5 Times WWE matches began with a Superstar not knowing the finish

Everybody knows that WWE outcomes are pre-determined, but did you know that some matches have started with at least one of the participants not knowing what is going to happen at the end?

While this is obviously extremely rare, plenty of WWE Superstars have revealed in out-of-character interviews that they once went out to the ring without being 100 percent sure on whether they were going to win or lose.

On one occasion in 2019, several WWE Superstars competed in a match for 18 minutes before a mystery opponent appeared and ended up walking away with the victory.

Two decades earlier, four WWE Superstars began a tag team match on an episode of WWE Sunday Night Heat, even though they did not have a plan or any idea on how the match was going to come to an end.

In this article, let’s find out the full details behind those two stories, plus three others, as we take a look at five times that WWE matches started with at least one Superstar being uncertain of the finish.

#5 Hulk Hogan vs. Andre The Giant (WWE WrestleMania 3)

Hulk Hogan retained his WWE Championship against Andre The Giant

Hulk Hogan’s victory over Andre The Giant at WWE WrestleMania 3 has gone down as one of the most iconic moments in WWE history.

Speaking on The Steve Austin Show in 2019, Hogan revealed that he was unsure whether he was going to body slam his legendary opponent or whether he was even going to be allowed to win the match.

“When we went out to WrestleMania 3, I was really upset and worried about what we were doing and the finish. Andre kept telling me, ‘Don’t worry.’ I asked him about the slam. ‘Don’t worry.’ Am I going over or are you going over? ‘Don’t worry.’ So I actually went out there not knowing what we were doing or what the finish was. Nothing.”

One night before WWE WrestleMania 3, Hogan gave WWE Chairman Vince McMahon a move-by-move plan of how he expected the match to go.

Although Hogan usually called his matches in the ring, McMahon wanted an idea of how the match could materialize because he had concerns about the condition of Andre’s back.

Hogan said he would have been “f***ing dead” if Andre knew he did that, as the Frenchman always wanted his matches to play out naturally in the ring.

The Hulkster added that he thinks McMahon might have told Andre what to do in the match, as everything that happened is exactly what Hogan had written down. However, to this day, he is still not sure whether or not Andre was given any instructions.

#4 The APA vs. The Public Enemy (WWE Sunday Night Heat)

Best known for their ECW run in the 1990s, it is fair to say that things did not exactly go according to plan for The Public Enemy in WWE.

Johnny Grunge and Rocco Rock only competed in seven televised matches during their short-lived WWE run in early 1999, with their most famous match coming against the APA (Bradshaw and Farooq) on WWE Sunday Night Heat.

The match was supposed to end with the APA picking up the victory after putting one of the Public Enemy members through a table. However, as Bradshaw (aka JBL) recalled on Corey Graves’ After The Bell podcast in October 2020, the former ECW stars brought up an issue with the finish just seconds before their music hit.

“They said, ‘That spot with the table, we don’t want to do that.’ And I said, ‘That’s the finish, guys.’ And they said, ‘Yeah, yeah, we don’t want to do that.’ Well, their music’s playing. They walk out. Ron [Ron Simmons, aka Farooq] goes, ‘What was that about?’ I said, ‘They don’t want to do the finish.’ Ron said, ‘Well, they don’t want to do the finish? We’ll take the finish to them.’”

With uncertainty surrounding the finish, the APA took matters into their own hands by having 100 percent of the offense against their uncooperative opponents.

In the end, WWE referee Jimmy Korderas stepped in and ruled that the match could no longer continue.

#3 WWE Money in the Bank 2019 men’s ladder match

The 2019 WWE Money in the Bank men’s ladder match featured one of the most controversial finishes in WWE history.

Heading into the pay-per-view, the following eight WWE Superstars were announced as participants in the match: Andrade, Baron Corbin, Drew McIntyre, Finn Balor, Mustafa Ali, Randy Orton, Ricochet, and Sami Zayn.

The final Superstar on that list was unable to compete after he suffered a storyline injury earlier in the night, which meant only seven WWE Superstars began the match.

Fast forward to the finish, and it looked as though Ali was set to claim the WWE Money in the Bank briefcase to guarantee himself a future opportunity at either the WWE Universal Championship or WWE Championship.

That was, of course, until Brock Lesnar appeared. The Beast raced down to the ring, knocked Ali off the ladder, and climbed his way to the top of the ladder to unhook the briefcase.

The finish was obviously a surprise to the WWE Universe, but it was also a surprise to the WWE Superstars involved in the match.

According to various reports, including from PW Insider’s Mike Johnson and Fightful’s Sean Ross Sapp, the other WWE Superstars did not know that Lesnar was going to win.

Johnson reported that they were informed that the finish would involve a spot where Ali would be tipped off the ladder, but they were not told who was going to be revealed as the eighth participant.

Sapp also said that the other WWE Superstars were made to believe that Ali was going to win until shortly before the match.

#2 The Rock vs. Hulk Hogan (WWE WrestleMania 18)

One of the biggest torch-passing moments in WWE history came at WWE WrestleMania 18 when The Rock defeated Hulk Hogan.

Speaking in a Q&A on his social media channels in March 2020, The Rock said he did not know for certain that he was going to win until the moment actually happened.

“We had agreed that I was gonna win the match, but much like WrestleManias before, WrestleMania 3 with Hulk Hogan and Andre the Giant, it was assumed that Hogan was going to win but with Andre, Hogan talks about it still to this day, you never know until match time what Andre is going to decide because he’s the OG.

“Well, the exact same thing I felt with Hogan, even though we agreed that I was going to win the match and he was going to pass the torch to me.” [H/T 411mania]

The Rock added that he learned never to count his chickens before they hatched in the wrestling business, as plans can always change when you least expect them to.

“So I wasn’t assuming I was going to win. I was just waiting for Hogan to give me the green light.”

The match was supposed to be a battle between The Rock’s babyface character and Hogan’s villainous Hollywood character, but the WWE Universe cheered for Hogan and booed The Rock.

As a result, The Rock decided to perform as a bad guy in the match, allowing Hogan to fully embrace WWE's fans by working as a good guy.

#1 The entire WWE Brawl For All tournament

The Brawl For All tournament will forever be remembered as one of the worst creative ideas in WWE history.

While the other examples in this article focused on one match, every Brawl For All match started without any WWE Superstars knowing how the matches were going to finish.

The 16-man tournament, which took place on WWE RAW in 1998, was dubbed a hybrid of boxing and wrestling.

Instead of pre-determined outcomes, WWE Superstars had to legitimately fight each other in three one-minute rounds, with points being awarded for most punches (five points), clean takedowns (five points), and knockdowns (10 points).

Bart Gunn won the Brawl For All series after recording victories over Bob Holly, Steve Williams, The Godfather, and Bradshaw, but the single-elimination tournament is mostly remembered for the real injuries that many WWE Superstars suffered.

As a result of his Brawl For All success, Gunn went on to face professional boxer Butterbean at WrestleMania 15 in 1999.

Unfortunately for the three-time WWE Tag Team Champion, he lost in just 35 seconds and he did not compete in a regular WWE match ever again.

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