10 Wrestling Matches Ruined By One Botch
Botches don't just ruin matches, they can ruin careers, pushes and people's faces.
This isn't ballet, folks. Ignoring the inherently insulting nature of that phrase, ballet being extremely difficult after all, but professional wrestling is a super difficult dance between multiple people, portraying violence in the most graceful of manners. Things are going to go wrong. Drawing attention to these 'botches' isn't the most respectful of ways to cover all of this.
Then again, this is the internet, right?
Many major wrestling matches in history have been ruined by botches, more often than not a case of overly complicated booking gone wrong. Why involve handcuffs when you can have dudes just beat the sh*t out of each other? Introducing these wacky bits and pieces is just asking for things to go wrong.
The problem is that botches are often the only thing remembered from these matches, as the great work is forgotten in a blaze of awkward falls and Billy Kidman's wonky Shooting Star Presses. Get everything right and you'll be lucky to get a pat on the back; that's your job, after all. Get one thing seriously wrong? Who knows how bad it can get.
Your face might even explode.
10. Billy Kidman Vs. Steven Regal - WCW Nitro 1999
They don't call it high-risk without good reason. Billy Kidman's Shooting Star Press was never the most graceful of top rope attacks, but he did manage to hit it more often than not. Kidman carved himself out a pretty handy niche as a staple of WCW's cruiserweight division.
WCW being WCW, it didn't keep its junior heavyweights tied together at the waist, meaning fans were frequently treated to cross-division dream matches like La Parka vs. Booker T, Saturn vs. Psychosis and this beauty: Steven Regal vs. Billy Kidman.
Kidman had the match won, believe it or not, and Regal was in a prone position as the former Flock member took to the ropes with shooting stars in his eyes. Alas, the top rope got in Kidman's way on the way down, and his body made contact with the edge of the turnbuckle.
Unsurprisingly, the entire match was rendered obsolete in the face of a botched Shooting Star Press. Kidman picked up the win after an inside cradle but there was only ever going to be one focus of the conversation in the moments afterwards.
At least Kidman didn't crush Regal's face with his knees, right?