10 Times WWE Booked The Wrong Guy To Win
8. Triple H Beats Sheamus - WrestleMania XXVI
This is a loss from which 'The Great White' has arguably never recovered.
Heading into 2010, the placement of Sheamus was curious. Rushed to the WWE title at Tables, Ladders & Chairs in December '09, in a desperate attempt to hotshot him into the main event bracket, he was still not trusted to carry the strap into 'Mania - despite its refashioning as a nostalgia-driven all-star event on which the title wasn't the foremost draw.
Instead, he would tussle with real-life training buddy Triple H in a midcard match, which keen observers had pegged as a rehabilitation exercise. Triple H had yet to appoint himself in the jobber-to-future-stars capacity, but a victory here was still, if not inconceivable, then pointless. He did not need the win; Sheamus, struggling for acceptance and relevance, did.
Triple H was booked to win the match, which, while very good while it lasted, went just 12:08 on a bloated card.
In an attempted equaliser, Sheamus was credited with putting Trips out of commission for a near-year following the events of Extreme Rules a few weeks later - but the damage, ironically, had already been incurred by the Celtic Warrior.
In losing on the big stage, he was cast as a B-show player - a man who propped up the boring post-'Mania season while the real stars retreated into the background.