Wrestlemania falls from grace

[Chili]

Inspired by @air_raidreminding me about King Kong Bundy dropping from the main event of Mania 2 to fighting Hillbilly and the little lads at III, you got a particular fall from grace from one Wrestlemania to the next?

We'll disallow people being injured or simply not being in the company by the next year unless there is a mad circumstance.

[gmoney]

Miz beating Cena in the main event of 27. To being in a 12 man tag as part of Johnny Ace's team at 28, alongside greats such as David Otunga and Jack Swagger and against a team that includes Santino and Zach Ryder. I think he got the winning pinfall, but still.

[RedRooster]

Jack Swagger is a bizarre one. Two of his four Wrestlemania main card appearances have been in high profile matches. In his ‘Mania debut (at 26), he won Money in the Bank. At 27, he didn’t make the card at all. Then at 28, he was in the same tag match referenced by @gmoney. But at that point, it seemed unthinkable that he’d appear in a top level ‘Mania match again - yet at 29, he was in the World Heavyweight Title match against Alberto Del Rio - a match he might actually have won had it not been for his out-of-ring failings. One year later, he was on the kick-off show for a four-way tag match also featuring Los Matadores. His final Mania appearance didn’t come until 32, where he appeared briefly in an Andre the Giant battle royal won by Baron Corbin. 

So it was a Wrestlemania career of real extremes for the guy.

[air_raid]

1 hour ago, gmoney said:

Miz beating Cena in the main event of 27. To being in a 12 man tag as part of Johnny Ace's team at 28, alongside greats such as David Otunga and Jack Swagger and against a team that includes Santino and Zach Ryder. 

That match was absolutely cursed. Christian and Del Rio were both scheduled at different points to be on Team Johnny but Christian got hurt, then they couldn’t be bothered rushing Bertie back from injury for such an inconsequential match (they’d planned for him to wrestle Orton before he got injured). Miz’ fall was pretty rapid too, The Awesome Truth had played a major spoiler role in the Cena vs Punk vs Del Rio title scene of autumn 2011 and of course wrestled Cena & Rock at Survivor Series, so it was unusual to see them lost in the shuffle by Mania time.

1 hour ago, gmoney said:

I think he got the winning pinfall, but still.

It was all window dressing for the real story ; Eve betraying Ryder and proving that in the end, like EVERY woman in WWE history to that point, she turned out to be just another Jezebel.

[Lorne Malvo]

Fandango beat Chris Jericho in his first Wrestlemania appearance, then spent the next 4 or 5 arsing around in the Get Everyone On The Card Battle Royale.

[Lion_of_the_Midlands]

2 minutes ago, Lorne Malvo said:

Fandango beat Chris Jericho in his first Wrestlemania appearance, then spent the next 4 or 5 arsing around in the Get Everyone On The Card Battle Royale.

Started off absolutely shite then moved up to bang average shite then. 

[d-d-d-dAz]

45 minutes ago, RedRooster said:

Jack Swagger is a bizarre one. Two of his four Wrestlemania main card appearances have been in high profile matches. In his ‘Mania debut (at 26), he won Money in the Bank. At 27, he didn’t make the card at all. Then at 28, he was in the same tag match referenced by @gmoney. But at that point, it seemed unthinkable that he’d appear in a top level ‘Mania match again - yet at 29, he was in the World Heavyweight Title match against Alberto Del Rio - a match he might actually have won had it not been for his out-of-ring failings. One year later, he was on the kick-off show for a four-way tag match also featuring Los Matadores. His final Mania appearance didn’t come until 32, where he appeared briefly in an Andre the Giant battle royal won by Baron Corbin. 

So it was a Wrestlemania career of real extremes for the guy.

Jack Swagger is a fascinating character in WWE history. When he was 25, if you wrote an elevator pitch for him as a wrestler, and handed it to a booker alongside his stats and a glossy promo picture they'd have bet the house he was going to be the biggest star in the world.

Then holes just started to appear... oh, he doesn't really understand how wrestling matches work and doesn't seem capable of working it out; oh, he can't speak; oh, he actually carries himself like a man half his size.

Just a really interesting example of a book that benefitted hugely by being judged by his cover for ages.

He fought on a show I promoted when I worked on Bellator in the States, though, and he was a tremendously nice bloke. So there's that.

[Merzbow]

1 minute ago, Lorne Malvo said:

Fandango beat Chris Jericho in his first Wrestlemania appearance, then spent the next 4 or 5 arsing around in the Get Everyone On The Card Battle Royale.

What I would have given for a Fashion Peaks cinematic 'Mania match..

[air_raid]

4 hours ago, Lorne Malvo said:

Fandango beat Chris Jericho in his first Wrestlemania appearance, then spent the next 4 or 5 arsing around in the Get Everyone On The Card Battle Royale.

Which is clearly the biggest fall ever, if you listen to Jericho. “Not everyone gets to beat a Chris Jericho in their first match.” Did you know he was the first Undisputed Champion too?

[Loki]

Laurence Taylor won in the main event of Wrestlemania XI and then couldn’t even get on the card the next year!

[Supremo]

Bart Gunn fell like a sack of shit.

[Statto]

As well as the Demolition example I put in the Smackdown thread where the discussion began (Record setting 3rd tag title win over Andre at VI to rapid job to some Japanese fellas at VII via a member change), another one that springs to mind is Sgt Slaughter going from the main event at VII to being in a "get everyone on the card" filler 8-man tag at VIII. 

Actually, everyone in that 8 man was dropping down the card compared to their status the previous year. 

[Daaaaaad!]

2 hours ago, air_raid said:

Which is clearly the biggest fall ever, if you listen to Jericho. “Not everyone gets to beat a Chris Jericho in their first match.” Did you know he was the first Undisputed Champion too?

I'm convinced this had a knock-on effect to Jericho's match with AJ Styles at 'Mania 32 also. I reckon ol' Y2J wasn't up for taking the fall to the 'newcomer' after having lost his last WrestleMania match, even though this was clearly a totally different situation. The fact that AJ then went on to face Roman for the title a month later further solidifies this idea in my head.

I guess Daniel Bryan would sort of count for this, since he went from winning the WWE World Heavyweight Championship in the main event of WMXXX to opening WM31/Play Button, but since he actually won that ladder match for the Intercontinental belt I'm not sure it's the demotion it seems.

[IANdrewDiceClay]

1 hour ago, Loki said:

Laurence Taylor won in the main event of Wrestlemania XI and then couldn’t even get on the card the next year!

Where on the other hand, Mongo was at ringside and was a Horseman the next year. His stock flew up.

[simonworden]

Swaggers an interesting one that I've thought about before. In the end he was much better as Jericho's tough lackey in AEW than anything in WWE. 

What about Rusev? Went from facing Cena and having the tank at 31 to just being in that awful match against the New Day a year later where they all got beat down by the legends.