Everybody wants to win a match, but in pro wrestling you can’t always win a match, but sometimes accidents they happen just like that, and then the wrong wrestler can win a match. A SQUARE WITH A HORN, ok enough of that.
God isn’t live entertainment fun? Just about anything that can go wrong will go wrong, and in pro wrestling, sometimes that includes the wrong person winning an entire match. WHOOPSY.
See, professional wrestling referees, in order to avoid bum clenchingly AWFUL moments like, say, Earl Hebner stopping his own count at No Way Out 2001 because he forgot it was the finish, oh god no it’s so awful, referees are instructed to call the match like it’s a shoot, meaning if a wrestler forgets to kickout or something else goes wrong, tough turds cowboy, you done just lost yourself a wrasslin match.
And honestly, somehow it’s happened more often than you’d think. Here are 10 Wrestlers Who Accidentally Won Wrestling Matches
10. Emma – NXT Brooklyn Pre-Show 2015
The main event of a pre-show isn’t the worst place in the world to screw up, unless it’s the pre-show to the first time your promotion has played an arena, and also that pre-show is being filmed to air the week after the biggest show your promotion’s ever done.
Then it’s a bit of a whoopsy. In a fatal four-way match that saw Becky Lynch vs. Charlotte Flair vs. Dana Brooke vs. Emma, I think it’s fairly safe to say that you know, considering Emma wasn’t about to appear at her first-ever SummerSlam, she might not have been supposed to win.
But that’s exactly what happened, the master of the weird kung fu crab dance hit the Emma-Mite Sandwich on Becky Lynch in the corner, pulled her in for a cover, 1-2…3?
Becky just straight forgot to kickout, leading to a confused Emma going, um, yay, commentary saying “wow, Emma’s new team with Dana Brooke must really be paying off, huh” and a THUNDEROUS look from Charlotte who was supposed to go over and a scramble to perform a quick closing double submission spot to put the faces over.
Team PCB they said to each other as they walked up the ramp, tensely.
9. Matt Hardy – ECW (August 12, 2008)
You know what move never wins a match, a f**king side effect. Matt Hardy could hit that move off the Empire State Building onto a bed of spikes and his opponent would still kickout at two.
Well, all except for one fateful night in August 2008 on an episode of ECW, when Matt Hardy and ECW Champ Mark Henry were teaming up to take on Miz and Morrison in a “can the champion and challenger co-exist” sort of deal that WWE will NOT STOP BOOKING.
Well turns out, yup, no issues at all when Hardy hit a top rope side effect to Morrison, covered him and JoMo kicked out a fraction after the referee’s hand hit the mat for a three.
First of all, look at the f**king mohawk the Miz was rocking during that match, great googly moogly.
Second, god bless Mark Henry’s little face, just standing on the apron, flabbergasted that the match is already over, as the ref rushes to tell everyone a closing spot to make this five-minute main event suddenly make sense.
8. Dana Brooke vs. Bayley – Raw (October 17, 2016)
Bayley debuted on the main roster the night after Summerslam 2016, so I’m gonna take a giant stab in the dark that Dana Brooke wasn’t supposed to beat her clean as a whistle in a random match, on a random episode of Raw two months later.
Whoopsy poopsy. Dana throws Bayley into the ring post, drags her back into the ring and goes to cover her.
Apparently what happens next is that Dana should have held down circle to perform a dirty pin, with her feet all up in the ropes so that the ref would break the count.
However, she’s too far away, can’t reach the ropes and instead the ref just counts it. Dana Brooke stays covering Bayley for a little bit, presumably to profusely apologize and then celebrates her win with total “I done f**ked up” in her eyes.
7. Daniel Bryan – SmackDown (June 17, 2011)
A match that has since become a bit famous for a) being the worst match that Cody Rhodes was ever a part of, and b) the phrase, “that referee tried to f**k on me”, which is now in the Wrebster’s Wrestling Dictionary where it belongs.
On a random SmackDown in June 2011, Rhodes teamed up with Wade Barrett and Ted DiBiase Jr. to take on Ezekiel Jackson, Sin Cara and Daniel Bryan.
Apparently, the point of the match was to get over Jackson’s strength and power with a wild, memorable hot tag, which makes it even funnier that he only got 30 seconds in the ring right at the start and never got to be tagged back in.
Instead, Daniel Bryan hit his running dropkick on DiBiase, covered him, 1-2-3, with Ted Jr. kicking out too late, before storming backstage claiming the referee was trying to f**k on him, so in case anyone was unclear what a ref f**king on someone looks like, uh… I guess this. This is.
6. Kaitlyn – Raw (August 20, 2012)
As we move up the list, the screwups are becoming gently more severe, in this case Kaitlyn accidentally becoming #1 Contender to the Divas Title, which she definitely wasn’t supposed to be.
In August 2012 a Battle Royal was held to determine who’d wrestle Layla for her awful butterfly belt, with the final two being Kaitlyn and Eve. Eve was supposed to win.
Instead, Kaitlyn uses the power of incredibly dark roots under dyed blonde hair which is a superpower we both share, clotheslining her over the top rope, with the plan being Eve landing on the apron. That did not happen.
Look at Kaitlyn, that’s not the reaction of someone who just won a title shot. Even funnier, look at Layla. Siri, what’s the opposite of a poker face? “Well that was a shocker,” said Michael Cole. Sure was!
4. Too Cool – Judgment Day 2000
What’s better than a balls up on live TV? Why a balls-up on pay-per-view of course!
Judgement Day 2000, that’s the pay-per-view with Chopper Mark returning during the Iron Man match and immediately screwing over The Rock with a DQ loss, great memories, but the opening match didn’t end much better with Too Cool taking on Team ECK, (Edge, Christian and Kurt Angle).
The ending of the match sees Edge cover Rikishi, before Mr. Sexay hits him with the hip hop drop.
Rikishi rolls into the pin, which Kurt Angle was supposed to break up, but evidently he was still discombobulated from having Rikishi’s entire a**hole rubbed into his face as he arrives just a fraction too late and the three is counted.
The crowd are happy, but no music plays for a noticeably long time, JR says ‘uh, we got winners’, Scotty climbs into the ring looking utterly perplexed and despite winning the match, Rikishi looks ROYALLY pissed about.
Still, nothing a quick dance can’t fix.
4. Billy Kidman – Souled Out 2000
Oh man. This is funny, but it’s also sad, but it’s also really funny.
So at Souled Out 2000, the first pay-per-view of easily the worst year in WCW’s wacky existence, Billy Kidman was scheduled to wrestle not once, not twice, but thrice.
His first match, and indeed the first match on the card was Kidman vs. Dean Malenko in a Catch as Catch Can style match, the rules of which were, you must win by pinfall or submission, and if you leave the ring and feet touch the floor, you’re disqualified.
Well, either no one told Malenko that last part, or he forgot, because two minutes into the match he rolls out of the ring, the announcers immediately say “well, I mean, the match is over then?”
The ref tells Dean to get back in the ring so the match can continue, but when he does, then the bell rings, and the ref says, “oh I guess Dean’s disqualified then”.
Weird confusing nonsense, and considering WCW in 2000 there’s like a 30% chance that was the actual booking.
Know what makes it ready sad though, that was Dean Malenko’s last match in WCW. Leave the memories alone.
3. Chris Benoit – Stampede 1988
Stu and Helen Hart had a whole bunch of kids. 12 to be exact, which is a lot of kids. Some were very famous indeed, like Bret and Owen, some were very funny indeed like Bruce.
Some we don’t really mention all that much, like Dean Hart, who actually died tragically in 1990 of a heart attack at only 36. But Dean is relevant to this story, which is all about the time that Chris Benoit won a championship in Stampede Wrestling, completely by accident.
It was 1988, and Benoit was wrestling Johnny Smith for the Stampede British Commonwealth Mid Heavyweight Championship, f**king hell Stampede whack a few more words in there the title of the belt’s not catchy enough.
The finish of the match was that Smith’s manager The Weasel was trying to pass brass knuckles to Johnny, when Benoit would intercept them and hit Johnny instead. Then he’d pin saint but be DQ’d afterwards so the title wouldn’t change hands.
Except nobody told Dean Hart, who was subbing in as ref at the last minute. He didn’t see the knucks and just straight up awarded the win and the title to Benoit.
2. Mickie James – Paris House Show (April 2007)
Melina has had a number of accolades in her wrestling career. Multi-time Women’s Champ, multi-time Divas Champ, and of course, a one-time QuizzleMania champion, which we can all agree is the most important of the three.
But did you know that Melina once lost the WWE Women’s Championship to Mickie James at a house show in Paris in 2008, by mistake?
There’s actually footage that exists online, it’s a Triple Threat match between Melina, Mickie and Victoria.
Mickie hits Victoria with a hurricanrana before going for the cover, and maybe Victoria thought Melina was going to interrupt the count, or maybe she fell asleep, either way, her shoulders stayed down for the three, crowning Mickie as the new champ. WHOOPS.
Thankfully Jonathan Coachman was there, which is a sentence I never thought I’d say, who immediately created a one on one rematch between Melina and Mickie, with Melina winning the title back.
1. Hardcore Holly – Mania 2000
And by far the most famous example, not only did the wrong man win a match, not only did a title change hands when it shouldn’t have, but it happened at f**king WrestleMania, the biggest show of the year.
What was it with people accidentally winning matches in 2000, this is the third match on the list from that cursed year. So at ‘Mania 2000, a bad ‘Mania, WWE held the Hardcore Battle Royal, which wasn’t a Battle Royal, it was a Championship Scramble but NEVER MIND.
Fifteen minutes, whoever’s champ when the time runs out keeps the belt, and they monumentally boned the finish. Crash was in the Tazmission when Hardcore Holly brains him with a sweetie jar and goes for the cover.
Now, what was supposed to happen was that the ref would count two, the time would expire and Crash would stay champion. What actually happened was Tim White started counting too early, meaning that over a second was left on the time as he stopped himself counting the three.
Confusion ruled, JR said Crash kicked out when he definitely didn’t, Crash went and grabbed the belt in order to leave with it, but then Fink announced that Hardcore Holly was the winner and oh it’s just so awkward I can’t stands no more.
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