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15 Times WWE Had To Totally Improvise A Match
15 MANKIND VS THE UNDERTAKER (HELL IN A CELL) That’s right, the classic Hell in a Cell that is arguably one of the most iconic and memorable matches in wrestling history had moments of improvisation within it.
While the original leap of faith from the top of the cell as Undertaker launched Mankind to the floor was planned, his second major bump, through the roof of the cell on to the ring was not.
The bump might not have been as well remembered but is just as uncomfortable to watch and caused major shock behind the scenes in WWE.
The two legends then had to improvise the rest of the match, made even more impressive when you consider the physical state that Foley was in.
14 JOHN MORRISON VS CM PUNK This change came under difficult circumstances for WWE and little did they know quite how sad those would be.
Chris Benoit was originally intended to face CM Punk at WWE Vengeance: Night of Champions, but due to the unspeakable crimes he committed on himself and his family, Benoit wasn’t in attendance.
Despite trying to reach out to him to no avail, the WWE couldn’t wait any longer and something had to be done.
WWE didn’t know of his crime at the time and simply thought Benoit had not shown up for some reason and had to improvise a match to take place for the ECW Championship.
In stepped John Morrison who faced CM Punk instead of Benoit on a night that would later change wrestling forever.
13 CHRIS JERICHO VS RICKY STEAMBOAT (HOUSE SHOW) The return of Ricky ‘The Dragon’ Steamboat in 2009 was welcomed by the WWE Universe and the wrestling legend proved that he hadn’t lost a step in the ring.
Originally only returning for the 3 on 1 match against Chris Jericho at WrestleMania, the fan response ensured that he stuck around for a little longer.
Steamboat continued his feud with Jericho which culminated at Backlash, with Y2J picking up the victory. But it was a match during a house show when Jericho decided to improvise due to the fan’s responses.
He switched up the result and decided to put Steamboat over and called for the change in the ring, telling him to kick out of the Codebreaker with Steamboat eventually getting the win.
12 PUBLIC ENEMY VS THE ACOLYTES Bradshaw and Farooq were both well known for their hard-hitting style, taking no prisoners and in general, being locker room leaders who wouldn’t stand for any messing around and would put you to task inside the ring if you did.
Well, that’s exactly what happened to the Public Enemy who received a genuine beating from The Acolytes on an episode of Sunday Heat after Public Enemy tried to change the finish of the match at the last minute.
The WWE Superstars didn’t take kindly to this and improvised a legitimate beating to the pair throughout the match, continuing it after the bell, turning the wrestling match into a legit fight.
11 EDGE VS MR KENNEDY The Money in the Bank is a ticket to the main event scene and a golden opportunity for a wrestler to stake their claim as the number one star in WWE.
Just look at what it did for Edge, CM Punk, and Daniel Bryan.
10 UNIVERSAL CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH Sometimes injuries play a major part in WWE storytelling, forcing plans to change in a heartbeat and that was the case for the WWE Universal Championship storyline.
After Finn Balor became the first ever winner, he was forced to vacate the title the next night due to an injury.
9 NEW AGE OUTLAWS VS THE RADICALZ Back in 2000, the Radicalz group consisting of Chris Benoit, Dean Malenko, Perry Saturn, and Eddie Guerrero, stormed into WWE with high anticipation from the fans and were made to earn their WWE contracts.
They had to win the best of three matches and after going behind with Malenko failing to beat X-Pac, it was expected that Guerrero would earn the second win to take the final match into a decider.
However, that didn’t go to plan with Latino Heat breaking his arm during the match, changing the plans for New Age Outlaws to beat him and Saturn, rendering the third and final match pointless and forcing WWE to change the plans of how to get the group signed to WWE.
8 DX VS RATED RKO It is commonly known that Triple H once tore his quadriceps in the middle of the match and (somehow) powered through the bout during a match between DX and Rated RKO but when the same problem took place, he couldn’t do it again.
7 SHANE MCMAHON VS KURT ANGLE Shane McMahon has been involved in some crazy stunts during his WWE career, from diving off Titantrons and Hell In A Cell’s, but his match with Kurt Angle might have put him through more pain that all of them due to a mistake on WWE’s behalf.
6 NEVILLE VS CHRIS JERICHO A seemingly random match on an episode of Monday Night Raw saw Chris Jericho take on Neville.
You would expect in a situation like this that it would wrap up pretty simply and not need any drastic changes in the middle of the ring, but that is not how this one played out.
5 BRAWL FOR ALL The entire concept of the Brawl For All screams for improvisation because WWE had absolutely zero control over the outcome of every single match, something that seemed to be an oversight on their behalf.
The concept that wrestlers would fight for real under boxing rules made no sense at all in protecting what wrestling means and stands for, but regardless, the tournament went ahead and unsurprisingly, the person WWE initially wanted to win (Dr.
Death, Steve Williams) was beaten by a surprise winner in Bart Gunn. That should tell you how much this was improvised.
4 DANIEL PUDER VS KURT ANGLE This is a match that is often brought up on lists and it suits this better than most as what should have been a simple situation quickly escalated into one that required some quick thinking and improvisation from WWE officials.
3 ALBERTO DEL RIO VS JACK SWAGGER Sometimes, WWE is forced to improvise before a match even takes place, with situations forcing major changes on the card.
During Dolph Ziggler’s peak following WrestleMania 29, he had captured the World Heavyweight Championship and was set to defend the gold in a triple threat ladder match with Alberto Del Rio and Jack Swagger.
2 ROYAL RUMBLE 2005 The Royal Rumble matches are arguably the most difficult to plan and put together on a yearly basis and while there is a structure to the match, a lot of what happens inside the ring between eliminations is improvisation from the wrestlers.
1 MONTREAL SCREWJOB Of course, this is the absolute classic when it comes to improvisation.
While it was a planned screw job between some of those involved, Bret Hart didn’t have a clue about what was to occur that fateful night that changed wrestling forever and the improvisation had major effects on everybody involved.
The bitterness from this piece of improvisation by WWE is still felt to this day, despite what they might say when the WWE cameras are rolling.
But the fact remains that Vince McMahon felt he was backed into a corner with Bret Hart holding the WWE Championship with him about to jump ship to rival WCW.