Gone are the days when a wrestling audience, particularly the older male fans, would just absorb the content put in front of them, without debating or criticizing it.
With kayfabe practically non existence, primarily because of the internet age, wrestling enthusiasts now tend to know what is going on behind the scenes just as much as the wrestlers and staff do. Wrestling addicts are an opinionated bunch, and when results don’t go the way they should, they’ll make their voices heard.
There will have been many occasions when fans have witnessed a match or angle end in a specific way and couldn’t understand the reasoning behind it. Whether it was the wrong person that picked up the victory, the wrong way to end a storyline, the wrong wrestler interfering, something was obviously wrong about the entire set up.
This list features 10 matches in the last three years where the finishes were often unpopular with audiences because of bad booking.
1. Mark Henry flattens Ryback at Wrestlemania
This Mania finish was puzzling to most people, largely due to the enormous push that Ryback seemed to be on the verge of at the time. After spending most of 2012 defeating wrestlers in a matter of minutes, Ryback was given a WWE title shot against CM Punk at the Hell in a Call Pay Per View in October.
The WWE had a tough choice to make. They didn’t want CM Punk to lose the title, and certainly didn’t feel Ryback was ready to win it. Despite this, they wanted to protect Ryback and not have him lose cleanly. Ryback did go on to lose the match, but only because of a referee interference. He later took part in a triple threat match at Survivor Series and a 6 man Tag Team TLC match. Again, he didn’t win either match, but was also not pinned. He was the runner up at the Royal Rumble and then took part in another 6 man tag team match at the Elimination Chamber that his side lost, but he was once again, not pinned.
There started to be talk of Ryback still not having a PPV victory since his push in to the main event. When his match against Mark Henry was announced for Wrestlemania, it seemed like the perfect time to give him a win. Surprisingly, he lost, and in an embarrassing manor. When trying to raise Mark Henry up to hit his Shell Shocked finishing move, and was flattened and defeated.
What made this defeat even stranger was the fact that Ryback went on to challenge John Cena for the title afterwards, while Mark Henry feuded with Sheamus, and lost.
2. John Cena defeats Brock Lesnar in an Extreme Rules match
Brock Lesnar had been gone for eight years. He didn’t leave the WWE under the best terms, but the company always do what’s best for business and bringing ‘The Beast’ back was just that.
The first thing they had him do was challenge John Cena, and he did, busting him open in the process.
Now you’d think that in bringing back a monster of a man, they’d give him some wins over a few guys to make him look even more unstoppable. Instead, they had him lose to the company’s number one man, rendering his big return a big flop.
The WWE were obviously more anxious to protect John Cena, and didn’t want him to lose two PPV main events in a row [he had just been defeated by The Rock at Wrestlemania].
Not only did Cena win the match, but he enraged the big man in real life, reportedly causing him to destroy the locker room later. The anger was caused by Cena getting up after the match and cutting a promo, when the plan had supposedly been for him to remain on the floor, having to get carried out on a stretcher.
The question remains, would it not have made more sense to keep these two men away from each other, if they didn’t want either of them to lose? At the very least, if they insisted on putting them in a match against each other, could they not have made it a match where a count out or disqualification was possible, protecting both men’s win loss records?
3. Brock defeats the Streak
Should he or shouldn’t he have? In what has been one of the most hotly debated topics in the WWE, Brock Lesnar was the man who shocked the WWE Universe and ended The Undertaker’s Wrestlemania streak.
The first and most often used argument against his decision, was that Brock was, and still is, a part time wrestler. He shows up to fight three or four times per year, and is known to have no real interest in the wrestling business.
The reason he left the WWE last time was because he had enough of wrestling and enough of travelling. This time, he came back because the money offered to him was too great to turn down.
Lesnar’s win was made more difficult to take because of the build up to the match, and the match itself. It hit fans out of nowhere. While there was some hype for the match, it was never hyped to the point where people believed that ‘The Deadman’ had any chance of being beaten. This is why during the match, none of The Undertaker’s near falls had much fan reaction. Despite him kicking out of two F5’s, nobody cared – they expected it.
The first thing that caused fans to react, was when the referee counted the three for Taker’s loss, and even then, the reaction wasn’t heard, it was a deathly silence. Over 70 000 people looked on in shock but didn’t make a noise. The match itself being very poor didn’t help.
The entire thing had a sense of wrong doing to it. Sure people knew The Undertaker might eventually lose his streak, but like this, to a guy like that, and in such a below average match? It definitely left a sour taste in the mouth.
4. Triple H beats Lesnar
Once again, Brock Lesnar is involved in a match where the wrong person won, but this time it’s Brock who was unjustly beaten.
Just like his loss against John Cena didn’t make sense when he returned, his loss against Triple H, who was semi retired and really didn’t need the win, made even less sense.
At least against Cena, the argument could be made that he is the companies number one guy, he just lost to The Rock at Wrestlemania and can’t afford to lose again. In this case however, Brock Lesnar was the one who needed the momentum. His win loss record since returning was 1 – 1, and if he was to be pushed as this unbeatable beast in future, then he needed as many wins under his belt as possible.
For some reason that didn’t happen, and it was decided that Triple H should knock ‘The Beast’ out with a pedigree on the steel steps and pick up the victory. Triple H has not won a match since, so you wonder what this victory was supposed to have done for his career.
5. 18 seconds of Sheamus
Heading in to Wrestlemania 28 as the champion, Daniel Bryn may not have quite been the fan favourite he is now, but both he, Sheamus, and the Wrestlemania audience deserved better than what they got.
Daniel Bryan receiving a kiss from his manager AJ, before walking right in to a Brogue kick, was not the way to book this match, particularly at an event as big as Wrestlemania.
What made this incident even more irritating, is that they seemed to have pulled the plug on this at last year’s Mania, when the Sheamus v Daniel Bryan lumberjack bout was ruled a no contest after turning in to a battle royal midway through the match.
It appeared that this year they wanted to make amends for that by having the two fight again, only this time, for a greater prize. World Heavyweight title or no World Heavyweight title, it didn’t seem to matter as the WWE made this one even shorter than their previous outing.
6. Batista wins the Rumble, again
While his first Royal Rumble triumph turned out to be a success, the circumstances were much different back then [2005]. Upon his return, Batista was greeted with what WWE commentators would call a mixed reaction, and everyone else would call a lot of booing.
It was at this point that the WWE might have thought to backtrack on having him win the Royal Rumble. Yeah sure, it would have been a last minute decision, but it’s not like the company had never made those.
They didn’t change the booking and the fans didn’t take to Hollywood Batista, loudly showing their disgust at the result of the Rumble. This made it necessary for the entire story leading up to Wrestlemania to be rewritten, with the originally planned Randy Orton v Batista match morphing in to a triple threat bout that involved Daniel Bryan.
7. Jericho defeats Wyatt
At one time Bray Wyatt was one of the hottest properties in the WWE. After re-debuting as the leader of his cult Wyatt Family, not only did he have an intriguing character that was difficult to take your eyes off but he continued to be booked correctly as a viable threat. He defeated every opponent he faced, including fan favourite Daniel Bryan.
It wasn’t until he collided with John Cena that he had to take his first loss, but the feud continued on for a further two matches and he managed to get one victory, despite picking up two losses in total.
Those defeats may have dented his career a little, but there’s no shame in losing to the face of the WWE, and all Wyatt needed was a few wins to get him back on track.
This is where things stopped making sense. After participating in the Money in the Bank match, which he didn’t win, Wyatt started a feud with Chris Jericho, and was beaten by him at the Battleground PPV!
Yes, so he went on to win subsequent rematches, but this loss to part time wrestler Chris Jericho was possibly the most unnecessary loss in Wyatt’s WWE Career to date, at least since his return in mid 2013.
8. The Rock defeats CM Punk for the second time
There were enough internet and backstage squabbles about whether it was the correct decision to have The Rock come back after a 10 month hiatus and end CM Punk’s over 400 day WWE title reign. CM Punk himself was said to be against the idea and had proposed a triple threat match at Wrestlemania between John Cena, The Rock and himself.
His proposition was ignored and the Royal Rumble match against The Rock went ahead, to set up Rock – Cena Part Two at Wrestlemania.
While the Wrestlemania main event plan was the reason Punk had to drop the belt, there was no reason why the man who had kept the title for such a long time should lose twice in a row to a guy who only shows up a couple of times a year.
Not only did the defeat not help Punk, it didn’t help the Undertaker v CM Punk match at Wrestlemania 29. The Rock could have defended his title against somebody else at the Elimination Chamber and CM Punk could have won his match at the same PPV, to regain him some credibility before challenging The Undertaker’s streak.
9. Roman Reigns beats Daniel Bryan
If you’re already in a difficult situation, there’s no reason to make it worse, but this is exactly what the WWE decided to do.
First, they ignited the fan’s wrath by not only giving Roman Reigns the Royal Rumble win, but having the people’s favourite, Daniel Bryan, dumped out of that Rumble after just 10 minutes.
Then, seeing the negative reaction to this booking, they decided to have Bryan and Reigns feud with each other and had the guy who they are trying to push but is hated by the fans, beat the guy the fans love and want to see pushed more.
If you try hard, you can probably see the logic behind it, but you’ve really got to squint. This FastLane result was more about Roman Reigns than Daniel Bryan. The WWE threw everything but the kitchen sink at this, in the desperate hope that the fans would accept their new anointed baby face.
They had Reigns returning at the TLC PPV to fight the evils of The Corporation. They had The Rock come out and help him at the Royal Rumble. Finally they had him beat Daniel Bryan and then get respect from the little man the fans love, but none of these methods have been successful. Bryan losing this match was not the problem, the match taking place at all was.
10. Sting loses his WWE debut
The most recent match that without question, should not have ended the way it did.
Sure, DX and the nWo getting involved was a nice touch, but the result still should have gone the other way.
There was no need for Triple H to win this, and it’s decisions like these that cause fans to get upset with him. What purpose could this result possibly serve? What is going on in Triple H’s career right now that means he needs a win over the legendary Stinger? Nothing! He’s semi-retired and only wrestling once a year. He doesn’t need wins anymore. His sole purpose for wrestling matches now should be to put people over.
This being Sting’s WWE debut match makes it even worse. It also deflates any potential Sting vs Undertaker match that may have been on the cards.
Of course if Taker – Sting does not come to fruition, then this could have been Sting’s only match in the company. What a way to come and go.
What did you guys think? Let me know in the comment below or tweet me @DarraghWV. Until next week, cheers.