Late 2002 was a very strange time in WWE and unfortunately for Jim Ross, he was often calling the action.
In October, Triple H and Kane feuded over the Intercontinental and World Titles with a side order of murder and alleged necrophilia, in an angle that is still derided to this day. While on SmackDown things weren’t much better as a month earlier WWE were heavily criticised for their handling of a storyline where Billy and Chuck faked a homosexual relationship.
The same month also saw Eric Bischoff bring “HLA” to Monday Night Raw. The ‘hot lesbian action’ segments were panned at the time and aren’t any more beloved in 2023.
Incredibly, WWE also decided to squeeze in one more controversial storyline before the year was out. On SmackDown in September, Dawn Marie began an on-screen relationship with Torrie Wilson’s father, Al Wilson. Dawn Marie and Al later got engaged which led to the former coercing Torrie into a sexual encounter in a hotel room claiming she wouldn’t go through with the wedding if her soon to be step-daughter accepted her advances.
This was later proved to be a lie and Al Wilson and Dawn Marie married on an episode of SmackDown in their underwear. Incredibly, things then got weirder. After getting married, Al Wilson “died” as his efforts to keep up with Marie in the bedroom proved beyond him. Naturally the only way to settle the feud between Torrie Wilson and her on-screen step-mother was a match at the 2003 Royal Rumble.
Jim Ross Admits Controversial Angle “Wasn’t A Great Idea”
On a recent episode of his Grilling JR podcast, the legendary announcer looked back at the event. In doing so he gave his assessment on the angle that was doomed to fail.
“It was the entertainment side of sports entertainment. Sometimes those are dreaded, it wasn’t a great idea. You know everybody in it were good people, they tried hard, they’re just doing their role, playing their role, know your role. If you smell what JR is cooking, somebody else did that already. So I don’t know, it didn’t have a great chance of succeeding. So did they get the most out of it? They could, I think they did. But it was just, it was bound to fail, it just was not going to happen.”
During the same episode, Jim Ross also hit back at suggestions that Triple H sabotaged his match against Scott Steiner.
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