10 Brilliant Wrestling Matches With Seriously Disappointing Endings

Whatever terminology you’d prefer to use, wrestling is what you’d call a square fight. “Fake” seems a disrespectful term, but the predetermined nature of a wrestling match means that you can ensure the finish is exactly what it needs to be.

Sometimes a cheap ending or a non-finish is the right thing to do. An inconsequential match being called off after a run-in to progress a storyline, for example - that’s just basic booking.

But then there are those matches, serious matches with something at stake, that still end with disappointing conclusions, a drab ending or something to otherwise let down what should be the high point.

These aren’t always down to bad booking - things go wrong sometimes, and a bad ending can be the result of a botch or injury - but a lot of the time, it’s the lack of joined up thinking by the folks who call the shots that lead to sour endings.

It’s all the worse when the matches are otherwise great encounters, like these. Instead of instant classics, we can be left with a whole lot of woulda, shoulda, coulda.

The Horror Show at Extreme Rules was a bizarre pay per view for WWE to say the least, with ill thought out gimmicks framed around disfiguring one’s opponent, a battle in a swamp, and a few too many lame finishes.

One match which sadly fell into the latter category was Sasha Banks’ shot at Asuka’s Raw women’s championship. One of the only clashes not to feature an extreme gimmick and/or an actual swamp, it was the bout of the night, with two of the business’ top women displaying their immense athleticism and exceptional chemistry.

It was all the more disappointing, then, that this match was so overbooked. Asuka spat green mist, leading to a ref bump. Banks’ best pal Bayley then took advantage of the confusion to wallop Asuka with the belt, before stealing the referee’s shirt to count the three herself.

If there was one match that didn’t need the shenanigans, it was this one. The whole event was rife with goofiness and bad endings - had this match gone off clean, it would have lifted the horror show no end.