10 Times WWE Booked The Wrong Guy To Win

4. Jerry Lawler Beats Jake Roberts - SummerSlam 1996

Cena Bloody Mouth
WWE.com

Jake Roberts' 1996 return was inglorious, as this tasteless feud and incredibly bad non-match with Jerry Lawler demonstrated.

Presented at a time when the WWF were running their Billionaire Ted commercials in which the fogeys he hired were ridiculed - despite the presence of Roberts, Roddy Piper and the Ultimate Warrior on their own roster - it was seemingly booked to allow Roberts to dole out a life-affirming measure of comeuppance.

It was a natural conclusion to an uncomfortable story. A full year before Vince McMahon denounced the black and white ideal of "good guys versus bad guys", you'd have expected the WWF to upend Lawler's constant berating with a quick, feel-good win.

Instead, Lawler, in keeping with the storyline, in which he admonished Roberts for his real-life struggles with the sauce, battered Roberts with a bottle of whiskey before pouring its contents all over him en route to a mystifying and demoralising win.

Lawler would receive comeuppance shortly thereafter - in a match which aired well after Roberts had been humiliated on Pay Per View - but his real-life troubles should not have been exploited in such degrading fashion. It was an insult to a man whose mastery of both the face and heel role did so much to help the WWF's national expansion.

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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!