Biggest Upset Ever

[klunderbunker]

I'm watching Best of the WWF Volume 13 and it has Honky Tonk Man beating Ricky Steamboat for the Intercontinental Title. In my review I went on a big explanation about how this was a huge moment and how it was one of if not the biggest upset of all time.

This got me to thinking: what is the biggest upset in wrestling history? That's what I want answered here. Note that I'm asking about any wrestling company, not just WWE. Thoughts?

 

[sWo]

I think, that Jericho's Undisputed Championship win, beating the Rock AND Austin in the same night, would be really high up there, if not THE biggest upset(s?). To beat the 2 biggest names in the WWE, in one night, to unify both titles..Chris Jericho? Now that we look back..it makes sense in a sense, but back then, not a chance.

 

[Hollywood Naitch]

I think, that Jericho's Undisputed Championship win, beating the Rock AND Austin in the same night, would be really high up there, if not THE biggest upset(s?). To beat the 2 biggest names in the WWE, in one night, to unify both titles..Chris Jericho? Now that we look back..it makes sense in a sense, but back then, not a chance.

That is a good pick. Now we would think nothing of Jericho winning the world title, but at that point he had never held the championhip and beat the two faces of the company 1 after the other. It was a huge upset and showed the faith Vince had in Y2J to put him over here over his 2 biggest draws.

One of the biggest shocks to me was on Smackdown in around 2002, where Jeff Hardy beat Triple H for the Intercontinental Title. HHH was dominating the company along with Austin as part of the Power Trip, and Hardy was still only a tag-team wrestler. He wasn't the same level of stardom as he is now, so to see him defeat The Game for the title was incredibly shocking to me, and I loved it being a huge Hardyz mark at the time.

A great moment.

 

[TheBWO]

I would have to say when the Iron Shiek beat Bob Backlund. Here was probably one of the best technical wrestlers of our time, ---who came to the ring with an actual FACE manager, ---unheard of in those days, and when Skaaland threw in the towel because Backlund couldn't get out of the camel clutch, ...I was shocked. More shocked that they allowed the belt to change hands because of that. I was about 8 when that happened, but still....here was the WW(then F)'s golden boy, and to allow someone like the Iron Shiek beat him---and we weren't at war time (a la Slaughter's heel turn) or anything out of the ordinary.

 

[neildittmar]

Despite sounding cliche, I think Ultimate Warrior defeating Hulk Hogan clean at WM6 was one of the biggest widely viewed upsets of all time. Despite the fact that the buildup to that match revolved much around the "unstoppable force meeting the immovable object", it's important to truly understand the context of that bout in the grand scheme of things:

1. Though fading ever so slightly, Hulk Hogan was still in his prime in early 1990. He still had that unbeatable aura around him. He was still turning back every challenge put in front of him. Wrestling fans still believed he was unbeatable... invincible even.

2. And as far as WWF promotion as a whole goes, he was unbeatable. Hogan rarely ever lost and when he did, it was by something innocuous like a count-out or double-DQ. Even in losing (if you can even call it that), Hogan typically looked (or came out looking) stronger than ever. He'd eventually get his proverbial revenge with a big boot, leg drop, and post-match posedown culminating the festivities. For many, many years nobody broke this formula. Hogan, quite simply, didn't ever really lose, especially at a high profile event like Wrestlemania.

3. As for the Ultimate Warrior, he was still relatively new on the scene. Yes, he had a huge following by the time of WM6 and its debatable that the "little Warriors" competitively numbered the "Hulkamaniacs" in a side-by-side comparison. Nevertheless, Hogan had an established track record of beating every single challenge that had been put in front of him, most times in overly convincing fashion. By comparison, Warrior had beaten guys like Hercules, Rude, Haku, and Andre... all guys who Hogan demolished years prior.

I was a huge Warrior fan at the time, and I didn't even think that he was going to win at WM6. The best I had personally hoped for was some kind of a draw, leading to a continued fued that might have culminated at the next Wrestlemania. Based on the promos leading up to the event, I actually thought Warrior was going to turn into a "bad guy" so that "unbeatable Hogan" would have a new adversary to annihilate in the end.

But that didn't happen. Warrior not only won the match, but he pinned the biggest name in the history of wrestling in his prime, who had been booked for years as "unbeatable", clean, for the title, and on the biggest show of the year. I don't care who you are or how you're built up in the months leading to an event. Doing what essentially equates to the "impossible" automatically propels you into "greatest upset of all time" status. That is precisely what the Hogan/Warrior bout at WM6 represents to me and quite frankly, I can't think of anything off-hand that would even come close.

 

[mayankeagle]

I have to say that Khali beating Undertaker on his (Khali's) debut match was the biggest upset I have witnessed in the last 20 years of following wrestling. I felt so sick at that moment because it put to trash the 15 years spent in making the Undertaker as the greatest gimmick, greatest big man and most dominant and destructive athlete in the history of the business if he loses cleanly to a fresher (whatever happened to "being dead" and that "you can't hurt/ kill what's already dead"?) - it was a waste of push for Khali; Khali has not amounted to anything in this business except a toy to attract Indian audience who watched WWE anyways even when Khali was not there (I know since I am Indian), and he will never amount to anything worthwhile in the wrestling ring.

I also did not like Taker losing to Lesnar at their HIAC match because Lesnar was like a fresher to the match whereas Taker is the one who had made HIAC (in)famous with his 5-star match inaugural HIAC against Michaels and the brutal one against Mankind. But since Taker was in his human persona and had decided that he has already done everything there was to do in the business, he and Vince wanted to push Lesnar as the next big thing, but it never worked out that well for the company because Lesnar left the company to join NFL and then Japan and then UFC. So, it was a waste.

Agree with the guy above that Warrior beating Hogan at Mania cleanly was a big upset during that time.

 

[nbrew2119]

I have a couple options here

#1: 123 Kid(Sean Waltman) beating Razor Ramon
As they say, the rest is history after this but, when, this happened, everyone say there watching it when their jaws on the ground. Then, the way Bobby Heenan announced, just sold it perfectly.

#2: Goldberg beating Hugh Morrus on his WCW debut.
Another example of no one having the slightest idea who the debuting Goldberg was. The crowd was completely quiet during this whole match, but, when, Goldberg won, they went nuts, because, they couldn't believe what happened. After this, the whole winning streak started, and at the time, Goldberg became one of the biggest names in wrestling.

 

[Matt7584]

I would have to say that the biggest upset had to be when the 123 kid beat Razor Ramon. Think about who the 123 kid was at that point, a Jobber. He never won a match on Raw or superstars and beat the #2 heel at that time in the company. It also jump started a career as the 123 kid would eventually be known as xpac and syxx. Although this wasnt a title match and it was only on Raw. This upset helped both parties as they both had major careers.

 

[harrythem]

Straight away I thought of Jay Lethal beating Kurt Angle a few years ago because, at the time, Lethal was just a joke character but they had an exciting, well paced, match that really seemed to elevate Lethal.

Then I ended up picking 123 Kid beating Razor Ramon because, unlike the Lethal match, they actually went somewhere with Kid straight away and, while never a main event player, he became a solid mid-card player that people believed could pull off a win against almost anybody.

 

[Mustang Sally]

123 Kid(Sean Waltman) beating Razor Ramon

I agree with this. Yes, it might sound more feasible to cite a championship match, as most of the forum members have done in this thread. But for sheer upset value, I never saw a match like Razor vs Waltman.

In those days, Waltman wasn't even called 1-2-3 Kid yet. He was simply a jobber who was seemingly brought in to be squashed by a star. (Never mind what he became; I'm talking about how he was seen before that match). I remember watching this contest with little interest because everyone knew Razor was going to win. Sure enough, the actual match was shaping up like more of the same; Razor was wiping up the mat with Waltman. Then, when he sprung the upset, everyone watching was shocked to disbelief.

Now, that's what you call an upset.

 

[Hulk Hogan's Brother]

A few of my options have already been taken so I would like to talk about Shelton Benjamin pinning Triple H on the first night he got drafted on Raw in 2004. HHH talked him down before the match telling him that he was not in his league as a superstar but Shelton had the last laugh by pinning Triple H with a sunset flip in the middle of the ring. That really does make you think that the WWE really wanted Benjamin to be a star but he was too lazy to pull it off. I mean John Morrison's push basically tells you that a guy can make it big even without mic skills and I do believe that Benjamin was perhaps even more athletic than Morrison. Perhaps more of an all round wrestler as well. Too bad that it didn't happen.

 

[Hollywood Naitch]

I would have to say Eddie Guerrero beating Brock Lesnar for the world title. Now there's a shocker.

I wouldn't call that a MAJOR shock. They had been building Eddie up as a challenger for the title for a while, and while Brock was the favourite and the crowd went crazy for Eddie winning, I think many thought he was in with a chance. A real shocker is when someone who noone gave a chance to ends up coming out on top, like 1-2-3 Kid beating Razor.

Eddie was the underdog, but he was a credible challenger for the title, not a complete outsider. WWE were obviously building him for the top spot, it wasnt a sudden title change.

 

[nbkush]

great thread and a lot of great picks....I'm gonna go with the main event of Wrestlemania 2000. Four way elimination match between HHH, The Rock, Mick Foley, and The Big Show. HHH wins.
First time a heel won the main event at Wrestlemania.

 

[UnBEARaBULLfan]

Rugged Ronnie Garvin beating Ric Flair for the NWA title that got Garvin his WWE contract, Goldberg beating Hugh Morris starting the greatest win streak ever for one of the most popular/hated wrestlers of all time and 123kid over the bad guy RR, giving 123 kid credability.

 

[DreamStreetRKO79]

A little surprised nobody has brought this up yet because it came out of NOWHERE and it was pretty recent memory. I'm talking about Sheamus beating John Cena for the WWE Championship at TLC in 2009. Nobody gave him an actual chance i know i didnt and i was very familiar with him from FCW, ECW, and then on Raw. I didn't see them putting the belt on him that soon.

Other than that hands down The Rock losing to The Hurricane hands down to me biggest upset in wrestling history.

 

[BigSexy The IndyKiller]

A little surprised nobody has brought this up yet because it came out of NOWHERE and it was pretty recent memory. I'm talking about Sheamus beating John Cena for the WWE Championship at TLC in 2009. Nobody gave him an actual chance i know i didnt and i was very familiar with him from FCW, ECW, and then on Raw. I didn't see them putting the belt on him that soon.

I was just about to say that before you beat me to it..... I never would have thought in a million years that Sheamus was actually gonna get the strap.
The Kid (formerly Lightning Kid from WCCW) beating Razor is high on there as well.
I was just talking to a buddy of mine the other day about Jericho being the first Undisputed Champ. What was crazy at the time is how he went over two established stars to become THE MAN and the first to hold both belts. I for one did not see that one coming.

 

[FunKay the Inevitable]

Not quite sure if it'll count but Maven eliminating Undertaker in the 2002 Royal Rumble. Tough Enough had basically just finished airing and Maven was thrown into the Rumble match. The Undertaker had been around roughly 10 years at this point and was in the midst of his 'respect' heel run. He had trashed the Hardy Boyz, Lita and Rob Van Dam (in the process becoming Hardcore Champion) all before the match, lecturing them on respect when he entered the Rumble as a pre-match favourite.

Taker eliminated the Hardy’s and was left alone in the ring when Maven entered. Taker looked set to quickly destroy him when the Hardy’s jumped him from behind. Taker dispensed of them but he made one fatal mistake; he took his eyes off of the rookie. Maven, a virtual unknown, pulled out a picture perfect dropkick to eliminate the Undertaker. The crowd went nuts, JR went nuts and Taker's face told the entire story. It was frozen in shock. Taker proceeded to totally destroy Maven afterwards but the damage had already been done and Maven had taken the Undertaker out of the Royal Rumble match.

 

[Hollywood Naitch]

A little surprised nobody has brought this up yet because it came out of NOWHERE and it was pretty recent memory. I'm talking about Sheamus beating John Cena for the WWE Championship at TLC in 2009. Nobody gave him an actual chance i know i didnt and i was very familiar with him from FCW, ECW, and then on Raw. I didn't see them putting the belt on him that soon.

Nice pick, that was a huge upset. However, that didnt shock me. I didnt think they would book a rookie so dominantly and then give him a title match with the biggest star in the company if they werent going to give him the belt. A defeat would have ended his dominance.

It was a huge upset yeah, but I expected the outcome to be as it was. The WWE is giving title reigns to people much quicker than ever before in the last few years so this didnt surprise me too much

 

[The Poster]

123 kid beating razor was mentioned but the other 2 im thinking about are (and this is going back about 15 years ago id have to guess) there was a guy named barry horowitz. i cant for the life of me remember who he beat but he had a little mini push to where "if he can do it anyone can" kind of deal.

another one was a guy named pj walker who i believe beat IRS on raw. these 2 didnt amount to much if anything at all, but at the time of the upsets, were both pretty big shockers.

 

[Beej2006]

Can't believe no one has said this one. How bout Santino coming out of the crowd and beating Umaga to win the Intercontinental Championship? To me that was just a huge shock cuz you never heard of this guy and for him to beat Umaga even if it was with help from Lashley.

 

[AntiChristDeicide]

I would say the biggest upset i have seen is Kevin Nash beating Bob Backlund in 8 seconds. I say that beacause at the time, Nash wasn't really known except for being the bodyguard of hbk and backlund was a veteran.

 

[Jack-Hammer]

In this day and age, huge upsets are extremely rare. For me, I have to go with Sheamus beating John Cena for the WWE Championship at the first TLC ppv. Over the course of the past decade or so, we've all pretty much seen it all to one degree or another. If Cena & Sheamus had been around in circa 2000 and Cena had the kind of star power tha he has now, his loss to Sheamus would go down as nothing short of legendary.

Sheamus is someone that came out of left field and upset the biggest wrestling star in the world for the WWE Championship. It's true that Sheamus had been on the ECW brand but, let's face it, the ECW brand in and of itself stopped being relevant long before Sheamus got there. The internet was in an uproar when it happened. As usual, the smarks hated it but that's no big surprise because the smarks hate damn near everything. People just simply did not see it coming. At the most, I think we were expecting Sheamus to put out this great, star making performance in which he took the champ to the very limit before getting put through the table.

Sheamus winning the WWE Championship will probably be looked upon as sort of the unofficial beginning of the youth movement in WWE. It just seemed to signify that change was coming to the WWE and that it was coming fast.

 

[buddyriffic]

How about Chris Jericho defeating HHH on Raw in April 2000, which was supposedly a WWE Title win? The decision was reversed, but at the time the impact of HHH losing a match clean was enormous. He had just come off a successful title defense at Wrestlemania, being the first heel to ever do so. He was only 6 months or so into his storyline where he had drugged and married Stephanie McMahon and was truly unstoppable at that time. More so than at any other point in his career I'd say.

 

[AntiChristDeicide]

How about Chris Jericho defeating HHH on Raw in April 2000, which was supposedly a WWE Title win? The decision was reversed, but at the time the impact of HHH losing a match clean was enormous. He had just come off a successful title defense at Wrestlemania, being the first heel to ever do so. He was only 6 months or so into his storyline where he had drugged and married Stephanie McMahon and was truly unstoppable at that time. More so than at any other point in his career I'd say.

Good post, i forgot about this one. Yeah its huge especially beacause Y2J was fairly new in the WWE at the time and he defeated the biggest heel at the time.

 

[PanICattAck313]

how about Barry Horwitz beating Skip from the body Donnas. This guy had nevor evan won a match before. They then had a rematch at Sumnmerslam which Horwitz won too.