10 Times Wrestlers Told You They Were FINISHED

3. Hercules (1992)

CM Punk
WWE

When you’re called Hercules for a living, your job is to be and look as hard as a rock as often as possible, but after six strong years with nicknames such as ‘The Mighty’ and ‘Power’, the time had arrived for man-behind-the-gimmick Ray Hernandez to look anything but either in a Madison Square Garden loss to the similarly monstrous Sid Justice in February 1992.

But he didn’t really want to do that. So what then?

He did the honours, but that was about all he did. Placing his hands behind his head for the powerbomb and stacked cover, Hercules popped up almost immediately after the finish. Sid - en route to facing Hulk Hogan in one half of the WrestleMania VIII main event - was told to leave the ring and cut his post-matchpromo to avoid cameras catching the no-sell in all it's glory.

Herc could already be caught by eagle-eyed viewers over Justice's shoulder standing up, and a brief camera cut highlighted him looking boxfresh despite the supposed devastation suffered just seconds earlier. He lost to The Berzerker the very next night and never worked for WWE again.

Contributor
Contributor

Michael is a writer, editor, podcaster and presenter for WhatCulture Wrestling, and has been with the organisation nearly 8 years. He primarily produces written, audio and video content on WWE and AEW, but also provides knowledge and insights on all aspects of the wrestling industry thanks to a passion for it dating back over 35 years. As one third of "The Dadley Boyz" Michael has contributed to the huge rise in popularity of the WhatCulture Wrestling Podcast and its accompanying YouTube channel, earning it top spot in the UK's wrestling podcast charts with well over 62,000,000 total downloads. He has been featured as a wrestling analyst for the Tampa Bay Times, GRAPPL, GCP, Poisonrana and Sports Guys Talking Wrestling, and has covered milestone events in New York, Dallas, Las Vegas, Philadelphia, London and Cardiff. Michael's background in media stretches beyond wrestling coverage, with a degree in Journalism from the University Of Sunderland (2:1) and a series of published articles in sports, music and culture magazines The Crack, A Love Supreme and Pilot. When not offering his voice up for daily wrestling podcasts, he can be found losing it singing far too loud watching his favourite bands play live. Follow him on X/Twitter - @MichaelHamflett