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#2 Rusev is pinned for the first time at WWE WrestleMania 31
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At one point, Rusev seemed destined to be a WWE Champion. A long undefeated run where he remained unpinned for a year proved that the company was putting all their eggs in the Rusev shaped basket. Then...well...
A tale as old as time. A brand new star has a strong run on the main roster and looks destined for greatness. All of a sudden they run into a neon-colored brick wall.
The longtime face of WWE was already crushed by Rusev at Fastlane the month before, which already spelled doom for The Bulgarian Brute heading into WrestleMania 31.
It's tough to put this here because what we got with the WWE United States title after this match was phenomenal. For a year, John Cena defended the belt in his US Championship Open Challenge. Every week we'd see Cena face other upcoming or underappreciated stars and give them a chance to make a name for themselves.
Honestly, it seemed like an apology to Rusev's fans more than anything else. "Sorry we cut the legs out from someone who was white-hot. Here's Sami Zayn." The Cena loss hit Rusev hard, and he never really recovered from it. He'd win more gold in his WWE career, for sure. But he could've gone so much farther.
#1 Asuka falls to Charlotte Flair at WWE WrestleMania 34
WrestleMania is apparently where the dreams of rising stars go to die. As bad as Rusev's loss to Cena was, this one was a lot worse. WrestleMania 34 was a fun show, but one that proved WWE didn't trust any of its upcoming talents.
Heading into the show, Asuka and Shinsuke Nakamura won their respective Royal Rumble matches to challenge for championship gold. Fans at the event were ecstatic to see two of their favorite competitors get guaranteed shots at glory at The Grandest Stage of Them All.
It's unfortunate that both of them lost and lost all of their momentum heading out of the event. Nakamura's an entirely different story to focus on later. As far as Asuka goes, it was a really baffling decision. She was not just unbeaten on the main roster, she was unbeaten throughout her entire WWE career up to this point.
Asuka was the most dominant NXT Women's Champion of all time and vacated the title because nobody could take it from her. Heading into WrestleMania, she was matched up against one of the best in the business. A victory over Charlotte Flair at WrestleMania would've been a monumental moment for her, but alas it wasn't to be.
Flair ended up tapping out Asuka with the Figure 8, pretty much halting the latter's train before it could take her to the top. She's been a multi-time champion since then, sure. Still, she hasn't felt like the dominant force that she once was. Much of that comes from her loss, and future losses, to Charlotte Flair.
