Wrestling Forum banner

Did WWE cross the line with Jerry Lawler tonight?

  • Yes

    Votes: 192 31.1%
  • No

    Votes: 404 65.5%
  • Undecided

    Votes: 21 3.4%
Status
Not open for further replies.

Punk & Heyman mocking King's heart attack

55K views 832 replies 336 participants last post by  Scrotey Loads 
#1 · (Edited by Moderator)





I'm speechless. I wanted the product to get edgier, but this? This is plain disrespectful, not entertaining, and a complete lack of sanity.

I can't help it but think this is a jab at Linda for losing somehow, so she can never run for senate again. Absolutely despising.

Does anyone actually think this is acceptable?

I wonder if they are going to continue with the "BA★" campaign after this nonsense.​
 
See less See more
1 1
#590 ·
I'm going to say this and then I'm done.

In response to comments like "This is trashy TV", "I'd be embarrassed to show this to a non-wrestling fan", and "This is why wrestling gets a bad rap"...Guess what?

Pro Wrestling is not some high-brow or sophisticated form of entertainment, nor will it ever be. It will never be respected by the mainstream ever again (When it was, it was still horrible television but indicative of the public consciousness at the time), and it will never be socially acceptable for anyone over the age of 12 to watch.

If you think or have ever thought otherwise, you are delusional. Wrestling will never not have a "bad rap". Some of you desperately want wrestling to be viewed as cool again by people that matter so you can validate your love for it and flaunt your fandom publicly.

Pro Wrestling is cheesy, corny, and ridiculous when you really stop and think about it. A high percentage of you still hide the fact that you watch it from your friends and family, and even your girlfriend (those of you that have them). Yet you have the audacity to take a moral high ground and whine about how you could never show this to a "casual". You are ashamed of the genre to begin with, so you can't really point fingers can you?

To them, we might as well be watching Power Rangers and Saturday Morning cartoons in our pajamas. It's a rather childish hobby that we grew up on and still take part in.

If this rustles your jimmies, just pray your friends don't ever see Val Venis getting his dick chopped off, Katie Vick, Mae Young giving birth to a hand, Bossman getting lynched, or the Chairman's daughter getting crucified. You'd never live it down.

Dean Ambrose said it best. To paraphrase: Wrestling is just a bunch of guys in underwear making funny faces. If you've fooled yourself into believing that pro wrestling is somehow above these types of angles, you are taking the genre entirely too seriously.
 
#101 ·
lol at some of the reactions in here. As soon as something like this happens you always have a bunch of clowns running around shouting about how "EDGY" and shit it was, and how it's like the Attitude Era. Is it really? Let's think of some of the segments that might've been around the same level as making fun of someone for almost dying during the AE.

Big Boss Man hanging
Katie Vick
Al Snow's dog chilli
Big Show's dad's funeral crashing
Oaklahoma (in WCW)
Hawk's drug issues and "suicide"

I'm sure there were others but let's check out those. Because the average wrestling fan looks back on these storylines so fondly right?


...Of course not, everyone looks back on those as being trash/stupid/black marks on the company and utterly tasteless, along with the Eddie's death storyline, Kurt wanting to rape Sharmell, Torrie Wilson's dad dying or something, Cole telling King his mom was in hell and all the other crap like that.

The Attitude Era wasn't loved for being "trashy" and "tastleness" and swearing offensive bullshit that only 10 year olds find entertaining, it was loved for the stars (Stone Cold, Rock, Taker, Kane, etc), the booking (every single guy, even Dean Malenko and Crash Holly, got a storyline), the characters (every guy on the roster had a distinct character, even the mid carders! Imagine that) and for being fresh and exciting. Not the horseshit I listed above.

Yes I'm sure King gave the o.k. which makes it somewhat better and it certainly isn't the biggest deal to me but it was still uncomfortable for some people, still tasteless, and still stupidly pointless as Punk got absolutely no heat.
 
#108 ·
and still stupidly pointless as Punk got absolutely no heat.
Can't agree with this enough, people are making it sound like the crowd was throwing garbage in the ring.
 
#599 ·
I have been lurking on here for a while and this topic I felt the need to chime in on.

I disagree with this promo on a number of levels.

Some of my favorite shows feature dark humor or tragedy like Its Always Sunny, The League, GoT, South Park, or the Wire, so I am not someone who is overly sensitive to jokes about death/rape/holocaust or whatever.

Having said that, I found the promo distasteful in so much as the Kings return should have just been a heartfelt moment because we had all watched this man nearly die on live television. To turn it into an angle just cheapens real emotion like the crowd and Coles relief that he was alive and joy at his return.

Secondly, the promo largely failed in its goal, which was to make Punk more reviled than Cena. The main event of the night proves this, as the crowd was still pro-Punk and anti-Cena despite Punk threatening to beat King to death again.

To me, the entire situation is a microcosm of what is wrong with Punks heel turn and the WWE as a whole.

It used to be that the fans decided who was face and who was heel. When fans began cheering SCSA over Bret Hart they promptly turned him face and he was wildly successful. When the supposed fan favorite Blue-chipper was being serenaded with chants wishing for his death he was turned heel and became the Rock.

Nowadays, Cena is roundly booed by at least half of the audience who perceives him as a Mary Sue and a smug phony, while Punk is cheered for being entertaining and authentic. Having Cena just smile at the boos and continue to act like a goody two shoes face makes us resent him even more.

PG is not an excuse for shoddy storytelling, and guys can be booked as effective heels in this era, SES Punk, Mark Henry, Undashing Cody Rhodes, and Damien Sandow were all hated because of their character traits and actions.

In comparison, the only avenue that this current incarnation of Punk can turn to to get booed is cheap heat. Up until Hell in a Cell he was a fighting champion, he was still roundly cheered through Night of Champions, and his arguments, that he deserved respect and main event billing, while Cena did not deserve a title shot after failing, were largely correct.

To me, Punks character was largely an audience surrogate saying what was wrong with the WWE, and deserves to be cheered, with much of the audience agreeing.

The WWE has decided to shit all over who the fans decided to cheer for, casuals and smarks, in favor of the status quo, and then have to resort to the cheap heat. However, most people cheering for Punk see this as the transparent bullshit that it is, trying to force the fans to boo who they want them to and not who they want to. The result is largely the same as the 18 seconds bullshit from Wrestlemania; fan refusal to act how they want us to and resentment of the company guy.

/rant
 
#575 ·
I know that Vince and many other industry promoters and businessmen have wondered so many times "why is it wrestling gets such a bad rap? You know, hockey, baseball, basketball, now UFC, they all get taken so much more seriously than wrestling. Why can't we achieve that level of seriousness?"

Well, this segment from last night would be a pretty good indicator of why that is.

I don't know how Joey Ryan in TNA is using the catchphrase "I'm bringing sleazy back." The way the WWE acts, you'd think Vince would have trademarked that for himself 20 years ago.

This is pretty much the Katie Vick moment of this era. They have just stooped to that new level of 'low' that is pretty much not going to be outdone, and will go down in annals of history right alongside Triple H fucking a corpse, Mae Young birthing a hand, Rosie vs Donald Trump, Jake Roberts and Scott Hall having their drug problems being made into a storyline, etc. In a way, its kind of an honor. This segment was so tasteless, so devoid of humanity and decency, so completely wrong that its sorta historical. 50 bucks says that this wins the Wrestling Observer Award for "Most Disgusting Promotional Tactic."

Its also kinda funny, too. WWE is so PG and intent on giving this squeaky clean image of themselves to the public, doing all this shit with Breast Cancer, the military, Make a Wish...and all the good it does them is totally undone when something like this happens. Just when we think we're free of it, I picture Vince McMahon as this crazy puppeteer in the rafters, pulling all these strings to remind us "I NEVER WENT AWAY!"

The most amusing part of this whole thing is that this giant debacle, which is pretty much the talk of the industry (and not in a good way) comes a whopping SIX DAYS after Linda McMahon was soundly crushed in her farcical run for Senate. My God, not even a full week went by and they're already busting out the depravity and scum. 2 months ago, you think we would have seen this? Chris Murphy would have had a field day with it. Now, its like a whole new post-Linda-Senate-run era, except when they break open the bottle of wine against the ring post to christen the occasion, its full of liquid shit.

Great job, WWE. You keep staying classy.


Fucking idiots.
 
#578 ·
The reason they call it entertainment, like it or not this is what they consider entertainment. Shocking people and making people angry seems liked it work over here. Wrestling gets a bad rap because people proclaim that it's fake not because of "Poor Taste" moments. Ask anyone if they watch wrestling, what's the first words that escapes their mouth after you ask them...."You know wrestling is fake right?". No matter how YOU think wrestling is viewed in public eyes, the truth is that people see wrestling as "fake".
 
#550 ·
shit, if they keep doing stuff like that I'll have to start watching the whole show again. offensive stuff = ratings. it may be shitty TV but non wrestling fans don't respect pro wrestling anyways so who the fuck cares about what they say? I prefer pro wrestling to be fun, even if that means retarded, over the top and offensive. if I want serious competition I can watch MMA, which is non scripted.
 
#6 ·
Re: Did WWE cross the line with Jerry Lawler tonight?

No. The fact that so many people are saying it was disgusting etc is a tribute to how good it was. People want the product to get edgier then complain when something very edgy happens, calling it disrespectful and in bad taste. He's alive, he's fine, it's not real, he's obviously agreed to it, probably even suggested they use it in an angle himself.
 
#15 ·
Re: Did WWE cross the line with Jerry Lawler tonight?

No. The fact that so many people are saying it was disgusting etc is a tribute to how good it was. People want the product to get edgier then complain when something very edgy happens, calling it disrespectful and in bad taste. He's alive, he's fine, it's not real, he's obviously agreed to it, probably even suggested they use it in an angle himself.

This.Some of you need to stop being pussies no offense.King is alive,probably gave the segment the go-ahead and is getting paid handsomely to do crappy commentary on top of it.So who cares really.
 
#9 ·
Re: Punk & Heyman mocking King for his heart attack

If King agreed to it, why are you getting mad for him?

He's a big boy. I'm glad he survived and that he's back, but the segment was money.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Caponex75
#56 ·
I'm losing faith in humanity with some of these remarks. Attitude Era was worse? We're too sensitive? That's how you get heel heat?

I'm speechless...
of all the things, OF ALL THE FREAKING THINGS in the world that would make you lose faith in humanity, this segment it's the one that really digs you in?, I mean this is the one where you draw a line?, not the massacre of people in a stupid oil war from the USA, not the killing of people by the egypt government, not the bunch of murders that happen all around the world for something as petty as money, no, this one segment it's the one where you say "fuck this, humanity is lost", genius :lmao
 
#80 ·
Well, Jerry Lawler approved this shit so I don't think they've "crossed the line". This was a typical Attitude Era-esque segment. They did lots of sick shit back then. Just think of Big Show's father funeral scene. Or, more recently in 2005, when they used Eddie Guerrero's death in a storyline with Mysterio. I feel those moments were worse.

Tonight, Jerry agreed to be part of that segment. Let's keep that in mind.
 
#83 ·
Well, Jerry Lawler approved this shit so I don't think they've "crossed the line". This was a typical Attitude Era-esque segment. They did lots of sick shit back then. Just think of Big Show's father funeral scene. Or, more recently in 2005, when they used Eddie Guerrero's death in a storyline with Mysterio. I feel those moments were worse.

Tonight, Jerry agreed to be part of that segment. Let's keep that in mind.
Why does everybody say that? Not saying I agree what happened to the Big Show, that was totally out of line, especially when his dad did die half way through that story line but saying it was very Attitude Era like just discredits the Era for no reason at all.
 
#111 ·
I never said there was no trash out there, but sensitivity is more predominant than trash TV right now. People are persecuted over the most silly things these days because they have to watch everything that comes out there mouths.

Answer this question: Is it acceptable to make fun of someone's near death experience especially when he's returning to a job that he's done for over 40 years?

Don't answer that, answer this. Is it ok to make fun of someone's death?
 
#126 ·
I agree and there's really no way to defend it. However the fact Lawler must have approved it is enough for it to not upset me. Yeah it's garbage, but no reason for me to get bothered about it if he's not. They did the same thing with Cole and Lawler's dead mother and yet we're all still here watching it.
 
#149 ·
Punk and Heyman are outstanding at their jobs, and their jobs are to be heels. Although I did feel it was distasteful I enjoyed every second of it... I'm going to hell for laughing but this is what I want, something edgy to happen and someone to get their 'feelings' hurt because that's what the WWE is lacking at the minute. Best promo of the night, good work Punk.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
You have insufficient privileges to reply here.
Top