10 Times The Main Event Was The Worst Match On A WWE Show
John Cena vs. John Laurinaitis, and 9 other times WWE shows ended on low notes...
Like any other performance art you can think of, wrestling is nothing without fans. Sports entertainment can be a trying thing to follow, but when you get someone hooked on your product, they can be some of the most loyal supporters imaginable. As such, it makes sense that a booker would want to send them home happy by giving them a main event that’ll leave them smiling.
Sometimes, that doesn’t happen.
It’s no great crime for the main event not to be the best thing on an event. Other wrestlers lower down the card may have eyes on stealing the show, and there are tons of midcard matches that have successfully grabbed the headlines through sheer quality.
The main event should not, however, be the very worst match a fan has to sit through all night. As a rule this is your money match, and likely the longest of the lot, featuring the company’s biggest stars. When that not only disappoints but bombs, you’re going to leave an audience seriously disgruntled. Lack of chemistry, shoddy booking, poor card management - whatever the excuse, if you’re ending the show badly, that’s a bad show...
10. Randy Orton Vs Bray Wyatt (No Mercy 2016)
WWE was and is desperate for these two legacy stars to have a hot match, but they demonstrated here, as they’d demonstrate again at WrestleMania 33 and will seemingly continue to demonstrate indefinitely, they just don’t gel.
Their No Mercy match is mercifully lacking bugs projected onto the mat, but they make up for this with 15 punishing minutes of rest holds and other heatless offence. The match is all build to the return of the late, much-missed Luke Harper, and while that spot is cool, it wasn’t worth tanking the main event of a PPV for.
What’s worse is there were two sizzling matches that could and should have headlined: the Triple Threat for the WWE Championship, and Dolph Ziggler’s career vs. title match with The Miz. The latter had a feelgood finish and all the crowd support you could ever want - a natural close to the show.
Instead, we were left with this limp conclusion, showcasing both (undeniably talented) stars at their slow, “methodical” worst. It’s not hard to see why the bookers would think this would work once - it’s harder to see why they won’t realise it just doesn’t.