Paid Members bbabba Posted August 29, 2021 Paid Members Share Posted August 29, 2021 What hot-shotted matches, feuds, angles, turns, returns, or anything else stand out to you as some of the worse, either from a business, storyline, or personal perspective? A couple to get the ball rolling. Goldberg v Hogan 1998: This has been discussed to death on so many platforms, so I'll keep this brief. This has to be the worst ever hotshot for me because of the amount of money left on the table. Goldberg v Hogan was by a mile the biggest match WCW could promote at the time, and perhaps ever (perhaps only Sting v Hogan, with its superb, patient build, could top it). Yet WCW gave it away for free on Nitro, with almost no promotion as it was only announced on the Thunder before. Yes it succeed in a one night ratings hike and iconic moment in front of a white hot Georgia Dome crowd, but promoted correctly and with a long build, you have to think this could have done north of 750k PPV buys and given prestige and value back to WCW PPVs. Reigns v Cena 2017: The first ever meeting between the two biggest stars in the industry at the time, the faces of their respective generations in WWE, was presented to us at No Mercy 2017. Unlike Goldberg and Hogan, this feud was at least given a few weeks or so build, but it just felt mad to throw away such an obvious Wrestlemania main event match for a B level PPV in what wasn't even the main event of the show (it went on 3rd from last). I don't have any numbers at hand to suggest how many extra Network subscriptions or additional ticket sales this match drew, but I can't imagine it would come close to the same match being presented with a several month long build as a Wrestlemania headliner. I'm glad we got to see the re-match four years later on a more fitting stage, but it left me thinking what could have been for that first time around. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roy Posted August 29, 2021 Share Posted August 29, 2021 Austin v Big Show in 1999 springs to mind. I think they put it on a random episode of Raw prior to WrestleMania XV and had Austin win relatively cleanly. I think it may have been at a show in a dome (SkyDome in Toronto possibly?). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CL Punk Posted August 29, 2021 Share Posted August 29, 2021 The Summer of Punk 2011- CM Punk should have defended the belt in different promotions and stayed away from the WWE for like two or three months. Big Match John beating Mysterio for the replacement championship didn't make him look good (especially on the same night that Rey won it). Also, Triple H had to interfere in the big storyline and bring in his mate, Big Kev. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members bAzTNM#1 Posted August 30, 2021 Paid Members Share Posted August 30, 2021 4 hours ago, Roy said: Austin v Big Show in 1999 springs to mind. I think they put it on a random episode of Raw prior to WrestleMania XV and had Austin win relatively cleanly. I think it may have been at a show in a dome (SkyDome in Toronto possibly?). Yeah, and I think Big Show took a stunner too for the winner. Was supposed to be that Wrestlemania's Main Event too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andrew "the ref" coyne Posted August 30, 2021 Share Posted August 30, 2021 4 hours ago, CL Punk said: The Summer of Punk 2011- CM Punk should have defended the belt in different promotions and stayed away from the WWE for like two or three months. Big Match John beating Mysterio for the replacement championship didn't make him look good (especially on the same night that Rey won it). Also, Triple H had to interfere in the big storyline and bring in his mate, Big Kev. Although i agree that creatively they could of hads loads of fun having Punk tour with it, you can imagine with Summerslam around the corner WWE were nervous to not feature the championship. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andrew "the ref" coyne Posted August 30, 2021 Share Posted August 30, 2021 5 hours ago, bbabba said: Reigns v Cena 2017: The first ever meeting between the two biggest stars in the industry at the time, the faces of their respective generations in WWE, was presented to us at No Mercy 2017. Unlike Goldberg and Hogan, this feud was at least given a few weeks or so build, but it just felt mad to throw away such an obvious Wrestlemania main event match for a B level PPV in what wasn't even the main event of the show (it went on 3rd from last). I don't have any numbers at hand to suggest how many extra Network subscriptions or additional ticket sales this match drew, but I can't imagine it would come close to the same match being presented with a several month long build as a Wrestlemania headliner. I'm glad we got to see the re-match four years later on a more fitting stage, but it left me thinking what could have been for that first time around. I do believe Cena was going away for a while, with no 100% guarantee he was coming back. Only reason why I think they hot shotted that match. Also Cena vs. Nakamura was another obvious one, with Cena coming in to do a quick job to Nakamura on one of his earlier Smackdowns. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Tommy! Posted August 30, 2021 Paid Members Share Posted August 30, 2021 3 hours ago, bAzTNM#1 said: Was supposed to be that Wrestlemania's Main Event too. If that was the case, which I don't believe it is, what we're they doing with Rock & the belt? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dopper Posted August 30, 2021 Share Posted August 30, 2021 (edited) Bruce Prichard has said the booking of Survivor Series 1998 was done with the idea of building towards Austin vs Rock at WM15. Mick Foley wrote in his book that it was made clear when his feud with Rock began it was to elevate Rock’s status so that he could go into a WrestleMania programme with Austin. While I can believe they did Big Show’s debut at St Valentine’s Day Massacre without really having a plan on what to do next, I don’t believe changing the WM15 main event they started building towards back in November was ever going to happen. Edited August 30, 2021 by dopper Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members LaGoosh Posted August 30, 2021 Paid Members Share Posted August 30, 2021 27 minutes ago, dopper said: Bruce Prichard has said the booking of Survivor Series 1998 was done with the idea of building towards Austin vs Rock at WM15. Mick Foley wrote in his book that it was made clear when his feud with Rock began it was to elevate Rock’s status so that he could go into a WrestleMania programme with Austin. While I can believe they did Big Show’s debut at St Valentine’s Day Massacre without really having a plan on what to do next, I don’t believe changing the WM15 main event they started building towards back in November was ever going to happen. Multiple people have said Austin vs Big Show for Wrestlemania 16, not 15, was the initial plan when Show came in. But they obviously gave up on that pretty quick to pop a TV rating. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chili Posted August 30, 2021 Share Posted August 30, 2021 Yeah Big Show & Austin at Wrestlemania 2000 was an idea. A bad one too given it was done on the Raw before anyway. I wonder what the angle would have been. Perhaps Austin and Show would have Vince and Shane about? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members chokeout Posted August 30, 2021 Paid Members Share Posted August 30, 2021 Absolute insanity this wasn't the end of months of build up on a PPV Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DCW Posted August 30, 2021 Share Posted August 30, 2021 They fecked up the nwo so quickly, WWF were in panic mode in 2002. Hogan crushing ambulance bound Rock with the truck and Hall and Nash attacking Austin's knee with the naff disintegrating cinder block. Either feud didn't need any of that OTT shite. Madness and they're lucky that Hogan/Rock match was magic in Toronto otherwise they'd have pissed away the return altogether. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Liam O'Rourke Posted August 30, 2021 Share Posted August 30, 2021 In truth, debuting them one month before WrestleMania was only ever going to go one way. Did they think they were coming in and going over Stone Cold and The Rock at Mania? An entire separate thread could go to some of the mindless shit WCW did. Sting winning the WCW title on Nitro from DDP, only for DDP to win it back in a four way later that night, for example. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pier Six Brawler Posted August 30, 2021 Share Posted August 30, 2021 Having ECW return in the WWF in 2001 and then form the alliance with WCW later in the same episode of RAW. Hogan winning the WWF title at Backlash 2002 because of getting a nice nostalgia pop at WrestleMania the month before. Beating HHH who they'd spent so much time building up the return of as a babyface after his injury the year before. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WyattSheepMask Posted August 30, 2021 Share Posted August 30, 2021 (edited) 20 minutes ago, Pier Six Brawler said: Hogan winning the WWF title at Backlash 2002 because of getting a nice nostalgia pop at WrestleMania the month before. Beating HHH who they'd spent so much time building up the return of as a babyface after his injury the year before. That whole period in 2002 from Wrestlemania to Summerslam is fucking insane. 5 title changes between 5 different guys: Triple H beat Jericho for it, then it goes to Hogan to Undertaker to Rock to Brock, with an average length reign of 40 days. It’s absolute lunacy Edited August 30, 2021 by WyattSheepMask Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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