8 Wrestlers Who Purposefully Sabotaged Matches

A mood-lightener to end on. Shawn Michaels and Hulk Hogan's SummerSlam 2005 main event was infamous as was it was still taking place. 

The Hulkster and The Showstopper were supposed to square off twice on pay-per-view, with Hogan triumphing at SummerSlam and Michaels getting his win back the next month at Unforgiven, leading to a 'rubber match' decided down the line. HBK had been reluctant to feud with Hogan, well-aware of the orange one's penchant for backstage politics, coupled with the fact he was hesitant to turn heel (which he would be required to do, at least temporarily).

In Hogan's absence, Michaels carried the feud on television, doing some of the best work of his career in the process. The send-up of The Immortal One and Larry King, for example, was solid gold. Things were going swimmingly and interest was building for the match, which would headline the summer extravaganza.

Then Hogan made a call to WWE and informed them that his knee was in bad shape and that he would only be able to work one match with Michaels - the one he was scheduled to win. Already irked at Hogan's self-serving behaviour, this sent Michaels into a rage and he decided to take out his frustrations on Hogan during the match.

Not by physically attacking Hogan, of course, oh no. Michaels was smart enough to realise that he would get into serious trouble for shooting on Hulk (and would probably get his backside kicked, to be fair). Instead, Michaels set about comically overselling a great deal of Hogan's anachronistic offense.

One of the best sellers ever, Michaels had no problem theatrically bumping off every punch or boot, flailing around like a fish out of water, turning the match into something bordering on parody at times. Hogan got the win after the Leg Drop of Doom, as scheduled, but it was Michaels' barmy performance that people were talking about after the pay-per-view ended.