10 Wrestlers Who No Sold Huge Losses
Laughing off huge defeats, popping back up from emphatic finishers, and more hilarious no-sells.
Transcript
00:00 From instantly popping back up and strutting back down the ramp after being dealt an L,
00:03 to waltzing out on Raw the very next night as though nothing ever happened post-defeat,
00:08 this lot made a mockery of looking up at the lights when all was said and done.
00:11 Gareth here from WhatCulture Wrestling and here are 10 Wrestlers Who No-Sold Huge Losses.
00:16 10.
00:17 Brock Lesnar quickly turns his attention to the game
00:19 Remember when former UFC heavyweight champion Brock Lesnar returned to WWE programming in
00:23 2012 after 8 long years away, and then went on to beat the ever-loving crap out of John
00:28 Cena in his first bout back, only to end up hilariously on the receiving end of an attitude
00:33 adjustment on the steel steps and a loss out of the gates?
00:36 Well, don't worry if that last part is a little fuzzy because the Beast Encounter himself
00:40 also seemed to forget all about that particular detail, when it came time to rock back up
00:45 on Monday Night Raw the very next night.
00:47 Showing not so much as a scratch from the previous evening's bloody Extreme Rules
00:51 War, Lesnar defiantly announced that the world got to witness first-hand Brock Lesnar bring
00:55 in the pain.
00:56 And while Triple H would do his utmost to remind the returning contract rebel of the
00:59 actual result of said Cena skirmish, Brock effectively no-sold the contest - an odd on-screen
01:05 political drama between the Game and then-head of talent relations John Laurinaitis - before
01:09 beating the piss out of his next sparring partner to set up their incoming program.
01:13 If Brock doesn't mention it, it didn't happen.
01:15 9.
01:16 Finn Balor joins the Judgment Day
01:17 Finally aligning with fellow Bullet Club alumni AJ Styles on WBTV earlier this year, it looked
01:23 as though Finn Balor could actually be on the cusp of a spell not involving him eating
01:27 many a defeat at the hands of whoever Vince McMahon was obsessed with at that current
01:30 moment.
01:31 Rather depressingly, that promise was quickly extinguished by the time Balor, Styles and
01:35 Liv Morgan eventually went at it with the Judgment Day at Hell in a Cell, with the Prince
01:39 getting emphatically spared post-Rhea Ripley blockade, en route to being pinned by the
01:43 villain's overlord, Edge.
01:45 In a rather unexpected turn of events though, instead of limping out onto Monday Night Raw
01:49 the next night with his tail well and truly between his Balor legs, the former NXT champion
01:54 was all smiles as he looked set to join up with Edge's gothic faction.
01:57 And in a move that was likely more of a reflection of the WB Hall of Famer not being all too
02:02 keen to head down the supernatural road with his disciples, Balor would then help oust
02:07 Edge as he bizarrely took over leadership duties just 24 hours on from being embarrassed
02:11 by the trio, and being responsible for his unit picking up the feud-ending loss.
02:16 It's all a bit strange.
02:17 8.
02:18 John Cena rolls with the finishing Elimination Chamber punches
02:21 Around the time of the late noughties, John Cena had successfully evolved into the near-indomitable
02:26 presence more often than not found spearheading WWE programming.
02:29 So having Super Cena be suddenly dumped out of an Elimination Chamber bout midway through
02:33 the action was the sort of development capable of dropping jaws the world over.
02:37 And that was precisely what went down during No Way Out 2009's World Heavyweight Championship
02:42 skirmish, as he consumed a whopping three rather over finishes on his way out the door,
02:47 instead of selling the sheer impact of being co-breakered, speared and 619'd into next
02:51 week, however.
02:52 Cena had other ideas.
02:54 Now nobody should have expected the now former world champ to lay battered for the remaining
02:58 seven minutes or so, but having Cena comically roll out of the ring like a man in need of
03:02 a quick breather made the preceding trio of finishers look strangely feeble.
03:06 When you're nailed with three of the most devastating moves of the period in quick succession,
03:11 would it have been too much to ask for a moment to let the weight of the finishers land before
03:14 darting off out of the action?
03:16 Probably not, Cena.
03:17 7.
03:18 Bray Wyatt looks forward to a fresh start
03:20 Given the fact Bray Wyatt's children's TV presenter alter ego skipped back into the
03:24 spotlight on the first Raw post-37th show of shows, and declared he felt great and that
03:30 this could be a brand new start for him and all of his funhouse critters, it definitely
03:34 looked like WWE were wasting little time burying his wholly disappointing Viper debacle and
03:39 defeat in the ground.
03:40 However, in perhaps an even stranger development than Wyatt's fiend surviving being literally
03:44 burned alive, the star would then completely disappear from WWE programming in the subsequent
03:49 weeks before being ultimately cut loose in July.
03:52 Far from delivering the fresh start that was gleefully pitched just a few hours on from
03:56 another momentum killer of a loss, Wyatt's comical no-selling of Orton's red-tinted
04:00 riot now sits as his final act of a 12-year rollercoaster of a WWE ride.
04:06 6.
04:07 Hawk pings up after a 5-star chokeslam
04:09 The May 13, 2003 edition of Monday Night Raw saw the returning Road Warriors collide with
04:14 World Tag Team Champions Kane and Rob Van Dam over the duo's straps.
04:18 Despite this match acting as something of an audition for a full-time spot on the roster
04:22 for the legendary unit, it ultimately wasn't to be, and their chances likely weren't
04:27 helped by Hawk's unflattering reaction to the champ's chokeslam 5-star frog splash
04:31 combination.
04:32 With the iconic Legion of Doom putting in a solid enough shift up to that point, an
04:36 evidently vexed Hawk reacted to eating the majority of the damage on offer in the bout
04:40 by darting back up to his feet before RVD and the Big Red Machine could even raise their
04:45 titles in triumph.
04:46 In the end, this would also act as Hawk's final appearance in a WWE ring, before he
04:50 succumbed to a sudden heart attack a few months later.
04:53 5.
04:54 AJ Styles shrugs off an anything-but-phenomenal Mania debut
04:58 AJ Styles didn't get off to the most successful of starts when it comes to his show-of-shows
05:02 career.
05:03 In a bout that looked as though it had "Showstealer" written all over it heading into WrestleMania
05:06 32, The Phenomenal One went at it with one-time Y2AJ teammate Chris Jericho in a serviceable
05:13 rematch.
05:14 However, upon doing the favours for a veteran who clearly didn't need the grandest stage
05:17 rub, the events that would unfold on the following night's episode of Raw made that call look
05:22 even more baffling in hindsight.
05:24 Dumped into a fatal four-way to decide new WWE Champion Roman Reigns' first challenger,
05:29 the former New Japan Pro Wrestling and TNA darling completely no-souled his Mania failure,
05:33 and set his sights firmly on the Big Dog Strap as the likes of Sami Zayn, Kevin Owens and
05:38 Chris Jericho all joined him in scrapping for a spell.
05:41 If that wasn't enough, Styles would then go on to win the whole damn thing in the evening's
05:45 main event, completely palming off his lacklustre first night on the Mania job in next to no
05:50 time.
05:51 4.
05:52 Braun Strowman instantly gets one back on Sice and Fury
05:54 Acting as the culmination of a program that now feels as though it went down in an entirely
05:58 alternate reality, Braun Strowman found himself squaring up against heavyweight world champion
06:03 boxer Tyson Fury under the bright lights of the King Fahd Stadium in Saudi Arabia back
06:08 at Crown Jewel 2019.
06:10 Determined not to have the mainstream superstar suffer a loss in his first ever professional
06:14 wrestling showing, but sensing that having their monster among men look like an utter
06:18 fool wouldn't do them any favours either, WWE hatched a master plan of sorts to ensure
06:22 both men looked strong as the dust settled on the monster mash.
06:26 Well they tried.
06:27 Hot on the heels of the Gypsy King picking up the W via deeply deflating countout, on
06:31 the back of a knockout right hand on the apron, Strowman effectively shrugged off a shot that
06:36 had put down genuine boxing sensations to deliver a running powerslam on the victim
06:40 in moments after said losing effort.
06:43 Further diluting the Saudi showdown, the two apparent bitter rivals would then share a
06:47 polite handshake in the ring on the next edition of Smackdown, before obviously beating the
06:51 piss out of the B-team.
06:52 3.
06:53 Austin Aries pops straight back up
06:55 By the time Austin Aries bolted upright seconds after Johnny Impact's crowning moment at
07:00 Bound for Glory 2018, most had chosen to entirely check out when it pertained to the wacky developments
07:05 usually found going down within the promotion during this odd period.
07:09 Matters weren't exactly helped by Impact's reaction to Aries and Johnny's surreal Twitter
07:13 feud either, with the Wrestling Observer later reporting that management wasn't happy with
07:17 their unapproved work on the social media platform due to it potentially contradicting
07:22 their plans in the long run.
07:23 It's still not exactly clear as to whether or not the promotion actually greenlit the
07:27 abrupt exit post-defeat too.
07:29 Despite Dave Meltzer feeling as though it would only be a matter of time before Aries
07:32 showed up on the Impact scene again, on the back of his contract expiring, further behind-the-scenes
07:37 developments would result in the greatest man who ever lived ultimately declining a
07:41 New Deal and ending his Impact career on one of the strangest beats of its era.
07:45 And that is saying something.
07:46 2.
07:47 MJF brushes off his Wardlow squash
07:49 Thoroughly delivering on a storyline that had been unfolding since the early days of
07:53 AEW's existence, Maxwell Jacob Freeman would finally be forced to pay for his consistently
07:58 despicable treatment of his one-time War Dog bodyguard at this year's Double or Nothing
08:02 event.
08:03 However, instead of the focus being on Wardlow's star-making performance throughout the programme
08:07 and during the emphatic squash on the night of the PPV itself, the wrestling world was
08:11 more interested in what the future held for the salt of the earth on the back of a rather
08:15 eventful weekend.
08:16 Fresh off of no-showing a meet-and-greet before the May 29th event, MJF was shockingly handed
08:21 a live mic on Dynamite to air his grievances in regards to not being paid the same amount
08:26 as ex-WWE guys.
08:27 And while Maxwell did at least momentarily offer a nod to the substantial battering he
08:31 was subjected to at the hands of his former employee, the speed in which he glossed over
08:35 that absolute massacring took pretty much all of the attention away from the pair's
08:39 near-three-year-long narrative, and directed it solely on his new work-shoot war with his
08:43 boss.
08:44 1.
08:45 Triple H laughs off Jeff Hardy
08:46 After finally returning to the WWE stage and seemingly getting a handle on his demons at
08:51 the time, it looked as though Jeff Hardy was well on his way to becoming a serious main
08:55 event player in 2007.An Intercontinental title win would eventually pave the way for an intriguing
09:00 rivalry with Triple H, as the two popular faces went at it over the right to challenge
09:04 for the WWE Championship at the 2008 Royal Rumble events at Armageddon.
09:09 And while the Game would be forced to do the J-O-B at this moment in time, in order to
09:13 give Hardy the much-needed rub in the lead-up to an eventual showdown with Randy Orton at
09:17 the next PPV, Trip still had a few tricks up his sleeve to ensure he didn't come out
09:21 of the closely-fought battle looking inferior to his friendly adversary.
09:25 Selling the nature of arguably Hardy's most important singles win at that point, in the
09:29 same way you would being cheekily pranked by a younger sibling, a genuinely surprising
09:33 and thrilling result was entirely undercut by the cerebral assassin's smug grin.
09:38 And with it later becoming known just how against Hardy's eventual ascent to the top
09:42 of the mountain, Trip's legitimately was behind the scenes, it's not too hard to
09:46 see what his intentions likely were with these petty losing antics.
09:50 And that's our list of any of the wrestlers who no-sold huge losses.
09:53 Let us know all about them in the comments section right down below and do not forget
09:56 to like, share and click on that subscribe button while you're at it.
09:59 Also if you dig this kind of thing then head on over to WhatCulture.com and find some more
10:03 awesome articles just like the one this video you're watching is based on and I would
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10:08 I've been Gareth from WhatCulture Wrestling, thank you as always for clicking on this video
10:11 today and hopefully I will see your faces very, very soon.