10 Bizarre Wrestling Epics That Didn’t Live Up To The Hype
Stipulation Manipulation
Monday Night Raw isn't much fun at the moment.
It'd be easy to tar all of WWE with the same brush, but that'd be broadly unfair on SmackDown Live! The last two weeks of television have brilliantly set the company on a course to a SummerSlam event the blue brand stars will be required to carry.
Raw is rematch-heavy, with three Extreme Rules do-overs already booked for the 'Biggest Party Of The Summer' with two weeks left to flesh the card out with more. There's hope yet for something to develop between Sasha Banks and Bayley, and a multi-person tag team match has the potential to be greater than the sum of its parts, but the August supercard looks set to be another WWE Network-era supercard to big and bloated to be truly brilliant.
Wrestling, unfortunately, almost has to over-promise and under-deliver from time to time. Well, it doesn't, but it's a medium that'll be afforded countless opportunities to thanks an audience made up of equal parts forgiveness, loyalty and amnesia. It's one of the few mediums that can promise THE BIGGEST [THING] EVER despite multiple failed attempts in the past.
"Yeah, that was terrible, but this time..." is the Stockholm Syndrome statement most fall back on. And why not? Without that excited anticipation, the next "next big thing" would be no more exciting than a modern day Brock Lesnar battle...
10. The Undertaker Vs Shane McMahon (WWE WrestleMania 32)
Blame Detroit for one of the biggest pops of 2016 when he returned to Monday Night Raw.
Blame Dallas for scooping up a a load of tickets following the announcement that he'd be The Undertaker's WrestleMania opponent.
It's the coalescence of those two moments that convinced WWE to book Shane McMahon as WWE's hardest man, it's best all-rounder and it's top pay-per-view attraction ever since.
This, despite the fact that his return Hell In A Cell clash against 'The Deadman' was one of the worst matches on the bloated 'Show Of Shows' card, barely salvaged by a bump he took again just over a year after allegedly immortalising himself in a "WrestleMania Moment".
Outside of the bump itself, the match was an utter shambles. Laughably positioned as The Undertaker's equal (foreshadowing his modern day 'mirror man' persona), McMahon traded strikes and submissions with the knackered 'Phenom' before needlessly risking everything to finish the job.
The match delivered the stunt it promised, but Shane's pain was undermined before he even made the great descent.