10 Awesome WWE "Nearly Moments"
Fairy-tale endings don't always come true.
Getting over and winning are not synonymous. This was made sufficiently clear last year when James Ellsworth, despite being routinely taken apart by everyone from Braun Strowman to Michael Cole, managed to somehow win the affection of the WWE audience (and a full-time contract to boot).
Wrestling fans are suckers for a good, compelling story, and that means fairy-tale endings - although nice, from time to time - are by no means a prerequisite for a match or feud to work. You can have the plucky underdog climb over every obstacle, battle admirably against the odds and then, ultimately, fail to grasp the brass ring (or have the brass ring cruelly snatched from his hands) - yet the result is the same.
In many ways, it's actually better. The reason audiences got behind the likes of Eddie Guerrero and Daniel Bryan so much is because they feared their moment in the spotlight may never arrive. It was great when they were finally awarded the main event spot they so obviously deserved, but it was just as entertaining to watch them forever striving after that perennially out-of-reach dream.
10. Bischoff Break's HBK's Heart
It was New Year's Eve 2003 when Shawn Michaels - still harbouring a bitter grudge against former best friend Triple H (with whom, about two and a half years later, he would reform D-Generation X for totally non-merchandise-related reasons) - got his opportunity at the World Heavyweight Championship. This was the same belt he lost to 'The Game' a year earlier in a brutal Three Stages of Hell match and, having spent the intervening period getting beaten up on by Evolution, a shot at redemption was finally within HBK's grasp.
And he got it - well, he nearly got it. In the match's dying moments, an exhausted 'Heartbreak Kid' hit Triple H with the Sweet Chin Music, then sort of just fell on top of his opponent's lifeless body. Eric Bischoff - the bout's makeshift ref - counted three, and the hometown crowd duly erupted. Only problem was, Shawn's shoulders were also pinned to the mat, and the Raw general manager not only awarded victory to the reigning champion, but proceeded to fire HBK for good measure (but don't panic: he was back within a week).