10 Awful WWE Match Finishes That Ruined Everything

WWE’s story of 2013 was Daniel Bryan’s organic ascent to main event status with the fans, forcing WWE to place him into the WWE championship hunt. Clearly McMahon considered there to be money in the story of the underdog babyface’s pursuit of the gold: Bryan’s punishing run at the title – against the odds and with the heel Authority determined to screw him at every turn – took over the company’s main event narrative for the entire second half of 2013.

The problem wasn’t the narrative thrust of the Yes Movement storyline – it’s a classic for a reason. The problem was that the WWE weren’t interested in booking a Daniel Bryan WWE championship run. He was good enough – and certainly popular enough – to be in the main event… he just wasn’t their idea of a champion. Put simply, the heroic, indefatigable fan favourite underdog wasn’t getting his happy ending.

At Summerslam, Bryan pinned the champion John Cena clean, a practically revolutionary moment all on its own. As Bryan celebrated with the fans, however, Randy Orton stalked his way down the ramp to cash in his Money In The Bank briefcase… and then Triple H turned heel on Bryan, braining him with a vicious Pedigree to allow Orton to pick up the easy win.

Bryan was still in it at Night Of Champions four weeks later, and defeated the new WWE champion Randy Orton cleanly. This time he managed to leave the building with the title belt, only for Triple H to insist the count was fast and strip him of the WWE title the following night on RAW. Three weeks after that at Battleground, the inevitable rematch for the inexplicably vacated WWE championship ended in a disappointing no-contest after the Big Show knocked both Orton and Bryan cold. Three weeks after that at Hell In A Cell, a whole raft load of interference nonsense from Triple H and special guest referee Shawn Michaels cost Bryan the match, although Orton was just as close to winning before D-X started their foolishness.

After four pay-per-views and thirteen weeks of screwjob endings, Bryan wouldn’t get the babyface payoff he deserved: he was sidelined into a feud with the Wyatt Family, until CM Punk’s walkout and WWE’s godawful mismanagement of the Royal Rumble and Batista in January 2014 forced his insertion into the Wrestlemania XXX main event. There, finally, the fans got the ending that they – and Bryan himself – deserved.