10 Dumbest WWE Match Finishes This Decade
1. The Triple H/CM Punk Clusterf*ck Of 2011 (Night Of Champions 2011)
Where to begin?
The match should have been saved for a big four event - and that's if it was even a good idea in the first place. Hastily cobbled together as a substitute for the cancelled Punk Vs. Kevin Nash grudge match, it's impossible to escape the impression that Triple H inserted himself into the storyline purely to derail Punk's momentum.
Nobody has yet to come forward with a satisfactory explanation for his pinfall victory here, which he seemed to preemptively excuse with the use of late '90s-like add-ons. It made no sense whatsoever. Has there been a wrestling star hotter than Punk was in the summer of 2011 in the five years since?
WWE were hellbent on protecting both men here, even if they were halfhearted about it. The Miz and R-Truth interfered to rebel against a perceived conspiracy, in an angle which ultimately went nowhere but somehow united Triple H and Punk before going gently into that good night (!). Nash then interfered to lay waste to both Trips and CM Punk. Triple H ended up winning this match, but was still the man chosen to seek vengeance on Nash later in the year.
Five years later, the nonsense is still impossible to parse.
Some were kind to the frenetic coda, perceiving it as a callback to the Attitude Era. It can be argued just as easily that it was poetically representative of the wider problems facing WWE in 2011, not least of which its hopelessly cobwebbed and counterproductive creative direction.
Jerry Lawler at one points asks 'What are we witnessing here?'.
F*cked if we know, King!