In an era where pro wrestling opens it backdoor to everyone through the internet, it becomes almost impossible for the wrestling promotions to genuinely surprise their fans. As a result, they’re more focused on pulling off swerves in the eleventh hour, rather than planning for it and executing it to perfection using long-term storytelling.
Sometimes fans tend to crib about how there are no more long term storylines like in the good ol’ days but when the promotions do extend an angle for over a year, say like they did with John Cena and The Rock or with Triple H and Seth Rollins, people end up finding fault with how predictable the outcomes are.
Caught between a rock and a hard place, is it any surprise then that they choose to embrace the lesser of two evils and go with employing bland-ish storylines and instead focussing on the sting in the tail?
Isn’t it easier for them to make the Superstars look fairly well-matched going into big matches, and pull off an absolute blinder at the last minute?
Well, it doesn’t generally happen but when it does, it rarely fails to deliver the shock value that the promotions are looking for. Here then, are five such instances of last minute swerves that changed the outcome of a big match.
You’d perhaps be surprised to note that not all of them are exactly recent either.
#1 Hulk Hogan vs Nick Bocwinkle at Super Sunday
The year was 1983 and the setting, the Super Sunday pay-per-view of the AWA promotion that was one of the mainstays of pro wrestling in the United States in those days. The champion was a scheming backstage puppeteer named Nick Bockwinkle and the challenger, a young and upcoming phenomenon by the name of Hulk Hogan.
Bockwinkle had wrestled a number of matches against Hogan but was always booked to retain the title through some trifling technicality. While that infuriated the fans – who Hulk Hogan was beginning to draw in copious amounts of – it also set up the final payoff encounter of the two perfectly.
And Super Sunday was supposed to be exactly that.
But in the lead up to the match – which Hogan was initially booked to win, by the way – there were a couple of disagreements between him and the promoter of AWA, Verne Gagne. Hogan wanted a greater slice of the merchandising income, which Gagne was loath to agree to, while the promoter asked for a portion of Hogan’s NJPW money, which the wrestler had no intention of handing over.
As a result, the match had a false finish, with Hogan winning initially but the promoter making his way down to cut short his celebration and reverting the title to Bockwinkle on a technicality, again.
Incidentally, it was such a big anti-climax and the fans felt so let down that Hulk Hogan never wrestled again for AWA. Instead, he joined hands with a young upstart, named Vince McMahon, who had an audacious vision of buying out the territories and taking pro wrestling to the world.
#2 Jeff Hardy vs Sting at Victory Road
TNA Victory Road, 2011. The Icon, Sting, was scheduled to defend his TNA Heavyweight Championship against one Jeff Hardy.
Now there have been countless pro wrestlers over the years who’ve wrestled under intoxication. On some level, it used to be an encouraged practice because there was a popular theory that it took the edge off the bumps they had to endure.
To give you an idea of just how commonplace it was, there was a time when even the gold standard of pro wrestling, The Undertaker, used to have his stomach pumped out before his match as he used to turn up to wrestle in a drunken stupor every day.
But what Jeff Hardy did was one step too far even for an industry, like pro wrestling, that operates almost entirely in the grey.
Even as he stumbled to the ring, swaying unsteadily, it was apparent to viewers that something wasn’t right. His eyes were completely unfocused and even beneath his elaborate make-up, you could discern that the man was completely out on his feet.
The match would last just over a minute as Sting – made aware of his opponent’s inability to compete – called an audible and forcibly kept Hardy’s shoulders down for the three count.
The whole episode remains, till today, one of the saddest debacles in pro wrestling history.
#3 The Undertaker vs Brock Lesnar at WrestleMania XXX
The grandest spectacle of the year. The greatest streak in pro wrestling. Perhaps the most formidable threat that has ever existed to said streak.
The perfect storm for a legendary encounter, especially if you wanted to end the longest running storyline in pro wrestling history. The choice of opponent wasn’t surprising at all – Brock Lesnar, is as legitimate as they come.
The only man alive who’s won the NCAA Heavyweight Championship, the WWE Heavyweight Championship and the UFC Heavyweight Championship. My guess is that there wouldn’t be another man with the same accolades... ever.
With so much at stake and some of the most historic characters to ever set foot inside a squared circle involved, you would expect the planning that went into the execution of the match to be meticulous. Done comfortably in advance with every little detail revisited, every little wrinkle ironed out.
Isn’t it utterly shocking, then, that the finish to the match was actually decided only four hours before The Undertaker and Brock Lesnar went on? Imagine that. The match with the greatest historical relevance to the WWE was probably decided on a whim.
#4 Booker T vs Rick Martel SuperBrawl VIII
Booker T was one of WCW’s few original, home grown talents. And despite having an underwhelming run as one-half of Harlem Heat with real life brother Stevie Ray, his singles run was what truly set him on the path to becoming the Five time! Five time! Five ti...well, you get the idea.
And on his way to the main event picture in WCW, he was inserted into a feud against Rick Martel for the TV Title.
SuperBrawl VIII hosted the gauntlet match, which had Martel facing Booker T in the first encounter, the winner of which would then face Perry Saturn immediately. It was a match, according to the bookers at least, that Rick Martel should have won.
But halfway through the first match with Booker T, fate would cruelly intercede.
Martel tore his knee against one of the ring ropes coming off an overzealous hip toss from Booker T, but being a supremely tough customer like most pro wrestlers are, opted to continue working the match. Only, he knew that there was no way he could work the second one against Saturn in his condition.
So they called an audible on the spot and had Booker T winning the title from Martel and defending it against Perry Saturn subsequently.
That match practically spelt the end of Martel’s career due to the injury he sustained. He would return to wrestle once more, incidentally against Booker T’s brother, Stevie Ray, but would get injured again and hang up his boots for good this time.
Booker T, on the other hand, ended up benefitting immensely from a genuine mistake that he had committed.
The match between Martel and him at SuperBrawl may have gone completely off the script but destiny, it would seem, had a script of its own.
#5 Roman Reigns vs Brock Lesnar vs Seth Rollins at WrestleMania 31
What was initially just supposed to be Roman Reigns versus Brock Lesnar was converted into a Triple Threat match when Seth Rollins came tearing down the ramp and cashed in his Money in the Bank briefcase at WrestleMania 31.
It’s really quite a pity because it was a hell of a match until then and definitely one of Reigns’ best.
He had sold Lesnar’s offence convincingly and was on the cusp of turning the tide of the match when his opportunistic former Shield brother struck, relieving Lesnar of his title and screwing Reigns out of his opportunity.
Vociferously anti-Reigns, the audience present in the stadium had a field day at how the match turned out. But spare a thought for Reigns’ family too – who it was said tuned in to Mania expecting it to be his coronation but instead watched as he was blindsided by Rollins again.
That should also give you an idea of how late the decision to have Rollins come away with the WWE Championship was taken.
As it would later be revealed, the Architect had lost to Randy Orton earlier thanks to a rambunctious RKO outta nowhere only to learn that his night wasn’t quite over. Apparently, even Brock Lesnar wasn’t clued in about the finish of the match until the very last minute.
In the end though, as the wise adage goes, all’s well that ends well.
Seth Rollins’ WWE Championship victory saw him embark on a year-long title run that cemented him as a main event player for the company and the WWE – who entered WrestleMania 31 expecting a star-making performance to close out the show – ended up with two on their hands.
