- 5 minutes ago
Sometimes, the road to the main event is paved with bad booking. This video explores 10 wrestlers, including Chyna and a young Randy Orton, who WWE tried to protect, only for it to backfire in the worst way possible. Discover the stories behind these infamous creative missteps.
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00:00So it is smart to protect wrestling stars that you want to push.
00:03Everybody has a weakness, so don't exploit that.
00:05Just go and do the Paul Heyman.
00:07You push the strengths, and then we all win.
00:09Sometimes, for whatever reason, WWE has gone the other way, though.
00:12I mean, think Bill Goldberg in 2003.
00:14WWE just should have used Bill, as he was using WCW.
00:18But note, we've got to change him.
00:19There are always reasons for this, though, so let us jump into it.
00:22And yes, on behalf of what cultural wrestling it is, I, Simon of the Bald Idiot.
00:26And let's take some wrestling protection and throw it out of the window.
00:30Number 10, The Ultimate Warrior.
00:31The Ultimate Warrior was fired in 1992 and brought back in 1996.
00:35It would have happened earlier.
00:36But The Warrior and Vince McMahon loved to fall out.
00:39They were like siblings.
00:40It was their favorite thing to do.
00:41As WCW was getting momentum with Nitro, though, we tried again.
00:44And yes, WrestleMania 12.
00:46The Ultimate One was back and infamously destroyed Triple H.
00:49You can hear all parties involved talk about this today.
00:52And I'm just going to say, my friends, it was most definitely a thing.
00:55The issue with that from this point on, however,
00:56was The Ultimate Warrior was booked exactly the same as he was in 1992.
01:00And, well, that just didn't work.
01:03Wasn't his fault either.
01:04Welcome to life.
01:05In 1996, the likes of Shawn Michaels and Bret Hart had reconditioned the audience.
01:09It doesn't mean stars like The Warrior couldn't have adopted to this.
01:12But the word on the street was, he just didn't want to do that.
01:15He fancied running the same plays because he was The Warrior.
01:18You can kind of see it happen in real time, too,
01:20should you wish to go back to the mid-90s.
01:22Fans kind of tune out just because they wanted The Ultimate One in a new environment,
01:27not the one they had seen four years beforehand.
01:29And, hey, maybe some of that crowd didn't even know he existed.
01:32They were brand new.
01:34So, ultimately, ironically, when you did push all of this together,
01:37well, it was a massive bust.
01:39And we would never see The Ultimate Warrior in the WWE again until 2014.
01:43Number 9, Baron Corbin's End of Days.
01:46So, this one is a bit weird, but please do stick with me.
01:48WrestleMania 38, Drew McIntyre versus Baron Corbin.
01:51Baron Corbin hits the end of days, and the flipping Scottish Warrior kicked out,
01:55and nobody had ever done this.
01:57It's why Baron deserves way more praise than he does get,
01:59because think of the modern day.
02:00The traditional main event now means we have to kick out of at least 68 finishes
02:04before we get to the 1-2-3, but not Corbin.
02:07He decided to go back in time and stick to the word literally,
02:10this was a finish.
02:11Now, that doesn't mean that somebody never kicks out.
02:13You just pick your moments, and that's the whole point of building it.
02:16You can actually give something to somebody else.
02:18And yes, on that note, McIntyre was in line for huge plans post-WrestleMania 38,
02:22so why not get him as much momentum as possible?
02:24There's logic there.
02:25It's not 2 plus 2 equals potato.
02:27The problem is when you do watch the TV at the time.
02:30WWE just did not do a big enough song and dance about this,
02:33and the fact this was a real thing.
02:35I mean, for months that should have been the story.
02:37The End of Days is devastating.
02:38Nobody can kick out of The End of Days.
02:40And then sure, take Baron Corbin and deliberately have him ruin some people with what?
02:44The End of Days.
02:45So it's not a massive deal, but it was a little bit upsetting, or that's a bit strong.
02:49I just don't think the commentators sold it to the degree it needed to be sold either.
02:53Imagine you were a first-time watcher.
02:54We're going back to that again.
02:56It needs to be thrown in your face like some kind of vomit.
02:59Shouldn't have said that.
03:00So it was a shame, really, and it could have been more.
03:02And I think that would have helped Drew too,
03:04because he then as well could have gone crazy about it.
03:06Yeah, turn it into a moment.
03:08Let's face it, WWE loves moments.
03:10Number 8, China's unique path.
03:12The last year of China's WWE run was pretty difficult.
03:15She had wanted to stay in the men's division, but WWE had different plans.
03:19We've done that, it worked, you are a star, but we're going to make you the face of the females.
03:23It meant come renegotiating time, they also didn't see eye to eye.
03:26She left the company, and we never got around to.
03:29Now let me make things clear before we do get into this.
03:32China opened doors.
03:33Who knows where we would be otherwise?
03:35But WWE kind of left her between a rock and a hard place.
03:38Chris Jericho has said Vince McMahon once chastised him for working too stiff with China,
03:42even though he was also told beforehand, make sure you treat her like one of the guys.
03:46No excuses.
03:47It just created this strange middle ground where China had to be protected by the men,
03:51but now you're telling her to go fight exclusively with the women.
03:53I guess her being a trendsetter was the actual issue,
03:56because WWE didn't know how to approach it after the fact.
04:00China also didn't help herself either,
04:01because she demanded to squash Ivory at WrestleMania 18,
04:04and yeah, go and watch it.
04:06Once again, we could have just done so much more.
04:08I just don't think WWE knew what to do once the official wave of oh my gosh had passed,
04:13and maybe they never expected it to begin with.
04:16Do go and tune in to the late 90s though to see this.
04:19She was crazy over.
04:20Number seven, young Randy Orton.
04:22You can't get away from it if you are a wrestling historian.
04:25It's all there, and I feel like Randy Orton would tell you firsthand.
04:28During his younger years, he was a menace to society outside of the ring,
04:32and likely conducted himself in a manner that would have seen anybody else get fired.
04:36Because WWE saw the talent and star power Randy had though,
04:39well, he got the opposite treatment.
04:41Even John Cena once said new Randy Orton would not have liked old Randy Orton,
04:45and that's because he's matured into a trusted performer,
04:47and he is an absolute goat.
04:49I suppose the problem here is that years prior,
04:51WWE's failure to actually show Orton he can't do this,
04:54meant he didn't get past this stage faster.
04:56Must have been frustrating for those around him,
04:58because they all knew how good he was.
05:00Even Triple H just talked about this when he was going to hire Randy for Evolution.
05:04He wasn't actually 100% sure,
05:06because Orton was a little bit of a loose cannon,
05:08and that's just not the way that you can be.
05:09Thankfully, this did turn out okay,
05:11and these days, man, what an absolute dude.
05:14Randy Orton is the best.
05:15Number six, the rise of King Mabel.
05:17By all accounts, Mabel was a lovely guy.
05:20It's crucial to state that.
05:21Wrestling is the most important of the least important things,
05:24and it's nice that he was nice.
05:25So more of that.
05:26When Vince McMahon did decide to push him to the moon in 1995, though,
05:30some fans were confused.
05:31Men on a mission were a fun tag team,
05:33but nobody saw this.
05:35Mabel was huge, however,
05:36so yeah, McMahon thought he was going to give it a go.
05:39It started with a big old win at the King of the Ring,
05:40when a very consistent problem arrived.
05:42Mabel would hurt everyone.
05:44He crossed The Undertaker's orbital bone for starters,
05:47which is why the dead man started wearing that mask,
05:49and he also hurt world champion Diesel at SummerSlam.
05:51You can see this blatantly if you do watch two,
05:54some of the shots.
05:56Shoosh.
05:56Vince did not want to admit this was an error,
05:58and we've seen that before,
05:59which meant he kind of just kept pushing forward,
06:01hoping things would be okay.
06:03That's mad,
06:04because had we just sat down with Mabel and said,
06:06oh, hey, dude,
06:07calm down,
06:07or you're probably going to lose your spot.
06:09Well, I'm sure he probably would have done,
06:11or at least tried.
06:12Instead, eventually,
06:12we did just pull the plug on this,
06:14and Mabel went back to where he was.
06:16And sure,
06:16I doubt he was ever going to be a proper WWF champion,
06:19but sometimes you just need a little bit more structure,
06:22and you never know,
06:23more random people have got over.
06:25This was just a little bit insane.
06:27Number five,
06:27Goldberg in 2017.
06:29As we already mentioned,
06:30WWE had made a mess of Bill Goldberg in 2003.
06:33Both sides will tell you that.
06:35WWE wanted to make a new version of Goldberg,
06:38whereas Bill felt like they were trying to marginalize him.
06:40There's a reason that contract was done after one single year.
06:43When he returned in 2016,
06:44we did get it totally right,
06:46and that Survivor Series match with Brock Lesnar was all-time.
06:49You can pretend otherwise,
06:50but you'll be kidding yourself.
06:51People love this.
06:52And if nothing else,
06:53it was a window back to the past.
06:55The problem was,
06:56maybe it worked too well.
06:57Vince McMahon was so taking with it,
06:59he decided to make the rematch at WrestleMania 33,
07:02and that for some reason,
07:03it needed the Universal title.
07:04Don't necessarily agree with that,
07:06but it did mean that Goldberg crushed Kevin Owens
07:08at Fastlane 2017.
07:10Yeah,
07:11fans were mad.
07:12It wasn't the way to do it,
07:13but really,
07:13this was WW protecting Goldberg,
07:15or at least the aura he had.
07:17They were right to keep it alive,
07:18but running through KO was not the answer.
07:21Of course,
07:21they then did this later again with Bray Wyatt too,
07:23and there was Dolph Ziggler at SummerSlam.
07:25I think WWE just picked the wrong people in those spots.
07:29Look at it this way.
07:30When Goldberg faced The Undertaker in Saudi Arabia,
07:32the dead man won.
07:33Owens and friends were never going to be offered the same deal.
07:36So I'm not saying that WWE shouldn't have put a picket fence around Bill Goldberg,
07:39because they should have done,
07:40but the way they went about it,
07:42well,
07:42it was just a bit silly.
07:43Number four,
07:44the old Shawn Michaels.
07:45All the stories are out there from Bret Hart and The Undertaker.
07:48HBK was basically a little bit of a nightmare during the 90s,
07:51and he would wind everybody up.
07:53Vince McMahon had a lack of star power though,
07:55and given the fact that WCW was breathing down their necks,
07:58well,
07:58Shawn Michaels was never going to be let go.
08:00You can see all this in real time too.
08:03Shawn didn't drop titles,
08:04threatened not to do jobs,
08:05and he made some people's lives backstage hell.
08:08If he did not like you,
08:09you were doomed.
08:09There's also the British Bulldog European title incident,
08:12where Davey Boy Smith was meant to win that belt in his home country,
08:15but Shawn apparently went to get the finish changed.
08:18Once again,
08:18the backstage scenes were just sadness.
08:20Nobody appreciated what he was doing.
08:22And look,
08:23come 1998,
08:23the WWE was flying,
08:25but listen to Michaels talk about it today.
08:27He knows what went down.
08:28I suppose we all do have to grow,
08:30which he did do.
08:31Also seems like he's in a very good place in 2026,
08:33and there's nothing more important than that.
08:35You just have to figure though,
08:36eventually,
08:37if Vince McMahon had gone,
08:38you need to stop this.
08:39Otherwise,
08:39there is the door.
08:40Maybe we wouldn't have got to this point,
08:41but at the same time,
08:42in the mid 90s,
08:43you can bet your ass,
08:44the heartbreak kid would have flown out of that hole in the wall,
08:47and he would have joined his friends at WCW.
08:49Just goes to show that wrestling politics is always going to be the problem.
08:53Well,
08:53yeah,
08:53it was not ideal.
08:54Number three,
08:55all of WCW.
08:57Sort of,
08:57or at least how Vince McMahon saw WCW.
09:00Because even decades after World Championship Wrestling was killed,
09:02McMahon was still keen to tell everyone,
09:05WWE is better.
09:06It was like,
09:07yeah,
09:07we know you went and won.
09:09It's why throughout the years though,
09:10Triple H,
09:10who was Mr.
09:11WWE,
09:12got very odd and untimely victories over Booker T,
09:15Goldberg,
09:16Scott Stein,
09:16or Ric Flair,
09:17and even Kevin Nash.
09:18That one makes me laugh too.
09:20Big Kev was a WWE guy,
09:21but because he was part of that WCW boom,
09:24he gets thrown in too.
09:25The one that really sent people loopy was of course Sting at WrestleMania 31.
09:29For decades,
09:30fans had dreamed of seeing the icon in a WWE ring,
09:33and we finally got it.
09:34It was a shame the match was in the daytime,
09:36but what are you going to do?
09:37But in Vince McMahon's brain,
09:38he decided he was going to turn this into another shot against WCW.
09:43He didn't even understand the story,
09:44as it was the NWO who came out to help Sting,
09:47even though their greatest rival was Sting.
09:49When Triple H won the icon with his sledgehammer to win two,
09:52it was just not what people wanted.
09:54As it stands,
09:55it is going to be a one and done at WrestleMania 4 Sting,
09:58and given how much of a legend he was,
10:00I just probably think he should have gone and won it.
10:02Number two,
10:03Triple H and video games.
10:04Now look,
10:05I worked in the video game industry during this era.
10:08I ran a magazine,
10:08I published articles,
10:09and I talked to companies.
10:11Nobody ever told me this.
10:13I always think it's fair to throw that out there.
10:15I had first-hand experience.
10:16At the same time,
10:18yes,
10:18there's also other evidence that does the rounds.
10:20It was during the previews for SmackDown vs.
10:22Raw 2009,
10:23when it was the Bleach report that said,
10:25they had been told,
10:26do not show any blood,
10:27and do not show Triple H in any vulnerable positions.
10:30So we don't really get what that means,
10:32but of course,
10:33most people translated it as,
10:34the game should not be shown being beaten up.
10:36What's never been established,
10:37however,
10:38is where this edict came from.
10:39You can guess Triple H,
10:40and I understand that,
10:41but I cannot see a world where he even knows about the video game release schedule.
10:45I sort of think this may have been a Vince McMahon call.
10:48I mean,
10:48who had more mad ideas than him?
10:50Nobody obeyed this either,
10:51because even back then,
10:52it was classic troll culture.
10:53You can't stop people from doing something.
10:55So if you insist,
10:56all of a sudden,
10:57the internet was awash with images of Triple H getting his ass kicked.
11:01Although every single iteration after this,
11:03we've never heard a peep.
11:04So maybe everybody involved did learn a lesson.
11:07I do not know.
11:08Number one,
11:09Shane McMahon can kick your ass.
11:10I like Shane McMahon.
11:12You go back to the Attitude Era,
11:13that dude was insane.
11:14He knew that he'd been put there thanks to his family,
11:16so he always went above and beyond.
11:18It was crazy.
11:19I mean,
11:20those fools from the Titan Tron.
11:21As life went on though,
11:22for whatever reason,
11:23the next evolution of McMahon was being a lean,
11:26mean fighting machine.
11:27This was 2003,
11:28and when Shane faced Randy Orton,
11:31yeah,
11:31we were told that Shayna was dangerous,
11:33and Randy needed to be careful.
11:35What?
11:35Orton even ran away from Shane at one point,
11:38and look,
11:38fair play to Randy,
11:39he's a total pro in the ring,
11:40but it was just silly,
11:42and let's say the most important aspect,
11:44it was not what the fans wanted.
11:46So yeah,
11:46we lost track here.
11:47It could have been so much better.
11:49It could have been so much better.
11:49Yeah.
11:49You