10 Most Cringeworthy WWE Segments Of The Past Decade

It is not always easy to be a WWE fan. Everyone knows the matches are scripted; the horse left the barn back in the late 80's, when WWE began openly referring to its product as "sports entertainment." But still, like any other fictional show, fans can still enjoy it so long as it is presented well. We suspend our disbelief for a couple of hours.

But WWE doesn't always make this easy. WWE Chairman Vince McMahon, who approves every segment before it goes on the air, has an objectively crass, juvenile sense of humor. And because of this, a few segments make it onto live TV that no one could possibly defend. They make the company look awful. They make the wrestlers look awful. And in a few instances, people's careers have never recovered.

Here are the 10 most cringeworthy segments of the past decade, from 2008 to 2018. So, there's no Gobbledy Gooker and there's no Katie Vick in this gallery. These are trainwrecks of the more recent variety.

WWE recently signed Bobby Lashley again, and his fans rejoiced. He had spent time on the indies and in MMA honing his craft; surely, Lashley was someone, other than Roman Reigns, who could legitimately challenge Brock Lesnar, Braun Strowman, Samoa Joe, and the other monsters on the roster.

Instead, WWE has done everything in its power to cut him off at the knees. The low point, thus far, has been this painful sketch, where Sami Zayn interviewed Lashley's sisters: three men dressed in drag, one of whom had a moustache.

When The Rock and Mankind did the original version of this segment, it was funny because Mankind was the social misfit, goofing on the coolest guy in the locker room. When Alexa Bliss did it, she picked on how bad Bayley's character had become--a weird, meta criticism that Bayley had no way of defending herself against.

Mix that with a weird, in-ring hookup between Bayley's "ex-boyfriend" and "childhood friend," and you have the makings of a trainwreck. This segment was so bad that it killed Bayley's momentum. She ultimately lost her feud with Bliss, and she hasn't come close to winning the Raw Women's Championship since.

Celebrity cameos can be hit or miss. They can be funny and self-aware, like Drew Carey's appearance at the Royal Rumble or Jon Stewart's appearance at Summerslam. Or, they can be horrifically mismatched, like this Adam Rose segment featuring Kathie Lee Gifford and Hoda Kotb in front of a New York crowd.

Have you ever wondered what it would like if two desperate morning anchors mom-danced, crowd surfed, and spanked each other with wine bottles on live television? Look and despair.

Nikki and Brie Bella are not the best actors, but that's fine. Very few wrestlers are good actors, and since they only need to deliver a few threatening lines every now and then, they don't need to be.

But Nikki bit off more than can she could chew in this segment, where she insulted her sister Brie and improvised the final insult, sneering, "I wish you died in the womb." She delivered that zinger with a weird, flat affectation that just made it come off worse. WWE Superstars should be encouraged to freestyle and make the scripts their own, but not if they end up saying things like this.

WWE followed up this in-ring confrontation with weekly pre-taped segments titled "Growing Up Bella," where Nikki poured even more gasoline on her dumpster fire.

Good ol' J.R. is routinely humiliated on WWE programming, probably because Vince McMahon finds it amusing. But this time, McMahon went further than ever before; Ross almost quit his commentating post over the insult. It was the day of the 2010 WWE Draft, and McMahon decided to switch Jim Ross from Raw, where he had teamed with Jerry Lawler for over a decade, over to Smackdown.

McMahon made the switch on live television without informing Ross beforehand. It was widely considered to be a demotion; Smackdown was the lesser show at the time, and it was also moving to a new network. Mick Foley, Michael Cole, and Jerry Lawler sat in awkward silence as Ross picked himself up and moved over to the Smackdown desk. There were no words.

If you tried to pinpoint the exact moment that Roman Reigns went from fan favorite to reviled babyface, this segment would do as good as any other. Listen, and you can hear the crowd begin by cheering him, but slowly start booing as Reigns rambles on and on, telling the story of Jack and the Beanstalk.

Reigns is best utilized as the strong, silent type. At the very least, WWE Creative shouldn't be scripting long, involved monologues, like this one, for him to recite. Now, unfortunately, it might be too late to fix things.

Take a look at the above photo of Mickie James. Does she look "overweight," in any possible interpretation of the term? Apparently, she was to WWE because Creative stuck her in a bullying storyline with Layla and Michelle McCool. They called her "Piggie James" for the better part of two months.

Every Laycool segment was worse than the last, and for the most part, Mickie James sobbed like a little girl by ringside instead of fighting back. It got so bad and so uncomfortable, that Layla and McCool began apologizing to James in advance for what they were about to say on television.

The Raw 25th Anniversary show was a disappointment, and this segment summed up a lot of what went wrong that evening. WWE went back to the well one too many times; D-Generation X reunited along with Scott Hall, and with the exception of Triple H and Shawn Michaels, everyone looked rickety, untoned, or confused.

The funniest part of the segment is Triple H's embarrassed, pained face; he has the look of a man walking to the gallows, like he can hardly believe he's still doing this schtick at his age. No middle-aged man should be screaming, "Let's get ready to suck it!" at the top of his lungs.

WWE always chases mainstream respectability. And for the 2008 U.S. Presidential election, the company landed a major score; they got both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, the two frontrunners of the Democratic primary, to tape pre-recorded speeches.

But then, WWE Creative had to ruin it by having performers dressed up as Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton, and Barack Obama (wearing massive, prosthetic ears) prance into the ring and fight. "Hillary" imitated Hulk Hogan. "Obama" mimicked The Rock. Eventually, Umaga came down to the ring, beat up everyone, and put the segment out of its misery.

There was a time when the WWE fans took Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson seriously. And why not? They were big, scary, and paired with AJ Styles, the best wrestler in the company.

But then, AJ Styles was drafted to Smackdown. And rather than becoming a pair of silent ass kickers, WWE Creative turned Gallows and Anderson into a comedic heel duo. In this sketch, Gallows and Anderson bring out and taunt The Old Day, which, in some delusional writer's mind, was a clever rip on The New Day. The three Old Day members hobbled to the ring on a cane, a walker, and a Rascal. It was lame, corny, and above all, boring. It's been difficult to take Gallows and Anderson seriously ever since.