WrestleMania, credit: wwe.com
Listing the worst booking decisions in the history of WrestleMania.
Since 1985 WrestleMania has been the biggest stage in all of American professional wrestling. The amount of amazing WrestleMania moments is astounding as the show tends to produce some of the most iconic moments in wrestling history. From amazing, five-star quality matches to brutal culminations of months-long grudge matches, to all the glitz and glamor of the event, year in and year out, WrestleMania is a can’t miss event.
But then there’s the bad side to WrestleMania. For every great, classic moment comes an anti-climactic, and sometimes head-scratching one. From silly celebrity appearances to boring, stale matches, to the over-thinking of segments, Mania can sometimes have just as many low-lights as highlights.
Smart booking for the months leading up to and during the WWE’s biggest event of the year is the best way to guarantee a solid show that will excite the company’s fan base. But what happens when the booking becomes so non-sensical and flat-out dumb? You got a four to five-hour hot mess of professional wrestling (take WrestleMania’s VI, XV, and XXXII as the best examples). One way of ensuring a good show for WrestleMania XXIII would be to re-examine past versions of the event and steer clear of it’s worst decisions. Let’s see if the company has learned their lesson this time around.
Ahead we break down the 10 worst booking decisions in WrestleMania history.
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10. Bart Gunn Fights Butterbean: WrestleMania XV
Wow. Where to even start with this. In the summer of 1998, creative “genius” Vince Russo decided that professional wrestling needed some more reality among its ranks and devised this deluded idea of a tough man contest named the “Brawl For All”. Here’s the gist: 16 wrestlers on the WWE roster entered a tournament to decide who was the baddest man in the company by engaging in legitimate boxing matches with take-downs as an option as well. That’s right, a bunch of untrained guys who’ve been competing in scripted wrestling matches for their entire pro career are now being thrown in the ring to beat each other mercilessly with $75,000 as the ultimate prize. What could go wrong?
Well first off a bunch of the competitors got hurt. Brakkus, Road Warrior Hawk, The Godfather, Savio Vega, Steve Blackman, and Steve Williams all suffered injuries that derailed their careers. Also, this nonsense caused Williams to not only suffer that injury but it destroyed the chances of him moving into a main event program with Steve Austin which would’ve been massive.
But the biggest travesty to this entire debacle was the fate of tournament winner, Bart Gunn. Gunn’s prize for winning? A fight with five-time World Toughman winner, professional boxer, professional kick-boxer, and professional mixed martial artist, Eric “Butterbean” Esche. What once looked a career defining moment for Gunn quickly turned into a nightmare as he got savagely knocked out in a whopping 35 seconds at WrestleMania XV and subsequently released from the WWE. The tournament was a terrible idea that destroyed careers and put wrestlers health in jeopardy and this Mania massacre was the microcosm of an idea that should have never made it out of a creative meeting.
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9. Ending The Streak: WrestleMania XXX
It really was a massive shock to the system when the referee Chad Patton’s hand connected with the mat a third time. His three-count was the culmination of a 23-year and 21-match WrestleMania winning streak for The Undertaker. The end came at just over 25 minutes and a third F-5 from Brock Lesnar. There was an audible hush throughout the 75,000 fans in attendance for WrestleMania XXX at the Superdome in New Orleans and even Lesnar’s advocate, Paul Heyman couldn’t believe his eyes. Just like that, the vaunted WrestleMania streak was over.
But should it have ended? And should it have gone down in that fashion? Yes, then no. There was no problem with the WWE deciding to end Taker’s streak. It was bound to happen one day and streaks in wrestling are there for a reason: to be broken. But most of the time a win of this magnitude is given to a worker who can help mold the future of the company. Wins like this should not be awarded to a part timer who has already done everything else there is to do in the professional wrestling industry. What was the point of Lesnar breaking the streak? He was already seen as the most vicious beast in the WWE and thus, this win was unnecessary.
Why not take a young, budding star and put him over in the biggest match of his life. That would’ve been the best thing for the future but as I’ve said many times already, the WWE has an infatuation with living in the past. Bray Wyatt would’ve been the perfect person to end the streak but instead, he got the match the next year and ultimately lost in about 15 minutes. Even guys like Dean Ambrose or Seth Rollins would’ve benefited in a much greater capacity than Lesnar. Again, the streak should’ve ended, but the wrong guy got the honor.
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8. Triple H Beats Booker T: WrestleMania XIX
If a babyface should have ever gone over more in the history of wrestling, I dare someone find me one more deserving than Booker T at WrestlemMania XIX. The build was perfect. Booker, the former four-time WCW World Heavyweight champion and ninth WCW Triple Crown winner, had spent the month leading up to the event being chastised by The Game for his past accomplishments and even brought up his past criminal history with some racial overtones mixed in.
So come Mania’ Triple H seemed ripe for the picking. Booker was one of the most over babyfaces on the roster at that time and add to it a massive heel move from Hunter to add just a little bit of race to the feud. That seems like the perfect formula for a title change and would’ve been the biggest win of Booker’s career at that time. But then the match happened and Triple H won. Sure, he got a little help from his buddy Ric Flair at ringside, but really it was just a clean win for Triple H following a Pedigree. The fans at Safeco Field that night seemed remotely in shock as The Game’s hand was raised after it seemed like a Booker win was a no-brainer.
The Booker Man would eventually go on to become a WWE world champion but it was over three years after this burial from Helmsley. This might be one the most frustrating booking decisions as well, as the story was actually laid out quite perfectly. What was great in conception was flawed in execution and Booker T and the WWE Universe were the victims that night in March.
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7. WrestleMania XI Main Event
WrestleMania XI is well known for being one of the worst Mania’s of all time and if you take the main event of the show as your main reasoning, that seems about right. The final match of WrestleMania XI was between a former professional football player who’d never wrestled a pro wrestling match in his life in Lawrence Taylor against a guy, although underrated, who’s biggest accomplishment in the WWE was in the form of a 1987 Slammy Award for best head in Bam Bam Bigelow. Not exactly a star-studded match with a lot of future implications on the line.
What makes this craziness even worse was the fact that pre-main event was an extremely meaningful match for the WWF Championship between Diesel and Shawn Michaels. That would’ve been the perfect main event. Diesel, who would go on a dominant run as champion pitted against his former friend and current best heel on the roster almost seemed like a dream pairing at the company’s biggest event. But for some insane reason, Taylor and Bam Bam were deemed the main attraction.
Diesel and Michaels went on to have a very solid championship match, in fact, it was basically the only redeeming quality of that show. The main event turned out to actually not be that bad but it was more spectacle than anything with Taylor’s football buddies and Bigelow’s heel friends all hanging at ringside. It was all over in about 11 minutes and Taylor, once again, not a WWF superstar was carried out for his WrestleMania moment, a moment that should’ve been celebrated by Diesel.
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6.18 Seconds: WrestleMania XXVIII
Not only was this one of the worst booking decisions in WrestleMania history, for its two combatants, Daniel Bryan and Sheamus, it was also one of the most insulting. Battling over the World Heavyweight Championship that Bryan had defended over the course of 105 days, their Mania matchup ended basically before it started as Sheamus used a distraction from AJ Lee to administer a Brogue Kick and a three-count. And just like that, the opening match of WrestleMania 28 was over and two young, budding talented kids looked utterly ridiculous.
18 seconds was all the time Bryan and Sheamus were given and if you look around the rest of the card, that idea is just absurd. The Rock wrestled in the main event while Triple H and The Undertaker did battle in Hell In A Cell. Granted they were very good matches but the combined time of those two bouts was over an hour and these were three guys who wrestled in a whopping four matches in all of 2012. Bryan and Sheamus on the other hand, wrestled in 433 matches that year (cagematch.net). Thanks for all the hard work carrying the company all year guys, here’s 18 seconds to tell your story.
If you look around the rest of the card it gets even more laughable. Television host Maria Menounos got 6 minutes of in-ring action while a twelve man tag match starring Santino Marella and The Great Khali got about 10. Why not send those two matches to the pre-show and give two guys wrestling over a world title 15 minutes? Because the WWE likes to forget about the guys that got them to the show and rely on old tricks of wrestling’s past. Luckily for Bryan, the biggest victim in this whole charade, he got his WrestleMania moment two years later but the taste of this booking will forever remain sour.
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5. Goldberg vs Brock Lesnar: WrestleMania XX
This was bad. Like, comically bad. What an absolute disaster of a match this encounter between Goldberg and Lesnar was from WrestleMania XX. It was so bad that the company feels it has absolutely no choice but do it again at WrestleMania 33. Wait, what? That’s right. A rematch from one of the most hated matches of all time will take place for the WWE Universal Championship at this year’s WrestleMania. The difference now is that these guys are 13 years older which makes Goldberg 50 and leaps and bounds removed from the guy who tore through the WCW with reckless abandon from 1996-2001.
But let’s focus on their encounter from WrestleMania XX. A little background first. Lesnar and Goldberg both went into the match knowing it was going to each be their last match for a long time. Lesnar wanted to take a shot at becoming an NFL football player and Goldberg was going to dabble in acting and color commentating for a couple of MMA promotions. Both legitimate reasons. But the 20,000 fans in attendance in Madison Square Garden did not echo that idea. They soundly booed both men for the entire 13 minutes in the ring and when it was all over the only saving grace for the abomination of a wrestling match was the special guest referee, Steve Austin. The crowd erupted as Austin delivered his patented Stunner to first Lesnar, and second Goldberg.
What makes this such a silly booking choice is the fact that not only did the company know both men were leaving, they also must have known that they were both going to get crucified out there. Why not let both legends do battle with a younger star who needed a big name win? Heck, they had Batista, Randy Orton, John Cena, Jeff Hardy, and Edge all on their roster at the time. Any one of those guys could’ve used a massive win over Goldberg or Lesnar and the two legends could’ve walked out having propelled the WWE in the right direction. But instead, they walked out of WrestleMania XX to a chorus of anger and bitterness. Rightfully so.
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4. Hogan Hijacks the Main Event: WrestleMania IX
Ending a show with utter nonsense is not the best way to ward off the notion that WrestleMania IX is one of the worst Mania’s of all time. Let’s first talk about what could’ve happened and then we’ll talk about what did happen and it’s silly aftermath. The main event of WrestleMania IX pitted the most over babyface in the company at that time, WWF Champion Bret Hart against Yokozuna, a 600-pound monster who’d torn through the majority of the roster culminating in winning the 1993 Royal Rumble. So the two clash, Bret fights his heart out but can’t overcome Yokozuna’s size and power and eventually succumbs to that and outside interference from Mr. Fuji. Yokozuna is the new champion and thus begins the new calendar year in the WWF.
Well, that is actually what happened. But the problem was that it didn’t end there. Hulk Hogan, most likely feeling like he wanted to be champion again came out to assist Hart and his eye injury which led to an impromptu title match with Yokozuna. You know, because challenging a guy 100 pounds and 8 inches taller than the guy you just won the belt from 30 seconds ago makes perfect sense. So, of course, the inevitable happens. Hogan takes the belt in 22 seconds. Yawn.
But just when that idea seemed colossally stupid, here comes the aftermath. You can swing the idea that with Hogan now as champ that would ultimately lead to a massive Hart/Hogan WWF Championship match at that year’s SummerSlam. But Hogan would have none of it and dropped the belt back to Yokozuna cleanly at King of the Ring just two months later. Answer this. Had Hogan not come out to close the show, what difference would that have made for the future? None. Hogan’s ego ruined what could’ve been an even better championship feud and one that the company could’ve built on.
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3. Roman Reigns vs Triple H: WrestleMania 32
This match comes down to one word: stubbornness. Vince McMahon is convinced that Roman Reigns is a mega-star on the same level of John Cena, Hulk Hogan, Bret Hart, and Shawn Michaels. There’s just one problem. He’s the really the only that believes that. He apparently doesn’t hear the boos when Reigns’ music hits, he doesn’t hear the animosity from the WWE Universe when Reigns wins and conversely the joy when he loses, and he apparently definitely did not hear the pure rage from the 100,000 plus fans at the AT&T Center in Arlington, Texas after Roman won the belt from Triple H at WrestleMania 32.
I mean really think about that last part for a second. Triple H has been one of the best and successful heels in the WWE for over two decades. Sure he’s had a couple of runs as a baby face but this guy is a natural bad guy and as such the crowd reviles him for it. But not even he, one of the most hated men in the company’s history could get Reigns over as a fan favorite and it was not from lack of effort. He’d spent the two months leading up to WrestleMania wreaking havoc on Reigns, pulling every heel tactic he had out of the book but it didn’t help. No matter which way the company tried to present Reigns, it had little to no effect on its fans.
So, of course, the match at Mania was doomed from the very start with the fans never accepting it as their main event title match. The boos were resounding and the match suffered for it. One year later and Vince still believes in the Reigns project and he’ll get the honor of doing battle with The Undertaker at this year’s marquee event. Will another bad performance be enough to derail the Reigns hype train? Let’s hope so.
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2. Bret Hart vs Vince McMahon: WrestleMania XXVI
This match was unquestionably not only the worst match in WrestleMania history, it was one of the most cringe-inducing moments in all of pro wrestling history. The fact that this match was even allowed to go on is more a testament to how detached from reality Vince McMahon is more than anything else. On what planet was this match going to work? Hart, arguably the greatest in-ring wrestler of all time walked into WrestleMania XXVI about 7 years removed from a stroke that left him temporarily and partially paralyzed. And although he had recovered, what did anybody think they were going to get out of The Hitman on this night?
Most fans thought that there would be some type of gimmick added so the two didn’t really have to wrestle each other. It’s not like Vince was in much better condition to wrestle. For one he’s not a wrestler. And two, at the time he was 65 years old! There had to be some type of stipulation to stop this from being a one on one bout, right? Wrong. What happened was the nightmare everyone was hoping would not happen. Bret essentially mauled Vince, smacked him with some weapons and eventually tapped him out with the Sharpshooter which ended the 11 minutes of torture for the fans in attendance and the ones watching at home.
To add to it was this ridiculous idea that Vince had turned the entire Hart family on Bret, as they accompanied Vince to the ring only to have them turn in Bret’s favor about three minutes into the match. Wow, didn’t see that one coming. This is one of those moments in wrestling that everyone wishes could be erased. People don’t want to remember The Hitman like this but it’ll forever be etched in wrestling fans brains. If you want to re-live some of Bret’s great WrestleMania moments, watch numbers 8, 10, 12, and 13. That’ll remind you of his brilliance and hopefully, your mind expunges the horrid nature of this match.
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1. Jerry Lawler vs Michael Cole: WrestleMania 27
This match, once again, was the type of match and overall program that should’ve never made it out of a creative discussion. Someone would bring it up as a random idea and then a smarter, more professional person would shoot it down as pure silliness. But unfortunately any smart or professional person either didn’t exist at that time, or had the day off and next thing you know, we have Michael Cole versus Jerry Lawler booked for WrestleMania 27. That’s right. 60 years old at the time of the show, Lawler took on Michael Cole, a guy with zero wrestling background and even less athletic ability. It was bound to be a colossal failure from the beginning and they lived up to the expectations and then some.
The WWE had been running a ridiculous experiment for the couple of months leading up to WrestleMania where Cole, acting on behalf of the anonymous RAW General Manager (don’t get me started on that too) and his love for newly crowned WWE champion, The Miz, turned heel. Lawler, obviously not a fan of the of Cole’s behavior, took exception which led to a series of matches with Miz, with Lawler even winning a couple. Quite a world title program if you ask me.
So as if the idea wasn’t as terrible on paper, the match itself was pure lunacy. Cole, potentially the worst professional wrestler since Nathan Jones, dominated Lawler for the first half of the match. Yes, Michael Cole slapped around Lawler, a 40 year veteran of the sport who had held over 100 titles on the independent circuit and had just pinned the WWE champion weeks before. Stands to reason. Lawler mercifully ended the bout after an excruciating 11-plus minutes as the crowd had been chanting for a finish for about 10 of those.
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The only positive part was Steve Austin who once again was subject to a guest referee spot in an absurdly booked match. He stunned Jack Swagger, Cole’s trainer, and took forever to call for the bell after Cole immediately tapped to Lawler’s poorly executed ankle lock. It was a segment that was widely hated even before it happened and therefore had no chance of being successful. Yet another idea that should’ve gotten someone fired.