The 4 cringiest moments in televised wrestling

1. The Miz's debut

The Miz is like that kid in high school who declares himself a hit because he is loud and energetic. His first debut on Smackdown had him running out to the ring, yelling "oh rah" to the fans. His cheesy performance is only half the equation though. Tatanka came out as his opponent. This prompted the announcers to make several lame Native American stereotype jokes. And even the Miz's impersonation of his war cry taunt seemed out of place. This goes to show that being culturally disrespectful is the cringiest way to get heat (especially if you are a commentator).

2. Pacman Jones in TNA

TNA had some very questionable choices in the late 2000s. They had a habit of picking up criminals and neer-do-wells for wrestling. Although, they were charitable enough to give Chyna a second chance to wrestle in their ring (after she was kicked out of WWE), no one understands why they wanted Pacman Jones to wrestle.

Jones was a pro football player who got famous for all the wrong reasons. His conduct at strip clubs will be a dark mark on his name. But TNA thought that was going to put them above and beyond WWE. They hired him to wrestle. He had his first televised match, tag-teaming with Ron Killings against Bully Ray and Devon Dudley. Bully spent the match taunting him and throwing footballs at him, while Killings did all the offense. It was painful to watch. TNA star, Years later, Kurt Angle made a fake Thanksgiving Day prayer on Impact where he thanked God that Pacman Jones was out of the company. That joke was probably the best part of his career in TNA.

3. The Outsiders versus adult film stars

You could look this up on YouTube, but there is no healthy reason in all the universe to see it. It is cringe to the max. I remember the day when WCW ditched their family-friendly show because WWF was getting over for their adult programming. If you need to know what killed WCW, I would attribute it to the first Nitro where they tried to be edgy.

First, the Outsiders were questionable to begin with. Scott Hall and Kevin Nash were stumbling around the arena asking for Goldberg as if they were drunken frat boys looking for a pizza at 2 am. Kevin Nash was drinking cough syrup for...reasons. They were led out into the ring where they ambled around. Two adult film stars came out and entered the ring. Kevin and Scott made flirtatious gestures at them and pretended to have a suggestive "match." Several times he told the very surgically gifted one to remove her shirt. Finally, they were "pinned" and the bell rang. My faith in WCW died that very second.

Goldberg would come out right after, disguised as a security guard, and spear both of them, but Vince Russo's damage had become irreparable. This was the worst use of top tier talent and it proved that WCW needed to die.

4. Medusa and Evan Karagias waste a perfectly good Cruiserweight belt

If WCW was a sinking ship, at least the Cruiserweight matches were top-notch. You could almost say that until Evan Karagias and Medusa were booked to fight each other. Medusa and Evan were put in a Cruiserweight tournament, but instead of doing all the amazing things that Rey, Billy Kidman, and Eddie Guerrero do, they just performed a PG-13 mating ritual in ways that should have made wrestling fans bleach out their eyes. Eventually Medusa "won" and she would win the Cruiserweight belt in an actual match at Starrcade against Evan.

Alundra Blaze, her name in WWF, was an amazing women's wrestler. She was on the very short list of reasons why Japan could respect America's female wrestling division in the 90s. Evan Karagias did some of his best matches in ROH and WCW. Both of them were dragged through the mud and poorly utilized in this angle.

Honorable mentions:

• AEW's botched death match explosion
• WWF's Sardine kissing promo (Another Russo classic?)
• Dustin Rhodes in WCW