the flipping legion of doom the road warriors a team so over that they had

big crowd reactions named after them now to be fair it was most of the commentary calling them

the new lod but it was still said and yes while animal remained his new partner was heidenreich

Hawk was gone. Nobody liked this. Even more so because after Heidenreicher joined in July

he had some kind of weird special ceremony in August where he also got given his spikes

And the whole thing felt so forced. It was also stupid because we'd already tried this with Droz years prior

and it hadn't worked then. It was just a Vince McMahon pet project. He liked Heidenreich, so whatever we gotta do was really quite reductive

We also gave them new face paint which wound people up and their spikes were now white

I don't know. which is strange as they won the tag team titles, and then months later, Heidenreich got released anyway

Amazingly, after that two animal embarked on a singles run, nobody remembers that

It just wasn't treating a legendary team the right way. Sometimes, just leave it the flub alone

Number seven, Vince McMahon insults Jim Ross. This was always bad, and yet it happened a lot

But every now and then, from nowhere, Vince McMahon would dedicate a serious chunk of TV time to insulting Jim Ross

It was no story, there was no point. Nobody enjoyed it apart from one guy

It was a little bit maddening. You can see this for yourself on the 24th of October 2005 Raw

and I promise you, you won't believe it. JR was at home recovering after colon surgery

which Vince thought was hilarious for some reason. He then turned up on the show in doctor's scrubs and dubbed himself Dr. Heine

I know, I hate myself a little bit for saying that. He was also in a hospital and had a nurse with him

when he proceeded to quite literally pull things out of a fake Jim Ross's ass

I'm not joking, one of the items was even JR's own head, because, you know, he has his head up his ass

Of course, Ross didn't find any of this funny as he watched on like everybody else. And this goes on for ages

It's not a quick skit. It mammoth and gets worse and worse This would have cost thousands too TV time is expensive It also wasn a laughing matter as Jim was pretty damn sick He also dedicated a large part of his life to the company

Feels like he could have been shown a little respect. Also turned the fans off in droves

That is not the point. Number five, the Tim White suicide skits

So this is even worse. And please do skip this entry if it's not for your brain

I get it. It really is bottom of the barrel offensive stuff. But all you need to do is copy and paste it into a 2025 world

it would never happen, the public outrage would be huge. During this period, though, WWE started uploading videos to its official website featuring ex-referee Tim White

Admittedly, most of that was in 2006, but it all kicked off the year before Armageddon

Announcement Josh Matthews had gone to visit the man at his friendly tap bar and discovered that Tim was depressed

He was struggling after getting hurt at Judgment Day 2002. And that was legit, by the way

He had suffered such a bad shoulder injury, he wasn't able to do his job anymore. So it's pretty sad to begin with when, I kid you not

White grabbed a shotgun and threatened to end it all live on pay-per-view

The cameras then went dark and it was widely insinuated he had killed himself

Even back then I couldn't believe it, it was awful. Of course the show itself then just cut right to Kid Cash vs. Hooventud Guerrera

as if this didn't matter at all, let's just call it out for what it is

using suicide for clicks and engagement. It's terrible. Of course we've made jokes with the way this too, pun after pun

I will never understand it. Do not say it was a different time either, because you can Google this

People were just as appalled 20 years ago as they would be today. You also don't want to see this on wrestling TV

Poor Tim White as well. I think it helped him at all. Number four, Charbo Guerrero becomes Kerwin White

10th of September 2005, Sunday night heat. From nowhere, we got a vignette from Charbo Guerrero as he pondered if life would be better if he was white

Yep, how WWE got away with this, I do not know. and look, it was scrapped as soon as Eddie Guerrero passed away

And that sums it up. If this wasn't controversial, they wouldn't have stopped it. It literally saw Chavo start dressing like some rich golfer too

as he took shots at his past Mexican roots. I have no idea if Guerrero was happy to do this or not

but I can't imagine he could be that high on it. It had no upside. Kerwin White was not going to main event WrestleMania

His catchphrase was literally, White is right too. Let's not get this twisted

It was Vince McMahon deliberately prodding the bear because that's how he wanted to get ratings

Pure anger and controversy Forget 2005 as well Go and watch the whole thing

This is all time bad Never do it again Number three ity sex

So this video is now going to get banned on YouTube Which is probably for the best

Anchor Angle has talked about this after the fact He hated it As he should have done

It was bad And let's not forget that ever since he burst onto the scene in 1999

He went on to quickly become one of the best of all time I mean he was great in the ring

And he had the character down too we could all hope to be as good as the Olympic gold medalist

In 2005, he had done a lot, though, when he finally entered a feud with Booker T

This made sense. This was fine. You could certainly make something of it. But given that Booker was alongside wife Sharmel

well, I suppose once again, Vince McMahon wanted to make noise for all the wrong reasons

I said, just try and explain it as best as I can, but it is shockingly bad

Kurt would kidnap Sharmel one night and tell her the reason he did this

was to have ity sex. It's absolutely embarrassing, defensive insulting and many other words and once more if you were a fan watched this and decided

you know what i've done with wwe nobody would have blamed you later on too angle started to

claim in promos that charmel had fondled him behind booker t back and the whole plot was totally unnecessary given it was kurt angle and booker t they could have had great matches in their sleep You didn need any of this on top It was a real pity because of course it was one of Kurt last major WWE feuds before

he left for TNA, but we should really never talk about it again, although don't sweep

it under the carpet. Sometimes it does need to be brought up, otherwise you just know

we'll get a part two. That cannot happen. Number two, the WWE Muhammad Asan attack

So on the 7th of July 2005 Smackdown, the Muhammad Hassan character essentially had his last proper moment

because WWE aired what to this day must be one of the most controversial things ever

I mean, screw controversial, it just sacked. Now by this point too, the WWE had taken this character and totally reimagined it

Any nuance it had when it did debut, well now it was just leaning into stereotypes

Hassan still got into a feud with The Undertaker, and on this evening, a group of hooded men ran out to the ring to conduct a seriously violent attack on the dead man

before they carried his unconscious body out in a ceremonial fashion. I'm sure there's a picture on the screen right now, too

You can absolutely understand what WWE was aping here. And no, it wasn't a mistake

What really made it bad, though, is that during this week, we also had the 7-7 London bombing attacks

where many people died due to a terrorist situation on a tube

Given that SmackDown had already been recorded, did. Nobody had to air this, and yet

for some reason, WWE did it anyway. Now, Bruce Pritchard would later

claim on his podcast there was nothing that could be done, but personally, I don't believe it

It was such a PR disaster, UPN rang WWE and told them they were not happy

and that if the Muhammad Hassan character wasn't gotten rid of, well, there would be serious

consequences. They then got to the Great American Bash, and the Undertaker essentially murdered

that persona, and we never did see it again. So yeah, not only was the timing

was atrocious, not only was this an insult to your fans, but it was a massive

mistake. Otherwise, WWE would have fought back and they didn't. It was done. Number one, the death of

Eddie Guerrero. So we've talked about this a few times through the video, and I think it is massively

important because it is one of the most tragic passing aways in the history of professional

wrestling, because even in 2005, most people realized Eddie Guerrero was one of the best

wrestlers of all time. It was the 13th of November 2005 when he did pass away in his hotel room. And

of course, many subsequent episodes of Raw and SmackDown were dedicated to the man. And so they

should have been. It really was the worst timing because apparently Eddie had turned his life around

after struggling with personal issues but even if we just focus on what he was doing

in the ring, my gosh. Towards the end of the year, some of his work

was absolutely monumental. The man could make you laugh, the man could make you cry

and when he did win the World Heavyweight Championship from Brock Lesnar, well

just to use my own stupid catchphrase made you feel warm and fuzzy in your tum tum

There was also a rumour that just before this the WWE were going to try him again as the world

champion because he just kept smashing it out of the park. Very sadly, we never got there

We do have to remember is that I am recording this in 2025, and the memory of Eddie Guerrero

today is probably stronger than it ever has been, especially as newer generations go back and watch

his work, and they also realize, oh my gosh, he's one of the best to do it. If we are going to talk

about 2005 in any of these videos, though, it will forever be remembered as the year that one of the

greats left us. And as we've already said, I think that is important, because if we do keep talking

about Guerrero, well, he can never truly be forgotten. And if anybody has deserved that right

is this guy. Know of anything else in 2005 that made you roll your eyes? And there is quite a lot

because WWE was unhinged. Make sure you let us know in the comments below. If you like the video

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wrestling information in your life. But otherwise, my friends, I just hope you have a terrific day

I'll talk to you again soon