The importance of WrestleMania sees every wrestler wanting to have standout moments on the biggest stage. WWE did book iconic moments for top stars, but not every memorable moment will end up being a positive. Quite a few talented performers found themselves in unfortunate situations of having moments that could be considered foolish.The history of the event features the best matches and segments getting remembered and tied to their careers. However, that doesn’t mean everyone is guaranteed to have well-booked or fun times even if they give their all. Each of the situations in question showed that WWE will not shy away from putting people in situations to fail. The following moments showed just how dumb wrestling can be, even on the biggest stage of WrestleMania.
10 Hulk Hogan Getting Title Shot After Yokozuna Won Belt
WWE used to book at the request of Hulk Hogan due to his star power associated with the top spot. WrestleMania 9 featured minimal logic involved when Hogan received a WWE Championship from Yokozuna seconds after Yokozuna defeated Bret Hart.
The booking move made Yokozuna and Bret both look like fools just to give Hogan another moment in the spotlight. WWE’s decision was even dumber when realizing that Hogan was leaving the company just a few months later.
9 Big Show Getting Destroyed In A Sumo Match
Big Show has been placed in some of the toughest situations for wrestlers having to make bizarre situations work. WrestleMania 21 featured Big Show having to face off against legendary sumo wrestler Akebono in a sumo match.
WWE made Big Show wear a traditional sumo getup and go into a shoot match with someone significantly better than him. The humiliating moment for Big Show added little to the overall event and was among the worst things on a decent card.
8 Fake Bill Clinton
WWE’s old tricks of getting attention would see them trying to utilize pop culture to their advantage. The United States President Bill Clinton may have been the most famous person on the planet during the time of WrestleMania 10.
Clinton was advertised as attending the wrestling show before the big reveal of an impersonator. WWE mixing politics with wrestling usually goes poorly and it made even less sense here to make people think a famous name would be involved for unfunny comedic segments.
7 The Rock Challenging Erick Rowan
Wrestling fans were recently disappointed at WWE teasing The Rock at Survivor Series 2021 all night without showing up. Rock used to make noteworthy surprise appearances around the time of WrestleMania 32 to appease crowd hope.
The Wyatt Family made a surprise appearance of their own, interrupting Rock. An impromptu match would see Rock defeating Erick Rowan of all people in a few seconds. John Cena eventually made the save afterwards to even the odds, but Rock wasting a match against the least popular Wyatt Family member is even more foolish, considering that it’s his last match.
6 Mark Henry Falling On Ryback To Win Match
The face run of Ryback was still going strong into WrestleMania 29 with him attempting to play an unstoppable top name. Mark Henry facing Ryback on the biggest show of the year felt disappointing to stall his momentum.
The finish would make it even worse for Ryback when he suffered a shocking loss to the veteran. Ryback lifting Henry in the air led to the big man collapsing on him and scoring the pin. The booking was to set up an upcoming Ryback heel turn, but the ridiculous finish hurt him in a bigger way.
5 Sheamus Squashing Daniel Bryan
WWE made a few mistakes with Daniel Bryan in his stint that ended up hurting his opponents more. Sheamus facing Bryan for the World Championship at WrestleMania 28 was an exciting match on paper with the potential to steal the show.
The booking would see Bryan distracted by AJ Lee and getting kicked to lose the match in 18 seconds. WWE embarrassing Bryan just upset the audience who turned on the next match and never forgave Sheamus who flopped as a face champ.
4 Santina Marella Winning Miss WrestleMania Battle Royal
The importance of women's wrestling today sees their top matches receive prominent spots at WrestleMania. However, it wasn’t too long ago that the women were placed in meaningless matches to squeeze everyone in the card in a battle royal or tag match.
WrestleMania 25 featured a battle royal for the past, present, and future of the women’s division with the Miss WrestleMania crown on the line. The match was already going poorly, but Santino Marella pretending to be his sister named "Santina" just showed how little WWE respected the women’s division at the time.
3 Musical Performances Before Rock Vs Cena
WWE tried to add to the importance of The Rock vs John Cena having their dream match at WrestleMania 28. The additions of musical performances are usually important to the biggest event, but Rock and Cena had their own artists performing.
Flo Rida received mixed reactions for Rock since he tied into the hometown Miami vibes. However, Machine Gun Kelly got booed out of the building since he represented the hated Cena. WWE putting a musician in a position to get buried by the audience completely ruined the moment and any chance at success.
2 Alexa Bliss Distracting Bray Wyatt
The most recent instance of WWE doing dumb things on the biggest stage came in the opening match of night two at WrestleMania 37. Bray Wyatt and Randy Orton had a major match to culminate their long feud of tormenting each other.
Alexa Bliss was at Wyatt’s side until betraying him in a confusing fashion. Black liquid started pouring down Bliss’ face as Bray looked on before getting hit with an RKO. The booking doomed Wyatt. This failure was his last major moment before WWE shockingly released him a short time later.
1 Michael Cole Winning A Match
WWE tried to utilize Michael Cole’s heel character for a major match at WrestleMania 27. The cheap heat of Cole making insensitive comments towards Jerry "The King" Lawler led to a match between the two broadcasters with Steve Austin as the referee.
Everyone expected a short match of comedy with Lawler winning for the feel-good moment. WWE instead booked it to be the longest match of the night outside of the world title matches and the Undertaker vs Triple H bout. Cole winning made it even worse since there was no payoff to the only good element of the awful idea.