10 Wrestling Matches Booked Out Of Spite

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Wrestling, cruel? Vince McMahon, vindictive? But he puts smiles on faces, pal!

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00:00Spite is a powerful motivator, just ask Vince McMahon, who's booking makes up the majority

00:05of this list.

00:06I'm Adam Wilborn from WhatCulture and these are 9 Wrestling Matches Booked Out Of Spite.

00:129.

00:13The 2005 Royal Rumble

00:16As spitefully funny as it might be, remembering the sight of Vince McMahon no-selling a torn

00:20quad with his arse planted on the canvas like a child, that is not the 2005 Royal Rumble's

00:25meanest moment.

00:26Not least because it wasn't planned.

00:28Royal spite involves a certain element of premeditation, and that was scarily evident

00:33when Daniel Pewter entered the titular Battle Royal to take an on-screen hazing for some

00:38supposed crimes the year prior.

00:40The Tough Enough winner entered the match third, right as competitors Number 1 and 2,

00:44Eddie Guerrero and Chris Benoit, were gleefully beating the crap out of each other.

00:48Naturally, they paused that conflict to sadistically smash the shite out of the newbie, as did

00:53entrant number 4, drumroll please, Hardcore Holly.

00:57Pewter had infamously caught Kurt Angle out during another borderline abusive Tough Enough

01:01segment the prior summer, and the locker room heavies clearly enjoyed making him pay for

01:06this apparent act of disrespect.

01:09The beating was too on the nose for its own good, and the sort of thing that thankfully

01:12won't ever happen again.

01:148.

01:15The Big Show vs. Akebono

01:17For almost all of his time in WWE, Big Show was considered overweight by his employers.

01:24It's fair to say Paul Wight was packing more tonnage than he had during his breakout years

01:28in WCW, but wholly unfair to suggest that he was the sort of size in keeping with sumo

01:35wrestling.

01:36Alas, this was his lot at 2005's WrestleMania 21, when he took two-sport star Akebono in

01:42an exhibition that made him look multifariously daft.

01:47Long zooms on his dimpled and mostly exposed arse were done for the benefit of those guffawing

01:52in the gorilla position rather than any kind of artistic expression, and the match itself

01:56failed to elicit anything from an otherwise molten audience.

02:007.

02:01Take On T vs. Santana Garrett

02:04Friday the 16th of October 2021 brought about feelings that had laid dormant for the better

02:10part of two years.

02:11A super-sized Smackdown was front-loaded in an effort to throttle that Friday's rampage

02:16during a rare overlap, resulting in 90 minutes of live, head-to-head action.

02:20Both sides were magnificently petty, WWE utilised Brock Lesnar, Roman Reigns and a monster Sasha

02:27Banks-Becky Lynch match, while AEW chased random magic with Bryan Danielson vs. Minoru

02:32Suzuki and not-so-random spite with Take On T vs. Santana Garrett.

02:37The latter clash had some real spice.

02:40Garrett Conti was the first thing that ever defeated AEW in a viewership quarter-hour

02:45in the earliest days of NXT and Dynamite going head-to-head, with Conti now an AEW regular

02:50and Garrett available for the night.

02:52A throwback fight night saw one side land a remarkably sly jab.

02:566.

02:57Adam Cole vs. Matt Riddle

02:59It was the black and gold brand's biggest match at the time, and it proved to be one

03:04of the show's best ever too, but Adam Cole vs. Matt Riddle was representative of something

03:08much bigger than the NXT Championship.

03:12The match was built up for that specific time because WWE were keen to try and marginalise

03:17their new competition from the off.

03:19This was night one of a new wrestling show and the mandate was clear, Dynamite was to

03:24be challenged not with a show that gradually built to the biggest matches, but with the

03:28biggest matches.

03:29Predictably, the show couldn't keep doling out these massive matches on a weekly basis.

03:33The increased desperation was clear within the first year of a supposed war that ended

03:37up being somewhat of a massacre.

03:40And don't forget if you're desperate for more wrestling content, hit that subscribe

03:44button and ring the bell.

03:465.

03:47Triple H vs. CM Punk

03:49The Voice of the Voiceless had already returned a touch too early from his transcendent WWE

03:54Championship victory at Money in the Bank, and then won a rematch against John Cena in

03:58less than clean fashion, then found himself battered by Kevin Nash and dethroned by Alberto

04:03Del Rio.

04:04Detonating a pipe bomb had started well, but suddenly he was losing way more than he was

04:10winning.

04:11The intended night of Champions Clash with Nash would have surely gone his way, but when

04:14the Game stepped in for his injured mate, the figurative betting may as well have been

04:18suspended.

04:20Hunter had fumed on screen with a couple of Punk's near-the-knuckle gestures and remarks,

04:25and presumably could not bloody wait to plant him with a pedigree like all the rest.

04:31This useless result was never returned to after the fact.

04:34Hunter and Punk were teeming by the next pay-per-view, but how do you think these two are going to

04:37get on in 2024?

04:40Will Punk make it to Mania?

04:41Let me know your thoughts in the comments section below.

04:44Lita vs Mickie James

04:47Trish Stratus' September 2006 WWE departure was so soaked in sincerity that almost nobody

04:53predicted it, and even fewer imagined it was the actual end.

04:57An unforgiving pay-per-view in her hometown, the beloved multi-time Women's Champion

05:02snared the strap yet again in a blinding battle with career rival Lita.

05:06Audiences trained to WWE's mean streak were absolutely stunned, so when Lita was suddenly

05:11back in the picture ahead of her own planned exit in November, most safely assumed things

05:16would go the same way.

05:17Wrong again.

05:18Heel Lita put over Mickie James on her way out, which would have jived with all the dignified

05:22traditions had she not been stripped of those before getting out of the building.

05:27Following the defeat, her retirement was converted into one last shaming of the woman who'd

05:31taken virtually all of the heat for the real-life situation that had occurred between her, Matt

05:36Hardy and Edge a year prior.

05:39It was gross.

05:413.

05:42Bret Hart vs Shawn Michaels

05:44Far be it for this to be yet another journey through perhaps the most journeyed through

05:48match in wrestling history, but it's worth remembering that Vince McMahon didn't have

05:52to book the match that gave him and his top two performers so many headaches.

05:56McMahon's buyer's remorse upon re-signing the Hitman in 1997 may have been as evident

06:02as early as Survivor Series the prior year, commentating on Hart's return as if six

06:07months off had turned him into a knackered old veteran rather than the ex-WWE champion

06:12that had just comfortably gone an hour in a WrestleMania main event, McMahon seemed

06:16to be sidelining him from the off.

06:18The intentional breaking of Bret's contract in October of 1997 was seen as confirmation

06:23of this scepticism towards Hart, as was the stubbornness in the booking of the Montreal

06:28match in the first place alongside its infamous and unforgettable finish.

06:332.

06:34Team WWE vs The Alliance

06:37Vince McMahon openly admitted to being tired of this Alliance crap during a Raw promo that

06:43set up a Survivor Series final battle.

06:46He was, patently, as bored of this as the rest of us, even though he'd been the one

06:50booking it in the sodding first place.

06:52A ten man tag was set, culminating in Stone Cold Steve Austin of The Alliance tussling

06:57with The Rock and them scrapping for the umpteenth time over stakes that supposedly transformed

07:03the world as we knew it.

07:04The mere inclusion of The Rattlesnake and The Great One exposed this as a fallacy, as

07:09did the post-show Monday Night Raw.

07:11Jerry Lawler was reinstalled as a commentator, McMahon and Austin were reset as heels and

07:16babyface rivals on the original side of their divide, and ex-Alliance stars worth anything

07:21were re-established as WWE superstars looking to make the grade.

07:251.

07:26The Bloodline vs The New Day

07:29September 2021 marked something of a zenith for AEW's bold next steps, having unveiled

07:35CM Punk, Adam Cole and Bryan Danielson within the last 30 days, and conclusively moved forward

07:41with Hangman Page as the successor to Kenny Omega's throne.

07:45All Out 2021 was forecasted as the company's highest selling show ever, and the fabled

07:51seven figure viewership had become the norm.

07:55WWE raced ahead with the obvious Survivor Series matches two months early, dragging

08:00The Bloodline and now new WWE Champion Big E over to Monday Night Raw for the pure and

08:05obvious sake of it.

08:07The match did perform well, but didn't arrest The Slide, even after AEW slipped from their

08:14own pedestal.

08:15And if you liked this video about matches booked out of spite, why not check out this

08:19one about gimmicks made out of spite as well.

08:22Thanks for watching, I'm Adam from What Culture, and I'll see you soon.

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