The Best Accident in Professional Wrestling?

[Tenta]

Now, before we begin, I'd like to point out that I'm not talking "accident", in the physical sense. Well, except for mine, that was a physical accident. What I mean is usually, when something doesn't happened as planned, and goes well, anyway. Usually, there's plenty of instances in which things have devaited the "plans" ahead, or the company must change what they were originally going to do. A great example is Wrestlemania VI. It's been rumored the original plan was to go ahead and have Hogan face Zeus for the title in the Skydome. Vince, seeing that Zeus was as talented as a blind and deaf mule in the ring, instead switched things up and placed the Warrior in the position to go over Hogan, in what many deem the Greatest Wrestlemania match of all time. Plenty of times, the actions backstage lead to what we see in the ring. Triple H's actions in Madison Square Garden may have cost him the 1996 King of the Ring, but they did help blossom a brand new star. Might have heard him; his name's Stone Cold Steve Austin. Still, there's plenty of cases out there in which the original plans fell through, and it worked out for the best. The question is, what was the The Best Accident in Professional Wrestling?

My personal favorite is great, not only because it was a mistake no one ever realized, but it would lead to my favorite finisher in all of wrestling. While working for the NWA in the 80s. He was working against his opponent, The Grappler, and had him in a front facelock. All of a sudden, Jake trips over his own frickin feet, and The Grappler lands on his head. Jake gets up, and sees that the crowd is pretty stunned at what happened. Initially, Jake just thought he fucked up. What he did, in actuality, was create a move that would still be my favorite of all time, even today. The DDT is widely known as a killer of a move, soon to have its own thread as to who did it best . Nevertheless, I'm going with this one, from a sheer nostalgia standpoint, and the fact that so many people to this day still use the DDT as a finisher.

What, to you, was the Best Accident in Professional Wrestling?

 

[Little Jerry Lawler]

I'm going to go with Luger getting drunk as the best accident in professional wrestling. I thought Bret Hart's career really took off around 1994 and if Luger hadn't gotten drunk, who knows where Hart would be. Maybe it would have taken him longer to get champion. I believe Diesel wouldn't have that year long reign because Hart would have most likely won the title in 1995 and kept it for a while.

 

[Барбоса]

Something like Earl Hebner not counting three at No Way Out when the Rock took the WWE title from Kurt Angle. Instead of one Rock-Bottom, it would "take" two to beat Angle, making him look stronger

 

[Tenta]

Something like Earl Hebner not counting three at No Way Out when the Rock took the WWE title from Kurt Angle. Instead of one Rock-Bottom, it would "take" two to beat Angle, making him look stronger

That was an accident? From what I always assumed, that was just part of the whole making angle look strong. He was about to drop the title so that Austin could wrestle Rock at Wrestlemania, so they needed him to look really good. Hence, the whole getting out of The Rock Bottom thing.

 

[Барбоса]

That was an accident? From what I always assumed, that was just part of the whole making angle look strong. He was about to drop the title so that Austin could wrestle Rock at Wrestlemania, so they needed him to look really good. Hence, the whole getting out of The Rock Bottom thing.

In Angle's biography, It's True, It's True, it talks about how the whole match went perfectly right up to the finish when Hebner failed to count three, not realising that that was the planned finish. Angle says that Rocky called a second Rock Bottom on the fly to try and somewhat cover up Hebner's mistake that had sucked a lot of the heat out of the finish

 

[Jimmy King]

I think recently the best accident in professional wrestling has been Vince insulting the fans' intelligence by having a goody two shoes face like Cena. What I mean is WWE spent plenty of time trying to turn Orton into a super heel. What ended up happening was the WWE universe started craving Orton's sense of unpredictabilty. The fans wanted an anti hero to put an end to cena and triple h's predictabilty by always winning their matches for the most part. When orton started getting cheered more than cena, I knew wwe had made a boo boo. Hoopefully, they won't drop the ball with him.

 

[SpyderVash]

For a recent one (that I still think was an accident) was when Sheamus didn't go through the table at TLC. You could tell that even Cena didn't know what to do and that Sheamus was told to go along with it. I still think it was an accident because once Vince found out how much publicity he was getting from having an Irish champion, he decided to keep it.

But off the top of my head, one of my favorites was when Batista got injured in 2008 and they had to scramble to find a new champion with his drawing power on Smackdown. They did the Battle Royal for the belt and that's when Kurt Angle (who was on Raw at the moment) came down and cleaned house...good times.

 

[King Blitzkonic]

Tenta got my favorite: Jake Roberts bringing forth the DDT. It can be hit on just about any opponent from any position at just about any time. While not always the match finisher, this accident ushered in the idea of a quick-strike finisher (my opinion anyway)

 

[Million Dollar Dream]

Some that come to my mind are:

Bobby Hennan slipping and saying, "what the fuck you doing" towards Brian Pillman who while being his extreme wild self grabbed for The Brains neck which caused Bobby to come out of character and get legit pissed.

One of the most note worthy mistakes is:

Vince McMahon taking Lex Lugers word is a pretty big mistake also... Vince thinking he had Lex re-signed to a contract and a tag team on the verge of taking off of Allied Powers with Lex and The British Bulldog..... However Eric Bischoff being the evil, cunning ruler of WCW back then slipped in and got Lex Luger to a contract without Vince knowing and then making a surprise appearance at the first ever WCW Monday Nitro. This was the start of shock value moments and the war between WCW and WWF which is documented in the Monday Night Wars DVD

I know I already said an answer but while answering another post i thought of brian pillman...


had he not got in a serious car accident he would not have changed from the cruiserweight style to the loose cannon gimmick and the loose cannon is how he actually became famous to fans in the United States.

 

[Tastycles]

I'm trying to rack my brains to think of something interesting that hasn't been done, but I'm struggling. I thought about the ones you've all said, WrestleMania VIII etc, but I think I'm going to go with Jim Crockett going for broke, and then going broke. Had he continued to operate within his means, the NWA would have continued as a second rate entity for quite a while longer, and probably would have faded out gradually. As it happened, Crockett bit off more than he could chew, and he ended up needing to be bailed out when he sold his promotion to Ted Turner. Cue cash injection and ultimately competition in wrestling for the first time in a long time. Had Crockett not consolidated the majority of the territories still going in the late 80s, its unlikely it would have been an attractive prospect to Turner or any other buyer.

 

[El Rev sXe]

KOTR (I don't remember the year),Shane O' Mac vs Kurt Anglen a street fight. now I'm not quiet sure if this one counts as an accident or just a spot that didn't go as planned but still when Kurt had to belly to belly (or just hit him,I really don't remember well that match lol) more than once in order to break that glass...you could tell that Shane was in pain, REAL pain and when it finally broke, Shan O' Mac looked like he was freakin dead! that accident give a lot of more drama to the match IMO.

 

[RoseFire81]

Im realy shocked that noone has mentioned the most dangerous accident------ King of the Ring 2001. In one of the sickest and dangerous moments ever we have Kurt Angel try to belly to belly suplex Shane McMahon through a plate glass window only for it NOT!!! TO BREAK!!!!. This caused Shane to land on his head in a moment where everyone thought Kurt had killed Shane. Now even though thgis was a great street fight i doubt it would have been as remembrable as it was thanks to the accident.

 

[Kenny Powers]

This may be pretty lame, but I will have to go with the Shockmaster. It didn't really do anything for poor Fred Ottman (Typhoon/Tugboat) or for anyone in WCW, but it was one of the funniest unintentional moments in pro wrestling history.

 

[Vintage]

This is easy. When Tony Schiavone accidently gave away the results to Raw's main event. I remember that night, Tony was being his usual douche self and really looked like he enjoyed making this following comment

"Fans, if you're even thinking about changing the channel to our competition, do not. We understand that Mick Foley, who wrestled here at one time as Cactus Jack, is gonna win their World title. Ha! That's gonna put some butts in the seats, heh"

Bet you wish you can take that one back huh tone? LOL It's not your fault though, you had easy E giving you orders.

600,000 people switched channels to Raw to see Mankind win that night. The decline of WCW started earlier, but this was when they hit the point of no return. To fix the mess they created with the ratings they hired Russo and Ferrera whom were doing their trademark horrible writing, brought in Master P, a few more crappy moves. This eventually led to Chris Benoit quitting in protest, along with Eddie Guerrero, Perry Saturn and Dean Malenko. WCW might not have saw much value in them, but a few of them reached their untapped potentials in WWE.

Good work Tony and Eric while you may have killed WCW, you saved WWE from themselves, reinvigorated careers and gave fans dream matches. I only wish things happened differently because WCW folded and WWE cleaned it act up... but regardless that was the night that everything changed.

 

[ted sheckler]

I think looking back on things the Steroid scandal in the early 90's seemed horrible at the time but it forced WWF to evolve into what we know today. The big huge bodybuilders like Hogan, Warrior and Luger were put off to the side as they starting showcasing athleticism with the smaller guys like Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels. And while the WWF no doubt had some rebuilding years it came out the other end stronger than ever and better for it.

placed the Warrior in the position to go over Hogan, in what many deem the Greatest Wrestlemania match of all time.

Sorry Tenta, Ive been a wrestling fan for 25 years... and Ive never heard Hogan v Warrior called the greatest match in WM history. It might be the highest anticipated ever.. When I was a kid everyone in school had a side and couldn't wait for it... Looking back it was passable..

 

[Hollywood Naitch]

The best accident I have is the crucifixition of the Sandman in ECW by my main man Raven.

It was an awesome scene, but it offended the "special guest" at the arena that night, a Mr Kurt Angle so badly that he refused to be seen on camera, walked out and threatened to sue Paul Heyman.

Kurt Angle was interested in joining ECW at this time and starting his pro wrestling career, and because of this misjudgement by Paul Heyman and Raven, Kurt ended up signing with the WWE a few years later and the rest is history

 

[D-Man]

Tenta, great thread as usual.

I really felt the need to chime in on this one because I think I've got a really good set of accidents that I feel should be treated equally. Some of you might not believe them to be accidents, but I feel that the definition of an "accident" would be something that wasn't meant to happen but did. If that's the case, these two things fit the mold perfectly:

The heel turn of Rocky Maivia into "The Rock."
I find this backstory to be absolutely hilarious. The WWE finds a third generation, naturally gifted, athletic, young man to be brought in as a monster babyface. They gave him a ridiculous haircut, horrific attire, an annoying personality, and a terrible, gimmicky name and expected the audience to eat it up like a Snickers bar on Halloween. Instead, he was booed to kingdom come in every arena across America. Signs were created and chants were started that said "Die, Rocky, Die."

Of course, this left Vince scratching his head a bit. But it also made him realize that he could no longer dictate who his audience was going to like and dislike. He now realized that in order to create a more effective babyface/heel, he needed to let the audience decide on how they were going to portray him. This method changed the landscape of professional wrestling, thus changing the landscape of heels versus babyfaces in Vince's version of professional wrestling.

The babyface turn of "Stone Cold" Steve Austin.
Honestly, I'm a little shocked that no one picked up on this one. I mean, let's face it... back in the mid 90's, Vince was still stuck drawing that fine line between "good guys" and "bad guys." He force-fed his audience to try and like and dislike certain wrestlers. Austin was a perfect example of this.

I don't think I need to get really detailed with the story that everyone should know by now; he was brought in as "The Ringmaster" and was mentored by Ted DiBiase Sr. but quickly switched to be the badass heel in "Stone Cold" Steve Austin. He was such a good heel that people actually began to cheer him, thus creating one of the most naturally celebrated babyfaces of all time. In similar fashion as to what happened with The Rock, Vince was forced to see things in a different light as a result of this.

And I just felt the need to respond to this real quick:

Sorry Tenta, Ive been a wrestling fan for 25 years... and Ive never heard Hogan v Warrior called the greatest match in WM history. It might be the highest anticipated ever.. When I was a kid everyone in school had a side and couldn't wait for it... Looking back it was passable..

Ted, I think you might be getting a little bit too technical on your definition of a "great match." It's not always about the technical aspect of the match. Hogan vs. Warrior from WM6 was probably one of the greatest ring-psychological matches in Wrestlemania history. It was the first Wrestlemania to ever have a babyface vs. babyface main event as well as the first title for title matchup. Hogan and Warrior had the audience split right down the middle as to who was going to win, so they both needed to put on a match that not only kept their fans in tact afterwards, but they had to keep their credibility as monster babyfaces in tact after it was over with. Both men not only did those things, but they came out of the match stronger and more popular than they had ever been. THAT'S what made it one of the greatest matches in WM history.

 

[Tenta]

The babyface turn of "Stone Cold" Steve Austin.
Honestly, I'm a little shocked that no one picked up on this one. I mean, let's face it... back in the mid 90's, Vince was still stuck drawing that fine line between "good guys" and "bad guys." He force-fed his audience to try and like and dislike certain wrestlers. Austin was a perfect example of this.

I don't think I need to get really detailed with the story that everyone should know by now; he was brought in as "The Ringmaster" and was mentored by Ted DiBiase Sr. but quickly switched to be the badass heel in "Stone Cold" Steve Austin. He was such a good heel that people actually began to cheer him, thus creating one of the most naturally celebrated babyfaces of all time. In similar fashion as to what happened with The Rock, Vince was forced to see things in a different light as a result of this.

You know, it's actually funny, because I was thinking along these lines, too. As a matter of fact, I'm really shocked no one has talked about Steve Austin. You see, as you probably know, D-Man, it was not he, but Hunter Hearst Helmsley that was supposed to win the 1996 King of the Ring. Of course, that never materialized, because of the "Curtain Call", in a move that, frankly, I feel the WWE was better off for in the end. Hunter was a decent worker, with a good character, but he didn't have the seasoning to really get over with the crowd. I really do feel that the 1996 King of the Ring served two benefits.

1. It obviously led to Austin's meteoric rise to fame in the WWE. Let's be honest, without that 3:16 Promo, I'm not sure how Austin gets over the way he did. Yes, he had the talent, but he just needed that last intangible to be a perfect creation. As soon as Austin uttered that, well, blasphemous phrase, I guarantee you the gears started turning in Vince's head. From those gears came T-Shirts, Merchandising, and a brand new entity for McMahon to brand as his own. From this day, a superstar was born.

2. It showed the talent that anyone beyond The Kliq could get over. Razor and Diesel were gone, and needless to say, The Kliq didn't have the same pull they used to. If Hunter went over at the King of the Ring, all it would have shown people backstage is that you're not getting over without the Kliq, and I assume most talent just would have been disheartened. Hunter was good, but not ready to be the next big thing in wrestling. If Hunter won, who knows how the Fed would have shapened out?

Again, really great answers by everyone. Just offering an idea

 

[Барбоса]

I think the Curtain Call also had a positive impact on HHH's career too. Instead of perhaps being catapulted into the main event when he may not have been ready, SCSA winning KOTR '96 gave Hunter another year of progession. 12 months later when he won KOTR, he was engaged in an excellent feud with Mankind that propelled him more towards the wise-cracking HHH character that joined HBK and would later lead DX rather than the WWF era style character of the Conneticut blue-blood.

Perhaps a year earlier, Hunter might have been lost in the jumble of the transition into the Attitude era

 

[Tenta]

I think the Curtain Call also had a positive impact on HHH's career too. Instead of perhaps being catapulted into the main event when he may not have been ready, SCSA winning KOTR '96 gave Hunter another year of progession. 12 months later when he won KOTR, he was engaged in an excellent feud with Mankind that propelled him more towards the wise-cracking HHH character that joined HBK and would later lead DX rather than the WWF era style character of the Conneticut blue-blood.

Perhaps a year earlier, Hunter might have been lost in the jumble of the transition into the Attitude era

I think something should be said for that, as well. I mean, people often neglect that in that year, it wasn't as though Helmsley was completely buried, as history has led us to believe. Let's look at what happened in the time period between this King of the Ring, and the next one in 1997. He won, lost, and won the Intercontinental Title, having feuds with Marc Mero and Goldust along the way, gained Chyna along the way, who did well in bringing out the more Triple H kind of character in him, was paired, if not by the IWC then sporadically, with Triple H, learned to get rid of the english accent, and overall learned how to actually make the fans care about him. That, and the steroids. Can't forget those.

I really do feel that you're right, and the Mankind feud was the one to bring out the Triple H character we all know. This was the feud that showed he had something in the ring, and was gritty enough to get shit done when he needed to. Without that feud, I feel as though Triple H isn't narily that big a figure when he saddles up to his buddy HBK. Working against Mankind and Goldust really did set up the backbone for the Triple H character, before it fully came out when he won his King of the Ring title, from Mankind mind you.

Great points.... Yeah, I'm not even going to bother spelling that

 

[theHeadliner]

I'm going to go with Luger getting drunk as the best accident in professional wrestling. I thought Bret Hart's career really took off around 1994 and if Luger hadn't gotten drunk, who knows where Hart would be. Maybe it would have taken him longer to get champion. I believe Diesel wouldn't have that year long reign because Hart would have most likely won the title in 1995 and kept it for a while.

That never happened. Luger has disputed that to this day many times.

I'd say the curtain call because it held back HHH from winning and gave Austin the push he needed.

 

[thunt41]

How about the "mistake" when according to HBK he was told he failed a drug test in 94 and was gonna have the IC title taken from him before Wrestlemania 10. He instead refused to send the belt back to Vince so they made another one, leading to one of the best wreslemania matches in history the infamous ladder match....

Mistake being here....HBK claims he didn't fail a drug test, Vince states he did...someone made a mistake there, but in the big picture...one of the best things thats ever happened....definatly gave Scott Hall his best match

 

[Money Inc.]

According to Jim Cornette the Luger leaking the finish in a bar is a wrestling myth. He said Luger was originally going to win the title months before but Vince had Bret winning the title at least a month in advance.

Cornette hates Vince so he had nothing to gain by backing him up on this statement so the Luger story is a myth.

 

[MMK]

The chain of events that the msg curtain call incident set off are pretty unbelievable. From the formation of the nWo to Austin's infamous KOTR promo which never would have happened had HHH's push not been pushed back due to his involvement at the msg incident.

Another choice would be Rock v Hogan WM18. The crowd's cheering Hogan over Rock gave the match a special feel it wouldn't have had had the crowd reacted as expected. Thank goodness WM was in Toronto that year, as Candian crowds are known for cheering the heels. That match would have been a bust had it not been for the crowd's unexpected positive reaction towards both Hogan and even more unexpected negative reaction towards Rock.

 

[Pay Per Ghost]

Curtain Call

Had this not happened, Austin 3:16 (in particular) would've never happened.
All know Hunter was to receive that win but one little indiscretion led to this massive change in wrestling landscape.

Stone Cold

'Drink you tea honey before it turns stone cold'
On the Legends of Wrestling (a must must watch for all) Mick Foley recalls the story of how Austin's Ex gave him this moniker whereas the WWF guys had names like Ice Dagger waiting in the wings (shudder)