10 World Champions Who Bombed TWICE
9. Stone Cold Steve Austin
Even arguably the biggest star in wrestling can bomb.
Stone Cold Steve Austin is on the record about how one of his only ever career regrets was not cancelling his WrestleMania X-Seven heel turn before it even happened, and two WWE Championship runs at the back end of his career that couldn't reverse a commercial slide speak to his better judgment.
WWE was still a hot commodity in early 2001, but categorically cooled by the summer and was virtually redundant as a mainstream concern by the end of the year. Steve Austin as the heel talismanic figure had been a constant presence on the shows, and though his matches on a surgically repaired neck were better than ever, his flame simply wasn't burning as brightly at the box office.
A lot of it holds up incredibly well now thanks to the humour backstage and the hard graft bell-to-bell, but audiences were disagreeing (and in droves) as it took place.