10 Wrestling Mistakes & Botches That Became Storylines
The Rock and Big Show go from Botchamania to WrestleMania!
Pro wrestlers are skilled entertainers, honing their craft for years on the road touring and performing. But on live TV, even for the most precise technical grapplers, botches are inevitable and bound to happen occasionally.
Like Mean Gene piped to Sid Vicious when he screwed up a promo back in the day, “We’re live, pal.”
Botches quickly become “You-f****d-up!” chants in crowds and internet fodder. GIFs and memes run rampant on Twitter after a botch. Understandably slip-ups and mistakes in wrestling can be severely dangerous at times too for its performers. Not just in risking their bodies but for possibly being labelled with accusations of being unsafe.
Moves/mistakes from The Undertaker at WrestleMania 25 coming close to breaking his neck with a dive over the ropes to Neville performing a simple baseball slide on Chris Jericho on an episode of Raw which resulted in him fracturing his ankle.
Promotions tend to conceal a botch by quickly moving on, like Roman Reigns not being able to break out of handcuffs at the Royal Rumble 2021. But sometimes promotions tactically take full advantage of botched moves and angles and weave them into storylines.
They don’t hurriedly gloss over them and insult the audience, rather making them a central part to the stories they’re trying to tell...