- 7 weeks ago
From historic firsts being ruined to year-long mysteries with no payoff, we're diving into the worst moments in wrestling history and the even worse excuses the companies gave for them. Join us as we break down 10 times the explanation made things so much worse.
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00:00So much like in life, sometimes wrestling makes a mistake.
00:03That's mostly okay.
00:05I mean, even if you offend somebody, if you come out after the fact and say,
00:08listen, I didn't mean to do that, please accept our forgiveness.
00:12Well, maybe that's what you're going to get.
00:14But as you already know, nine times out of ten, the industry turns around and says,
00:18no, we have an excuse for that.
00:19And then they start to make it worse.
00:21It basically comes down to the fact that not all excuses are valid.
00:24So hello, my friends.
00:25I am Simon Miller.
00:27Let us sit down.
00:28Stand.
00:28It's totally up to you.
00:30And talk about the worst excuses for terrible wrestling moments.
00:34So what happened here?
00:35Well, James Ellsworth, who did go on a bit of a run on the WWE main roster,
00:39was involved in the first ever women's money in the bank match.
00:42That made sense.
00:43He was friends with Carmella.
00:45He can just stand outside the ring and look like a buffoon.
00:48Why the flub not?
00:49And then during the 2017 pay-per-view, it was actually Ellsworth that shimmied his way up
00:54the ladder, grabbed the briefcase, and pulled it down before tossing it to his now best pal.
00:59Now on television, WWE explained this by sending Daniel Bryan, the then SmackDown GM, out there
01:04so he could say, well, this is actually super-duper great because now we can do a rematch.
01:09And won't that be awesome?
01:10You could all watch it on free TV.
01:12Well, no, that did not sit well with fans at all, because most people said, uh, excuse
01:16me, did you just have a male wrestler win the first ever female money in the bank contest?
01:22And the answer, in a roundabout way, was yes.
01:24It was pretty damn dumb.
01:26Now listen, James Ellsworth could have got involved over and over again with other competitors
01:30throwing him out the ring.
01:31But it really did take a historic moment and flushed it down the toilet.
01:35And if you've watched any of the Attitude Era, you know that's the last thing the WWE
01:39needed to be doing, especially in 2017.
01:42Let's just face it.
01:43This was a massive mistake.
01:45But don't pretend you're getting a rematch.
01:47Counts as making it all right.
01:48Number nine, WWE didn't write an anonymous GM conclusion.
01:52So you all remember this one, because in 2010, Vince McMahon decided what the WWE really needed
01:57was an anonymous Raw general manager who would make decisions.
02:01If you're brand new to wrestling and wondering how that worked, well, there was a laptop next
02:05to Michael Cole.
02:06And when it made a noise, the lead commentator would go over and read an email.
02:10If you're now screaming into the abyss, don't worry.
02:13We all were too.
02:14The idea totally got killed in 2011 before from nowhere returned in 2012, because Vince
02:19decided that porn swoggle should be the culprit from all of this, meaning years and years
02:23worth of television was meant to be a joke.
02:26In fact, I'm sure you can figure this one out as well, but the excuse that WWE gave us
02:30behind the scenes was that when Vince McMahon came up with this idea, he didn't have an
02:35ending, so there was no one actually chosen.
02:37Now, listen, it doesn't matter whether it's wrestling, some kind of TV show, or a movie.
02:41You can't write a story if you don't know the conclusion.
02:44So we should have picked someone here and decided, we're going to push you at the end
02:48of this, and in fact, we did the opposite, and we just pissed everybody off.
02:51I mean, imagine you watch The Wizard of Oz, and when you get into his special chamber,
02:54it's just a blank seat.
02:56I mean, maybe you could have assumed it was John Cena, but I doubt it.
02:59And I suppose some of you could argue, well, at least then we did get horn swoggle, but
03:03I would tell you to go and watch this today, and you can tell me if you think it's good
03:07television.
03:08I can tell you you can't change my mind.
03:10I thought it sucked.
03:11Number eight, The Fiend and Seth Rollins need a rematch stipulation.
03:14So given that Seth Rollins had been pushed to the brink by Bray Wyatt's hijinks in 2019,
03:19they did compete in Hell in a Cell when Seth decided to smash Bray Wyatt's face with a
03:24sledgehammer.
03:24The referee then stopped this contest, which sent the world into meltdown, because yeah,
03:29this was the Hell in a Cell, and the whole point was, you don't get a stoppage, it can
03:33just go on and on and on until we get a winner.
03:36It was absolutely ridiculous.
03:37And this got so bad that fans actually booed the finish, and it affected Seth Rollins so
03:42much we had to abandon his babyface turn and turn him heel.
03:45I mean, that is proper bottom of the barrel stuff.
03:47Now, of course, WWE did this for two reasons.
03:49The first being, they thought this was going to protect Bray Wyatt's Fiend character.
03:54Well, I'll tell you a better way to do that.
03:56Just have him win.
03:57The second one they came up with is that they thought it handed creative an easy route to
04:00get to a follow-up match in Saudi Arabia at Crown Jewel.
04:03And sure, they did that, and Bray Wyatt became the world champion.
04:06But at the same time, don't take the Hell in a Cell stipulation and flush it down the
04:11toilet.
04:11You'll never be able to convince me that they didn't see this coming.
04:14The best part about round two as well is that we got told this match cannot be stopped
04:18for any reason, but they forgot to say pinfalls.
04:21So really, it should be going on right now.
04:23The truth, of course, is that WWE just booked a stupid finish for that Hell in a Cell and
04:27then had to get out of jail as quickly as they possibly could.
04:30But this ruined WWE television for ages, and poor Seth Rollins took forever before he found
04:36balance again.
04:37Don't like to use bad words, but let's just say it was unforgivable S-H-I-T-E.
04:42And once again, you don't have to believe me, the evidence is all there.
04:46Number seven, AEW's big explosion goes out with a whimper.
04:49So if you tuned in to AEW Revolution 2021 for the Kenny Omega John Moxley barbed wire explosion,
04:55oh my gosh, can you believe it, match?
04:56Well, you've probably finished the night being very confused, because just when the
05:00whole ring was about to go kaboom, instead we just got some sparklers.
05:04Felt sorry for Eddie Kingston as well, who had run down to the ring to protect his best
05:07friend.
05:08Then he had to lay there like he was about to be engulfed in fireworks.
05:12But no, I think a child could have handled this.
05:14Now, of course, this was awful and AEW knew it too, just go and watch the subsequent dynamite.
05:18And I suppose to try and save some faith, the company said, hey man, we bought on a pyrotechnic
05:23team and everything was fine in rehearsals, we don't understand what happened.
05:27This was one of those occasions we've already talked about, though, where you do just have
05:30to hold your hands up and say, all right, we dropped the ball here.
05:34We're just going to dust ourselves off and carry on.
05:36What made it even worse is that Japanese wrestling explosion legend Atsushi Anita was
05:41literally talking about this during the build.
05:43And man, you don't want to crap on his legacy either.
05:46Now, fair play to everybody involved in this, because they did go on dynamite and kind of
05:49made it a funny, funny, but yeah, fans were really mad about this and understand why you
05:55paid a lot of money for the pay-per-view.
05:56Number six, the Usos blame a WrestleMania time cut.
05:59So, of course, back at WrestleMania Saturday in April 2024, we did get the big Uso match
06:04as Jimmy took on J. Good grief, a lot of people did not like this.
06:08Though I will say it definitely didn't hit expectations, but it's nowhere near as bad
06:12as some people made out.
06:13But given that it did go down on WrestleMania, yeah, sure, it was a little bit forgettable.
06:18That's not what you want.
06:19Looking back now, of course, it was also meant to take Jey Uso up to the next level, and
06:23we didn't achieve that ever.
06:25So it's just one of those things that didn't come together.
06:27I think Jey and Jimmy knew this as well.
06:29And when they were asked about it in an interview, they said, well, you know what?
06:33Our time got cut, and we should have gone longer.
06:36And of course, the fans responded to that by going, no, man, we didn't want to see any
06:40more of this.
06:41That definitely wasn't the issue.
06:43Now, of course, wrestlers are very delicate when it comes to time, which I can completely understand,
06:46damn, because if you've got a story you want to tell, you don't want to all of a sudden
06:49lose a bunch of minutes.
06:50But this is yet another one of those situations where you just look at the floor and you walk
06:55away, and you go back out on the next pay-per-view and you absolutely kill it, and then the
06:59crowd's
06:59going to move on anyway.
07:00We see it all the time.
07:01I do want to end this one, though, by saying the aftermath has made this far worse than it
07:05actually is.
07:06It's like a very average match that just so happens to go down on the show of shows.
07:11It is most definitely not the worst thing you will ever see.
07:13Number 5, WWF Just Couldn't Get Those WCW Big Names
07:18So when the WWF bought out WCW in March 2001, everybody got excited because we were about
07:24to have the invasion angle.
07:25Can you imagine Goldberg, Ric Flair, Sting, Hulk Hogan, Scott Hall, and Kevin Nash actually
07:30coming to the World Wrestling Federation and starting a war?
07:33This was going to be the best moment in sports entertainment history.
07:36And it was totally crap because none of the guys I just talked to you about actually turned
07:39up.
07:39Now, the reason for this is because if you worked for WCW and it did close, your contracts
07:44were actually covered by AOL.
07:46So if you just wanted to sit at home and make your money, you didn't have to do a damn
07:49thing,
07:50and the money was still going to come in the mailbox.
07:52It meant that Vince McMahon and co. would have to overspend to get these stars, so they decided
07:56against it, mostly because they didn't want to break the WWE wage structure.
08:00I mean, if all of a sudden they paid these individuals more, Steve Austin would be knocking
08:04at the door too.
08:05And while I can understand all that, do you understand what a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity
08:09this was?
08:10The WWF was about to make monster money anyway in 2001, so we should have opened that damn
08:15checkbook and signed every single one of them to WWF deals.
08:19It means now, when we did look back at the invasion, we wouldn't be crying into our cornflakes,
08:23and we probably would be saying, my gosh, that was the best thing that has ever happened
08:27bar none.
08:28It got even more ridiculous because of course the years after this, they all did turn up
08:31anyway, usually to a lesser impact.
08:33This was dumb, and this was stupid, and all you really needed was the NWM and Goldberg
08:38anyway.
08:39I mean, wonders never cease.
08:40Number four, nobody would predict David Arquette.
08:43So I'm sure you've heard of this, but on the off chance you haven't, on the 26th of April
08:472000 episode of WCW Thunder, Vince Russo thought it would be a great idea to make David Arquette,
08:53yes, the actor, the WCW World Champion.
08:56Now every time I do talk about David, I like to point out he took all his wrestling money
09:00and gave it to wrestling families who had suffered a tragedy, so that guy is awesome.
09:04It's also proper shenanigans because somehow Arquette won it in a tag team match, and why
09:09did we do this?
09:10Because we thought it would shock so many people, they would tune into Nitro.
09:14I can tell you this, my friends, they did not.
09:16Now yes, while it was Tony Schiavone who came up with this idea, I'm 99% sure he was joking,
09:20and in terms of Vince Russo, he loved it for the same reason he loved everything that was
09:25a swerve, the audience is never going to see it coming.
09:28But by that logic, you can make an elephant the WCW Champion, I don't think anybody's
09:33going to see that coming too.
09:34Even Arquette, when this was presented to him, said, yeah, I don't think we should do
09:38that, but he went along with it anyway, and fans absolutely hated it.
09:42I mean, if you were into WCW, the last thing you wanted was WWE Sports Entertainment BS, and
09:47that's what you got.
09:48But hey man, it's a swerve bro, and nobody's going to see it coming?
09:52Flab off.
09:53Number three, Cody Rhodes needed better facials.
09:56Now listen, no, I'm not about to start talking to you in sexual innuendo, but I am going
10:00to go back to the February 2024 edition of SmackDown, when yes, Raw Rumble winner Cody
10:05Rhodes walked to the ring and said, you know what, I am not going to fight you Roman Reigns,
10:09because The Rock's going to instead.
10:11Quite funny, when you do watch that show now, the fans are well into this, and over the weekend
10:15it all went nuts.
10:16And that's because people decided they didn't want Cody Rhodes to go away, so the We Want Cody
10:20Hashtag began, and after the fact, all the WWE bigwits got together to talk about this,
10:25and they even made a documentary about it.
10:27Now I don't know whether XWW writer and The Rock's main man Brian Gewurz meant it like
10:31he did say it, but he said the reason he felt like this didn't go to plan is because Cody
10:36Rose didn't have the right facial expression.
10:38Now, Cody does look very sad as he is walking to the back, but that's because he was sad.
10:43The real life Cody Reynolds absolutely wanted that match.
10:45The thing is, I do not buy the fact that if the American Nightmare did skip away pumping
10:49his fist, the fans would have reacted any differently.
10:52They just wanted to see Cody finish his story, and they wanted to see it at WrestleMania 40.
10:57This wasn't anything even to do with The Rock's, we all know that he's an old-timer anyway,
11:01he's just where we were in our lives.
11:03Sometimes wrestling fans can be very stubborn.
11:05So we really don't know why Gewurz said that, and again, maybe it was just for the documentary
11:08itself, but yeah, there's nothing Cody could have done here, because a wrestling fan wants
11:13or a wrestling fan wants.
11:15Number two, AEW airs the CM Punk footage.
11:17So everything that happened with CM Punk and AEW at the end of his tenure there was bad.
11:22And yes, once he had left, there was a horrible cloud over the promotion.
11:25Doesn't matter whether you think that's a good thing or a bad thing.
11:27That's just what happened.
11:29Sometimes businesses do get affected by outside ongoings.
11:32There was so much controversy about this from both sides that on the 10th of April 2024 episode
11:36of Dynamite, Tony Khan did decide to air the footage backstage at Wembley, when yes,
11:41CM Punk and Jack Perry got into it, when they had a little bit of a scuffle.
11:45Back then, people didn't really understand why he was doing it.
11:48And even today, well, doesn't really feel like the best choice.
11:51The Young Bucks introduced this segment as well, which of course tied into the story
11:54away from the ring, which is also a little bit confusing.
11:57And mostly this came off the back of a CM Punk Ariel Hawane interview, where AEW wanted
12:02to put their side forward.
12:04Now I could understand that, because again, there was a lot of mudslinging here.
12:08But sometimes I just think it's better to turn the other cheek.
12:11And in hindsight, I think AEW would agree too.
12:14There is some logic, because you should have the right to reply when the fans don't like
12:18it and the fans are the most important thing.
12:20Ah yeah, it's not the best look.
12:22And it certainly didn't help after the fact.
12:24But look, it's all calmed down now.
12:26So if you ever want to see it, well, you absolutely can.
12:29Number one, Vince wanted to give Melanie Pillman time.
12:32So if you were watching wrestling back on the 6th of October 1997, you would have been hit
12:36by the news that Brian Pillman had been found dead in his hotel room.
12:39It was absolutely horrible and one of the early wrestling tragedies that left you feeling
12:43cold.
12:44For some reason, 24 hours later, Vince McMahon decided he was going to interview his wife
12:47mentally on the air.
12:49And well, it was one of the most sensationalist things that Raw has ever done.
12:53And no, it was not good.
12:54I mean, even if this was done for the right reasons, I don't think you should put a grieving
12:58widow on TV just one day later.
13:00And when Bruce Pritchard talked about this on his podcast, he basically implied that a man
13:05genuinely just wanted to give Melanie a chance to tell her story.
13:08And that's totally fine.
13:09But my gosh, at least wait a couple of months so she can get her thoughts together.
13:13And seeing somebody this upset being grilled on live television, well, it was really, really
13:18bad.
13:19Some people even called it a blatant exploitation.
13:21I do think it'd be hard to argue against that fact.
13:24And let's not forget what Raw, Smackdown, Dynamite or New Japan is meant to be.
13:28It's a distraction from your real life.
13:30So when all of a sudden you do pour this stuff into it and present it as entertainment,
13:34it's not good.
13:35It's very bad.
13:36And we should never do it again.
13:38And I'm quite confident sitting here in August 2025 that that is not a problem we will ever
13:42have to address.
13:43Know of any other times where we did get silly excuses for mistakes made on television?
13:47Well, make sure you let us know in the comments below.
13:49Before you like the video, share the video and subscribe.
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13:55life.
13:55But otherwise, my friends, I appreciate you and I will talk to you again soon.