10 Most Absurd Forgotten Matches In WWE History
Memorably unmemorable clashes that put smiles on faces but forgot all about the heels...
Before Vince McMahon resigned in disgrace, WWE and AEW had very opposite problems when it came to finding entertaining things for their casts of characters to do.
Tony Khan attempted to make All Elite Wrestling a destination for all professional wrestling, was seemingly unable to resist signing half of the performers that were available, and momentum for many stalled in the excess. Ironically, several of those names were only on the market because WWE made it so - they cut talent and costs to a preposterous extent between 2020 and 2021 that they were left with a relatively thin roster and fewer pairings than ever to promote.
Both ends of the extreme, but both with the same outcome - things became forgettable. It's just about the worst slight against any match - bodies are bruised and worse, creative energy goes in to the layout at an absolute bare minimum, and the action is supposed to matter enough to leave a lasting emotional response for the paying punter. To generate none of the outcome for all of the exhausting input is the opposite of capturing wrestling's true magic.
WWE - particularly in the content supers-service era - got richer than ever making a bad habit of it...
10. John Cena Vs Shinsuke Nakamura - Winner Fights Jinder Mahal
By 2017, John Cena had done everything there was to do in WWE, but Shinsuke Nakamura was still an exciting enough prospect that ‘The Champ’ taking on ‘The Artist’ was dream match-adjacent.
When WWE revealed that they’d be dropping it on a summer edition of SmackDown to determine a number one contender, it immediately resonated as the platonic ideal of a major deal on its own steam and significant status-enhancer for ‘The King Of Strong Style’.
If he could get past arguably the greatest and most important WWE performer of a generation, he’d not just have a scalp he could lean on for years, or a deserved grasp at the glory of the WWE Championship. He’d get all of that…and Jinder Mahal.
Not to mean to be needlessly cruel to the ‘’Modern Day Maharaja’, but the paper champion shtick was even more insulting when he was defending the belt rather than fighting for it. Mahal had been bewilderingly dropped into the deepest ocean and told to swim for his life without ever taking a lesson. It’s little wonder challengers drowned when they got anywhere near his flailing arms too. Or, for that matter, why ‘Big Match John’ (and later Brock Lesnar) wanted the sum total of f*ck all to do with him.