WWE News: WWE's promotion of Jimmy Snuka wins Wrestling Observer Newsletter Award for Most Disgusting Promotional Tactic of 2017
What’s the story?
There are times when a wrestling promoter decides to go to great lengths to try and get fans interested in a storyline. In some particular cases, said promoters go too far and cross the boundary between acceptable and disgusting.
In 2017, WWE’s bookers found themselves in this position as they once again managed to pull off a promotional tactic that was so bad that it won the Wrestling Observer Newsletter’s Most Disgusting Promotional Tactic award for that year.
In case you didn’t know…
This award is one that’s a little harder to pin down, especially since what constitutes as ‘disgusting’ is a highly subjective concept. To some people, it’s when a promoter makes a booking or creative decision that’s so stupid or executed so poorly that the audience reacts with disgust at that promoter’s blatant attempts to grab money from their fans.
To other fans, the term ‘disgusting’ is take literally, as many previous awards were genuinely disgusting in that they left fans with a foul taste in their mouths after the tactic/moment was done.
WWE has won this award 18 times in the last 22 years, and for good reason, as they’ve showcased some truly disgusting and embarrassing promotional tactics as means to sell tickets for their bigger shows.
Some of their worst promotional tactics over the years have included: continuing the Over the Edge PPV after the Owen Hart incident, the Katie Vick necrophilia angle, Mickie James’ Piggy James’ storyline, WWE characters explicitly insulting fans that purchased PPVs instead of buying a Network subscription, their ‘Stand Up for WWE’ campaign which coincided with Linda McMahon’s Senate run, and numerous exploitations of wrestlers’ deaths and real-life illnesses for ‘heat’ (Eddie Guerrero, Melanie Pillman, Paul Bearer, Jerry Lawler, Reid Flair, to name a few).
While some might argue that these sorts of tactics are effective because it makes the wrestlers using them look like real bad guys, the fact is that such tactics are considered ‘low-hanging fruit’. It’s like kicking someone in the groin when they’re already down; its cowardly, underhanded and generally ‘low’.
The heart of the matter
Six of the top ten entries for this list went to segments and promotions put together by WWE. Interestingly, the one that actually got voted the worst was WWE promoting Jimmy ‘Superfly’ Snuka as some kind of hero after he had died.
It appears that enough people took exception to this, especially since the murder case of his once-girlfriend Nancy Argentino had been re-opened recently, and things weren’t looking too good for Snuka during the last few months of his life.
The other WWE entries on this list include: Jinder Mahal’s ‘racist’ promo on Shinsuke Nakamura, the company trying to lionize the Ultimate Warrior whenever they do charity work (despite Warrior’s controversial comments in his past), and WWE’s blatant attempt to make money off the Indian fan market by pushing Jinder Mahal as WWE Champion.
The logic behind this last entry appears to be that it’s based on ethnic pandering, i.e. the idea that, because this character has the same complexion as an entire country, the Indian fans MUST love him as a result.
What’s next?
WWE’s promoters and key power-brokers – especially Vince McMahon – have long had a fascination with ‘gross out humor’ and low-brow comedy, so the kinds of promos and segments that are likely to win this award are also likely to still be seen in WWE in the future.
Author’s take
This is one entry that I personally disagree with. While Jimmy Snuka being promoted as a hero in death despite the court case is controversial in itself, it doesn’t merit this award as it didn’t have as devastating an impact on a person’s career as another entry did.
In my opinion, Bayley’s ‘This is your life’ segment was by far the most disgusting promotional tactic of 2017.
The reason for this was that not only was it simply a bad segment in execution, but it had serious ramifications as well. The segment itself was horrible, featuring awful acting and abysmal writing that made everyone involved look foolish.
It made Bayley look worst of all, as she never got to get her revenge on Alexa Bliss for orchestrating this train wreck of a segment, which only made her look like even more of a chump. In fact, the backlash to this segment was so bad that WWE themselves have tried to pretend it never happened, ostensibly because they realized after the fact how bad it was.
Unfortunately, it was too late to save Bayley’s character, especially after her subsequent match with Alexa Bliss that was over in less than five minutes. Essentially, this one segment epitomized the awful writing and terrible sense of humor that can be found in the highest echelons of the WWE creative department.
It deserved this award more than any other, as it was the catalyst in taking Bayley from a likable rising star on the RAW roster to a forgettable woman without a purpose.