15 Biggest BURIALS Wrestlers Never Recovered From
11. Billy Gunn (By The Rock)
In imperious form as a babyface by 1999, The Rock was so spectacularly popular either side of his WrestleMania XV title loss to Stone Cold Steve Austin that he couldn't be contained as a heel even with the 'Texas Rattlesnake' still on top of the world. Fortunately, WWE itself was back at the summit of pro wrestling and even penetrating the mainstream, and in such a rich vein of form that it could cope with having two Hulk Hogan-sized stars at the same time.
Mostly.
By the summer, the company was intent on pushing heel Triple H into the top mix, and while it wasn't working all the well, it required the support of both Rock and Austin as babyfaces to do the honours. Initially, only Rock complied, and as Hunter meandered through an awkward summer series with WWE Champion Austin, 'The Great One' was sidelined with lightweight stuff against Davey Boy Smith, Val Venis , Gangrel and most notably, Billy Gunn.
The multi-time tag team champion was getting his own push at the company's King Of The Ring, but a verbal outclassing on the road to a SummerSlam 'Kiss My Ass' match was the beginning of the end for the original Big Bill.
Rock took the microphone on the July 11th edition of Heat and took the form of an infantilised Billy himself praying to the lord, asking the almighty why - in spite of his storyline successes - everybody still thought "he sucked". 'God' responded, proceeding to get Billy's name wrong so he could do Rock's "doesn't matter" catchphrase, and then Dwayne Johnson himself switched between both to illustrate how screwed Gunn was now he found himself in the main event orbit.
'The Most Electrifying Man In Sports Entertainment' had (just about) sold the pay-per-view match, but not a single customer making the purchase was buying in to 'Mr Ass' as a main event concern ever again.