Top 10 most embarrassing WWE moments of the past 5 years

Disclaimer: The views of the writer do not reflect the views of Sportskeeda

The biggest wrestling company the world has ever seen, aside from a short period of time in which WCW won the ratings war, WWE has always reigned supreme. Superior to its competitors in several ways, including its international reach and production values, WWE has a heck of a lot going for it.

No matter how stellar WWE television can be at times, however, the truth is that far too often the company does things that result in viewers cringing. In fact, most wrestling fans can tell you about the times they have felt embarrassed when a non-WWE viewer walked in as they watched an especially bad segment.

Unfortunately still a problem to this day, WWE continues to produce moments that fans can’t help but watch even as they feel compelled to look away. With that in mind, it is time to look at this list of the top 10 most embarrassing WWE moments of the past 5 years.

In order for a WWE moment to be considered for possible inclusion on this list, it needs to have aired in the last 5 years and feel embarrassing to watch. For the purposes of this list, it makes no difference if it was the performers involved in the moment or WWE itself that came out of the segment looking bad. On top of that, we’ve only included moments that were broadcast by the WWE, so social media gaffes or other things wrestlers have down while out of character were disqualified.

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#10 The Miz fails at locking on the Figure Four

Arguably one of the most underrated WWE performers of the modern era, The Miz isn’t exactly a ring general but he has almost always been entertaining. That said, it is hard to ignore one of the worst storylines of his career, when he became the protégé of 2-time WWE Hall of Famer Ric Flair.

Two performers that have next to nothing in common, the only obvious connective tissue between the careers of The Miz and Ric Flair is they both are passionate about pro wrestling. As a result, when the WWE randomly tried to remake The Miz into a young version of Flair it failed on pretty much every level.

Arguably the worst part of this whole storyline, when The Miz began to use Flair’s famed Figure Four leg lock finisher things went really poorly. Somehow unable to do a move that millions of wrestling fans have perfected in their basement with friends, it was really embarrassing that The Miz never seemed to know what to do with his foe’s legs.

#9 The Old Day

The most popular tag team of the last 5 years, whenever The New Day make their way to the ring, WWE fans tend to explode out of excitement for their latest antics. Despite that, they have been involved in a pair of segments that were so awful that they were difficult to watch in their entirety.

One example of The New Day at their worst, aside from mocking Kofi’s long gone original accent, when they pretended to travel through time in a cardboard box it was painful to watch. Worse than that, amazingly enough, Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson introducing The Old Day resulted in a far too long and incredibly cringe-worthy segment.

Featuring a trio of independent wrestlers dressed up as an elderly version of The New Day, the segment featured one painfully unfunny joke after another. Actually, this segment was so awful at the time that the wrestlers involved seemingly felt forced to respond to how much the majority of WWE fans disliked it.

#8 Bayley, This Is Your Life

Often cited as the highest rated individual moment in the history of professional wrestling, 1999’s The Rock, This Is Your Life sequence was viewed by millions of people. In fact, it is said to have received a staggering 8.4 rating. With that in mind, any attempt to recreate the magic of this 1999 moment would automatically be swimming upstream.

Yet, somehow the WWE creative team thought it was a good idea to put Alexa Bliss and Bayley in the unenviable position to follow in the footsteps of Mankind and The Rock. Predictably falling way short of comparisons to its predecessor, the Bayley, This Is Your Life segment was so bad that it even paled in comparison to most of the WWE’s recent lowlights.

Dependent on a trio of unknown actors that were cast as figures from Bayley’s past, these performers likely wish they never agreed to appear during this 12-minute long segment. Worst yet, the so-called jokes all missed the mark, the whole segment went nowhere, and seeing two of the actors kiss onscreen was quite offputting. In fact, the only highlight was when Booker T on commentary interceeded to say “this is hard to watch”. WWE fans couldn’t agree with Booker more at that moment.

#7 WrestleMania match taken over by Cockroaches and Maggots

Introduced to many fans by a series of genuinely exciting and creepy videos, prior to the Wyatt Family’s debut on the main roster they had all the potential in the world. Unfortunately, for anyone who got their expectations up due to how well those videos were put together, the faction soon became mediocre and they broke up before too long.

The leader of the Wyatt Family, Bray had unique promo style and overall look but a lot of his storylines seemed to go nowhere fast. In fact, more often than not he would do and say vaguely creepy things that lacked any real substance which caused WWE fans to lose their faith in Bray entertaining them.

Given a run with the WWE Championship for the first time in 2017, many fans hoped this was an indication of big things to come in Bray Wyatt’s career. Sadly, when he fought Randy Orton for the title at WrestleMania 33 the match was ruined by more random and ineffective creepiness. This time around taking the form of cockroach and maggot footage being projected onto the WWE ring in the middle of their match, it was really goofy. Worse than that, it was really embarrassing to see a WWE Championship bout at WrestleMania ruined by something so ridiculous.

#6 Sami Zayn interviews “Bobby Lashley’s Sisters”

Another example of the WWE failing spectacularly during an attempt at humor, clearly the company needs to stop hiring local performers to play over the top characters. Unlike the Bayley, This Is Your Life and The Old Day segments, however, when Sami Zayn interviewed “Bobby Lashley’s sisters” it offended a lot of people.

Featuring a trio of men dressed in women’s clothes and wearing makeup, this sequence was obviously meant to be funny but failed to feature any actual jokes. While that wasn’t all bad, since many WWE jokes completely miss the mark, lots of fans were offended that it seemed like the company thought dressing in drag in and of itself is hilarious.

The subject of much internet derision, from a storytelling point of view this segment only made fans less interested in seeing Zayn and Lashley grapple. Also awful in much more serious ways, this scene was deeply upsetting to many in the trans and drag communities and also seemed to play on a number of racial stereotypes.

#5 Fans and media reject Jinder Mahal promo

Originally employed by the WWE from 2010 until 2014, by the time the company opted to release Jinder Mahal from his contract he had come to be seen as a joke. A member of the group 3MB, his cohorts and him in that faction lost a lot of matches and were relegated to the undercard. Rehired in 2016, during his second tenure with the company things really turned around for Jinder.

First reintroduced to WWE fans in the aftermath of the brand extension’s return, at the time it seemed like Jinder was back to take up space. However, unlike Curt Hawkins who also made his WWE return in the same time period, Jinder’s career completely took off and he even had a lengthy run as the WWE Champion.

During his time as the WWE Champion, Jinder feuded with Shinsuke Nakamura and this storyline led to a horribly racist Smackdown segment. Speaking about Shinsuke at the time, Jinder made a reference to Mr. Miyagi and said xenophobic things about his opponent's pronunciation of words and facial features. Such a revolting promo that the crowd started chanting “that’s too far”, it was an embarrassment for the WWE and wrestling fans that many major outlets covered this awful moment.

#4 Drake Maverick has an accident

If there is one thing this list should make clear it is this, Vince McMahon has an incredibly immature sense of humor, especially for a 72-year-old. For that reason, the company has featured some moments that the vast majority of WWE fans feel awfully embarrassed by just because they make the boss laugh.

The most recent example of the WWE’s often ridiculous attempts at humor, at the 2018 Survivor Series event the writing of Drake Maverick’s character utterly destroyed any credibility he had. The manager of the Authors of Pain who are the current Raw Tag Team Champions, while ringside for their match Drake was manhandled by The Big Show. Evidently extremely frightened by that massive man, Drake’s character was so scared he peed himself.

Worse enough since most adults don’t find this kind of thing funny, Drake peeing himself is especially bad given how he had been positioned before that. The current general manager of 205 Live and the man that leads the Raw Tag Team Champions to the ring, making Drake a complete joke taints everything he is involved with. On top of that, on Raw the night afterwards Chad Gable and Bobby Roode also were made to look awful as they awkwardly made pee jokes at Drake while braying like morons.

#3 Bobby Lashley posing

One of the most baffling WWE career trajectories of the last decade, when Bobby Lashley made his return to the company it seemed like he was primed for huge things. After all, he is a massive man that has a look that Vince McMahon loves and during his time in Impact Wrestling, he proved that he could portray a marvelous villain.

Despite how much potential Lashley’s return seemed to have, however, his WWE comeback has fallen way short of expectations. For instance, as we touched on earlier in this list, we looked at how awful Bobby’s feud with Sami Zayn got at times. Currently given a somewhat more prominent role on Raw, amazingly enough, the company has put Bobby in another embarrassing situation.

Currently managed by Lio Rush, a loud-mouthed man that is about half Lashley's size, Rush serves as Bobby’s hype man. As a part of this pairing, Lio commentates on a microphone as Bobby strikes a series of poses that are meant to show off his massive muscles. Always ending with a pose that Lio claims shows off Bobby’s glutes, Lashley has bent over and shown his rear end to the camera several times now.

#2 Stephanie McMahon hogs the spotlight

One of the most powerful WWE employees, Stephanie McMahon is the only daughter of the man that calls all the shots and she has been a company executive for years now. Also cast as an on-air character, at times the fact that she plays a villain on WWE television has led to some confusion when Stephanie sometimes breaks character.

The most famous female WWE executive, that could be why Stephanie is put front and center whenever the company does something to treat their women wrestlers more seriously. While that makes some sense, the problem is that Stephanie was in a position of power when the company treated their female talent as nothing more than eye candy. As a result, when she seemingly wants to be celebrated now that WWE treats their female talent almost as seriously as men it is hard to stomach.

Worse yet, it is downright embarrassing that Stephanie hogs the spotlight every time a watershed moment happens for the women’s roster. For instance, Stephanie basked in glory as the women’s roster silently watched her announce the first ever Women’s Royal Rumble and female only pay-per-view. On top of that, she provided commentary for that Royal Rumble match, even though Renee Young obviously was a better fit for the role.

#1 Roman Reigns' Suffering Succotash

Positioned as the top WWE star for the majority of the last 5 years, many fans were devastated to learn that Roman Reigns is grappling with leukemia and we wish him a speedy recovery. However, that doesn’t mean that everything his character has done in the ring is retroactively better and he starred in a WWE moment that was mind-blowingly awful.

Already positioned as the heir to John Cena’s crown as the top WWE star in 2015, at the time it seemed like Roman’s bosses wanted him to be a clone of his predecessor. For that reason, at one point the company scripted Roman to deliver the same kind of cheesy lines that Cena had made his bread and butter for years. A baffling choice, since Cena’s sophomoric humor was the main reason he was such a divisive champion, Roman also comes off as a lot less silly performer.

Wrapped up in a feud with his former Shield comrade Seth Rollins in the midst of this period, during an episode of Smackdown Roman dropped a line that was straight out of Looney Tunes. Scripted to say “You are a sniveling little suck-up sellout full of sufferin’ succotash, son!” the line was the most embarrassing moment of Roman’s career so far and the last 5 years of WWE TV.