Wrong Directions?

So what matches in Wrestling yesteryear went the wrong way in your opinions?

It could be any match, I'm sure every single one of us have sat their at the end of a classic or even a boring match, big none the less though and thought the wrong guy went over?

Give a match and then a reason as to why you think it should have went the other way, then tell us what that particular win could or would have done for the guy?

The first on that springs to mind for me, is Vader vs Shawn Michaels. This was Vader's first big singles match in WWE, and he really needed a dominant victory to get over big, monster heel booking 101, instead they had Michaels win by pinfall thereby ruining that unstoppable aura that he needed. With a clean victory, Vader would have been instantly over as a main event force, but instead it was ruined and he never truly recovered from it.

Cena v Umaga.
At the time Umaga was built up as the stereotypical monster heel, destroying everyone in his path. Superman came along and FU'd as normal. Umaga then becomes yet another jobber when he has the move set and potential to be so much more.

Kane v Austin rematch
1 day as champ through his career doesn't really do him justice. From that point on the invulnerability factor vanished.

Jericho v HHH 2000
The match where Jericho won the title but it was wiped from the records 15 minutes later.

I think it was more the opponent than the result that was wrong, was Shawn not getting lined up to take the strap off Bret at the time?

In retrospect I think they should have kept him away from Michaels altogether, I think it would have been unrealistic to have a guy who was a big star in WCW come to the WWF and totally go over the guy lined up to be the main face and next WWF champion at that particular time

Sting vs Hogan at Starrcade 1997. Year worth of building up Sting, only to have him loose first via "fast count", then to win, then to be stripped afterward.

Not to mention the whole NWOverkill that happened shortly thereafter.

the-gaffer wrote:

I think it was more the opponent than the result that was wrong, was Shawn not getting lined up to take the strap off Bret at the time?

In retrospect I think they should have kept him away from Michaels altogether, I think it would have been unrealistic to have a guy who was a big star in WCW come to the WWF and totally go over the guy lined up to be the main face and next WWF champion at that particular time

Actually it was after that, it was at SummerSlam that year, and was for the title. So I can understand them wanting to keep the title on Michaels, and have him look like the giant killer again, like the majority of his reign, but it really fucked up any hope of Vader being a big star there. Like you said, wrong opponent for him, but the fact they did the match, it would have been better with Vader winning and Michaels getting the belt back from him a few months down the line, or even have Vader destroy Michaels, only for HBK to continue to kick out. the frustration could get the better of Vader, leading to a DQ finish which would have kept both men strong.

Randy Orton and Hulk Hogan from Summerslam a couple of years back.

From memory, it's the last match where Randy played on the Legend Killer angle, and faced one of the biggest legends of all time. Instead, he got beaten by an old man who hadn't wrestled since the previous summerslam. A win there would have launched Randy hugely, but instead, Hogan's ego had to be fed.

Guns

Yea I remember the SummerSlam match, I thought they had a feud before Mania after Michaels eliminated Vader from the Rumble and he got back in and attacked HBK

Not so sure I would have been keen on Michaels dropping the strap so soon after they played the 'all he went through' angle to get their, I thought Vader looked strong in the SummerSlam match, Michaels lost twice that night to count out and DQ before each time Cornette would entice Michaels to restart the match, before Michaels won, beating the WWF champ 2-1 on the night is pretty strong, I thought it made Michaels win look flukey

They had a few tag matches on PPV before that, but this was the first real singles bout. I agree that in most circumstances the way the SummerSlam match went down, would make Michaels opponent look reasonably strong, but when you're dealing with the monster heel type it takes a whole different type of booking. As soon as a monster heel loses by pinfall, he's pretty much on the downward slope, with the fans never truly buying into his unstoppable persona. That's why like I say, if they wanted Michaels to keep the title they should have run the DQ angle.

On being drafted to SmackDown! in 2005 and entering the 6 man match to crown a New SD World Champion, I felt that Christian was at the level required to make the step up and since it was a multi-man match I think getting him over would have been more realistic than just having him go over The Undertaker or JBL at the time

The winner didn't become the champion anyway as Batista came out and Teddy Long announced he was the final Draft pick for the blue brand but the winner of that match got a run with Batista for a couple of PPV's

I think after Batista defended against him at GAB he could have lost the strap to him at SummerSlam, thanks to help from Tomko

At the time Christian was on the periphery in the WWE, he and Edge where both on the same sort of level although Christian was possibly more over at the time and had more singles titles (I think)

It would have guaranteed Christian signing a new contract, having him face the likes of Beniot, Chris Beniot and Eddie Guerrero while Batista concentrated on taking out Tomko for 'costing him the strap'

Then Batista could have had his rematch with Captain Charisma during Survivor Series in which he could reclaim the World Heavyweight Championship

Also with Edge being the holder of the MitB during this period it could also have enticed the WWE to have him cash the contract in on Christian knowing the matches they could have had instead of taking it off Cena in the manor he did

the rock vs triple h ironman match

HBK was ref and got knocked out the ring for undertaker to return who starts to beat down DX with about 20 seconds left he grabs triple h and chokeslams him he then picks Triple h up for the tombstone then HBK gets in the ring and starts telling taker not to hit the tombstone you then hear the buzzer to sound the time has run out this means end of the match HBK quickly calls for a DQ after the time has run out and awards triple h the DQ to give triple h the victory