Botches are a part of the business, as there are humans out there, not machines, and sometimes mistakes happen. They can happen to any wrestler at any time, and even the best in the business are not immune to a botch occasionally.
10 Amazing Game Franchises With No Bad Games
If you’re looking for a franchise that always delivers, then look no further.
These can occasionally lead to moments that elevate a match, either in terms of drama, spectacle, or even comedic value. But most of the time, it tends to be more of a cause for concern rather than celebration.
We’re going to check out some of the worst botches of all time that either completely derailed a match or a promo, or resulted in injury of some kind.
We will be avoiding anything that caused a death or a life-altering injury here, though there are quite a few on this list that did hurt the wrestlers quite badly. All recovered well.
9Papa is Late
The Humbling of a Legend
In Hulk Hogan’s essential exit match at WrestleMania 8, the plan was to have Papa Shango show up at the last moment and help cause a DQ. That was a terrible idea in itself, as he’s not really of a main event caliber, and the spot did not go as planned.
Instead, when Hogan hit the leg drop,Papa Shango missed his cue and ran to the ring late, causing Sid to have to kick out.
A whirlwind of confusion came after, and Hogan looked noticeably furious at Sid for kicking out of the leg drop, which nobody had ever done before that night.
In reality, Sid had no choice but to kick out. Hogan was leaving the company, but Sid wasn’t leaving, and he couldn’t afford to look weak and take the pin. So he called an audible, and, honestly, it was a smart one.
This eventually led to Sid’s manager getting involved and causing a DQ, which was an absurd ending to an already rough match.
Then Papa Shango finally got into the ring, and everyone ganged up on Hogan until The Ultimate Warrior’s music hit. At that point, it was just an overbooked mess.
This match ended WrestleMania that year. They messed it up as badly as possible, and it all started with Papa Shango not getting the cue in time to interfere.
8Zoey Crashes Down
A Brutal Injury
Zoey Stark being in the Money In The Bank Qualifier match was potentially a sign that she’d be getting a push after languishing on the mid-card for a bit, but those plans went up in flames fast due to one of the worst injuries you’ll ever see.
Zoey was going to hit her patented missile dropkick off the ropes, but she messed up the landing. She ended upcatching her knee the wrong way, which resulted in a horrific injury.
It’s brutal to watch and, afterward, you can hear Zoey screaming in agony, which let everyone know this wasn’t a work, but rather a terrible circumstance for a wrestler who has already battled horrific knee injuries in the past.
Zoey manages to make it out of the ring, and the crowd rightfully cheers her on as she makes her way backstage, but the injury was so bad that the triple threat immediately became a one-on-one match between Rhea Ripley and Kairi Sane.
It’s tough to know whether Zoey was supposed to get the win or not, but Rhea ended up getting the win, and we can only hope that Zoey makes it back from this one, and maybe even gets a Money in the Bank win for her efforts next year.
7Batista Gets Hit By Air
Big Dave Falls Down
Batista is one of the most intimidating presences in WWE history, which makes this moment all the better.
Mark Henry shows up and is about to enter the ring, and the sheer presence of the world’s strongest man alone seems to be enough to knock The Animal down.
Batista definitely thought a hit was coming, and when it didn’t, Batistadoes his best to sell the ghost in the roomand takes a hilarious back bump for no reason, while also looking like a broken robot in the process.
The botch didn’t do much to ruin the match, but it was a very funny look at what happens when one or two wrestlers are on entirely different wavelengths.
Some wrestlers are amazing when things go off script, but perhaps Big Dave is the kind of guy who needs to stay on schedule, or else things will go haywire, as we saw here.
6Bobby Gets Confused
Chaos Theatre
Bobby Lashley is an iconic wrestler, but things got very ugly for him here. I can understand it as this is a chaotic business, and you need to know everything from positioning to the next move while knowing everything your opponent is doing as well.
Here, Bobby isclearly supposed to smash Kurt Angle into some steel stairsheld by Baron Corbin, but hilariously, Bobby goes back and forth several times, trying to figure out just what is happening and who he’s even supposed to be fighting.
you may even see the other wrestlers getting close to breaking as Bobby gets lost in the moment.
Thankfully, he figures it out eventually, but it is amazing to witness him wander back and forth like his circuits are broken.
5Joey Mercury Gets a Nose Job
Whenever you’re involved in a TLC match with the Hardys, you know someone is going to have that “OMG” moment, but usually, it’s one of the Hardys taking that bump.
Not here. Not when M&M were in the match,because the biggest moment here had them taking the bump.
Here, Jeff Hardy was supposed to deliver a leg drop onto the ladder to launch it into M&M, but something went wrong and the ladder shot up way too fast and Mercury couldn’t block it fast enough.
The result was a broken nose and one of the most horrific sounds you could ever hear in a match.
Blood poured out, but Mercury kept going, gaining him plenty of respect and probably went a long way towards securing him a backstage job in the long run. That guy is tough as nails, and this is one of the worst and most painful botches you’re able to see.
4Enzo Miscalculates
A Scary Bump
Say what you want about Enzo Amore, but the guy was dedicated to entertaining us in every way he possibly could, from his questionable mic-work to being hung in a cage during a match. This guy was determined to be a performer, even though he wasn’t really built for it.
He flew a little too close to the sun here and thought he could pull off a bump that no wrestler should ever try.
The plan here was that Enzo would be whipped through the bottom ropes, butdue to the velocity at which hewas thrown, he caught his neckinstead.
This resulted in a bad-looking bump that had both the crowd and the announcers gasping, and left poor Enzo with a concussion. Luckily, that’s all, as it looked like some serious neck injury had taken place.
3RVD Is the First To Fly
RVD’s Iconic Spot Goes Awry
The first ever elimination chamber match is still the best one in so many ways, and one of those is this spot from RVD. Jumping off the top of the cell would become a famous spot in the years to come, but to set that precedent,the most over high-flyer in the company took to the sky.
However, something went very wrong. RVD looked hesitant for pretty much the first time in his career, and that hesitancy caused the form of the frog splash to be off, which resulted in his knee crushing Triple H’s esophagus.
It looked bad, and Triple H would be hauled off to the ER immediately after the match. But, the crazy thing is that he finished the match before he was hauled off.
It wasn’t a short time either, as Triple H wrestled for at least 10 more minutes, barely able to breathe.
2It’s Called a Promo Kid
Big Dog Gets Roughed Up By The Goat
Before Roman Reigns took over the WWE as the OTC, he was pushed and pushed and pushed, to little avail, as The Big Dog. Unfortunately, he was far from what he would become as the Tribal Chief.
He was fine in the ring on occasion, but on the mic, he was a horrendously scripted mess who often spewed lines that would have him grilled online immediately.
One of those nights, he didn’t manage to remember his line and, unfortunately for him, he was across the ring from possibly the greatest talker of all time, John Cena.
John didn’t let Roman off easy. He used his clear flub to roast him even further, telling him he’d have to learn to cut a promo if he wanted to be The Big Dog.
It was awkward, intense, and real. Roman actually rebounded decently, shedding his good guy act and tearing into Cena a bit. This ultimately spiced up what was a very compelling early feud in Roman’s career.
1The End of the Piledriver
Almost Breaking History
Stone Cold Steve Austin was the biggest name of the Attitude Era, but it almost didn’t happen because of this awful botch by Owen Hart in a rather innocuous intercontinental title match between the two.
It all went wrong when Hart set up Austin for a Tombstone Pilediver variation that honestly looked insane to begin with, and you can clearly see it’s going to be bad, as Austin’s head is way too low for the spot to work.
Hart launched into the air and came down,spiking Austin’s head onto the mat and breaking his neck on the spot. Despite partial paralysis, Stone Cold gets back up and finishes the match on the weakest-looking rollup of all time.
Regardless of that, Stone Cold was out for a while following this, halting his push, and possibly ending the career of the biggest superstar the industry had ever seen.
But that wouldn’t be the case. The injury would change Austin, turning him into more of a brawler instead of a technician. That would lead to his personality in the ring matching his promos, and it all came together a year later at WrestleMania, leading to the start of the most iconic career the WWE has ever had.
May’s Xbox Game Pass Releases Revealed By Microsoft
DOOM: The Dark Ages, Warhammer: Vermintide 2, and more are coming to Xbox Game Pass this month.
