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Wrestling fans, what are the most awkward matches you have ever seen?

Baphomet

Baphomet

Member
Dec 8, 2018
16,879
Mine would be :

Tetsuya Naito vs Jeff Hardy (back when TNA/NJPW had a working relationship, anyone who has seen this match could tell Naito was really pissed at Hardy, look at his face throughout the match and the finish , Naito clearly hated that match).

Eddie Guerrero vs Chris Benoit ECW One Night Stand: Eddie looked way off from the moment he came out of the curtain , he looked really pissed off and then they had a really weird match.

Satoshi Kojima vs Hiroyoshi Tenzan Double Title match (Infamous match where Tenzan was legit unable to continue the match, hence Kojima won by TKO and won both titles. Some claim that Kojima was always suppose to win but I call BS on that since during the final moments of the match Kojima is really trying to stand Tenzan up to continue and when he wins you can see him go "damn it". Also Tanahashi and Nakamura were super pissed at Kojima after he threw the IWGP title back in the ring).
 
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NinjaScooter

NinjaScooter

Member
Oct 25, 2017
54,121
Jeff Hardy vs Sting at Victory Road 2011
Jeff Hardy shows up to the main event of a PPV high out of his mind, Eric Bischoff has to come out to call and audible and have Sting forcibly pin Sting like 10 seconds in to put an end to the shit show.
 
Curt Baboon

Curt Baboon

Avenger
Mar 13, 2018
3,558
NinjaScooter said:
Jeff Hardy vs Sting at Victory Road 2011
Jeff Hardy shows up to the main event of a PPV high out of his mind, Eric Bischoff has to come out to call and audible and have Sting forcibly pin Sting like 10 seconds in to put an end to the shit show.
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The thing I remember the most about that match was the crowd just chanting "THIS IS BULLSHIT" and Sting responding "I agree!" super pissed off.



Also my answer is Inoki vs. Great Antonio.
 
dennett316

dennett316

Member
Nov 2, 2017
2,979
Blackpool, UK
A recent entry would probably be Charlotte vs Nia Jax from the 30th of August edition of Raw. Really awkward slapping and pawing at each other, bad communication, blown spots, Nia visibly telling Charlotte to cut it out as Charlotte was slapping her in the face. Bowling shoe ugly.
Brock vs Undertaker when Brock ended the streak. What should've been an epic moment - and to be fair, the actual pinfall was a huge moment - the match itself was ruined due to Taker getting concussed early on and barely being able to move right afterwards. Such a shame that the match was so compromised, the moment deserved better.
 
Superpupperbabysassy

Superpupperbabysassy

Member
Oct 29, 2017
12,659
There's too many to name. I'll list a couple.
Berlyn vs Jim Duggan WCW
Apartment death match IWA Japan
Bathhouse death match IWA Japan
Bruiser Brody vs Lex Luger Florida wrestling
Jungle Death match Onita vs Tiger Jeet Singh
Turkey on a pole match AWA.
 
Superpupperbabysassy

Superpupperbabysassy

Member
Oct 29, 2017
12,659
dennett316 said:
A recent entry would probably be Charlotte vs Nia Jax from the 30th of August edition of Raw. Really awkward slapping and pawing at each other, bad communication, blown spots, Nia visibly telling Charlotte to cut it out as Charlotte was slapping her in the face. Bowling shoe ugly.
Brock vs Undertaker when Brock ended the streak. What should've been an epic moment - and to be fair, the actual pinfall was a huge moment - the match itself was ruined due to Taker getting concussed early on and barely being able to move right afterwards. Such a shame that the match was so compromised, the moment deserved better.
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I always remember some "fan" audibly telling Undertaker he sucks after he lost.
 
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345

345

Member
Oct 30, 2017
7,357
when kane was unmasked and the announcers were like "oh my god he looks so fucked up!" and then the gimmick shifted the following week to him actually looking completely normal but having a psychological complex about his appearance
 
CrocodileGrin

CrocodileGrin

Avenger
Oct 27, 2017
3,154
Jeff Hardy vs Sting is the first one that comes to mind. Hardy is so high, Sting refuses to let him win. You can even see Jeff try to legit kick out of the pin, but Sting won't let him.


The other is Hollywood Hogan vs The Warrior at WCW's Halloween Havoc. I had a family member order the PPV and I remember really finding the match boring. Watching it as an adult, I think it's one of the worst matches performed by two main event guys. Things go wrong throughout the match and both men have zero coordination and constantly miss their cues. For example, at one point, Hogan sits in the corner of the ring and tries to light some "magic" paper to fight against The Warrior's powers and it doesn't work properly. Instead, when he lights the flame, it blows up too quick in Hogan's face that was meant for Warrior. Not planned. The worst offense of that whole match is that The Warrior refuses to sell ANY of Hogan's moves. It's like watching someone high on bath salts refusing to stay down. Maybe something like this would work with his Ultimate Warrior gimmick in WWF, but with The Warrior in WCW, it all came together half-assed and not entertaining in the least. The funniest part about this PPV was that it's not even the worst thing to happen in the show. It's the PPV that goes overtime thanks to this stupid match. So in the last match was Goldberg vs DDP, and it gets cut off by the PPV companies that were broadcasting based on the original showtime they were given. It pissed off so many people, like my cousin that paid money and weren't able to watch the last match.

Someone compiled all the non-sense into a minute:
 
Stalker

Stalker

The Fallen
Oct 25, 2017
6,726
bangai-o said:
Goldberg vs William Regal at Monday night Raw 1998

Regal made him wrestle.
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This is way overrated imo, Regal was obviously the better wrestler and everyone knew it even the fans so him making the squash monster Goldberg slow down and run a 7 min match with him wasn't outlandlish. It's one of those matches that was kind of nothing and because it's earned a reputation from Goldberg and Regal talking about it so much people have went back and watch it but it's not awkward by any means and had no lasting effect on either man. If anything it added legitimacy to Goldbergs run because he went into a match with one of the best technical wrestlers of all time and came out on top overcoming the skill via brute force and that was ALWAYS what Goldberg was an angry brute pointed in the right direction by WCW.
 
PHOENIXZERO

PHOENIXZERO

Member
Oct 29, 2017
12,067
Well no one has mentioned that Raw tag match with Chris Nowinski and Jackie Gayda vs Bradshaw and Trish Stratus because you know, let's throw a couple people into a tag match have maybe five minutes of real training between them into a match on Raw. Especially against people who had no chance of being able to carry them to anything.

CrocodileGrin said:
Jeff Hardy vs Sting is the first one that comes to mind. Hardy is so high, Sting refuses to let him win. You can even see Jeff try to legit kick out of the pin, but Sting won't let him.


The other is Hollywood Hogan vs The Warrior at WCW's Halloween Havoc. I had a family member order the PPV and I remember really finding the match boring. Watching it as an adult, I think it's one of the worst matches performed by two main event guys. Things go wrong throughout the match and both men have zero coordination and constantly miss their cues. For example, at one point, Hogan sits in the corner of the ring and tries to light some "magic" paper to fight against The Warrior's powers and it doesn't work properly. Instead, when he lights the flame, it blows up too quick in Hogan's face that was meant for Warrior. Not planned. The worst offense of that whole match is that The Warrior refuses to sell ANY of Hogan's moves. It's like watching someone high on bath salts refusing to stay down. Maybe something like this would work with his Ultimate Warrior gimmick in WWF, but with The Warrior in WCW, it all came together half-assed and not entertaining in the least. The funniest part about this PPV was that it's not even the worst thing to happen in the show. It's the PPV that goes overtime thanks to this stupid match. So in the last match was Goldberg vs DDP, and it gets cut off by the PPV companies that were broadcasting based on the original showtime they were given. It pissed off so many people, like my cousin that paid money and weren't able to watch the last match.

Someone compiled all the non-sense into a minute:
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...


Yeah, the match they had at WrestleMania was way, way, way better than it had any right to be but it was helped that they worked through everything at house shows and before the event, which was pretty much the only way Warrior could have a good match. Flash paper, is an old ass gimmick from theater for special effects that was used the territory days though IIRC when it was used it was sometimes because the "victim" of it was leaving the territory for a few weeks or whatever and it was to write him off for a while and get the heel (heh) heat until the face came back for revenge. Warrior was allowed too many of his bonkerws ideas in WCW and showed how out of his mind he was, as if the comics he tried to push in the WWF with S&M Santa in his last run weren't enough, then there's the infamous stupid mirror angle that everyone mocked. He didn't have enough though to trump Hogan and to this day it seems like Warrior was only brought back so Hogan could get his win back even though Bischoff and whoever dispute it, it's a total Hogan thing to do while intentionally sabotaging someone.

I remember it going over and cutting Goldberg/DDP so they had to show it on Nitro the next night. XD
 
Protome

Protome

Member
Oct 27, 2017
15,677
It was at least only a Dark match, and the commentary was hilarious, but this was just a disaster lol


It was just botch after botch
 
smurfx

smurfx

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
10,578
lex luger vs bruiser brody

bruiser brody was no selling everything and lex had no idea what the hell to do. he ended up just bailing on the match and leaving the arena.
 
AlgusUnderdunk

AlgusUnderdunk

Member
Dec 30, 2020
15,250
CrocodileGrin said:
Jeff Hardy vs Sting is the first one that comes to mind. Hardy is so high, Sting refuses to let him win. You can even see Jeff try to legit kick out of the pin, but Sting won't let him.


The other is Hollywood Hogan vs The Warrior at WCW's Halloween Havoc. I had a family member order the PPV and I remember really finding the match boring. Watching it as an adult, I think it's one of the worst matches performed by two main event guys. Things go wrong throughout the match and both men have zero coordination and constantly miss their cues. For example, at one point, Hogan sits in the corner of the ring and tries to light some "magic" paper to fight against The Warrior's powers and it doesn't work properly. Instead, when he lights the flame, it blows up too quick in Hogan's face that was meant for Warrior. Not planned. The worst offense of that whole match is that The Warrior refuses to sell ANY of Hogan's moves. It's like watching someone high on bath salts refusing to stay down. Maybe something like this would work with his Ultimate Warrior gimmick in WWF, but with The Warrior in WCW, it all came together half-assed and not entertaining in the least. The funniest part about this PPV was that it's not even the worst thing to happen in the show. It's the PPV that goes overtime thanks to this stupid match. So in the last match was Goldberg vs DDP, and it gets cut off by the PPV companies that were broadcasting based on the original showtime they were given. It pissed off so many people, like my cousin that paid money and weren't able to watch the last match.

Someone compiled all the non-sense into a minute:
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

The Halloween Havoc was my pick too.
 
Legacy

Legacy

One Winged Slayer
Banned
Oct 25, 2017
15,704
NinjaScooter said:
Jeff Hardy vs Sting at Victory Road 2011
Jeff Hardy shows up to the main event of a PPV high out of his mind, Eric Bischoff has to come out to call and audible and have Sting forcibly pin Sting like 10 seconds in to put an end to the shit show.
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I just watched that clip, I can't belive that even happened! The Hardy boys were my favourite tag team for a while, back in the days
 
Jacknapes

Jacknapes

Member
Oct 26, 2017
3,169
Newport, South Wales
Warrior vs Hogan (Halloween Havoc)
Sting vs Jeff Hardy (Victory Road)
Extreme Elimination Chamber (December to Dismember)

The Chamber match was just awkward, but then the whole PPV was a complete mess.

With the Victory Road match, how TNA officials thought it was ok to let Jeff even go out to the ring is beyond me.
 
PeterThePanda

PeterThePanda

Member
Jun 10, 2020
1,168
Spain
Its probably me getting into wrestling at a time when even mahoosive guys like Lashley , Mcintyre or Keith Lee doing top rope moves or some incredible sppedy athletic shit, but I cant think of a match in particular that I have seen and said "This looks so uncoordinated".

Instead , Ill put my case that battle royales are really akward because you have so many people in the ring , without any actual direction of what to really do sometimes.Royal Rumbles mitigate this a bit with participants coming out sporadically but still there are sometimes , many times on those where people are just pushing somedoby as a placeholder.
 
AstralSphere

AstralSphere

Member
Feb 10, 2021
8,963
More recently the Kairi concussion match where Charlotte just lost it and Becky had to literally hide Kairi under the ring away from her.

The funniest one was a tag match Undertaker had back in the day. I can't remember who it was against (I tried finding it but couldn't), but the other team was so useless and were missing every spot. Eventually Taker just gave up and yelled "FUUUUUUUUCK" super loud in the middle of the ring and rushed to the finish by calling out every single spot to them out loud. It's on YouTube somewhere.
 
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Bigkrev

Bigkrev

Member
Oct 25, 2017
12,307
NinjaScooter said:
Jeff Hardy vs Sting at Victory Road 2011
Jeff Hardy shows up to the main event of a PPV high out of his mind, Eric Bischoff has to come out to call and audible and have Sting forcibly pin Sting like 10 seconds in to put an end to the shit show.
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It's hard to pick anything other than this as far as "modern" wrestling goes. Yea, in 2022, watching Bra and Panties matches or 70s-80s Southern matches with white guys vs black guys where the crowd has opinions is hard to watch, but this one feels like nothing else.
 
ConradCervantes

ConradCervantes

Member
Oct 29, 2017
2,046
All of the names escape me at the moment, but I remember a WWE mixed tag match from the 2000s that was widely considered one of the worst matches ever. Botch after botch and the announcers were trying their hearts out to spin it as quality sports entertainment. It was a hard watch.
 
Nocturnowl

Nocturnowl

Member
Oct 25, 2017
26,083
I'm forever haunted by Bret Vs Vince from WM26, it's a match that unlike most of these, goes exactly as planned, except what's planned is the most tedious and boring shit imaginable.

Making the match go past ten minutes when Bret literally cannot bump for health reasons kind of says it all, throw on the dumb story of Vince bribing the Hart family only for them to immediately swerve the swerve, just awful.
 
Bladelaw

Bladelaw

Member
Oct 25, 2017
7,699
Pick a bra and panties match from the attitude era.
Watching those with my dad was the definition of awkward.
 
Musubi

Musubi

Unshakable Resolve - Prophet of Truth
Banned
Oct 25, 2017
23,611
Lot of people already mentioned the Sting vs Hardy match so I'll offer up Undertaker vs Goldberg at Super Showdown 2019.

Goldberg clearly showing how washed up he is. Dropping taker on his damn head during his Jackhammer.
 
Tendo

Tendo

Member
Oct 26, 2017
10,387
Triple h vs Kevin Nash at tlc 2011. Not only was this somehow the end of the amazing pipebomb punk angle… somehow. But triple H looked bloated and slow, Nash could barely move and had had some super cringy mic segments where he kept messing up words. The match itself was a slow awful low impact mess. Was a real shame. The thing I remember the most was Nash on raw with soaking wet hair, a bad dye job, and dad sneakers. It wasn't outright awful or full of botched spots - but def an awkward build and march. Their heat wasn't believable at all.

Another one would be warrior vs Orlando jones in 08. Warrior got gassed on his way to the ring and they had to work around him being totally blown up.
 
Naijaboy

Naijaboy

The Fallen
Mar 13, 2018
15,251
ConradCervantes said:
All of the names escape me at the moment, but I remember a WWE mixed tag match from the 2000s that was widely considered one of the worst matches ever. Botch after botch and the announcers were trying their hearts out to spin it as quality sports entertainment. It was a hard watch.
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I think you mean Trish Stratus and Bradshaw vs. Jackie Gayda and Chris Nowinski.
 
Patryn

Patryn

Member
Oct 25, 2017
1,826
Sting vs. Hogan at Starrcade '97.

Just a master class in how to take the ultimate slowburn story and fumble it in epic fashion at the 99 yard line. Valiant conquering hero finally arrives to take down the villain, except he spends the entire match getting his ass kicked. More memorable "moment" is the "fast count" that is actually super slow.

Maybe not quite as awkward as, say, Victory Road, but watching it you could practically feel a company flushing its future down the toilet.
 
El Pescado

El Pescado

Member
Oct 26, 2017
1,921
AstralSphere said:
The funniest one was a tag match Undertaker had back in the day. I can't remember who it was against (I tried finding it but couldn't), but the other team was so useless and were missing every spot. Eventually Taker just gave up and yelled "FUUUUUUUUCK" super loud in the middle of the ring and rushed to the finish by calling out every single spot to them out loud. It's on YouTube somewhere.
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I want to know what this match is, but I can't figure out what it was. Was it something during the Invasion? I remember him and Kane having a horrible match against some WCW team at one point.
 
Dead Man Typing

Dead Man Typing

Member
Oct 27, 2017
5,832
Big Show vs Batista on WWECW TV from the Hammerstein ballroom. Same night CM Punk debuted, I believe.

The fans did not want to see Show and Batista and spent the whole match chanting things like "Change the channel".
 
AstralSphere

AstralSphere

Member
Feb 10, 2021
8,963
dennett316

dennett316

Member
Nov 2, 2017
2,979
Blackpool, UK
AstralSphere said:
More recently the Kairi concussion match where Charlotte just lost it and Becky had to literally hide Kairi under the ring away from her.

The funniest one was a tag match Undertaker had back in the day. I can't remember who it was against (I tried finding it but couldn't), but the other team was so useless and were missing every spot. Eventually Taker just gave up and yelled "FUUUUUUUUCK" super loud in the middle of the ring and rushed to the finish by calling out every single spot to them out loud. It's on YouTube somewhere.
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It was Undertaker and Kane vs Kronik, an absolute stinker, made worse by the fact that Taker vouched for them to management due to his friendship with them. No wonder he got so frustrated.
EDIT - oops, beaten.

I'll add another awkward entry from AEW, but it's really mostly due to the finish. Moxley vs Kenny Omega in an exploding death match. Big angle for the end that sees Moxley's old friend and bitter rival Eddie Kingston come down to save him, time runs out, Eddie throws himself on his friend as the timer counts down.....and a wet fart goes off, limp pyro instead of a big explosion, and poor Eddie still sells it as if a devastating explosion knocked him out.
They tried to cover for it as the guy passing out due to the stress of it all, but it didn't really save it. Such a shame.
 
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Witness

Witness

Avenger
Oct 25, 2017
9,804
Hartford, CT
Patryn said:
Sting vs. Hogan at Starrcade '97.

Just a master class in how to take the ultimate slowburn story and fumble it in epic fashion at the 99 yard line. Valiant conquering hero finally arrives to take down the villain, except he spends the entire match getting his ass kicked. More memorable "moment" is the "fast count" that is actually super slow.

Maybe not quite as awkward as, say, Victory Road, but watching it you could practically feel a company flushing its future down the toilet.
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Has to be the greatest letdown in wrestling. I was never more hyped given the year+ long build up and all the amazing Sting saves the day spots on Nitro. Then we have what essentially looked like a squash match with the ref absolutely not doing a fast count. Why in the world would you even do that dumb ass gimmick, you had the longest build up and then you thought doing a fast count swerve was the best idea? Wtf? I remember seeing it on PPV and wondering WTF the announcers are talking about that being a fast count, my 14 year old self saw right through that shit that they totally screwed this up.
 
Merriweather

Merriweather

Member
Oct 29, 2017
480
The Hogan/Sting match at Halloween Havoc '99 where they did the worked shoot with Hogan and he laid down for Sting and wasn't mentioned or shown on WCW TV for 6-7 months. Then 3 or 4 months later, WCW tried it again - with Jeff Jarrett laying down for Hogan at Bash at the Beach in a worked shoot that became a real shoot when Vince Russo came out 20 minutes later to rip on Hogan.
 
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