1. Lawrence Taylor (An NFL Player) Beats Bam Bam Bigelow In The Main Event (WrestleMania 11)
For the number one WrestleMania screw-job, it's hard to ignore the time a midcard superstar faced an NFL player in the main event of the evening. WrestleMania 11 was headlined by Bam Bam Bigelow and Lawrence Taylor, an American Football player who had begun a feud with Bigelow following an altercation at Royal Rumble 1995. A match like this would have been perfectly acceptable as an undercard special attraction, but going on last at the biggest show of the year? No. Way. WWE loves to have a celebrity presence at Wrestlemania, which is entirely understandable as it brings a great deal of mainstream press coverage to wrestling and helps line everyone's pockets. It is nothing new, with Cyndi Lauper appearing at the first Wrestlemania, all the way to Mickey Rourke punching Chris Jericho at WrestleMania 25. Celebrities are a neat novelty to see in the wrestling setting, and they can definitely bring some intrigued new eyes to the product. But should a non-wrestler compete in the main event and defeat an actual wrestler? No, because that makes a mockery of the entire roster that works tirelessly throughout the year with the hopes of finding a good place on the WrestleMania card. Worse still, it makes wrestling look weak and silly; if a footballer can win a match against a wrestler, then surely wrestlers aren't very tough after all? It was even more galling that Bigelow, while a well-respected veteran of the industry, was by no means a headlining talent in WWE. In fact, he never held a title belt in the promotion and left the company later that same year. The whole thing was just bizarre.
