10 Worst Booked Dream Matches
Nightmare collectives.
More of a curse than a blessing despite the connotations, "dream match" brings with it a vast array of differing and diverse expectations. Satisfying all of them is virtually impossible, leading to the label often dooming a contest to failure before the bell rings. Moreover, some may not even see it as an end-of-the-world battle in the first place.
Outside of fiercely loyal Randy Orton apologists, few were clamouring for the WrestleMania XXVI triple threat featuring 'The Viper' and his former Legacy mates Ted Dibiase and Cody Rhodes. Even less were on board when the build reeked. Michael Cole, Corey Graves and the rest of the gang can hype Roman Reigns Vs Braun Strowman as the biggest SmackDown main event ever all they want, but it's 2020 and people are p*ssed off enough already without being outright lied to. Sasha Banks Vs Asuka at the Survivor Series, though! Just pretend it wasn't ran into the ground earlier this year, eh?
AJ Styles and Shinsuke Nakamura's WrestleMania 34 bout was given the tag by WWE after fans popped huge for their coming together in a 2017 Money In The Bank ladder match, itself informed by a stone cold classic at NJPW's Wrestle Kingdom 10. The match simply couldn't live up to the hype, but some credit must be given to the company for at least getting the first spot on.
It's not always that easy...
10. John Cena Vs The Undertaker (WrestleMania 34)
Like the contest proved to be on the night itself, the John Cena/Undertaker WrestleMania build was too little too late for both men to make the best of.
It's even weirder in hindsight than it was at the time. Returning ahead of the Royal Rumble with the intent to work the the entire WrestleMania run-up, 'The Champ' was here, but it was becoming harder to work out exactly how he'd get there. The company played a blinder before the Undertaker build too. Cena played the comedically apologetic legend determined to dethrone WWE Champion AJ Styles as a route to the 'Show Of Shows', robbing the audience of the 'The Phenomenal One's own "dream" battle with Shinsuke Nakamura.
But then he failed. What next?
Next, came this f*cking face.
Week after week, the man who'd left wrestling to act did a less-than-convincing job of goading The Undertaker out of a retirement that wasn't even really a retirement. It seems fitting that the end result was a match that wasn't even a match - 'Big Match John's smalltime jabs didn't deserve much more than the on-the-night answer he got from 'The Deadman'.