Usually in WWE, Vince McMahon’s word is law. He tells you to lose, you lose or you start looking for another place to work. But when a star is big enough or enough of a favorite of Vince’s, they can actually put the kibosh on those plans. Obviously, WCW was famous for wrestlers calling the shots more but WWE has occasionally seen it happen too. Quite often, major guys like Hogan, HBK, Austin, Triple H and others made it clear they flat out refused to job to someone, no matter how much it made sense. That often angered fans and the “best for business” line doesn’t go over well. In fact, several times, this refusal would drastically alter things for those involved and WWE as a whole, making the refusals even bigger.
But, surprisingly, there are times when a worker actually refuses to win a bout. Sometimes it’s the politics, other times they recognize it’s not right for the storyline and not wanting the heat. It’s rare but it does happen as a guy can realize winning isn’t what’s right in the long run. There have been lots of cases of each and amazing when it happens given the star power of those involved. Here are 11 times a WWE star refused to lose a match but also 5 times they didn’t want to win to show Vince doesn’t always get final say.
16 Refused To Win: Brock Lesnar to Goldberg, Survivor Series 2016
In 2004, a dream match turned into a nightmare. Goldberg and Brock Lesnar faced off at WrestleMania XX, a good setup of them feuding and fans expected a terrific battle. Instead, it was a mess as both men had come public about leaving and the Madison Square Garden fans trashing them majorly for it. It was taken for granted neither Brock or Goldberg would ever work for the company again but that proved wrong. In 2016, Goldberg returned, supposedly to plug being in a new video game but making it clear he wanted a match with Lesnar. It was set for Survivor Series with most expecting Brock to go over as he was still in the title mix. Instead, Goldberg beat him in a minute and a half.
As it happened, Brock was originally booked to go over but refused as he thought a loss to Goldberg would fuel a new feud between them.
He was right as it sparked new interest, culminating in a big Mania blow-off. It’s surprising Brock gave up the win like this but notable in letting this dream encounter get a second chance.
15 Refused To Lose: Hulk Hogan to Bret Hart, SummerSlam 1993
To this day, Hulk Hogan and Bret Hart don’t have many nice things to say about one another. Hogan’s ego is infamous while Bret had his own pride too. This came up majorly in 1993 when Bret dropped the WWE title to Yokozuna at WrestleMania. Hogan came out and, in just 30 seconds, beat Yoko for the belt. The plan was for Hogan to lose it to Bret at SummerSlam with the duo planning to put on a good match. But then the problems came as Hogan and Vince started having issues over pay and Hogan also making it clear how he didn’t think Bret was on his level. Bret was just as upset, seeing Hogan as all flash and not the worker Bret was.
Hogan made it clear he was not going to lose to Bret and this just made things harder on Vince. Hogan thus dropped the title to Yoko at King of the Ring, rather than putting Bret over at SummerSlam. Bret has since never had many nice things to say about Hogan.
14 Refused To Lose: Sable to Luna Vachon, 1999 Royal Rumble
In 1998, WWE began to revive interest in women’s wrestling. However, it was more on the looks of ladies, as shown by Sable. The knockout blonde was getting a huge push with her fame, her looks, a Playboy spread and more. While looking great, she was hardly a fine worker and thus WWE wanted her to drop the belt at the 1999 Royal Rumble to Luna Vachon.
As a member of that legendary family, Luna was a great worker and terrific star and more than deserved that title. However, Sable utterly refused to do it, their strap match lasting less than five minutes with Sable keeping the belt.
Rena Mero has expressed regret as at the time, she was listening to the wrong people and letting her ego get out of control. It's just a shame that a worker as great as Luna never got the title she deserved.
13 Refused To Win: Triple H over Daniel Bryan
Chalk this up to the “quite begrudging” refusal category. In 2014, WWE was clearly ready to have Batista win the WWE title, already putting him over at the Royal Rumble. However, the fans were wanting to see Daniel Bryan and the “YES” movement soon began taking over shows. Despite how Hunter had pushed for Batista as a friend, WWE had to recognize that if they wanted to stop WrestleMania from being a full-on fan revolt, there was just one way to do it. In the opening bout, Hunter faced Bryan with the idea that the winner would be in the triple threat main event against Batista and Randy Orton for the title.
Reportedly, all the way up to the day of the show, Hunter was being pressured by Vince to win the match and be in that main event as Vince didn’t want Bryan in the top spot. Hunter wasn’t the biggest Bryan backer either but he was smart enough to know that beating Bryan in the opener and being in the main event would be a total disaster. So Hunter jobbed after all to give Bryan his huge win but it's notable for how he had the final say to push Bryan on.
12 Refused To Lose: Hulk Hogan to Shawn Michaels, SummerSlam 2005
Hulk Hogan and Shawn Michaels. Two men who are among the biggest stars in wrestling history and possessing arguably two of the biggest egos WWE has ever known. Putting them together was thus an excuse for something wild to happen. The two had been building up this feud for a while with Michaels turning heel to attack Hogan and both doing wild promos (including HBK with an utterly hysterical Hogan impression). Obviously, neither man wanted to be the one to job and Hogan was the one who truly put his foot down on losing to Michaels. It was originally set up so Hogan would win at SummerSlam, then Michaels would get the win back in a rematch. However, Hogan then claimed he needed to rest an injured knee, so there wouldn't be Shawn's rematch as originally planned.
Shawn wasn’t happy with that in the least. Thus, he turned the bout into a comedy of errors, overselling everything Hogan did and turning the match into a true spectacle. When these egos clashed, it was a major sight and no shock things got messy.
11 Refused To Lose: Roddy Piper to Mr. T, WrestleMania II
Roddy Piper was always a man who disliked losing. During his feud with Hulk Hogan, he made sure he only lost by count out or DQ and Hogan stated that if Piper had just jobbed cleanly once, Vince would have given him a run with the belt. In 1986, WrestleMania II was a huge event from three different cities and an overabundance of celebrities and gimmick matches. In New York, Piper was to face Mr. T in a boxing match, T still at the height of his fame. The plan was for him to knock out Piper and come out a clear winner; there was one problem though.
Piper was no fan of T, who he saw as an unprofessional jerk who had no business being in a ring.
Thus, he utterly refused to job to him in any way. It kept on going and so finally changed to Piper slamming T to be DQ’ed but not knocked out. It wasn’t until 1992 that Piper finally allowed a clean loss in WWE to Bret Hart, showing Hot Rod always had an ego.
10 Refused To Win: Ultimate Warrior over Randy Savage, SummerSlam '92
After nearly a year away, The Ultimate Warrior returned to WWE and a huge push for him. True, he was hampered by an idiotic feud with Papa Shango but the Warrior still had major heat and with Hogan gone, they needed him back. He and Randy Savage were soon booked to battle for the WWE title at SummerSlam, already a big encounter. Ric Flair then entered the fray by making it sound like he was going to support one of them, adding fuel to things.
The plan was for the Warrior to shock everyone by accepting Flair’s help and turning heel, a shocking, but fresh turn for the character.
But just the week before the show, the Warrior said he didn’t want it, thinking a heel turn would be terrible for him.
The match was thus changed to a no-contest so both men could leave the hero. Warrior famously walked out on WWE just months later to show how he always played things his own way.
9 Refused To Lose: Shawn Michaels to Bret Hart at WrestleMania 13
It’s still a bone of contention between them. While there was huge heat on Shawn Michaels beating Bret Hart for the WWE title in 1996, the truth was that much of it was all a work by the duo. They actually respected each other and knew acting like they hated each other so much would make it seem better. The plan was always for Bret to get the win back the next year at Mania and set up for it. But then Shawn did his famous “lost my smile” promo claiming to have suffered a knee injury. To this day, the two still argue about it, Shawn insisting it was for real but Bret making it clear he thinks Shawn was ducking him.
Some can side with Bret and Shawn himself acknowledges he was a massive jerk back then so it’s not hard to understand those feelings. It did add the real-life heat between them that led to Montreal and one has to wonder how different things would be if Shawn had just jobbed then.
8 Refused To Lose: Ric Flair and Hulk Hogan to Each Other
For years, Hulk Hogan and Ric Flair was the dream match fans never thought they’d see. But it finally happened in 1991 when Flair was fired from WCW and leapt into WWE. Back then, there was no prime-time shows or monthly PPVs and thus it was only house shows that saw them go at it, usually trading DQ/countout losses. Given how both men were known for their amazing egos, it’s no shock that neither wanted to be the one to job to the other. This ended up ruining what was going to be the big payoff at WrestleMania.
Flair was the champion but Hogan was making noise of taking a long break from WWE to shoot movies. Thus, Flair didn’t want to lose the belt to a guy about to leave while Hogan just refused to lose in the main event of Mania. With neither budging, it was switched to Flair vs Savage and Hogan vs Sid. Amazingly, WCW actually got their dream encounter done right to correct WWE’s mistake.
7 Refused To Win: Randy Orton over Undertaker at WrestleMania 21
In 2005, Randy Orton was still recovering from the badly done face turn that ruined his World title reign. After months of bad matches, Orton decided to challenge The Undertaker at WrestleMania and turned heel by hitting an RKO on girlfriend Stacy Keibler. The plan was seemingly for Orton to win it, a way to get back into contention and ending the Streak would add to his “Legend Killer” reputation.
To the surprise of many, Orton refused to be the one to end the streak. He knew there was already backstage heat on him and that being the one to end this major part of WWE lore would just add to it.
Thus, after giving it their all, Orton was finally pinned by 'Taker in a great match. He got the win back in their feud but it's notable how Orton refused to take a huge win like this that would have been truly legendary.
6 Refused To Lose: Honky Tonk Man to Randy Savage
According to legend, Butch Reed was supposed to get the Intercontinental title off of Ricky Steamboat in 1987 but didn’t show up the night he was scheduled to win. So, at random, the Honky Tonk Man was picked when he was nothing but a comedy worker. Amazingly, HTM held the belt quite a while and was still champion as 1987 ended. Randy Savage was clearly being pushed to win the belt in a big feud and the plan was for him to beat Honky for the title at the Main Event NBC special. But Honky knew without the belt, his stock would collapse and thus refused to job it so easily.
He even threatened to jump to Jim Crockett with the title and so Vince had to back down with Honky keeping the belt. He ended up setting the record for the longest IC title reign ever which wouldn’t have happened without this refusing to drop the belt.
5 Refused To Lose: Rey Mysterio IC title to Dolph Ziggler
In 2009, the once-revered Intercontinental title had become almost forgettable. Quickie title changes combined with less than deserving workers ended up lowering the belt’s value. When Rey Mysterio won it, he planned to try and make it more meaningful, to help the title regain some of its past luster.
He and Chris Jericho had a good feud for the title that made it a bit more important and Mysterio wanted to continue that.
The plan was for him to drop the belt to Dolph Ziggler with little build but Mysterio didn’t want to just job the belt out.
Instead, he wanted to make it mean something with a much longer reign. Thus, not only did he go over Ziggler, but he did so at back to back PPVs. Mysterio would eventually lose it to John Morrison and while it didn’t do as much to help the IC title, at least Rey gave it a good try.
4 Refused To Win: Eddie Guerrero over JBL
When Eddie Guerrero won the WWE title in 2004, it was a great moment. After his famous struggles with addictions and being fired, Guerrero was back on top and at a level most never thought he’d get. It seemed he’d be set for a long reign but in June, he lost the title to JBL. It was a shocking thing with most complaining over JBL being elevated so fast and WWE losing faith in Eddie. But the truth was that Guerrero was supposed to go over and continue with a longer run at the top. However, Eddie came to Vince and confessed he was worried that the pressures of champion and being the face of the company might drive him back to his old habits. He thus wanted to drop the belt and take a lower pressure slot for a bit.
Respecting that, Vince made the change with Eddie still over enough to stay in title contention and he soon got a feud with Kurt Angle. Thus, it was Eddie’s own choice to drop the title as he felt his health was much more important than a belt.
3 Refused To Lose: The Shield To John Cena
The Shield ran roughshod over the WWE for nearly two years before the group unexpectedly split up via Seth Rollins turning on his brothers. Part of what made The Shield successful is they were booked strong and it was made clear that no one could stop the three as a unit. However, WWE just couldn't help but revert to their old habits of John Cena stopping a red hot heel right in his/their tracks. For some reason, the WWE wanted a team led by John Cena (along with Ryback and Sheamus) to beat The Shield at Elimination Chamber 2013. The Shield saw no point in Cena getting the win and made their feelings known to management. Ambrose explained how the group approached management:
“We were like: ‘But as soon as we go down to John, we’re just like everybody else, because that’s what he does to everybody else. There’ll be a time where we do that all day and that’s fine… but it is not today. Otherwise, why are we even here?’”
Luckily for The Shield, they had enough officials on their side backstage, thus the idea was changed to The Shield winning and continuing their run of dominance.
2 Refused To Lose: Steve Austin to Brock Lesnar
When the biggest star in the company, the man who helped create the most successful era ever, decides to leave in a huff, it’s big news. In 2002, Steve Austin was a bit up in the air with his poor neck but still Stone Cold, still the mega-star of WWE. Meanwhile, Brock Lesnar was clearly being prepped to be the new star, already over with his monster build and drive. In June, Austin was at home when he was called up and told the plan for an upcoming RAW was to be him challenging Brock and Brock beating him later that night. Austin didn’t have a problem with putting Brock over.
Austin felt the idea of blowing such a huge match on free TV with no build made absolutely no sense.
He put his foot down it wasn’t going to happen, leading to a huge pushback. This had Austin basically staying home, a huge shock at the time. Many defend it but still notable how it was the circumstances more than the loss itself that set Austin on this refusal.
1 Refused To Lose: Bret Hart to Shawn Michaels at Montreal
To this day, it’s still massively debated. As much as fans may respect Bret Hart, it’s hard not to think he was a bit over the top on this. As 1997 came to a close, the build to the Survivor Series was clearly Bret against Shawn Michaels. As most everyone knows, Bret had already agreed to sign with WCW and thus, dropping the title made sense. But Bret was adamant that he would never lose it to Shawn and certainly not in Montreal. To this day, Bret makes it sound like him losing the belt would literally be a national tragedy, a boost to his ego most can’t get behind. The constant refusals are what pushed Vince to the Screwjob which would change the entire wrestling business. Bret still defends this but others feel he let his ego take over too much and so much of the events rest of his shoulders. Either way, it’s the most high profile moment a wrestler refused to lose that changed so many lives.