| rdfs:comment | - The Midget Hug of Doom was an infamous moment that occurred at the end of WrestleMania XX in 2004. WWE had been experiencing a boom period for the past 6 or so years. This was as a result of pushing people like Stone Cold Steve Austin', Mick Foley, The Big Show, Kane, The Undertaker, Rob van Dam, Brock Lesnar, Bill Goldberg, Kurt Angle and Booker T. This list doesn't include Triple H or The Rock as neither of them ever drew a dime.
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| abstract | - The Midget Hug of Doom was an infamous moment that occurred at the end of WrestleMania XX in 2004. WWE had been experiencing a boom period for the past 6 or so years. This was as a result of pushing people like Stone Cold Steve Austin', Mick Foley, The Big Show, Kane, The Undertaker, Rob van Dam, Brock Lesnar, Bill Goldberg, Kurt Angle and Booker T. This list doesn't include Triple H or The Rock as neither of them ever drew a dime. What all these names have in common is that they were/are all larger-than-life people. Either bveing physically bigger, or having an off-the-charts level of charisma. However, for some reason, in late 2003 Vince McMahon decided to push vanilla midgets. Chris Benoit began beating everyone in sight(odd as Benoit himself could often be missed), while Good Ol' Jim Ross could NOT stop reminding us about how Benwaaaaaaah had supposedly won the WCW World Heavyweight Championship back in 2000, but then vacated it(which never actually happened b y the way). Benoit beat 300 men and lasted 48 hours to win the 2004 Royal Rumble shocking the hell out of everyone. At the same time Eddie Guerrerro, a lifelong JTTS began going over everyone and getting insane amounts of screen time. Jr's new catchphrase seemingly became "Chris Benoit is for real!", only stated in a twangy Southern drawl. At No Way Out 2004 Guerrero beat Brock Lesnar to win the WWE Championship in a match that cost WWE more fans than the Gobbeldygooker, the Iraq War storyline and King Mabel combined. This set up Guerrero vs. Angle for the WWE Championship, and HHH(Champion) vs Shawn Michaels vs Benwaaaaaaah for thr World Championhip(the other one) at WrestleMania XX in Madison Square Garden. The event was promoted as being the biggest event of all time. To the horror of everyone there were things even worse than the Evening Gown Match or the Goldberg-Lesnar travesty. Namely the two World Title Matches/Alleged Main Events(can you even HAVE more than one Main Event?) The 5ft1 boring Guerrero went over Angle to retain the WWE Championship. The final match saw the 5ft0 Benoit make HHH tap out to his finishing resthold, the Chinlock of Destrution. To put things in perspective, HHH had ruled over WWE for the past 5 years, refusing to put anyone not named "Shawn Michaels" over. He had broken finishing holds, kicked out of finishing moves, and was basically an ever-present annoyance. Even guys like RVD, Undertaker, Austin etc. had failed to dislodge him. Yet here Benoit beat both HHH and HHH's buttbuddy HBK by SUBMISSION. After the match Eddie came down to ringside and the two munchkins embraced in the middle of the ring, as confetti fell, while the crowd quietly filed out of the building. The sight of two little people holding WWE's top two Championships, at the biggest event of the year was too much for most longtime wrestling fans to tolerate. The infamous moment became known as the Midget Hug of Doom, and is generally accepted the end of WWE's Boom Period of popularity. Since then, WWE has steadily been losing fans and money. The planned Brand Extension has had to be scaled back. RAW gets ratings in the 2.7-2.8 range, where it used to get 4's to 5s. Smackdown gets CABLE 2.0's when it used to get NETWORK 4.0's. Ticket sales, merchandise sales, PPV Buys are all down. There are less PPVs today than there were in 2003. And it's all because someone thought it would be a good idea to have two dull dwarfs win the top 2 Championships and then hug in the middle of the ring at what could have been a great event. Wrestlemania XX would've sucked balls either way but that's besides the point.
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