WWE’s Top 10 Most Controversial Storylines
By Tim Sherry
6. Kaientai & Val Venis
The Val Venis character alone could have made this list. Venis, aka Sean Morley, was brought into the company under the gimmick of a former porn star turned professional wrestler. His vignettes leading up to his debut were about as risque as they get with Val using mostly suggestive language. One of the clips even featured Jenna Jameson.
Shortly after Venis’ debut, he entered into an adult relationship with Shian-Li Tsang, the wife of Yamaguchi-San who was the manager of the villainous Japanese squad, Kaientai. Enraged after seeing a video of Venis and his wife in bed, Yamaguchi threatened to quote “choppy choppy your pee pee” to Val while slicing a large salami in half with a sword.
The following week, Taka Michinoku double-crossed Val, thus turning heel and helping Kaientai drag The Big Valbowski into the back. When the cameras caught up with the group, they had Val naked and his torso propped on a table. With his manhood blurred out, Venis looked like he was going to get castrated by Yamaguchi. However, before the assault, the lights went out.
The week after, Venis in an unsuccessful attempt to be clever, explained that he was saved at the last-minute by John Wayne Bobbitt who flipped the light switch. So in just 3 episodes of RAW, we had a sexual affair, a salami slashed in effigy, an assumed castration, and a joke about a guy who actually had, in fact, been castrated. That’s an awful lot of envelope pushing for a cable show.
Although this storyline had potential disaster written all over it, it actually worked, especially for Venis. He would go on to have a solid, 11 year WWE career in which he won 4 secondary titles. Not too bad for a guy who televised his member 3 months into his career.