- 5 months ago
To the winner goes the spoils. Or should that be spoiled? WWE's worst firsts, revisited...
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00:00The thing about winning a massive shiny belt in professional wrestling is that, for better and
00:05worse, it is the accepted way of showing everybody that you are the very best at it. Imagine then
00:11when finally living that seemingly unattainable dream becomes a nightmare in less than 24 hours.
00:18Well with that in mind, I am Gareth, this is WhatCulture Wrestling and here are the 10 worst
00:23first days for WWE champions. Number 10, Chris Jericho. Few first days, first hours, first
00:29minute stories are as bad as the ones told by Chris Jericho about his maiden trip to the
00:34promised land. His tale is so littered with misery and detritus that it's best left to
00:38the man himself to describe, as he did to Victor.com in 2017 and then later in several interviews
00:44and podcasts. From catering jokes at his expense to an empty locker room and a cacophony of
00:49hotel catastrophes, it's a real treat. So here's what he said. I came back through the curtain,
00:54everyone was gone because when you're on last, everybody leaves to get out of the traffic
00:58quicker. Sat there by myself and then drove to a hotel where room service stopped at midnight.
01:03It was 11.58. They wouldn't serve it, so I got pizza. They wouldn't bring it to my room,
01:08so I had to go down to the lobby to get it. When I went back up, I was locked out. Went
01:12back down to the lobby, the guy wouldn't let me in even though I just checked in a few minutes
01:16earlier. Dropped the pizza on the floor when he finally did let me in, so I spent the night
01:20being the first undisputed champion eating cold, fuzzy pizza in a ramada inn somewhere in
01:25Anaheim, California. Just what every young up-and-coming star dreams of a fuzzy pepperoni
01:30euphoria.
01:31Number 9, Seth Rollins. Seth Rollins' 2016 return from a lengthy injury layoff came with
01:36the carefully marketed slogan of redesign, rebuild, reclaim. In a navel-gazing network piece on his
01:43comeback, Rollins explained how connected he felt to the ethos, noting the scale of the surgery and
01:48rehabilitation, right the way through to eventually getting back would have been taken away from him
01:53along the way in the form of the WWE Championship. He managed it fairly quickly too. Though devastated to
01:58Miss WrestleMania 32 in April, he was able to make it for Extreme Rules in May to set up a
02:03blockbuster main event against Roman Reigns at Money in the Bank the following month. On the night,
02:08he got the job done against a big dog set to serve a suspension, but forgot all about the titular
02:13match earlier on the card. Long-standing rival-slash-former-partner Dean Ambrose ambushed
02:18him with the Money in the Bank briefcase and cashed in, completing the trifecta of Shield WWE
02:23champions in a matter of seconds. The Architect had to wait nearly three full years without the gold
02:28before building himself back up to where he'd been before. He got there in the end though,
02:32R Seth. Now I've got a quick question for you, what is your favourite Shield match of all time?
02:36Is it one involving them against one another or teaming up? You let me know in the comments
02:40section down below. Number 8, Dolph Ziggler. It's one thing to have your first championship reign
02:44instantly terminated by something like a Money in the Bank cash-in, or chalked off entirely due to
02:49some other brand of pro wrestling nonsense. But Dolph Ziggler's first win exists in a strange
02:54hinterland between the two. Recycling an old and slightly laboured idea, Vicky Guerrero awarded
02:59him Edge's World Heavyweight Championship after the Rated-R Superstar used his spear in direct
03:04opposition of a blanket ban. He was stripped and fired, with Ziggler benefiting on both counts.
03:10As a standing authority figure for Teddy Long, it looked like the plan had worked too,
03:14all until the man himself returned from a secret attack by Ziggler and re-assumed
03:18control of the blue brand. Long booked an immediate rematch with Edge,
03:22and the show-off was without the title just 10 minutes after strapping it around his waist.
03:27Hell of a run.
03:28Number 7, Drew McIntyre.
03:30WrestleMania 36, all things considered, was quite the creative success story. The ethics of it could
03:35be debated for days, and the standard of expectation was set way, way too high for the wrestlers within
03:40that wretched performance center atmosphere as a result. But WWE actually served its consumers a
03:46night of escapist entertainment in the dark days of April 2020. A fleeting moment of something to
03:52actually save her. Unless you were Drew McIntyre. Forever immortalized as WWE's then-newest made
03:57man during an unfathomable time, the coronation was the hollowest of any in WrestleMania history.
04:03And the disappointed new title holder had to defend the belt straight after, too. Madness,
04:08I say. Due to the company's need to film everything before a brief Florida shutdown,
04:12the Big Show was drafted in for a title match that could air on Raw the night after. McIntyre looked
04:17every bit of a guy making the best of a bad situation. But best had never been so tempered,
04:22and bad situation had never been such an understatement. It was a clunky, pandemic-y start to life on top
04:27for the Scottish warrior, though it would at least become a crucial part of his compelling character's
04:32lore in the years that followed. Everycloud.
04:34Number 6, Daniel Bryan.
04:36Only Bryan Danielson could make something so surprising to outsiders seem so completely logical when
04:42explained in context. And that's what happened when he revealed how little affection he had for
04:46memories of his iconic WrestleMania 30 victory compared to an evocative defeat five years later.
04:51Comparing his contrasting emotions between New Orleans and New Jersey while speaking on my mom's
04:56basement, Bryan said,
04:58My favorite match in my career is my match with Kofi at WrestleMania 35. It's so special and such a
05:03cool moment. One of the things that I love is it's Kofi winning at the end. WrestleMania 30,
05:07my shoulder is horrible, I hurt my neck, I have this horrible pain down my arm, and I have to get
05:12up and do media the next morning. Everyone comes up to you and are like, congratulations. There's a
05:17lot of responsibility. When I wrestle Kofi, everyone goes to Kofi and says congratulations to him. I get
05:22to have my moment with him and be like, hey man, thanks, that was awesome. Then I get to hug my wife
05:27and daughter and go home the next day. Kofi's the one who has to do media and deal with people
05:31congratulating him. Like one of his exceptional matches, this was sweet, smart, and served as a
05:36reminder of just how demanding the industry can honestly be, and that this dragon has bloody
05:40earned his incoming retirement from full-time action. Cheers for checking out this video today,
05:44folks, and if you are enjoying what you're watching, then hit that subscribe button down below.
05:48Number 5, Roman Reigns. Whatever WWE had attempted to create with the closing shots from Survivor Series
05:542015 had failed. Roman Reigns didn't look sympathetic as bits of his celebratory confetti rained down from
06:01the ceiling following his first WWE Championship win. He looked pitiful as they attached themselves
06:06to his sweat-soaked grimace following a loss to Sheamus just minutes later. The big dog had been
06:11neutered by a careful Triple H plan, and all in the hope that fans would feel the way they did for
06:16other wronged parties that had suffered similar fates in the past. Instead, people simply laughed at
06:21Reigns' desperate plight, and considered him foolish for not considering the reality of a briefcase holder
06:26stepping in and taking a shot. He'd win it back soon enough and then again for the third time rather
06:31than the first in another failed WrestleMania main event. But yet more damage was done to the character
06:36in what many consider its worst ever year. The head of the table's come a long way, folks.
06:41Number 4, Randy Orton. Pretty much the worst way to turn babyface is by having your heel friends
06:47turn on you. But that's what happened to Randy Orton just 24 hours after he was strapped up as the
06:51youngest champion in WWE history. His fairly unremarkable victory over Chris Benoit at
06:56SummerSlam a night earlier should have foreshadowed how long we'd all have to put up with technically
07:01sound and methodically paced Randy Orton matches over the years. But instead, it was given a generous
07:06pass because at least somebody brand new was being given a shot. It just took a day or so to see that
07:11he was actually being taken out back like an old horse to receive it. The turn and title reign went
07:16horribly for the Legend Killer after that, wholly detestable by his very nature back then.
07:20The babyface switch wouldn't have taken even if the booking was good. And it decidedly wasn't.
07:25Orton ran away from Triple H and the lads for three weeks, then lost the belt to him at the
07:29very next pay-per-view. It wasn't a mystery why this didn't work.
07:33Number 3, CM Punk. The conclusion of CM Punk's WWE Championship match with John Cena didn't mark
07:39the first time the straight-edge superstar had lifted the company's richest prize. Nor was it
07:44particularly bleak because of the money in the bank cash-in that followed. But trust WWE to end the
07:49match to determine an undisputed champion with a finish and follow-through that could be disputed
07:55for months by about six different claimants. Beating Cena inside Chicago's molten All-State
08:00Arena the prior month had been the real moment that capitalized on Punk's epic pipe-bomb promo.
08:05An intentionally unclear finish and a diluted rematch at the biggest party of the summer felt
08:10entirely as though WWE had taken back complete control of the wheel. Especially when Kevin Nash
08:15bulldozed through him and opened the door for an Alberto Del Rio smash and grab. Losing the title
08:19wasn't what made any of this the worst first day. But when Punk lost grip on the angle that could
08:24have changed everything, well, we all lost out. A dark, dark day it was.
08:29Number 2, Rey Mysterio. Rey Mysterio being the wrestler chosen for this rather strange role in 2011
08:35remains one of the more perplexing booking decisions in WWE history. And that includes unearthing
08:40Big Sexy himself of all people for a payoff down the road. To recap before the aforementioned
08:45SummerSlam atrocity, CM Punk had brought shame on WWE or John Cena or whatever Vince McMahon deemed
08:52most believable with his win at Money in the Bank. No longer under contract in kayfabe, he was thus also
08:58not WWE Champion regardless of how the fans felt. So to just get on with their business as if everything
09:04was normal, the top wrestlers on Monday Night Raw were lumped into a tournament to become champion,
09:09eventually won by Mysterio. A fresh Cena, despite being the great shamer in all of this,
09:14then got a shot at the knackered opponent and won. He'd barely held the belt aloft before Punk suddenly
09:19returned, dropping an asterisk next to Cena and Rey's names for eternity anyway. What a weird bit of
09:25business. And number 1, Batista. It'd have been a long hard road back to the WWE Championship for
09:30Dave Batista when he finally defeated Randy Orton for it at Extreme Rules 2009. But the animal's dream was
09:37yet again cut short by injury. Big Dave had torn his bicep in the steel cage clash with Randy Orton
09:43one night prior, and thus barely appeared on screen with the belt before he was beaten down and
09:47hospitalized by the Vipers' legacy stablemates Cody Rhodes and Ted DiBiase. Orton attempted to declare
09:53himself champion, but an attack by a returning Triple H resulted in both being added to a fatal
09:58four-way match with John Cena and the Big Show weeks later for the now vacant prize. Stripped of
10:04the gold as he was being strapped to a gurney, Batista returned later that year full of significant
10:09sick-of-this-crap energy. Getting revenge on Randy Orton before moving to Snackerdown,
10:14the former champion violently soon turned on former friend Rey Mysterio after yet another attempt to
10:19recapture gold went awry. If only they'd just give him what he wanted! Have you enjoyed this
10:24worst first days for WWE Champions video? Well then check out this 10 wrestlers who asked to drop
10:29their title one too. You'll have a ball, trust me.
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