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00:00When you get to the ultra-exclusive WWE Main Eventers Club, you soon find out that the
00:05creative team will do everything within their power to have you avoid losing matches cleanly.
00:11Sure, you might take an L because the other guy cheated or some other circumstance that
00:16protects you, but rarely will you get beaten fair and square. Rarely, but not never, as everybody,
00:23even the tippity-top guys, eventually loses clean unless you're that Ultimate Warrior guy.
00:29Depending on the opponent, situation, follow-up, or lack thereof, these clean losses can be
00:35genuinely shocking. I'm Sam Driver from Cultaholic Wrestling, and these are 10 shocking times major
00:41WWE stars lost clean. Join us!
00:4610. The Undertaker vs. Vladimir Kozlov February 27, 2009 Smackdown
00:52The Foreign Menace is a well-worn pro-wrestling archetype that WWE have implemented to varying
00:58degrees of success over the years. Because for every Yokozuna, there's a Ludwig Borger,
01:04and for every Rusev, a Vladimir Kozlov. WWE were initially very high on Kozlov after he got
01:11brought up to the main roster, with the Moscow Mauler squashing his way into the WWE title scene.
01:17Big Bad Vlad didn't win the Big One, thank God, but his push continued and he was awarded a very rare
01:23and exceptionally clean victory over The Undertaker on the February 27, 2009 edition of Smackdown.
01:31Kozlov reversed old school into a power slam and scored the pin. One, two, three, right in the
01:37middle. No funny business whatsoever. What makes this one even more shocking is that,
01:42according to The Dead Man, Vince McMahon had designs on booking Kozlov as the man to break
01:47the streak at WrestleMania 25 shortly afterwards. Mercifully, cooler heads prevailed, and Shawn
01:53Michaels ended up beating Kozlov to earn his shot at the streak instead, which was the first time
01:59Vlad had ever been pinned in a one-on-one match. WWE soon gave up on Kozlov, as evidenced by his switch
02:06to ECW in the draft, making his victory overtaker an even bigger head-scratcher.
02:119. Triple H vs. Shelton Benjamin, March 29, 2004 Raw
02:17Routinely touted as perhaps the best actual athlete in the much-vaunted Ohio Valley wrestling
02:23class of 2000, Shelton Benjamin got to show flashes of his brilliance after being brought
02:28up in a tag team with Charlie Haas. Team Angle, or the world's greatest tag team, had a fruitful
02:34run on Smackdown before Benjamin was sent to Raw in the 2004 draft.
02:38Thrown right into the deep end on the red brand, Shelton was put in a main event singles match
02:44with Triple H the week after he was drafted. More than holding his own with the Cerebral
02:49Assassin in his Raw debut, Benjamin pulled off the incredible upset and got the W after a stinger
02:55splash and a roll-up. Now, there were some shenanigans at play here, as world heavyweight
03:00champion Chris Benoit counteracted Ric Flair's interference at ringside and distracted the game.
03:06His attention may have been on the floor, but Shelton beat him fair and true, giving Triple
03:11H a rare loss, especially for this era. Helmsley would have trouble figuring out a way to beat
03:16Benjamin in singles matches, before finally getting his win in a beat-the-clock challenge
03:21on the final Raw of 2004.
03:248. John Cena vs. Justin Gabriel on the August 30, 2010 Raw
03:29Few wrestlers in WWE history enjoyed a main event run as long or as strong as John Cena.
03:37Over five years on from winning his first WWE title, the one-man merchandise machine was
03:43the main man in the company, and the booking protected him at all costs most of the time.
03:48This famously irked many when it came to the main event of SummerSlam 2010, where Super
03:54Cena survived a DDT on the concrete floor to rally and beat both Justin Gabriel and Wade
04:00Barrett, which pretty much finished off the Nexus as a viable threat.
04:04Gabriel did manage to score a measure of revenge 15 days later, however, when Nexus once again
04:10clashed with the WWE team in an elimination tag match on Raw.
04:14Cena and Autumn were down five on two when Big Match John got rid of Heath Slater and then
04:19David Otunga. After making Otunga tap to the STF, however, Cena rolled right into Gabriel's
04:26450 splash and got eliminated. I'm sure you'll all be shocked to learn that Cena wrestled and
04:31beat Gabriel cleanly in a singles match on Raw the following week.
04:357. Ric Flair vs. Rico on the September 16, 2002 Raw
04:41Look, we all love Rico, right? The guy was a hoot and did his utmost to make everything he
04:46was given entertaining, and I'd go as far as to say he's my favorite stylist in WWE history.
04:52Easily top three.
04:53But as good as Rico was, he wasn't Ric Flair, whose legacy as one of the industry's greatest
04:59of all time had been firmly established long before he returned to WWE in late 2001.
05:06After a run as kayfabe WWE co-owner, the Nature Boy became an active competitor once again as a
05:12member of the Raw roster. Six days before he was due to challenge soon-to-be-intercontinental
05:18champion Chris Jericho at Unforgiven, Flair kicked off Raw in a match against Rico.
05:23One would think that this would be a relatively easy warm-up for Slick Rick, but he ended up
05:28tasting defeat after Rico blasted him with a spinning karate kick. There was no interference
05:33from Y2J to set it up either. Rico had tried to bring a chair in but was prevented from doing so,
05:39and after Flair mulled over using the steel weapon himself, Rico took advantage of the
05:43momentary laps in concentration and scored a major upset. Flair tried to grab the rope and kicked out
05:50at 3.1, but a win is a win, and it looks sooo good to me.
05:576. Goldberg vs Braun Strowman at WrestleMania 36
06:01At Super Showdown 2020, Goldberg smashed through The Fiend to win the WWE Universal Championship,
06:08a booking decision that everyone universally agreed was the absolute best one available.
06:15Nobody was mad.
06:16The Man was scheduled to defend and presumably drop his title against Roman Reigns at WrestleMania 36.
06:22However, when the COVID-19 pandemic did a run-in, The Big Dog, who was worried about
06:27being immunocompromised after twice battling leukemia, pulled out of the match.
06:32WWE instead turned to Braun Strowman as plan B. Considering he was just thrown in there as a
06:39challenger and had a rotten record when it came to Universal title matches, most people assumed the
06:44monster among men was doing the J-O-B so that Goldberg could properly drop the strap to Roman
06:49at a later date. But on the night, Braun not only beat Goldberg, but he beat him handily and cleanly
06:57to become the new champ. Goldberg had put some people over since his return, notably Brock Lesnar
07:02and The Undertaker, but it was still a shock to see Strowman, of all people, beat him clean.
07:07Braun's win made subsequent Goldberg losses against Drew McIntyre, Bobby Lashley, Reigns,
07:13and finally Gunter somewhat less shocking.
07:165. The Undertaker vs Kama Mustafa on the June 16, 1997 Raw
07:22From the very get-go, few characters in WWE history were as protected as The Undertaker,
07:29who rarely ever lost, and almost never lost cleanly. If you wanted to beat the Phenom,
07:35then you better call your friends to help, or bash his head in with a blunt object,
07:39or bury him alive or something, because the man was not going down without a fight.
07:44Unless he was wrestling his best mate, in which case a single uranagi would do the job.
07:49On the June 16, 1997 episode of Raw, Taker, who was WWE Champion at the time,
07:55was teaming with Ahmed Johnson against Farouk and Kama Mustafa,
07:59in what was Charles Wright's first WWE match since the 1996 Royal Rumble,
08:04where she entered as Kama the Supreme Fighting Machine.
08:07The story was that Taker didn't have the chance to tag out as Ahmed was beefing with Paul Bearer
08:13at ringside, but that doesn't disguise the fact that Kama fairly beat him up and pinned him with relative ease.
08:19I guess when you BSK for life, Mark Calloway is happy to stare at the ceiling for you,
08:24unless you're naked Midian, in which case you simply must put on a pair of pants.
08:304. Bret Hart vs. Owen Hart at WrestleMania 10
08:34At WrestleMania 10, Bret Hart was focused on regaining the WWE title when he met the winner
08:40of Yokozuna vs. Lex Luger in the show's main event.
08:43But before he got there, however, the hitman had a little bit of family business to attend to.
08:49Namely, whooping his younger brother Owen's arse in the show's opener.
08:53The jealous Rocket had famously kicked his elder sibling's leg out of his leg,
08:58and was determined to show that he wasn't just as good, but even better than the best there is,
09:04was, and ever will be.
09:06Given that Bret was a former WWE champion challenging for the title later that night,
09:11and Owen had, to this point, been an entertaining mid-carder without much of a push,
09:16all signs pointed to the excellence of execution getting his hand raised on the grandest stage.
09:22But in a shocking outcome, Owen cleverly countered his brother's victory roll
09:26and walked out the winner.
09:28It was a tremendous finish to a tremendous match, and did much to raise Owen's stock,
09:33setting him up nicely for a WWE title program with Bret a few months down the line.
09:393. Brock Lesnar vs. Chris Benoit at Survivor Series 2003
09:44In the fall of 2003, Brock Lesnar was, shall we say, on one?
09:50The reigning WWE champion had been on a real tear, brutalizing the likes of Paul London,
09:57Brian Kendrick, and Zach Gowan, while claiming big victories over Kurt Angle and The Undertaker.
10:02Needless to say, he looked dominant.
10:05Heading into the Survivor Series, the next big thing was flanked by four other pretty big things
10:11in the shape of The Big Show, A-Train, Matt Morgan, and Nathan Jones.
10:16With such an imposing squad of beef boys by his side, it seemed unlikely that Lesnar would be in
10:22any danger of losing to the team of Kurt Angle, John Cena, Bradshaw, Hardcore Holly, and Chris Benoit.
10:29But in the end, it got down to Brock and Show against Cena and Benoit, when, almost out of nowhere,
10:36the rabid Wolverine slapped on the crippler Crossface and made the champ tap out.
10:41This was shocking for many reasons.
10:44One, Lesnar wasn't even the final man.
10:47Two, he tapped out.
10:49And three, he tapped out to Benoit, who may have been an excellent and popular wrestler in his own right,
10:55but was by no means a main eventer at that time.
10:58Number two, Hulk Hogan vs. Kurt Angle at King of the Ring 2002.
11:04Hulk Hogan had made a career out of that not working for him, brother,
11:07but when he returned to WWE in 2002, the Hulkster wasn't in as strong as a position to call the shots,
11:14and had to put some people over.
11:16Doing the honors for The Rock at WrestleMania X8 wasn't such a huge shock,
11:21and really, few remembered or even cared about the results since Hogan was as over as he'd ever been,
11:26and the crowd were in the palm of his hand the entire time.
11:29But after that reaction turned him back babyface, and a nostalgia runner's undisputed champion flopped,
11:35Vince McMahon decided that the best use of Hogan would be for him to give the rub to the next generation of stars.
11:41Which included the imperious Kurt Angle, who avoided the leg drop of doom
11:46and made Hogan tap out to the ankle lock right there in the center of the ring at the 2002 King of the Ring.
11:53The Olympic hero was a main event player and former WWE champion in his own right, yes,
11:58but witnessing Hulk not only lose clean, but actually tap out for the first time ever,
12:04was truly a shocking sight to see, dude.
12:07And number 1, Randy Orton vs. Kofi Kingston on the January 13th, 2014 Raw
12:14Kofi Kingston famously scored a clean pin on Randy Orton at the 2009 Survivor Series pay-per-view,
12:20the start of a big push that never really came to fruition because of reasons that are stupid, stupid.
12:27But when Orton and Kofi clashed on the January 13th, 2014 episode of Raw,
12:32the Viper was the WWE World Heavyweight Champion gearing up for a Royal Rumble showdown with John Cena,
12:39while Kingston was aimlessly drifting as a jobber to the stars.
12:44The two had their usual match, with Randy controlling large portions of it with his trusty chin lock.
12:49If you were a betting man, you'd have put money on Orton hitting an RKO
12:52and securing a momentum-boosting win on the road to the Rumble.
12:56And this is why I'm not a betting man,
12:58because Kofi somehow managed to evade an elevated DDT and hit an SOS to pin the champ clean.
13:05No banana peels, no distractions, no interference,
13:09Kingston simply out-wrestled Randy and got his shoulders flat on the mat for the three count.
13:14Not bad going for a man whose previous televised match was a loss to Damien Sandow on main event.