Great-ing Gimmicks of the Past: Katie Vick
History
This one started on October 7, 2002. Raw was in Las Vegas, and, to celebrate, GM Eric Bischoff introduced Raw Roulette. The concept was that the wheel was spun, and whatever it landed on chose your match.
Anyway, Kane found himself in a TLC match and wound up winning the Tag Team titles all by himself right before his match at No Mercy against HHH. After the match, Triple H came out and revealed that Kane had murdered someone named Katie Vick ten years earlier.
Kane and his buddy Hurricane took on Chris Jericho and Christian the next week on Raw and promptly lost the belts. Following that, Triple H decided that he was going to give Kane until the end of the night to tell his secret to the crowd, or HHH would do it for him.
Kane was furious. He trashed his locker room, throwing Hurricane out in the process. Terri Runnels came back and reassured Kane, finally telling him that it would be therapeutic to open up about this. Oh, and be sure to do it publicly.
Kane listened to Dr. Terri’s advice and headed out to the ring to bare his soul. He explained that Katie had been a friend of his when he first started wrestling. One night they went to a party and Katie had too much to drink, so she gave Kane the keys to drive home. One problem – Kane couldn’t drive a stick. They got in a car wreck, he broke his arm, and Katie was killed.
Unfortunately, that story wasn’t quite good enough, so here came Triple H! HHH brought up that it appeared that Kane had been drinking as well. Then he brought up that Kane had loved Katie, but she didn’t love him back, so HHH asked one question – did Kane rape her when she was alive or wait until she was dead? The segment ended among the jeers of the bored live crowd.
Later, Terri interviewed HHH. He replied by reminding her that women who got too close to Kane got hurt.
No Mercy 2002 saw Kane taking on HHH. Despite the Hurricane’s appearance at ringside to counter Ric Flair’s interference, HHH still hit the Pedigree and got the win.
Things went downhill the next night as HHH bragged about having a revealing tape of Kane and Katie. Hurricane hit the ring (Kane hadn’t arrived yet) and went after HHH, but Flair and Hunter took out the superhero with no problems.
The video aired as promised later in the night (after a quick disclaimer). In it, HHH (dressed as Kane, complete with a Kane mask), slipped into a funeral home parlor, and mounted a mannequin dressed as Katie. At the conclusion of the act, Hunter held up a handful of spaghetti, said, “I just screwed her brains out,” and threw it at the camera.
We then cut back to Hunter, who was yucking it up backstage with Coach. Terri then tried to get an interview, but Kane only slammed his locker room door in her face.
The main event saw HHH and Flair taking on Rob Van Dam and Kane. As RVD hit the Five-Star Frog Splash to put Flair away, Kane brawled outside with Hunter, then stuffed him into the trunk of his car and drove off. Unfortunately, the trunk popped open as they drove away and Hunter had to pull it closed again.
Next week Hunter tried to cover the goof by saying that was how he’d escaped. Anyway, he had a guest – Katie Vick! (The part of Katie Vick was being played by a mannequin in a cheerleading outfit.) After the world’s worst ventriloquist act, out came the Hurricane, who said he had a tape of his own.
The Hurricane’s tape was set in an operating room. Someone was lying on his stomach on an operating table with a HHH mask fastened to his face. A doctor worked behind him to remove the following items from his rectum: a sledgehammer, silk handkerchiefs, a hand (in honor of Mae Young), a dead squirrel, an automatic gear shift assembly, a steering wheel, and finally HHH’s head.
Hunter went berserk, attacking the mannequin. Kane came out and the brawl was on. Finally GM Eric Bischoff had had enough, and made a match between the two for later that night. A casket match.
Coachman later caught up with Kane to let him know that the match was non-title. Kane just smiled and said that he didn’t care.
A little later it was HHH’s turn. He said that he was nervous about the match – mainly because he was afraid that the casket would turn Kane on and he’d get molested.
The match hit during the main event. Sure enough, the casket popped open with somebody inside, but it was Shawn Michaels. Michaels attacked HHH, and then Kane dropped Hunter into the casket for the win.
Analysis
Talk about useless. This entire angle did nothing to get anyone over and served only two purposes: 1) getting fans to change the channel and 2) making somebody backstage laugh their head off at their comedic genius.
So why do they do this?
Simple. Shock value. I’m sure that everyone’s heard of shock jock Howard Stern. Here’s a quote from his movie “Private Parts” that sums it up nicely.
Researcher: The average radio listener listens for eighteen minutes. The average Howard Stern fan listens for – are you ready for this? – an hour and twenty minutes.
Pig Vomit: How can that be?
Researcher: Answer most commonly given? “I want to see what he’ll say next.”
Pig Vomit: Okay, fine. But what about the people who hate Stern?
Researcher: Good point. The average Stern hater listens for two and a half hours a day.
Pig Vomit: But… if they hate him, why do they listen?
Researcher: Most common answer? “I want to see what he’ll say next.”
Shock value. Vince McMahon saw how he could use that in the late 90’s to build the WWF back up to the heights it had known in the 80’s. Stone Cold Steve Austin stunning Jim Ross, Jerry Lawler, and Vince himself. Goldust running around and doing his own thing. The Rock disrespecting everyone. Kane giving a tombstone to Pete Rose.
And Vince wasn’t the only one to benefit. What’s one of the most remembered incidents from the premiere Nitro? Lex Luger, who’d been under contract with the WWF, jumping back to WCW. The entire NWO story was based on shock value – who’s WCW going to steal next?
And the viewers tuned in and wanted more.
There’s only one problem with booking shock TV. The shock wears off. The first time Austin stunned McMahon, it was groundbreaking. The second, it was still interesting. The third, less so. Now you almost expect to see it with the two of them in the same ring together.
Here’s another example. For years the most shocking show on TV was South Park, due to the language and storylines they used. Before that? NYPD Blue – why, they show butts and curse on that show! Before that? Beavis and Butthead – that show’s just trash! Even earlier than that? A TV adaptation of the movie Uncle Buck drew headlines when the character of Miles Russell (which had been played by Macauley Culkin in the movie) said that something “sucked.”
The other problem with shock TV is that the line between fiction and reality blurs a great deal. When Owen Hart died, I’ll admit that I thought they’d dropped a dummy from the ceiling and Owen would crawl out from under the ring, stagger around for a few minutes, and then be fine. After all, it hadn’t been that long since Mick Foley and Terry Funk were shoved off the stage in a dumpster, only to return in hospital gowns for the end of the show!
And that’s the point Vince McMahon’s at now. Getting stunned doesn’t work anymore. We’ve gotten numbed to that. Wrestlers jumping companies doesn’t work for McMahon anymore (although TNA has been doing an exceptional job of introducing new hires like the former Dudleys, Rhino, and, most notably, Christian Cage). Now we’ve got “creative” ideas such as Mae Young giving birth to a hand, Mark Henry sleeping with his sister, Eric Bischoff’s Hot Lesbian Action, the Big Show bodysurfing his father’s casket, Mohammed Hassan being changed to be a terrorist (complete with martyr’s funeral for Daivari) and, of course, Katie.
The only problem now is that stunts like the ones listed above are so over the top that fans see them for what they are – attempts to grab any publicity possible. It’s just too bad that they still believe that any publicity is good publicity. WCW Champion David Arquette proved that wrong. But hey, anything can happen in the WWE, right?
Where are they now?
Kane remains with the WWE on the Raw brand. He is currently one half of the World Tag Team champions (with the Big Show).
Triple H also remains with the WWE on Raw. At Wrestlemania on Sunday, he is scheduled to face John Cena for the World title.
Katie Vick hasn’t been seen since. However, her cheerleader’s outfit has found a new home. RD Reynolds and Blade Braxton of Wrestlecrap purchased the outfit (signed by HHH) from WWE Auctions. This is definitely the perfect home for our favorite car crash victim/cheerleader. May she never be seen or mentioned again.
Next week
We lighten things up as Dusty Rhodes prepares for an upcoming match… by eating burritos.
