10 Wrestlers WWE Protected In The WORST Way Possible

So it is smart to protect wrestling stars that you want to push. Everybody has a weakness, so don't exploit that. Just go and do the Paul Heyman. You push the strengths, and then we all win. Sometimes, for whatever reason, WWE has gone the other way, though. I mean, think Bill Goldberg in 2003. WWE just should have used Bill as he was used in WCW. But note, we've got to change him. There are always reasons for this, though, so let us jump into it. And yes, on behalf of what cultural wrestling it is, I, Simon the bald idiot, let's take some wrestling protection. 10. The Ultimate Warrior The Ultimate Warrior was fired in 1992 and brought back in 1996. It would have happened earlier, but the Warrior and Vince McMahon loved to fall out. They were like siblings, it was their favourite thing to do. As WCW was getting momentum with Nitro, we tried again, and yes, WrestleMania 12, the Ultimate One was back and infamously destroyed Triple H. You can hear all parties involved talk about this today, and I'm just going to say, my friends, it was most definitely a thing. The issue with that from this point on, however, was The Ultimate Warrior was booked exactly the same as he was in 1992. And, well, that just didn't work. It wasn't his fault either. Welcome to life. In 1996, the likes of Shawn Michaels and Bret Hart had reconditioned the audience. It doesn't mean stars like The Warrior couldn't have adopted to this, but the word on the street was... He just didn't want to do that. He fancied running the same plays because he was the warrior. You can kind of see it happen in real time too, should you wish to go back to the mid-90s. Fans kind of tune out just because they wanted the ultimate one in a new environment, not the one they had seen four years beforehand. And hey, maybe some of that crowd didn't even know he existed. They were brand new. So ultimately, ironically, when you did push all of this together, well, it was a massive bust. And we would never see the ultimate warrior in the WWE again until 2014. Number nine, Baron Corbin's end of days. So this one is a bit weird, but please do stick with me. WrestleMania 38, Drew McIntyre versus Baron Corbin. Baron Corbin hits the end of days, and the flipping Scottish warrior kicked out, and nobody had ever done this. It's why Baron deserves way more praise than he does get, because think of the modern day. The traditional main event now means we have to kick out of at least 68 finishes before we get to the 1, 2, 3, but not Corbin. He decided to go back in time and stick to the word literally, this was a finish. Now, that doesn't mean that somebody never kicks out. You just pick your moments, and that's the whole point of building it. You can actually give something to somebody else. And yes, on that note, McIntyre was in line for huge plans post-WrestleMania 38, so why not get him as much momentum as possible? There's logic there. It's not 2 plus 2 equals potato. The problem is when you do watch the TV at the time. WWE just did not do a big enough song and dance about this and the fact this was a real thing. I mean for months that should have been the story, the end of days is devastating, nobody can kick out of the end of days and then sure, take Baron Corbin and deliberately have him ruin some people with what? The end of days. So it's not a massive deal, but it was a little bit upsetting, or that's a bit strong. I just don't think the commentators sold it to the degree it needed to be sold either. Imagine you were a first-time watcher, but going back to that again, it needs to be thrown in your face like some kind of vomit. Shouldn't have said that. So it was a shame, really, and it could have been more. And I think that would have helped Drew too, because he then as well could have gone crazy about it. You turn it into a moment. Let's face it, WWE loves moments. 8. Chyna's unique path The last year of China's WWE run was pretty difficult. She had wanted to stay in the men's division, but WWE had different plans. We've done that, it worked, you are a star, but we're going to make you the face of the females. It meant come renegotiating time, they also didn't see eye to eye, she left the company, and we never got around to. Now let me make things clear before we do get into this. China opened doors, who knows where we would be otherwise, but WWE kind of left her between a rock and a hard place. Chris Jericho has said Vince McMahon once chastised him for working too stiff with Chyna, even though he was also told beforehand make sure you treat her like one of the guys. No excuses. It just created this strange middle ground where Chyna had to be protected by the men, but now you're telling her to go fight exclusively with the women. I guess her being a trendsetter was the actual issue because WWE didn't know how to approach it after the fact. Chyna also didn't help herself either because she demanded to squash Ivory at WrestleMania 18 and yeah, go and watch it, once again we could have just done so much more. I just don't think WWE knew what to do once the initial wave of oh my gosh had passed and maybe they never expected it to begin with. Do go and tune in to the late 90s though to see this, she was crazy over. Number seven, young Randy Orton. You can't get away from it if you are a wrestling historian. It's all there, and I feel like Randy Orton would tell you firsthand. During his younger years, he was a menace to society outside of the ring and likely conducted himself in a manner that would have seen anybody else get fired. Because WWE saw the talent and star power Randy had, though, well, he got the opposite treatment. Even John Cena once said new Randy Orton would not have liked old Randy Orton, and that's because he's matured into a trusted performer, and he is an absolute GOAT. I suppose the problem here is that years prior, WWE's failure to actually show Orton he can't do this meant he didn't get past this stage faster. Must have been frustrating for those around him because they all knew how good he was. Even Triple H has talked about this when he was going to hire Randy for Evolution. He wasn't actually 100% sure, because Orton was a little bit of a loose cannon, and that's just not the way that you can be. Thankfully, this did turn out okay, and these days, man, what an absolute dude. Randy Orton is the best. 6. The Rise of King Mabel By all accounts, Mabel was a lovely guy. It's crucial to state that. Wrestling is the most important of the least important things, and it's nice that he was nice. Some more of that. When Vince McMahon did decide to push him to the moon in 1995, though, some fans were confused. Men on a mission were a fun tag team, but nobody saw this. Mabel was huge, however, so yeah, McMahon thought he was going to give it a go. It started with a big old win at the King of the Ring when a very consistent problem arrived. Mabel would hurt everyone. He crushed The Undertaker's orbital bone for starters, which is why the dead man started wearing that mask. And he also hurt world champion Diesel at SummerSlam. You can see this blatantly if you do watch some of the shots, shush. Vince did not want to admit this was an error, and we've seen that before, which meant he kinda just kept pushing forward hoping things would be okay. That's mad because had we just sat down with Mabel and said oh hey dude calm down or you're probably going to lose your spot. Well I'm sure he probably would have done or at least tried. Instead eventually we did just pull the plug on this and Mabel went back to where he was and sure I doubt he was ever going to be a proper WWF champion but sometimes you just need a little bit more structure and you never know more random people have got over. This was just a little bit insane. Number five Goldberg in 2017. As we already mentioned, WWE had made a mess of Bill Goldberg in 2003. Both sides will tell you that. WWE wanted to make a new version of Goldberg, whereas Bill felt like they were trying to marginalise him. There's a reason that contract was done after one single year. When he returned in 2016, we did get it totally right, and that Survivor Series match with Brock Lesnar was all time. You can pretend otherwise, but you'll be kidding yourself. People loved this. If nothing else, it was a window back to the past. The problem was, maybe it worked too well. Vince McMahon was so taken with it, he decided to make the rematch at WrestleMania 33 and that for some reason it needed the Universal title. Don't necessarily agree with that, but it did mean that Goldberg crushed Kevin Owens at Fastlane 2017. Yeah, fans were mad, it wasn't the way to do it, but really this was WWE protecting Goldberg, or at least the aura he had. They were right to keep it alive, but running through KO was not the answer. Of course, they then did this later again with Bray Wyatt too, and there was Dolph Ziggler at SummerSlam. I think WWE just picked the wrong people in those spots. Look at it this way. When Goldberg faced The Undertaker in Saudi Arabia, the dead man won. Owens and friends were never going to be offered the same deal. So I'm not saying that WWE shouldn't have put a picket fence around Bill Goldberg, because they should have done. But the way they went about it, well, it was just a bit silly. Number four, the old Shawn Michaels. All the stories are out there from Bret Hart and The Undertaker. HBK was basically a little bit of a nightmare during the 90s, and he would wind everybody up. Vince McMahon had a lack of star power though, and given the fact that WCW was breathing down their necks, well, Shawn Michaels was never going to be let go. You can see all this in real time too. Shawn didn't drop titles, threatened not to do jobs, and he made some people's lives backstage hell. If he did not like you, you were doomed. There's also the British Bulldog European title incident where Davey Boy Smith was meant to win that belt in his home country, but Shawn apparently went to get the finish changed. Once again, the backstage scenes were just sadness. Nobody Nobody appreciated what he was doing. And look, come 1998, the WW was flying, but listen to Michaels talk about it today. He knows what went down, I suppose we all do have to grow, which he did do. Also seems like he's in a very good place in 2026, and there's nothing more important than that. You just have to figure though, eventually, if Vince McMahon had gone, you need to stop this, otherwise there is the door, maybe we wouldn't have got to this point. But at the same time, in the mid-90s, you can bet your ass the Heartbreak Kid would have flown out of that hole in the wall, and he would have joined his friends at WCW. Just goes to show that wrestling politics is always going to be the problem. But yeah, it was not ideal. Number three, all of WCW. Sort of, or at least how Vince McMahon saw WCW. Because even decades after World Championship Wrestling was killed, McMahon was still keen to tell everyone, WWE is better. He was like, yeah, we know, you went and won. It's why throughout the years, though, Triple H, who was Mr. WWE, got very odd and untimely victories over Booker T, Goldberg, Scott Steiner, Ric Flair, and even Kevin Nash. That one makes me laugh too. Big Kev was a WWE guy, but because he was part of that WCW boom, he gets thrown in too. The one that really sent people loopy was, of course, Sting at WrestleMania 31. For decades, fans had dreamed of seeing the icon in a WWE ring, and we finally got it. It was a shame the match was in the daytime, but what are you going to do? But in Vince McMahon's brain, he decided he was going to turn this into another shot. against WCW. He didn't even understand the story as it was the NWO who came out to help Sting, even though their greatest rival was Sting. When Triple H whammed the icon with his sledgehammer to win two, it was just not what people wanted. As it stands, it is going to be a one and done at WrestleMania 4, Sting, and given how much of a legend he was, I just probably think he should have gone and won it. Number 2, Triple H in video games. Now look, I worked in the video game industry during this era, I ran a magazine, I published articles, and I talked to companies, nobody ever told me this. I always think it's fair to throw that out there, I had first-hand experience. At the same time, yes, there's also other evidence that does the rounds. It was during the previews for SmackDown vs. Raw 2009 when it was the Bleach Report that said they had been told do not show any blood and do not show Triple H in any vulnerable positions. Still don't really get what that means, but of course, most people translated it as, the game should not be shown being beaten up. What's never been established, however, is where this edict came from. You can guess Triple H, and I understand that, but I cannot see a world where he even knows about the video game release schedule. I sort of think this may have been a Vince McMahon call. I mean, who had more mad ideas than him? Nobody obeyed this either, because even back then, it was classic troll culture. You can't stop people from doing something. So if you insist, all of a sudden, the internet was awash with images of Triple H getting his ass kicked Although every single iteration after this, we've never heard a peep. So maybe everybody involved did learn a lesson, I do not know. 1. Shane McMahon Can Kick Your Ass I like Shane McMahon. If you go back to the Attitude Era, that dude was insane. He knew that he'd been put there thanks to his family, so he always went above and beyond. It was crazy, I mean those falls from the Titantron. As life went on though, for whatever reason, the next evolution of McMahon was being a lean, mean fighting machine. This was 2003, and when Shane faced Randy Orton, yeah, We were told that Shane was dangerous and Randy needed to be careful. What? Orton even ran away from Shane at one point and look, fair play to Randy, he's a total pro in the ring, but it was just silly. And let's say the most important aspect, it was not what the fans wanted. So yeah, we lost track here. It could have been so much better.