10 Wrestling Matches Ruined By One Botch

6. WWE Royal Rumble 2005 Match

Regal Kidman SSP Botch
WWE Network

The greatest comedy of errors in WWE history?

Quite possibly.

The finish of the 2005 Royal Rumble should have been simple but instead, it gave fans some of the most hilarious visuals in pro wrestling history. You don't want to wish ill on anyone, but Vince McMahon tearing both of his quads as he desperately runs down to the ring to save the day before hilariously having to dictate everything from a sitting position? Feed that into the veins.

Until the unfortunate botch that saw Batista and John Cena hit the floor at the exact same time (what are the odds?), the 2005 Royal Rumble was memorable only for a bunch of grizzled veterans bullying Daniel Puder and Gene Snitsky attempting to murder Paul London via decapitation. The rest of the Rumble was fine enough, a standard battle royal that featured a pretty great Edge performance and workmanlike efforts from those most workhorses of wrestlers; Jericho, Rey, Benoit and Eddie.

The botch changed all that. In a parallel world, Batista dumps Cena over the top and everything after the show goes as it did, but the world has McMahon's exploding legs cruelly taken away from it. When booking the Royal Rumble, the very last thing you want is for the finish to be botched.

Saying that, Asuka kicking thin air so violently it caused Nikki Bella to fall off the apron at the 2018 Royal Rumble probably counts as well, no?

Contributor
Contributor

Born in the middle of Wales in the middle of the 1980's, John can't quite remember when he started watching wrestling but he has a terrible feeling that Dino Bravo was involved. Now living in Prague, John spends most of his time trying to work out how Tomohiro Ishii still stands upright. His favourite wrestler of all time is Dean Malenko, but really it is Repo Man. He is the author of 'An Illustrated History of Slavic Misery', the best book about the Slavic people that you haven't yet read. You can get that and others from www.poshlostbooks.com.