Biggest Fall from WrestleMania Grace

[TMC1982 0]

Randy Savage:

IV and V - Main events

VI - Throwaway match with Sherri against Dusty Rhodes and Sapphire

VII - Retirement match

VIII - WWF title match

IX - Commentator

 

Brock Lesnar:

XIX - Winning the WWE Championship from Kurt Angle in the main event

XX - Facing Goldberg in a terrible match, with the fans chanting against both men the whole match

 

Lex Luger:

X - WWF title contender

XI - opening against Jacob and Eli Blu

 

Ultimate Warrior:

VI - Winning the WWF Championship against Hulk Hogan

VII - Winning a retirement match against Randy Savage

VIII - Run in during the Hogan-Sid match.

XII - Squash match against Triple H

 

Roddy Piper:

Main evented the first ever WrestleMania with Hogan, Paul Orndorff and Mr. T

 

to

 

A cheesy boxing match with Mr. T at WrestleMania 2 (the New York portion)

 

to

 

The six match on the WrestleMania III card against Adrian Adonis

 

to

 

A "Piper's Pit" segment with Morton Downey Jr. at WrestleMania V

 

King Kong Bundy:

He went from defeating SD Jones in a squash match, to wrestling Hulk Hogan in the main event, to wrestling midgets, to missing seven Manias, to losing to Undertaker in 6:30 minutes, to not appearing on another WM again.

 

Paul Orndorff:

Went from main eventing WrestleMania I to a forgetable opening match at WrestleMania 2.

 

Chris Jericho:

Jericho goes from main eventing XVIII to having a match in the dead center of XIX to having a match early on in XX.

 

Andre the Giant:

I: Wins the Bodyslam Challenge against Studd, the 2nd or 3rd main event.

 

II: Wins the WWF/NFL Battle Royal.

 

III: Loses to Hogan in the biggest match in wrestling history (at least at that point).

 

IV: Double DQ with Hogan in quarterfinals of tournament.

 

V: DQ loss to Jake.

 

VI: Loses Tag Titles to Demolition.

 

VII: Makes a brief appearance on crutches due to his failing health

 

Booker T:

XIX: World Title match vs. Triple H

XX: Wins midcard Fatal Four Way Tag Match

XXI: Wins pre-show Battle Royal

XXII: Jobs to The Boogeyman in 3 minutes (in a Handicap Match!)

 

Ted DiBiase:

He reaches the finals in IV, then is third from the bottom against Brutus Beefcake at V, then a countout win and a countout loss in VI and VII respectively, and in Money Inc., a countout loss and a DQ win in VIII and IX respectively.

[Diamonddust 0]

Andre the Giant:

I: Wins the Bodyslam Challenge against Studd, the 2nd or 3rd main event.

 

II: Wins the WWF/NFL Battle Royal.

 

III: Loses to Hogan in the biggest match in wrestling history (at least at that point).

 

IV: Double DQ with Hogan in quarterfinals of tournament.

 

V: DQ loss to Jake.

 

VI: Loses Tag Titles to Demolition.

 

VII: Makes a brief appearance on crutches due to his failing health

 

There's been a bigger match than Hogan/Andre at WM III? (I won't even throw in the one they had that is still the most watched wrestling match of all-time since it was on free television)

[Perfxion 0]

KKB's world title push to midgets wins out. Everyone else is just age and the way of business.

[Papacita 0]

Luger fell off HARD between 94 and 95, especially considering he was supposed to be the next big thing.

[Kahran Ramsus 0]

The biggest fall has to be Eddie Guerrero.

 

Wrestlemania XX - Defeats Kurt Angle in the co-Main Event, and ends the show celebrating with Benoit.

Wrestlemania XXI - Defeated by Rey Misterio in the opener.

Wrestelmania XXII - Dead.

[Papacita 0]

But he at least won the world title in spirit, right?

 

Right?!

[Kahran Ramsus 0]

But he at least won the world title in spirit, right?

 

Right?!

 

The less I remember about that angle, the better.

[Mos_Def 0]

Luger fell off HARD between 94 and 95, especially considering he was supposed to be the next big thing.

 

Yeah, this is the right answer. Go from main event to fighting the Blu brothers in one year?!?

 

Shows how hard he flopped

[Just John 0]

I wouldn't say it's the worst, but The Big Show went from challenging for the WWF title to challenging for the Hardcore title (WM 16-17).

[ChrisMWaters 0]

I wouldn't say it's the worst, but The Big Show went from challenging for the WWF title to challenging for the Hardcore title (WM 16-17).

Though lesser, his going from "Defending championship at Mania XX" to "Sumo Match at Mania 21" fall was kinda bad too.

[Jingus 0]

What, no Bam Bam Bigelow? Dude main-evented WM XI. Carried Laurence Taylor to one of the best matches ever involving a non-wrestler. Then was not so much "pushed down the card" as "shoved off a cliff", got fired shortly thereafter, and never worked for the company again.

[Kahran Ramsus 0]

What, no Bam Bam Bigelow? Dude main-evented WM XI. Carried Laurence Taylor to one of the best matches ever involving a non-wrestler. Then was not so much "pushed down the card" as "shoved off a cliff", got fired shortly thereafter, and never worked for the company again.

 

I overlooked him because he didn't even make it to the next Mania, but very good point. On a similar note, this happened to Sid not once, but twice. He main-evented Wrestlemanias VIII & XIII and was pretty much done with the company within weeks both times.

[haws bah gawd 0]

Not really a "Fall From Grace", but a friend and I had this conversation earlier in the week. We found it funny how HBK vs Cena has gone from being worthy of a Wrestlemania main event, to a throw-away, unadvertised match in the middle of RAW.

 

I would say Brock Lesnar probably had the biggest Fall when you put things in perspective:

 

Wrestlemania X-8 - Debuts the night after, to one of the biggest pushes ever. I mean it took him what, 4 months to become WWE Champion after his debut? Crazy!

Wrestlemania XIX - Main events against Kurt Angle, wins the WWE Title.

Wrestlemania XX - Pulls a midcard match, with the crowd knowing he and Goldberg are on their way out. Crowd boos them both out of the building. Loses.

[Mos_Def 0]

What, no Bam Bam Bigelow? Dude main-evented WM XI. Carried Laurence Taylor to one of the best matches ever involving a non-wrestler. Then was not so much "pushed down the card" as "shoved off a cliff", got fired shortly thereafter, and never worked for the company again.

 

Only thing about Bam Bam is that he was really just placed in a novelty match. He wasnt really pushed before or after the match --- its not really shocking that he fell out of that slot, because he never really was a main eventer to begin with.

 

They had high hopes for Luger as their '90s version of Hogan.

[Aero 0]

I would say Brock Lesnar probably had the biggest Fall when you put things in perspective:

 

Wrestlemania X-8 - Debuts the night after, to one of the biggest pushes ever. I mean it took him what, 4 months to become WWE Champion after his debut? Crazy!

Wrestlemania XIX - Main events against Kurt Angle, wins the WWE Title.

Wrestlemania XX - Pulls a midcard match, with the crowd knowing he and Goldberg are on their way out. Crowd boos them both out of the building. Loses.

 

 

I agree in the sense that Lesnar did have such an awful exit (losing effort while being booed out of the building), but I'd completely disagree otherwise. From WM XIX until a month before WM XX, he was involved in every main event program on Smackdown. And even when he was taken out of the World Title picture, it was so he could be inserted into a huge interpromotional feud with one of Raw's biggest stars, Goldberg. It might not be everybody's cup of tea, but that was one of the best examples of a "dream match" that WWE could have done at the time. Plus, some people have to get the idea out of their head that a match that occurs in the middle of the show is a "midcard match", if that makes sense. WM XX was the biggest show ever, at that time, loaded with several huge matches (two World Title matches, The Rock's return, Taker's return). Jericho vs. Christian or Cena vs. Big Show were midcard feuds. Brock vs. Goldberg was one the main events, with Steve Austin refereeing. When you have a show with a huge lineup, it usually works best to spread out several of the main events.

 

It's just unfortunate that both Lesnar and Goldberg decided to leave the company right before the show, and even that wasn't made official until a week or two prior to the show.

[Beto Chavez 0]

Chris Jericho definitely deserves a mention.

 

WM 16 - Wins the European Championship from Kurt Angle

 

WM 17 - Retains the Intercontinental Championship against William Regal

 

WM 18 - Main events, but loses the Undisputed Championship to Triple H

 

WM 19 - Loses to Shawn Michaels

 

WM 20 - Loses to Christian

 

WM 21 - Loses MITB

 

WM 24 - Loses MITB again

[PILLS! PILLS! PILLS! 0]

I agree with everything that Aero said about match placement. The Goldberg match wasn't that much of a step down from the WWE Championship.

 

Though not the worst fall, Ted DiBiase going from the focal point of the WWF Championship tournament at WrestleMania IV to a nothing match one year later against Brutus Beefcake is really up there.

[Danville_Wrestling 0]

To me the biggest is King Kong Bundy. You go from a year of wrestling Hulk Hogan in the main event to wrestling midgets on arguably the most historically significant wrestling card of all time. That had to be humiliating.

 

I'd say Bam Bam Bigelow is up there as well, from main event to out of the company, but as a previous poster indicated, Bigelow was hardly a main eventer when he walked into that feud since Bigelow's run near the top was over by the 1993 KOTR. Hell, the guy lost at the previous pay-per-view to a makeshift tag team that should not have beaten he and Tatanka for the tag team belts in that tournament (although I guess in kayfabe land you could say that the Tatanka/Bam Bam team was on the more difficult side of the draw having to dispatch MoM and the Headshrinkers as opposed to Well Dunn and the Heavenly Bodies).