10 Wrestling Matches Booked Out Of Spite
Wrestling, cruel? Vince McMahon, vindictive? But he puts smiles on faces, pal!
Googling "is spite a powerful motivator" is an eye-opening experience.
From 1000-word thinkpieces to Reddit threads and just about everything in between, there exists a litany of lived experiences of those that have taken this fiercely negative emotion and manifested something broadly positive in their own lives off the back of it.
Vince McMahon is probably not one of those authors, but only because he keeps this particular brand of stubbornness in his default settings. It's every story you've ever heard; from bullying Jim Ross, to losing interest a wrestler because a trusted aide really likes them, to sucking down filet mignon or a "steak wrap" as the rest of his staff go hungry, he's got a mean streak as long as an airport test-passing wrestler's legs.
Spitefulness is fuel to a man in a constant state of idiotic competitiveness with everyone and himself, not least one that's only slept two hours a night for the least 50 years needs. It hasn't hurt him as a promoter either - almost all of the entries in this list are McMahon specials.
He was the man who wanted "Ruthless Aggression" after all...
10. The 2005 Royal Rumble
As spitefully funny as it might be remembering the sight of Vince McMahon no-selling a torn quad with his a*se planted on the canvas like a child, this is not the 2005 Royal Rumble's meanest moment.
Not least because it wasn't planned - real spite involves a certain element of pre-meditation, and that was scarily evident when Daniel Puder entered the titular battle royal to take an on-screen "hazing" for some supposed crimes the year prior.
The Tough Enough winner entered the match third, right as competitors #1 & #2 Eddie Guerrero and Chris Benoit were gleefully beating the sh*t out of each other. Naturally, they paused that conflict to sadistically smash the sh*t out of the newbie, as did entrant #4 Hardcore Holly as a supposedly random drawing exposed itself as anything but.
Puder had infamously caught Kurt Angle out during another borderline-abusive Tough Enough segment the prior summer, and the locker room heavies clearly enjoyed making him pay for this apparent act of disrespect.
The beating was too on the nose for its own good, and the sort of thing that thankfully wouldn't ever happen again.