Wrestling is a bit of a juggling act - not just because you’re tossing 200lb slabs of prime rib
around the ring for entertainment, but also because you’ve got to remember your spots,
react to the audience, stay in character the entire time, remain aware of where
everyone is and do the finish properly. It’s lots of plates to spin and if you’re
in WWE Vince has also filled them all with whipped cream, because he’s 10 years old.
So it’s no wonder that sometimes things slip through the cracks - someone out of position here,
a fumbled spot there, or the entire finish to the match just Beautiful
Sunshines its way out of your spotless mind. Because yes it has been known for
wrestlers to completely forget the finish to matches, like I sometimes forget the… erm…
lead in things. This one’s about people forgetting stuff, read the screen I dunno.
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Sting vs. Samoa Joe - Victory Road 2009
By the time the infamously terrible Victory Road 2009 pay per view took place, Samoa Joe had just
joined the Main Event Mafia. Sporting a fake face tattoo/warpaint thing and carrying a machete
it was a look that screamed, I do murders and recently attended a kids birthday party.
At the show he and Sting had a slightly below average match perhaps best known for Taz’s TNA
debut, an entrance so epic it allowed Joe to power out of the Scorpion Deathlock as if Joe was the
Undertaker and Taz was the urn. But really as if Sting just couldn’t be arsed to hold it any more
and let go, which is what happened. After this bit of awkwardness was over Joe was supposed
to put Sting away with the Muscle Buster but Sting forgot the finish so Joe simply popped on
the coquina clutch, probably asked Sting not to tap very nicely and the Icon submitted instead.
British Bulldog vs. Bret Hart - SummerSlam 92
Most will agree that Bret Hart is one of the greatest minds in wrestling history. Davey Boy
Smith had the talent, but definitely not the Sherlockian mind-palace recall of Hart. Bret
often speaks about putting together his matches in his head prior to heading out through the curtain,
rather than calling it in the ring, in this case he not only planned out an entire match,
but talked Bulldog through their 25 plus minute would-be classic. And turns out Bret
was barking up the wrong tree, because Bulldog was more goldfish in this case. Hart has since
said that Smith wasn’t in the best frame of mind going into the biggest match of his career and
as Bret took him over with a headlock Bulldog let slip that the 25 minute plus epic had just
slipped his mind. Which is understandable really, I can’t remember 5 seconds ago,
let alone 25 minutes of wrasslin’. But Bret did and he used those knowledge
powers to lead Bulldog through the greatest performance of his career.
Sting vs. Hulk Hogan - Starrcade 1997
There could be a whole list of matches where the referees forgot the finishes such as The Rock and
Kurt Angle at No Way Out 2001, or when Trent and PAC had to end their match early on Dynamite in
2019 and Bryce Remsburg didn’t get the memo, but for this list we’ll include the infamous
main event of Starrcade 1997. I mean Nick Patrick had a handful of wrestling matches so technically
he’s a wrestler for all you sticklers out there. Patrick was supposed to administer a fast count
allowing Hulk Hogan to pin Sting, which would set up Bret Hart reversing the decision in the wake
of the Montreal Screwjob. Instead, Patrick just forgot to do a fast count and Sting was pinned
normally. The rest of the finish carried on as planned, but just with no actual justification,
so Sting ended up looking like a bit of an idiot. Bet Hogan LOVED it though.
KENTA vs. Tomohiro Ishii - NJPW Royal Quest
Now, wrestling is essentially pretending to be dropped on your head for a living,
but sometimes head and mat do meet, as do head and fist, head and foot and head and floor, what
I’m saying is it’s quite easy to smacked silly. So that means that unfortunately some of the ‘silly
goose you’ve gone and forgotten’ about this list comes as a result of concussion. As is the case
in this bout between KENTA and Tomohiro Ishii at Royal Quest in 2019. The pair had been putting on
a clinic until KENTA was seemingly knocked out by a german suplex and the match fell apart,
never mind being able to remember the finish, KENTA could barely wrestle.
Ishii did his best to keep things together until KENTA could hit the Go To Sleep and
walk away with the NEVER Openweight title. Fun fact this was in London and I went to it,
and I had forgotten until writing this list, I blame beer rather than German suplexes though.
Mickie James vs. Victoria vs. Melina - House Show 2007
There are a surprising amount of title changes in this list and here comes another one. During a WWE
house show on April 24th, 2007, Mickes James and Victoria challenged former QuizzleMania Champion
Melina for the much less important WWE Women’s Championship in a Triple Threat match. But the
thing is the whole thing got bollocksed right up when Victoria forgot to kick out of a pin from
Mickie James, which meant that James accidentally won the title, thankfully everything was rectified
when Jonathan Coachman booked a second title match so Melina could get the belt back from James. A
proper palava if you ask me, but still, gave us a cheeky bonus women’s match, which leaves us
with one more than your average Dynamite. See that bias fans, that’s called balance.
Gene Kiniski vs. Dory Funk Jr. - NWA Title Match February 11, 1969
Here’s yet another match where the title changed hands because one of the competitors
plain forgot the finish. But in this case it’s not Mickie James accidentally walking away with
the women’s championship, it’s just the champ chucking away the most prestigious title in
wrestling because he had forgotten what kind of match he was in. So here’s the deal, NWA World
Champion Gene Kiniski was putting the title on the line against Dory Funk Jr. at a show in Tampa,
Florida. World title bouts were often contested under two out of three falls rules at the time
but this was scheduled for ONE FALL, ONE FALL. And only one fall was counted when Funk locked
Kiniski in his Spinning Toe Hold finish early in the fledgling match and Kiniski submitted,
losing the title in the process. Afterwards Gene said many times that he was convinced
the match was two out of three falls, but instead his 1131 day reign as champ
came to an end thanks to an earth shaking brain fart. Oop, title of your sex tape.
Dean Malenko vs. Billy Kidman - Souled Out 2000
Time for another round of ‘what’s the stipulation?’ this time starring Dean
Malenko and Billy Kidman at Souled Out back in the year 2000. And this one is a bit of a weird one,
coming at peak stupid during WCWs lifespan, the ruling for the match between Malenko and
Kidman said that you would be disqualified if you left the ring. Like a really shit two man rumble.
It’s a dumb stip, and clearly not a memorable one either as Malenko forgot the rule about two
minutes in, left the ring and was disqualified ending the match in an big old whomp whomp.
You’ve got to assume that whatever the planned finish was it would have
been better than this damp squib, but then again it was 2000s WCW, so no guarantees.
Sin Cara, Daniel Bryan, Ezekiel Jackson vs. Wade Barrett,
Ted DiBiase Jr. & Cody Rhodes - June 17, 2011 SmackDown
Ah it’s never not fun to bring up the “he was trying to fuck on me” match. Cody Rhodes made
this match infamous with his retelling of this story, but it has also earned a place on this…
like twice. On the June 17, 2011 episode of SmackDown, the eclectic team of Sin Cara, Daniel
Bryan and Ezekiel Jackson took on the team of Wade Barrett, Cody Rhodes and Ted DiBiase Jr. With this
being the original flavoured Sin Cara you can all but guarantee the match didn’t go as planned. He
forgot the planned finish which was supposed to see Ezekiel Jackson be given a big rub as the
featured performer ahead of Capitol Punishment where he would go on to win the Intercontinental
Championship from Barrett. But why do that, when you’ve got a wicked sweet mask and a devil may
care attitude and you want to hot tag in Daniel Bryan. Which is EXACTLY what Sin Cara did changing
the entire flow of the match, rubbing off the rub on Jackson and smearing it onto Bryan instead,
gross, which was only worsened by DiBiase forgetting to kick out of Bryan’s corner dropkick
and you have an absolute cluster-fuck-on-me of a match. But I mean this is pre-Yes movement Bryan,
soooo, could this be the rub that started it all. The seminal rub. It gets worse the more you add.
Adrian Neville vs. Sami Zayn vs. Tyson Kidd - NXT House Show November 13, 2014
This is an example of how some quick thinking can save you from near disaster - back in the
days of old NXT, 2014 to be precise, at a house show in Glasgow then NXT Champion Adrian Neville
was taking on Sami Zayn and Tyson Kidd in a Triple Threat match. For whatever reason Zayn
forgot to kick out of a pin attempt by Kidd, essentially giving Tyson a shock win and the
crowd at some rando house show in Glasgow the chance to see a very newsworthy change on NXT
Champion. Except some quick thinking on the part of the ring announcer stopped that from happening,
after the pin they announced that Sami had been eliminated from the match,
hit ‘em with the surprise stipulation, which allowed Kidd and Neville to get the whole
thing back on track and end things the right way, with Neville retaining his Championship.
Cactus Jack vs. Sandman - ECW 1992
Ooof this one is a difficult watch. During an ECW show in 1992, Cactus Jack and Sandman
were scheduled to have a Last Man Standing Deathmatch thing, the idea being that the
only way to win was to make your opponent stay down for the count of 10. The only
issue was that Sandman was badly concussed during the match, leaving him with no idea of what was
going on around him and completely forgetting how to bring an end to the match. With the stip
stating that someone had to stay down for a 10 count, Sandman, who was scheduled to lose,
just refused to stay down AT ALL. So what was already a pretty grisly match devolved
into Foley just having to batter Sandman over and over in the hope he would stay down for 10.
I’d argue there’s such a thing as calling it all off too, but wrestling…