10 Most Awkward "Didn't Get All Of It" Wrestling Moments

2. Rikishi Nearly Breaks His Ankle

Lars Sullivan Aleister Black BOTCH
WWE

2000 was arguably WWE's best ever year top-to-bottom; star power, in-ring, depth, promos, elegant, compelling, overlapping storytelling: almost everything was great beyond an underwhelming WrestleMania event and the sh*t-show that was the "Who ran over Stone Cold?" storyline.

A neat way of reintroducing Austin into storylines, at once creating an episodic thread and building a return opponent, it went badly wrong when Rikishi was revealed to be the culprit. He was miscast as a heel, failed to project this bobbins new character at the main event level, and the explanation was abysmal: Rikishi said he "did it for The Rock" because with Austin out of the way, the WWF couldn't look past "the island boys".

Rock was literally wearing the WWF Title when Rikishi was forced to kill his career in one segment.

The resulting in-ring series was "good not great," which is a euphemism for failure at that lofty level, and is best remembered for an omni-botch.

In one staggeringly weird sequence, Rikishi failed to get up for the Rock Bottom, appeared to break his ankle, covered the Rock by accident, and then removed himself from a potential winning predicament.

Mr. Bean couldn't even manage to do that.

 
Posted On: 
Contributor
Contributor

Michael Sidgwick is an editor, writer and podcaster for WhatCulture Wrestling. With over seven years of experience in wrestling analysis, Michael was published in the influential institution that was Power Slam magazine, and specialises in providing insights into All Elite Wrestling - so much so that he wrote a book about the subject. You can order Becoming All Elite: The Rise Of AEW on Amazon. Possessing a deep knowledge also of WWE, WCW, ECW and New Japan Pro Wrestling, Michael’s work has been publicly praised by former AEW World Champions Kenny Omega and MJF, and current Undisputed WWE Champion Cody Rhodes. When he isn’t putting your finger on why things are the way they are in the endlessly fascinating world of professional wrestling, Michael wraps his own around a hand grinder to explore the world of specialty coffee. Follow Michael on X (formerly known as Twitter) @MSidgwick for more!