8 Times Legendary Wrestling Moments Were Reversed

7. Thumb Wars

Undertaker Ellis Mbeh WrestleMania Shocked Fan
WWE.com

After defeating a certain someone to become World Heavyweight Champion at SummerSlam 2004, Randy Orton wasn’t exactly met with hugs and well wishes from his Evolution buddies.

With Batista lifting Orton up on his shoulders on the following night’s Raw, young Randal Keith was like Leonardo DiCaprio in Titanic for the merest of moments. But The Legend Killer’s time as the King of the World was soon cut short when Triple H gave a sinister thumbs down gesture that saw Big Dave drop Orton. Of course, this was because Hunter saw Randy’s title win as above the upstart’s station, so to speak.

Where these roles were reversed, though, was only six months later. After Batista had won the 2005 Royal Rumble, The Animal was faced with the decision of which champion he wanted to face at WrestleMania 21. And it was on the February 21st edition of Monday Night Raw that Batista decided that he was going to go after Triple H’s World Heavyweight Champion at the Grandest Stage of Them All. How did he make that decision clear?

Why, he spelt his intentions out by mimicking Hunter’s thumbs down gesture before laying out both The Game and Ric Flair.

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Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main dayjob, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg.