10 Wrestling Matches Built Around Botches
When disaster flips the script, which matches needed awful before awesome?
Regardless of the extensive, often debilitating level of training professional wrestlers endure, botches remain a painful fact of life. From intricate moves landing poorly to inexplicable slip-ups, they vary in degree from the slightly embarrassing to the catastrophic.
While some botches ruin a match (or lead to its ruin thanks to endless “you f*cked up” chants), others are covered so well you’re left wondering if they were planned from the get go. The ability to think fast (and endure the pain of a bad bump) is key to saving and, in some cases, rebuilding a bout to spare it from a less than three star review from Uncle Dave.
More interesting still are the times botches, whether on the mic or during a particularly physical segment, become a key facet of the feud they took place in. Before you know it, the whole build has changed course and the blow-off match’s heat stems from a now oddly convenient accident.
While only the sickest and most twisted of viewers would ever hope to see a botch occur, the following ten provided rock solid entertainment value for all who watched them.
10. Kenny Omega Vs. Rich Swann (IMPACT Rebellion)
Maybe Rich Swann should ease up on the whole headstand thing...
A variety of explanations for the botch-laden nature of the Swann versus Omega bout have been put forward. From Swann getting concussed to his cardio being subpar, the guy’s shouldered pretty much all of the blame.
Seemingly dazed and confused, Swann ate a boatload of v-triggers as the match wore on. A story of the IMPACT champ succumbing to exhaustion at the hands of the unstoppable Omega took hold. While Omega came out of it looking as strong as ever, Swann came out looking subpar and not on the level of his opponent.
Given his delayed reaction after the apron headstand went so horribly wrong, it’s likely Swann was concussed for much of the bout, With whatever they’d had planned originally now out the window, the pair had to improvise, leading to the notably more cumbersome action that followed.
Given Kenny Omega's Belt Collector storyline this year, his dominance actually fit the narratively perfectly. Rightly presented as AEW's premier star, Omega's Thanos-like quest to rack up all the gold has been something of a boon for IMPACT in 2021. For the stars who've challenged him on IMPACT since, Omega's destruction of Rich Swann has simply served as more fuel to the fire.
A shame for Swann but a fairly effective angle in the long run.