It all worked out for the better...

[KitInaka]

Fairly simple idea, we see botches and missteps every week in the WWE (although most recently it's been from R-truth) and normally it ruins a great match or storyline. But there are those one out of a million times when the botch ends up helping out the storyline or match in general.

So my question to you is what fails do you think helped out a storyline more than hurt it.

The one that comes to mind right off the top of my head was the Cage breaking during the match between Stone Cold and Vince McMahon.

It was absolutely an amazing and unexpected end to the match. Of course the reason for that is because the cage wasn't supposed to break! Stone cold was supposed to hit the cage yes. But he was supposed to basically hop over it not go through it.

The weird part is this was such a better end to the match than just climbing out a cage. We see people walk out the cage and climb out but this was the first time we've seen something like this happen and the crowd popped huge for it. The expression on Vince's face was also priceless, knowing that it was a botch also makes his expression seem more real.

So what do you think, what botch turned to awesome in your eyes.

 

[Ultra Awesome]

[YOUTUBE]ja6UPD47H6A[/YOUTUBE]​

Brock lesnar superplexing Big Show off the top turnbuckle was the first thing that came to my mind when I saw this thread. Though, I wouldn't necissarily call this a "botch." It was more of an unforseen circumstance, if anything.

In any case, what was so great is that no one expected the ring to collapse. Let alone, no one expected Brock Lesnar to even be able to superplex the Big Show. This was an all around exciting match, but this specific part was just beyond believable. Brock Lesnar super-plexing a 500 pound giant off the top turnbuckle? - This just screams Holy Shit moment. In the backround you can even see the crowd litterally bursting in excitement and shock as to what had occured.

This superplex will forever be remembered as one of the best moments in Smackdown history to ever occur simply because of the level of shock value that it conjured up.

 

[legendkiller1979]

I'm gonna go with Jake the Snake Roberts slipping when he had The Grappler in a front facelock. It was this botch that lead to one of the greatest move in the business.
The DDT. It's a good thing The Grappler had enough sense to stay down and sell the move.

 

[Swarles Barkley]

Did not know that about the Vince-Austin cage match. I always thought that was meant to happen. Where did you find out that it was a work?

I'm fairly certain that the Lesnar-Big Show "botch" was planned, much like the Bigelow-Taz "botch" from Living Dangerously '98, which they somewhat recreated at Heatwave '98.

The only botch that comes to mind is Lesnar's botched shooting star press at WrestleMania XIX. It doesn't exactly fit your criterion, but it made for a memorable moment.

 

[gjv2010]

How bout King of the Ring 1998? Undertaker vs. Mankind, Hell in a Cell. The first time when Mankind fell off the roof was an amazing work, but a work nonetheless. But when the Undertaker chokeslammed him from the roof to the ring, that was not supposed to happen. JR and The King's reactions were priceless, and the fact that everyone had to check on him made it that much emotional.

 

[coolant]

I am going to go a slightly different direction than what I think was intended with this post. While as far as creating a better storyline that what was intended, I think that KitInaka made a good choice with Stone Cold, Show, and McMahon. But, I am going to use this thread to say that my choice was a botch that didn't further a storyline, but prevented one.

My choice is none other than "The Shockmaster". The Shockmaster was intended to be a dominant force in a WCW that had already had its share of questionable characters and storylines. Had the story continued, it would have been so bad, that the few people actually watching would have turned away. But when Fred Ottman tripped and lost his helmet, that idea was scrapped. This would have been a guy they spent money and time on, and it would have been huge flop. Instead, the botch allowed them to make a comedic and clumsy character who was soon gone. In a sense it turned out to be nothing rather something that bombed and cost alot of money and fans

 

[A-Cannon]

the one that comes to my mind is from summerslam 2000, the rock vs triple H vs kurt angle. When triple H was about to pedigree angle thru the announce table before the match, the table collapsed before triple h could pull off the pedigree. This caused angle to get a concussion and he was gone for the 1st half of the match, who knows if angle was planned to be out the match as long as he was. But the table collapsing added more realism, seen angle was really hurt, who knew if he was even capable of reentering the match.

 

[bxbigshow]

I'm going with the King of the Ring 2001 streetfight between Kurt Angle and Shane McMahon. When Kurt tried to belly to belly Shane through the glass and it didn't break the first time, he picked him up and did it again shattering it. And as they fought back outside Kurt went to suplex Shane through another glass wall and it didn't break, forcing Angle to pick him up and literally throw him through.

It made Kurt to look more like a badass by damn near killing Shane to get the win. And it showed that Shane was willing to put it all out there. While we've seen Shane do some crazy shit before, that was really wild. A whole new respect for Shane was developed that night.

And it may not have furthered a storyline per say, it did make for the Match of the Night.

 

[Mustang Sally]

In the backround you can even see the crowd litterally bursting in excitement and shock as to what had occured.

Literally bursting? Wouldn't that mean we'd see people exploding, resulting in blood, guts and body parts being strewn throughout the arena? Besides that, the Brock-Big Show thing wasn't a botch; it was planned.


For myself, I remember a Lita botch in which Rico Costantino saved her pretty little butt from real injury. She was trying to execute a Flying Huricanrana outside the ring.....and missed her target. Lita was heading directly toward the announcer's table, and since she was upside down as she flew, she could have been badly hurt. Thinking quickly, Rico grabbed her feet as she sailed by, pulling them as close to his head as he could so the effect of her move would be saved. Even more importantly, his actions broke the momentum of her free-fall and might have saved her from a broken neck......which wound up happening to her a few months later, anyway.

 

[Hollywood Naitch]

I'm going with the King of the Ring 2001 streetfight between Kurt Angle and Shane McMahon. When Kurt tried to belly to belly Shane through the glass and it didn't break the first time, he picked him up and did it again shattering it. And as they fought back outside Kurt went to suplex Shane through another glass wall and it didn't break, forcing Angle to pick him up and literally throw him through.

It made Kurt to look more like a badass by damn near killing Shane to get the win. And it showed that Shane was willing to put it all out there. While we've seen Shane do some crazy shit before, that was really wild. A whole new respect for Shane was developed that night.

And it may not have furthered a storyline per say, it did make for the Match of the Night.

I 100% agree. That is one of my favourite matches of them all. I thought the bit where Angle was trying to throw Shane BACK through the glass was even more brutal than the intial throws through the glass into to the back. It took about 3 goes to get him back through and Shane is really bloody when he eventually lands back on the ramp.

I cringe every time I see it, Shane takes an absolute beating in that match and it definitely benefitted Kurt's career and made Shane much more legitimate in my eyes. A great match

 

[fraserbee]

How bout King of the Ring 1998? Undertaker vs. Mankind, Hell in a Cell. The first time when Mankind fell off the roof was an amazing work, but a work nonetheless. But when the Undertaker chokeslammed him from the roof to the ring, that was not supposed to happen. JR and The King's reactions were priceless, and the fact that everyone had to check on him made it that much emotional.

Although Foley has always claimed that he wasn't supposed to fall through the cage, I am fairly sure he was. The way the spot was set up as 'Taker goes to great lengths not to step on that pannel and the way the two of them position themselves to do the spot (usually 'Taker stands almost to the side of his opponent on a cokeslam, here he stood more to the front) makes me believe this to be the case.

I also didn't know about the St Valentine's Day Massacre spot being a botch - it looked too smooth to have not been planned, but still, you could be right. Incidentally, I think that was the last time they used that type of cage - I'd like them to go back to it.

The thing that springs to mind for me was the ending to Wargames 91 where Sid tries to powerbomb Pillman but his feet hit the top of the cage and he drops him rather brutally on his head. Downright dangerous, and not the best thing at all for Pillman, but it certainly made the finish seem quite legitimate.

The Survivor Series double-cross is another one. Although it seemed like a complete shambles at the time, it was the thing that really put across how ruthless Vince McMahon is and made the McMahon vs Austin feud that bit more believable.

 

[harrythem]

If we're going for botches that were for the better then I'm going to pick Triple H tearing his quad for the first time back in 2001.

I know it wasn't a "holy shit" moment for a match, but it kept him out of the Invasion storyline and, seeing as how one-sided that was, can you imagine how much worse it'd have been if Triple H, during the start of his reign of dominance, was on team WWF?

It also meant WWF actually tried having Kurt Angle at the top of the card for keeps, which was def a good thing too

 

[showstoper2315]

For me it would be Austin and Owen Hart. Austin breaks his neck and it leads to one of the best feuds of all-time McMahon-Austin. With McMahon keeping Austin out of the ring for his own good and it led to the creation of the Mr. McMahon character.

 

[Hitman-HBK United Inc.]

Triple H participating in the "Kliq Farewell" at MSG! Apparently he was the one supposed to win KOTR in '96....Austin did....Austin 3:16...voila!

Didn't hurt HHH either, still became a huge star, and dominated the business for nearly a decade!