SPOILER ALERT, wrestling matches are planned. I know, I’ll give you a few seconds to deal with the fallout of that bombshell. On we go.
See wrestlers are strong, here’s some, and if you don’t plan matches then someone’s going to get accidentally punched in the face or dick or worse.
But as the well-known Rabbie Burns saying goes, “the best-laid schemes o mice and men sometimes see accidental wrestling happening as well and most of the time it’s real bad but occasionally it’s lightning in a bottle amazing. Och.” Great phrase, thanks Rabbie.
Wrestling History is full of accidentally amazing Moments like Batista and Cena eliminating each other at Royal Rumble 2005 and Vince’s legs exploding, but also not that one because if I have to talk about that moment again I’m going to run into the sea. Different ones.
I’m Adam, hailing from partsFUNknown and here are 10 Amazing Wrestling Moments That Were Complete Accidents
10. The Cobra Commander
Well, this is a gimmick you couldn’t do today huh. Throughout the 80s before animal rights were a thing, Jake Roberts used to bring a wholesome snake called Damien to the ring.
Damien would regularly change shape, color, and species because he was a magical snake, wrestling. Despite Damien being Robert’s main pet, Jake would introduce a new reptilian playmat in 1991 called Lucifer, leading to a wonderfully nightmarish moment in Robert’s feud with Macho Man.
On a November episode of superstars, Roberts tied Savage up in the ropes and taunted him with the king cobra which proceeded to clamp down on Savage’s arm and stay there.
It actually ended up staying latched on Macho for much longer than intended and the image of Robert trying to yank the snake off while it held on to Savage’s arm created one of the most frightening yet iconic moments in either man’s career.
Sad fact, the snake has been devenomized, so Savage was ok, but the snake ended up dying less than two weeks after the incident, leading Savage to joke afterwards that the snake had been poisoned by him.
9. The Rock Thanks You For That
The Rock n’ Sock Connection are a very recognizable dynamic, being the living embodiment of “can I go out? Ok, but take your little brother with you.”
The Rock was cool, Mankind was not, but Mankind worshipped The Rock and The Rock tolerated him. Their on and off again bromance created a number of great moments, the ‘this is your life’ moment, the double people’s elbow that won them the tag championships, and of course, this little unscripted gem.
On the September 2 episode of Smackdown in 1999, The Rock and Sock were cutting a promo the week after winning the tag belts, The Rock hit his catchphrase, if you smell… you know the one, but before he could finish it his sunglasses flew off his face.
After a small awkward moment, Mankind the ever-delightful to sub to Rock’s inscrutable dom, picked up the glasses and handed them to him, with Rock issues a small, but delightfully human “The Rock thanks you for that” before continuing on his promo.
It’s sadly cut from the finished broadcast, but it’s a lovely little character moment between good reasonably good buds.
8. Titus O’Neil Kissed The Ground On The Lips
Titus O’Neil is a genuinely very lovely man who does genuinely very lovely things, but hot damn is it fun to make fun of him for stuff, whether it’s was fist-in-mouth cringeworthy pirate stag gone wrong at WrestleMania, the super weird thing that happened between him and Vince REMEMBER THAT? GOD IT WAS WEIRD and, of course, Titus Worldslide.
To be honest, it’s just nice to hear Michael Cole genuinely laugh for once, you forget he’s a real person sometimes.
So it’s the Greatest Royal Rumble, Titus runs down, his feet stay behind and gravity gives him the 3D, pitching him straight under the ring like he’d just been eaten by Kirby.
Seriously though, there’s a metal ring support in the middle of the apron, Titus misses it by inches, turning what could have been a nasty injury, into the one of the stupidest, but gut-achingly funny moments of the last 10 years.
It is his legacy, and that’s both very sad and very nice.
7. Hey Baby I Hear The Boos A Calling (Seattle Crowd)
Seattle is famous for three things, rain, Frasier and one of the greatest crowd hijacks in the history of live entertainment.
The 9th of December 2013 saw Raw come to Washington, home state of Daniel Bryan who just so happened to be the hottest thing in wrestling at the time.
Despite WWE trying to sideline him from the main event and promote Cena vs. Orton for the 800th time, or rather because of it, during a Championship Ascension ceremony ahead of TLC, the fans completely hijacked the segment, ignoring the authority, Orton, all of the former champions in the ring and cheering full-throat for Daniel Bryan.
It’s an astonishing segment to watch, it goes completely off the rails, Triple H has to stop talking multiple times to let the fans finishing chanting, Mark Henry gets one of the biggest pops of his life by raising Bryan’s hand, and Cena even has to crowbar a quick Daniel Bryan interview in there because why not, script’s dead roll with it.
And through it all, Daniel Bryan’s face, his happy, happy face as his home fans did their part in a movement that would steamroll the American Dragon to the main event of WrestleMania.
6. Hell Through The Cell
There are few matches more synonymous with wrestling than the Hell in a Cell match between Mankind and The Undertaker at King of the Ring 1998.
A perfect blend of character work, game-changing stunts, iconic commentary and real-life and wrestling blurring together in heart-stoppingly compelling television. Mick Foley flying from the top of the cell through the announce table, that was planned.
Mick Foley being chokeslammed through the cell, was not. So here’s what was supposed to happen, Foley was to take a purposely weak chokeslam, the cell would buckle, open on one side, and Foley would roll through taking a much softer bump to the ring below.
That did not happen. Instead, all the cable ties broke, the section of the roof flew open and Foley took a full-force drop to the canvas, briefly knocking him out.
Much worse for Mick than it should have been? Absolutely. Much more memorable and cool-looking than the originally planned spot? Almost definitely.
5. HB-KO
We can’t bloody shut up about Chris Jericho and Shawn Michael’s 2008 feud. It’s one of the best-paced, carefully plotted and satisfying executed stories in WWE history, featuring a whole raft of memorable moments.
Jericho smashing Michaels through the JeriTron, the last proper blade job of the ruthless aggression era at the Bash, the tug of war over the World Heavyweight title at the top of the ladder, and, of course, Shawn Michaels fake retiring at SummerSlam, only to immediately return for WIFE-BASED VENGEANCE.
See Michael was saying a tearful cross-eyed goodbye accompanied by his wife, when it was interrupted by still the best ever version of Chris Jericho. One thing led to another and Y2J swung at HBK but hit Rebecca instead.
It was supposed to be a worked punch, because yeah of course, but Jericho accidentally hit her flush in the mouth, and look you don’t wish for accidents like these, but man.
WWE know how to use them when they get them. The shot of Rebecca’s lip, hugely swollen, a trace of blood in her mouth, elevated it from an angle that could have felt super corny and poorly acted, into something real and awful and wonderful.
Backstage Chris was understandably bricking himself, until Rebecca said to him in front of everyone ‘that the best you got, Jericho’. A class act.
4. He Caught The Kendo
Nothing like a good catch to make a crowd go wheeey, I’m reliably informed that cricket and baseball depend on such things stopping them from being the world’s more boring games.
Wrestling’s had a fair share of wheeey catches. Lance Storm catching the streamer at WrestleCon, Aiden English catching a rose thrown by a fan in NXT (wheey), Bobby Heenan catching Mr. Perfect’s towel at the 1991 Rumble, wheey and best of all, during a random match between The Wyatt Family and the Dudley Boys on the December 14 episode of Raw in 2015.
The late great Luke Harper threw down a kendo stick, to the mat, which bounced to the outside, Bubba Ray caught it in mid-air and immediately used it to go on a hot-fire kendo attack. Whey. Just wonderful moments you could never hope to plan but fill life with joy.
3. Good God Almighty
Taking a break from WWE for a moment, and looking at a truly wonderful bit of improvisation from New Japan Pro Wrestling’s G1 Special in San Francisco in 2018.
For a few years, the official English announce team for New Japan’s tv show on AXS TV had been good ol’ JR Jim Ross and Josh Barnett, a former MMA star and nobody to mess with.
During the show, during a match between Juice Robinson, another JR, and Jay White, a prick, White suplexed Juice into the guard rail which knocked the announce table backwards, into JR, who fell from his chair.
Josh Barnett then coolly responded, well ‘wow you done f**ked up now’, stood up from the announce table and went after Jay White who was soaking up nuclear heat.
It was a mad, electric little memory from the match, which was so effective and cool that some thought it was a work, though both and Barnett and JR insist it was an unplanned, real moment.
2. Till I Collapse
ECW is full of happy accidents. Its loose show structure, heavy reliance on crowdwork, and its rabidly loyal and loud fanbase created a whole bunch of unplanned moments that would define the beloved, anarchic promotion.
The “throw me a chair” debacle is a fondly remembered example, as well as moments like the Heatwave 1999 incident which saw Bubba Ray start a mini-riot with his heel crowd-baiting.
Gosh, those angry fans. Gosh. However, perhaps most emblematic of how alive classic ECW shows used to be, how fierce a connection they had with their fans, occasionally to the show’s detriment, would be the fans swarming the ring for a post-match dance party with Public Enemy at a show called Sunshine State Slaughter in 1995.
So many ECW fans got into the ring and jumped up jumped up and got down that the rings supports buckled and the whole thing collapsed. A perfect example of the sheer crushing love that ECW generated in its heyday.
1. Making The Man
Chris Jericho accidentally struck Rebecca Hickenbottom and made an amazing moment, Nia Jax accidentally struck Becky Lynch and made a megastar. Nothing about Becky Lynch’s rise to the top of women’s wrestling really went how it was supposed to.
Becky was supposed to turn heel at SummerSlam 2018 but got the loudest cheers of the night, the main event of WrestleMania 35 was supposed to be Charlotte vs. Ronda, but Becky got too popular to be ignored and originally Becky was supposed to wrestle and lose to Ronda at Survivor Series but Nia Jax punched her face open and the match was canceled at the last minute.
It ended up being a glorious accident. Not only did it mean that the Ronda/Becky match got pushed back allowing more hype to build, more trash-talking on Twitter, but that shot of Becky, defiant, sporting a very much broken face but still standing amongst her fans, triumphant.
It was more nakedly heroic and badass than any scripted WWE babyface underdog comeback spot or “lol my opponent’s poopy” promo could ever manage.
Sheer swagger and a career-best visual, born of one errant punch to the face. Sometimes wrestling’s just like that. The best-laid schemes of mice and the man, gang aft agley
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