Remember when Matt Hardy fought Evander Holyfield in a WWE ring? Probably not...
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00:00 Brace yourself for one hell of a ridiculous, shocking and just generally odd history lesson,
00:04 folks, because it's time to unpack some of those wholly strange and sometimes mind-boggling WWE
00:10 moments that have largely been forgotten by the average wrestling fan. Gareth here from
00:14 WhatCulture Wrestling and here are 10 forgotten WWE moments you won't believe actually happened.
00:20 10. Braun Strowman's massive splash - Clash of Champions 2019
00:24 Seth Rollins' Universal Championship defence against one-time tag partner Braun Strowman
00:29 didn't exactly immortalise itself on the night of Clash of Champions 2019. With the pair already
00:34 losing their Raw Tag Team Championships earlier in the evening, their largely forgettable rivalry
00:38 was mercifully cut short on the back of the architect's emphatic win over the Monster Among
00:43 Men. There was one rather fun highlight to be found within this pre-Fiend-Rollins calamity though,
00:48 in the form of the absolutely sensational visual of the gigantic challenger soaring through the
00:53 sky like a damn cruiserweight at one point. Despite already showing off an ability to
00:57 nail opponents with highly athletic dropkicks and flip many a vehicle, Strowman's monstrous
01:02 splash from the top rope easily ranks as the most audacious of his many unexpected physical feats.
01:08 But you'd definitely be forgiven for forgetting this even popped the crowd on the night. This
01:12 was the same PLE that sent the audience home seemingly happy, with the fateful sight of
01:16 Bray's clownish demon force-feeding his leather glove to the defending champ after all.
01:21 9. Baron Corbin's forgotten night - Smackdown 2020
01:24 Baron Corbin hasn't half had his fair share of gimmick and role changes over the years.
01:29 After initially rocking up on the main roster in his lone wolf guise, Corbin would ultimately
01:33 transition into the wholly derided Constable of Raw, before eventually shifting into everything
01:38 from a kingly new look to an ill-fated modern day wrestling god. And it was during the dying
01:43 days of his spell as the aforementioned King of the Ring winning pin in the ass, that it's often
01:48 forgotten that Corbin assembled himself yet another crew of annoying henchmen to help him
01:52 achieve his dastardly goals. After being split from their fellow forgotten son, Jackson Ryker,
01:57 on the back of the heat sent his way for some controversial Twitter activity, Wesley Blake and
02:01 Steve Cutler were suddenly revealed as Corbin's new allies on the December 4th 2020 edition of
02:06 Smackdown. The hilariously titled Knights of the Lone Wolf didn't stick around too long, of course,
02:11 being disbanded shortly after due to Cutler and Blake eventually getting release from the company.
02:15 And so they simply became yet another reminder of WWE depressingly making it up as they went along
02:20 during this often painful period. 8. MVP's, Thorne and Vink Management
02:25 Raw 2020 Speaking of which, the Knights of the Lone
02:28 Wolf weren't the only units suddenly given some main roster time to shine, before quickly being
02:32 dragged off TV during the barmiest of years known as 2020. In the wake of making an unexpected return
02:38 to WWE at that year's Royal Rumble, MVP eventually went on to become something of a regular on Monday
02:43 Night Raw. But just before he went about putting the pieces in place for the eventual Hurt Business
02:48 Squad, the former United States Champion actually dusted off his manager's jacket for another bunch
02:53 of lads on April 27th. None other than future Retribution and Chase You members Shane Thorne
02:58 and Brandon Vink, respectively, had already made their presence known on the red show since March,
03:02 yet aligning with MVP felt like a clear attempt to elevate the TMDK members above the level of
03:08 forgettable jobbers during the excruciatingly silent early crowdless era. Vink and Thorne
03:13 swiftly getting sent back down to NXT before quietly being disbanded as a team, alongside
03:17 the fact very few can even recall this bizarre faction becoming a thing in the first place,
03:21 tells you all you need to know about how successful this thrown together alliance ultimately was.
03:25 Shelton Benjamin's Distracted Promos - Smackdown 2019
03:31 A fun enough team-up with the Ultimate Tag Team Utility player Chad Gable would kick off Shelton
03:36 Benjamin's long-awaited WWE comeback in 2017. But by 2019, the former Intercontinental Champion
03:42 had largely gotten lost in the mid-card shuffle, and it was during that hugely forgettable chapter
03:46 in his career that the veteran suddenly found himself being thrown into some of the strangest
03:50 backstage promo segments of modern times. Dumped in front of a camera before being asked everything
03:55 from who will win an upcoming WWE title match, to whether he'd be interested in competing for the
04:00 24/7 gold, Shelton's silent response and odd stares around the room were definitely something.
04:05 Then they just stopped. The closest thing to a payoff came about when Benjamin finally uttered
04:10 the word "shorty" to his former pre-shorty G-pal Gable backstage. But away from that,
04:14 this just ranks as one of the weirdest and most random, unremembered running segments to pop up
04:19 on the blue brand. Matt Hardy fights Evander Holyfield - Saturday Night's Main Event 2007
04:25 This one definitely feels like something that went down in another corner of the multiverse.
04:29 However, the record does somehow show that Matt Hardy once went one-on-one with a former
04:33 World Championship-winning boxer in our timeline. With the Hardy Boy being challenged to a boxing
04:38 match by then-rival MVP on the upcoming edition of Saturday Night's Main Event back in 2007,
04:44 the fact the latter was suddenly unable to compete due to being diagnosed with Wolf
04:48 Parkinson White Syndrome soon paved the way for a pretty shocking upgrade. Along with roping in
04:52 Michael Buffer to announce the brilliantly ridiculous circus set to unfold, a horrified
04:56 Matt Hardy found himself sharing the squared circle with genuine boxing great Evander Holyfield.
05:02 And as expected, the heavyweight former champ proceeded to work-beat the stuffing out of the
05:06 ladder lover. The dreamlike sequence, one also equipped with everything from WWE Diva Ring Girls
05:11 to Corner Men, ultimately ended in a no contest after an irritating MVP decided to intervene,
05:17 a move that resulted in him eating one hell of a right for his troubles. However, while many are
05:21 quick to remember the likes of Tyson Fury and Mike Tyson stopping by to KO WWE's unfortunate
05:26 full-time faces, Evander's bizarre wander into the world of sports entertainment isn't revisited
05:32 anywhere near as much. 5. Howard Finkel's Jericho Association
05:36 Smackdown 1999 Howard 'The Fink' Finkel has quite rightly
05:39 gone down in history as one of the very best announcers ever to do it. But there were actually
05:44 a number of occasions over the years when the iconic voice found himself getting a little too
05:48 close to the action. And perhaps the most easily forgotten of his few on-screen storylines involved
05:52 the mighty Fink eventually donning a mask and going by the name of El Dopo. That is right,
05:58 whilst allying himself with a recently debuting Chris Jericho on WWE programming back in 1999,
06:03 Fink suddenly wound up in a hilariously wacky scenario that involved him clashing with Y2J's
06:08 then-rival Ken Shamrock under a luchador mask. Sure enough, his time as a dodgy Smackdown referee
06:13 was cut somewhat short after a brassed-off Shamrock saw through Fink's incredible disguise
06:18 and fake accent upon being wrongly DQ'd against Curtis Hughes on September 16th. Again, a great
06:23 many fondly remember Fink's unmatched work on the stick during his 40-year stint with the company.
06:28 But you'll struggle to find anyone who can honestly recall this rare sight of El Dopo doing
06:33 Jericho's bidding on the blue show. 4. Bobby Lashley collides with Alistair Black
06:38 on the strangest stage - WrestleMania 36 Returning to the all-round bizarro world that was 2020 now,
06:44 and to the Performance Center show of shows that played host to countless intriguing matches,
06:48 that have since been generally ignored/forgotten by both fans and WWE themselves. Now sure,
06:53 the company have begrudgingly acknowledged the likes of Drew McIntyre's long-awaited WWE
06:58 Championship win, the Firefly Funhouse and Boneyard matches, and even most recently shone
07:02 a spotlight on Charlotte Flair and Rhea Ripley's first battle on the Mania stage. But when it comes
07:07 to one-time dream encounters like former NXT Champion Alistair Black colliding with the
07:11 dominant Bobby Lashley on the grandest stage of them all, the average wrestling fan or even WWE
07:15 employee likely couldn't tell you a single thing about said hard-hitting battle. Given absolutely
07:20 zero build in the lead-up to the early pandemic mania, a Lashley fresh off of the god-awful
07:25 Rusev Love Triangle saga with Lana ate a deliciously timed Black Mass counter mid-spear for
07:31 the Alice to win in the end. And while the impromptu battle wasn't dreadful by any means,
07:35 it still joined the likes of Liv Morgan vs Natalya, Cesaro vs Drew Gulak, a Smackdown Women's
07:41 Championship 5-way, and Elias vs Baron Corbin as one of the many matches few even remember being
07:46 on this strangest card of them all. 3. Bret Hart dethrones United States
07:51 Champion The Miz - Raw 2010 Had Bret Hart's hotly anticipated WWE return reached its dramatic end
07:57 with his plodding beatdown of Vince McMahon at WrestleMania 26, many would have just been happy
08:02 to see the Hitman given one last and much-deserved moment in the sports entertainment sun. But this
08:06 absolute icon was surprisingly far from finished, folks. In a marvelously insane turn of events,
08:12 after falling to Tyson Kidd on the May 10th episode of Raw, The Miz offered one of the
08:16 Hart family the chance to challenge for his United States Championship, and with the hopes
08:20 of embarrassing the dynasty in their home country of Canada, Miz opted for a battle with good ol'
08:25 Bret. A week on, that's precisely what went down, with Wladimir Kozlov and William Regal being taken
08:30 out by Kidd and David Hart Smith early on, QA villainous Chris Jericho popping into the ring
08:35 in a suit and getting walloped by Natalya, with Miz also soon comically eating crap in the form of a
08:40 heart attack, before being locked in a glorious sharpshooter for a simply extraordinary Hitman
08:45 victory. In between stepping back into the ring for the first time in years at Mania,
08:49 and delightfully joining Team WWE at that year's SummerSlam, most overlooked that this all-time
08:54 legend also found time to add an unlikely additional piece of gold to his mighty collection,
08:58 upon making his epic comeback too. 2. That weird 2 out of 3 falls period
09:03 The main roster 2019. Look, if it wasn't clear already based on many of the forgotten entries
09:08 found in this very list, 2019-2020 was about as peculiar as it gets in this already frequently
09:14 absurd world of sports entertainment. With Vince McMahon going well full Vince McMahon as the 2010s
09:19 reached their end and the 2020s got underway, the one-time head of creative frequently became
09:24 strangely obsessed with everything from gauntlet encounters to backstage fight clubs. But amidst
09:29 the always baffling content folks remember being pumped into WWE TV around this time,
09:34 it's often forgotten just how much Vinnie Mac got a kick out of 2 out of 3 falls matches at one point
09:39 as well. This wasn't simply a case of the boss suddenly feeling that one fall just wasn't enough
09:43 though. According to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, the never-ending stream of 2 out of
09:47 3 falls, elimination bout and match restarting madness was actually WWE's way of adjusting to
09:52 McMahon's new edict of performers hilariously now not being allowed to wrestle during commercial
09:57 breaks. Because they don't do that in real sports, damn it! As with just about any entirely odd
10:01 Vinnie Mac rule, this one too was ultimately scrapped later down the road. But never forget
10:06 that there was a time there when 2 out of 3 became a weird main roster gnome.
10:10 1. Edge speared Jeff Hardy off the ladder before WrestleMania X-7
10:14 Raw 2000
10:15 The charismatic enigma famously snapped the Rated-R Superstar in half at WrestleMania 23
10:20 after falling from up high. But easily the pair's most notable instance of total innovative chaos
10:25 came 6 years earlier during TLC 2. In truth though, many forget that this wasn't actually
10:30 the first time Edge had executed this sort of death-defying spear on a vulnerable Hardy.
10:35 Mid-tag team ladder contest though, Summerslam 2000 saw the Hardy boys battling against Edge
10:40 and Christian and the Dudley Boys in the inaugural TLC battle of course. And that match also saw the
10:44 future world champion collide with Hardy high in the air. When it comes to the exact spot involving
10:49 Jeff dangling from some belts before getting snapped in two by his soaring rival though,
10:53 that precise moment actually went down a whole 6 months before WrestleMania X-7 on an episode of
10:58 Raw. Once again fighting against Iain Seen, a lad about. It's largely forgotten that the Hardy boy
11:04 pretty much rehearsed the very bump that would immortalise him and Edge on the grandest stage
11:08 forever during a random September 25th 2000 edition of the Red Show. What a time to be alive,
11:13 eh? And that's our list. Know of any other forgotten WWE moments people won't believe
11:17 actually happened? Let us know all about them in the comments section right down below,
11:20 and do not forget to like, share and click on that subscribe button while you're at it.
11:23 Also, if this sort of forgotten magic is your kind of thing, then head on over to
11:27 WotCulture.com and find some more fantastic articles just like the one this video you're
11:31 watching right now is based on. I've been Gareth from WotCulture Wrestling, thank you as always for
11:35 watching this lovely video today. Hopefully I'll see your faces very, very soon, but in the meantime,
11:39 just be good to yourself. Bye!