10: Ryback

One of the more surprising outcomes at WrestleMania 29 saw Ryback lose to Mark Henry. This made no sense, as Ryback was one of WWE’s top babyfaces, and the very next night would start a main event feud with WWE Champion, John Cena.

The loss confused everyone, and this extended to Ryback himself, who questioned the booking move, and ultimately knew it was the incorrect decision to lose.

Ryback discussed this during an interview with Sports Illustrated, and this is what the former WWE star had to say:

“…I was under the assumption that I was going over Mark Henry at WrestleMania and then turning heel the next night on John Cena. When I found days before that I was not going over, but that they wanted me to fall on my face with my finish and look like an idiot, I said there was no way I was doing that. I asked, ‘Why are we doing this?’ I went to Vince and spoke with him for thirty minutes in ‘Gorilla’ [the staging area right behind the curtain] and he lied to me how this was the reason for my heel turn – that I fell on my face and tripped, I just couldn’t cut it, and that’s why I’d turn heel…”

9: CM Punk

It’s been well documented over the years, just how much WWE creative CM Punk disagreed with during his final 12-months in the company.

At the 2013 Royal Rumble, Punk would have his record-breaking title reign shattered by The Rock, and this was a questionable call. Punk’s reign was truly incredible, and despite it being an extended reign, it still felt fresh and current. Punk should have walked into WrestleMania 29 as the reigning champion, but WWE had other ideas.

WWE’s grand idea was to have Punk drop the title to The Rock, and then the WWE Title would be positioned in between The Rock and John Cena for their WrestleMania rematch.

Punk felt like he was being pushed aside for a part-timer, and he was completely right. Punk even suggested the WrestleMania 29 match becoming a triple threat, as Punk believed he deserved to main event WrestleMania, and this was something that the fans collectively agreed with Punk on. 

8: Triple H

There was notoriously a ton of bad blood between Triple H and The Rock, and it’s a tough task to pin-point where this all started.

Some wrestling historians would argue it started way back in 1997, when The Rock defeated Triple H to become Intercontinental Champion.

Triple H has admitted himself that he took exception to losing this match, and on an episode of WWE rivals he would go as far as saying he was “pi**ed” over the creative direction.

It wouldn’t be farfetched to suggest that this greatly upset The Rock, as he saw that The Game wasn’t someone that was willing to put over a fellow talent. 

7: Chris Jericho

When Chris Jericho was given his creative plans for WrestleMania, he was so unbelievably livid that he almost quit the company on the spot.

Jericho was booked to lose to new star, Fandango who was debuting his new ballroom persona.

Jericho was stunned that WWE, specifically, Vince McMahon would think so little of him that they would book him to lose to a novelty character on the grand stage.

According to Jericho, it was a conversation with The Undertaker that made him reluctantly agree to do the match, but it was clear from watching the match that Jericho’s heart wasn’t in it.

The inaugural Undisputed Champion reflected on the match in his autobiography, and this was where Jericho revealed that he was initially booked to face Ryback:

"Although I didn’t want to work with him," Jericho recounts, "I decided just to do what Vince asked, and for that, Vince paid me one of the biggest payoffs I’ve ever received. Most of the time with Vince, it’s not arguments, it’s just debates, or it’s very calm. ‘This is what you’re doing.’ I wasn’t supposed to be working with Fandango at WrestleMania 29. It was supposed to be Ryback, and that was kind of the deal we had made. That was the promise that was made, and it was changed very quickly for no real reason. I wasn’t happy about that either.”

6: Hulk Hogan

Unfortunately, the legendary Hulk Hogan made a career of failing to put over talent when the time came. 

At WrestleMania 18, Hogan was going to pass the torch to The Rock, but on the day of the PPV, to nobody’s surprise, Hogan suddenly had an issue with doing business. According to former head writer for WWE, Brian Gewirtz, just hours before the show, Hogan began to question the booking, and even stated that he wasn’t sure he was going to go through with putting The Great One over. 

Thankfully, this was a different time in WWE, and Hogan didn’t have as much political power as he did previously. Vince McMahon would have no doubt insisted that Hogan do the job, and put over The Rock.

5: Shawn Michaels (Losing To Stone Cold)

In the late 1990s, Shawn Michaels was without a doubt the most problematic wrestler on the WWE roster. HBK was WWE’s number one guy, yet he had a ton of baggage as a human being that made him extremely unpleasant to be around.

WrestleMania 14 was set to be HBK’s final match in the company, as his back injury was going to force him to retire. WWE wanted Michaels to drop the WWE Title to Austin before sailing off into the sunset.

The problem was that there was major concern that HBK wasn’t going to do the job, and was going to bail at the last moment. This angst from WWE was so substantial that it was said that The Undertaker was going to physically make HBK go out there and deliver the match.

HBK would end up sticking to the original script, and he put over Austin in what would end up being his final WWE match until 2002. 

4: Neville

Neville deserves all the credit in the world for his 2017 character reinvention. Neville turned heel at the start of the year, and his new villainous persona would be propelled into the struggling Cruiserweight division.

Neville’s run in the division was outstanding, as his body of work was amongst the finest of his entire career, but it all came crashing down, when Vince McMahon wanted Enzo Amore to dethrone him.

The problem here was that Amore wasn’t exactly Shawn Michaels in the ring, and Amore carrying the division would dramatically regress the status of the division.

Neville knew this was a baffling move, and after he reluctantly agreed to put over Amore at the 2017 No Mercy event, McMahon wanted him to job to Amore yet again, but this time, Neville said no thank you, and left WWE forever.

Speaking to Wrestling Inc in 2018, Neville discussed leaving the company, and his reasoning was completely valid:

“It wasn’t really Enzo why I left, I don’t hate the lad he was just annoying backstage and putting the title on him was bad, especially beating me, I was worth more than being jobbed out to jobbers, that’s why I left.”

3: Sasha Banks

When WWE crowned Sasha Banks and Bayley as the first-ever WWE Women’s Tag Team Champions, it made sense for the two to have a lengthy reign with the titles.

The duo were two of the most popular stars in the women’s division, and simply by them holding the new titles, there would be buzz and credibility surrounding them.

Unfortunately, their run was short-lived, as WWE booked them to lose in a multi-women tag match to The IIconics at WrestleMania 35. This was a baffling decision, and one that still continues to bewilder fans.

According to Dave Meltzer at the time, Banks was “furious” that she was dropping the titles so soon, and it was reported that she was 'under the impression' that the duo would be given a decent run to establish the titles and give them credibility.

Banks was so angry following this booking call that she took a leave of absence from WWE programming. 

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2: Shawn Michaels (Losing To Hulk Hogan)

The original plans for the feud between Shawn Michaels and Hulk Hogan in 2005 was for the two legends to exchange victories. This would make both men look good and would rule out either man feeling like WWE were screwing them over.

Their first match was to be at SummerSlam, and the creative pitch that both men liked was HBK winning match 1, Hogan winning match 2, and ultimately, Hogan winning the final match of the series.

When Hogan cancelled any plans to do more than one match, Hogan was put over in the SummerSlam match, mainly because he was a babyface at the time, and WWE had rushed into a heel turn for HBK ahead of the feud.

HBK was livid with Hogan, and he went out of his way to over-sell every single thing Hogan did in the match. He sold a basic punch like he had been hit with an F5, and it was one of the most entertaining yet completely wild matches in WWE history.

 1: Stone Cold Steve Austin

SummerSlam 1999 was designed to be Triple H’s crowning night. WWE wanted The Game to defeat Stone Cold Steve Austin to become WWE Champion and become the top heel in the entire company.

Unfortunately, Austin (who was the biggest wrestling star on the planet at the time) had other ideas.

According to Bruce Prichard on his Something to Wrestle podcast, Austin (just like others in WWE) believed that Triple H wasn’t ready:

“I don’t think that Steve and/or a lot of the agents at the time felt that Hunter was ready for the championship yet. That wasn’t a Steve call, that was a Vince call, and that was a lot of the agents. When they heard that, they felt that he’ll be ready someday, he’s just not ready right now, not with Steve.”

The SummerSlam main event would become a convoluted mess, as Mankind would be added to the match, and Mankind would actually end up winning the featured main event. Despite supposedly not being ready to win the WWE Title, The Game would win his first WWE Title just 24-hours later on RAW, giving extra merit to the claim that Austin refused to put him over.

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