On a recent episode of SmackDown Live on the 7th November 2017, Sami Zayn went one-on-one
with Kofi Kingston in a match that ended in an awkward conclusion. The match finish saw
Zayn lose after Kingston caught him off-guard with a crossbody pin combination. Even as
a heel, Sami Zayn is still booked to lose… I was just pointing out… you’re welcome
I guess… I don’t know if Owens was supposed break-up the pin or what but what is clear
is that Owens and Zayn were supposed to “feed” for The New Day after their attack on Kofi.
In other words, Owens and Zayn (the heels) were supposed to take a beating by The New
Day (the babyfaces) in order to make them look strong. However, Owens and Zayn just
thought “nah, I’m outta here” and fled the ring. Xavier Woods and Big E were not
impressed that’s for sure. You could argue that Owens and Zayn were just doing their
jobs as heels but since they went against a creative directive and conducted business
for themselves, consequences followed. Owens and Zayn were sent back home for “unprofessional
conduct” and missed the rest of the WWE European tour, a decision that was approved
by the Chairman, Vince McMahon. Maybe Vince was still hurt from the headbutt that Owens
gave him.
If you ever make it to the WWE, one thing you should never do is piss of The Chairman
and Titus O’Neil did exactly that. Seconds before Monday Night RAW was going off-air
after an emotional retirement speech from Daniel Bryan, Titus O’Neil thought it would
be a smart idea to jokingly grab Vince McMahon’s arm, saying “ladies first” to allow Stephanie
McMahon to exit the stage first. However, Vince McMahon wasn’t amused in the slightest
and shoved O’Neil back. I don’t know what Titus O’Neil was thinking but laying your
hands on The Chairman is effectively career suicide, well… except if your name is John
Cena. I guess you could say that Titus O’Neil finally got a “push” from this. In all
seriousness, O’Neil was suspended for 60-days and was even fined around $5000 for his actions.
Since the incident, things haven’t been working out too great for O’Neil as far
as championship accomplishments
but I guess he’s too busy managing Titus Worldwide… sorry, Titus Worldwide!
It is well known that Kurt Angle won an Olympic gold medal with a broken freakin’ neck,
however, in a segment on SmackDown on the 4th November 2004, Angle nearly ended up with
a broken freakin’ arm at the hands of Daniel Puder. During the segment, Angle challenged
contestants of the WWE reality show, Tough Enough, to a shoot wrestling match. After
Angle defeated one challenger, another one stepped up to the plate, mixed martial artist
and season 4 Tough Enough winner, Daniel Puder. The two tussled with one another before Angle
brought Puder down, however, in the process, Puder locked Angle in a kimura lock. Most
MMA fighters would have tapped at this point but this is Angle we’re talking about, he
won a gold medal with a broken freakin’ neck, if I haven’t mentioned that already.
Besides, Angle couldn’t tap as that would have tarnished his reputation as an amateur
wrestler. Thinking quickly on his feet, referee Jim Korderas quickly awarded Angle a pin-fall
victory despite Puder’s shoulders not being fully down, saving Angle from humiliation
and a broken arm, of course. As you can imagine, Angle was not too happy about what happened,
in fact, he was furious. Although Puder went on to win Tough Enough season 4, he was released
from the WWE shortly afterwards but not before he was destroyed in the 2005 Royal Rumble,
most likely as punishment for what he did to Angle. Chris Benoit, Eddie Guerrero, and
Hardcore Holly just straight up victimised Puder in the ring and each of them took it
in turns to deliver many nasty chops to his chest. Just listen to the sounds of those
chops. Ouch!
The storyline between Mickie James and Trish Stratus was one to remember as we saw James
gradually progress from being Stratus’ biggest fan to an obsessed stalker of Stratus. Their
feud eventually culminated in a match at WrestleMania 22 for the WWE Women’s Championship, which
James went on to win from Stratus, but not before she made a provocative gesture that
got her into a lot of trouble. During the match, James grabbed Stratus’ crotch and
then proceeded to make a vulgar gesture by licking her fingers…OK, that would be a
straight trip to demonetisation. It probably still will get demonetised just like the rest
of our videos pretty much. Following the match, James headed through the curtain backstage
to find an irate Vince McMahon, who scolded her for the unscripted gesture she made. Due
to the highly sexual nature of the gesture, it was edited out of DVD releases but thanks
to the power of the internet, the original, un-edited version is still available for us
to enjoy… I mean, watch.
The MSG “Curtain Call” incident in 1996 forever changed the landscape of professional
wrestling in terms of kayfabe, when kayfabe was actually a thing back then. Kevin Nash
and Scott Hall were set to leave the WWE to go to WWE’s biggest rival at the time, WCW
but before they did, they wrestled their last WWE matches at a live event in Madison Square
Garden. The closing match of the night saw then WWF World Heavyweight Champion, Shawn
Michaels, defeat Kevin Nash in a steel cage match. Immediately after the match, Michaels,
Hall, Nash and Triple H group hugged in the ring which was very unusual to see back then;
babyfaces and heels embracing one another. I can imagine Vince McMahon looked on like
this. With Nash and Hall leaving the WWE and Michaels being the World Champion, Triple
H was solely punished and his big push and scheduled King of the Ring 1996 win were taken
away from him. But maybe it was a blessing in disguise as instead, the push went to “Stone
Cold” Steve Austin, who went on to win King of the Ring 1996 and delivered the iconic
Austin 3:16 promo. The incident certainly did not affect Triple H
in the long-term as he went on to become a 14-time World Champion.