10 Times Wrestlers Told You They Were Finished
The End is here, and these wrestlers weren't afraid to show you.
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00:00From best in the world secretly kissing goodbye in front of your very eyes, to certain champs
00:06not being able to disguise the fact they were done on their disappointed faces, these are
00:11those wrestlers that simply could not hide that they were on their way out.
00:15So I am Gareth, this is What Culture Wrestling, and here are 10 times wrestlers told you they
00:20were finished.
00:2110.
00:22CM Punk 2023 We'd been here before.
00:25Not literally of course.
00:26AEW hadn't run Wembley before.
00:29Samoa Joe and CM Punk hadn't had a three and a half star match in a stadium before.
00:34Punk hadn't engaged in a full backstage fight with Jack Perry before.
00:38These things were new.
00:39The rest, sadly less so.
00:42Punk had dropped to Bournemouth 6 on All Elite Wrestling in the summer of 2022, and unbeknownst
00:47to most of one of the largest wrestling crowds in history, he'd played his part in another
00:52undetonated going off just minutes earlier.
00:55The fight with Perry and whatever else the Wembley cameras caught resulted in the cause
00:59Tony Khan spoke of when he fired him a week later.
01:02The Joe match was going to be the end of the road, and only the Punker knew as the classic
01:07unfolded.
01:08After playing heel to a crowd totally divided on his very presence, Punk turned the mid-match
01:13middle fingers into the I love you gesture as he departed following an epic win.
01:18It was about as fitting a farewell as could have occurred in hindsight, even if nearly
01:2280,000 people didn't know they were really saying goodbye.
01:25For a few months at least.
01:27And now I've got a quick question for you.
01:29What was your favourite AEW CM Punk match?
01:32Was it this three and a half star classic or something else?
01:35You let me know in the comments section down below.
01:379.
01:38Dean Ambrose 2019 We should have seen Jon Moxley come in, really.
01:42The iconic New Japan Pro Wrestling debut and subsequent G1 Climax run.
01:46The AEW double or nothing debut.
01:49The Take No Prisoners babyface on Dynamite that saw out 2019 as the next big opponent
01:54for All Elite Wrestling World Heavyweight Champion Chris Jericho, and rightful heir
01:58to his throne.
02:00We should have seen Jon Moxley come in because we certainly saw him going.
02:04Moxley might have been Dean Ambrose by name during the last days of his WWE tenure in
02:08early 2019, but the freedom of confirming that he wasn't long for the system clearly
02:13energised him in a way an Intercontinental title or Shield reunion no longer could.
02:19Hilarious in backstage bits with the likes of Seth Rollins, when his preposterous 2018
02:23heel turn was all but abandoned, if you didn't believe the lunatic fringe was leaving WWE
02:28behind, he outright told you.
02:30Over and over again until even Rollins and Roman Reigns gave up asking him to stay.
02:358.
02:36Big Cass 2018 As of 2024, the Big Cass-Big Bill story is
02:40one of redemption and success.
02:43Thankfully, the setbacks in his personal life have only served to enhance the major strides
02:47forward in his professional one.
02:49A joy to behold as a weekly television character, Big Bill's charisma as a heel extends beyond
02:54his lofty height.
02:55Being 7ft tall isn't the only thing you can't teach, and he's got lots of that
02:59particular intangible in the locker.
03:01He didn't look that way as his WWE run slumped to a grim conclusion in 2018.
03:06After an inexplicable separation from Enzo Amore and frustrating injury layoff soon after,
03:11he was thrust back into an awkward spot opposite Daniel Bryan as the American Dragon's first
03:16major singles opponent following his surprising return from a career-ending head injury.
03:21Hideously bad booking and matchmaking resulted in a couple of bang-average pay-per-view matches.
03:27Stuff just happened for years in the latter years of the Vince McMahon era, but the need
03:31for insufferable perfection resulted in it being easy to spot when a wrestler was not
03:36playing ball.
03:377.
03:38Jonathan Gresham, 2022 It was easy to sympathise with Jonathan Gresham's
03:42situation, when after being trusted with a proverbial ball during possibly the most tumultuous
03:47period in Ring of Honor's history, he had it rather unceremoniously ripped from his
03:51hands by his new boss at said gaffer's first real opportunity.
03:55It was subsequently just as easy to see that he was less than impressed with the decision.
04:00Gresham had reunified the title in a match against Bandido at the first Tony Khan-booked
04:04Ring of Honor pay-per-view in April 2022, however he didn't make it out of the second
04:09one with the title intact.
04:10He didn't even close the show either.
04:12Gresham's loss to All Elite Wrestling newcomer Claudio Castagnoli was in the opening spot
04:17on the card, with the champion now working heel thanks to a turn that had taken place
04:21almost exclusively on Rampage.
04:23You could see the disappointment and annoyance with the booking written all over Gresham's
04:27face as he entered.
04:28And that was the point.
04:30Rather than arriving for this ostensibly massive bout with his trademark octopus head and flag,
04:35he instead sported a t-shirt and a glum expression.
04:38And he hasn't worked for Tony Khan since, as of recording.
04:44The Demolition Man was finishing up with the company after several years and three strong
04:48reigns as a tag team champion.
04:51And though he was going out on his back in an extremely basic fashion, he was doing so
04:55with the least menace he'd ever portrayed.
04:58With no obvious tan, minimal detail on the face paint and most notably no sparkly product
05:03on his hair slicking it back, Bill Eadie looked more like he was dressing up in his old gimmick
05:07to entertain some children for a big day out, rather than attempting to get the better of
05:12the Ultimate Warrior, Texas Tornado and the Legion of Doom.
05:15Which based on how he was squashed in the Thanksgiving tradition, was pretty much what
05:19happened.
05:20And thanks for checking out this video today too.
05:21And if you're not finished with us yet, then tap on that subscribe button down below,
05:26you lovely person.
05:275.
05:28Razor Ramon, 1996
05:30When Scott Hall passed away, it was remarked upon just how cool the man was even during
05:34what's consensus considered the least coolest period in the history of the industry.
05:39Razor Ramon sparkled not just because he always wore gold, but because he was at the very
05:43least a film star rather than a cartoon character.
05:46Hall might have stolen liberally from the silver screen, but in a promotion ran by a
05:51man with no cultural frame of reference and a fanbase that didn't care about the plagiarism,
05:56he was diamond sharp, years removed from playing a diamond stud.
05:59At least he was until a loss to Vader at In Your House, Good Friends, Better Enemies.
06:04He neither looked nor particularly felt much like the bad guy, and he was tacitly telling
06:08fans that it was time to get used to that.
06:10A scalp for the mastodon and nothing much more on the night, Ramon was seeing out his
06:14date fresh off a WrestleMania suspension absence that he felt was cynically motivated by his
06:19impending departure.
06:214.
06:22Ahmed Johnson, 1998
06:24Everything about Ahmed Johnson's Royal Rumble 1998 performance spoke to a man that was substantially
06:29closer to the exit door than the main events of WrestleMania.
06:32Wearing about 15 leg supports, and the expression of a performer that knew how the next ten
06:37minutes were about to play out, the fire Johnson had been able to breathe into the upper midcard
06:41two years earlier had sadly been extinguished by a number of injuries and the industry completely
06:46transforming underneath him.
06:48Sluggish on offence and the cell, Ahmed was eliminated just before Stone Cold Steve Austin
06:53arrived to take out the entire field, but suffered a one-man burial at the hands of
06:57former stablemate, Karma.
06:59Exiting where the supreme fighting machine entered, Ahmed ate a shove in the chest from
07:03the future godfather, then shrugged and slumped off to the back.
07:07It was his penultimate WWE pay-per-view, with his last falling just one month later.
07:123.
07:13Hercules, 1992
07:14When you're called Hercules for a living, your job is to be and look as hard as a rock
07:18as often as possible.
07:20But after six strong years with nicknames such as The Mighty and Power, the time had
07:25arrived for man behind the gimmick Ray Hernandez to look anything but either, in a Madison
07:30Square Garden loss to the similarly monstrous Sid Justice in February 1992.
07:35But he didn't really want to do that, so what then?
07:38He did the honours, but that was about all he did, baby.
07:41Placing his hands behind his head for the powerbomb and stacked cover, Hercules popped
07:45up almost immediately after the finish.
07:48Sid, en route to facing Hulk Hogan in one half of the WrestleMania 8 main event, was
07:52told to leave the ring and cut his post-match promo to avoid cameras catching the no-sell
07:57in all its glory.
07:582.
07:59CM Punk, 2013
08:00It'll be a long time before the novelty of CM Punk's 2023 WWE return wears off.
08:06But for a pained reminder of how it could all go if the company ends up normalising
08:09the magic, take a look at his December 2013 run to see a man on the edge.
08:15As he infamously recounted in the Art of Wrestling incineration of his final years
08:18with the company, he was required to keep Roman strong while beating The Shield, was
08:23suffering as a character from the stuttering conclusion to his feuds with Paul Heyman and
08:27the Wyatt Family, and appeared to be the latest babyface about to eat an awful lot of authority
08:31beatdowns before facing Triple H at WrestleMania.
08:35Promos found him trying to explain away Daniel Bryan's abrupt defection to Bray Wyatt's
08:39cult, barely keeping kayfabe and begging fans to keep cheering for him nevertheless.
08:44A memorable car crash Monday Night Raw championship celebration segment found him laughing at
08:48the obnoxious refusal of the McMahons to acknowledge the star on the rise rather than the tired
08:53ones in the ring.
08:55Darkly amusing at points, in hindsight, this was the real and bleak deconstruction of the
08:59man behind the mythology in real time.
09:01It's hoping things work out this time, eh?
09:041.
09:05Shawn Michaels, 1998
09:06As he walked the aisle for what he knew could possibly be the last time ever, Shawn Michaels
09:11looked done and dusted during every wince-inducing second of his WrestleMania 14 loss to Stone
09:16Cold Steve Austin.
09:17Some saw it as karmic retribution for the various suffering he'd caused others during
09:21an enormously controversial decade, as one of the company's most tempestuous and temperamental
09:26talents.
09:27But surely many of his peers had to feel sympathy as he gritted his teeth to dust in agony with
09:32every step he took.
09:33Having clipped his back on a casket at the 1998 Royal Rumble, exasperating a hard-living
09:38and injury-ravaged body in the process, Michaels took the run-up to WrestleMania off just to
09:43be fit enough to get out there, and earn the sort of payday he'd missed out on during
09:47the lean years.
09:48The less said about his willingness to do the job, the better, but it was remarkable
09:52how he managed to do everything else bell to bell.
09:54They call him Mr. WrestleMania for a reason, folks.
09:56Did you enjoy this 10 times wrestlers told you they were finished video?
10:00Then check out this 10 WWE wrestlers who immediately told you they were losing one.
10:04Simon Miller's in it.
10:05Bye bye!