In 2019, for example, Braun Strowman was scheduled to face Brock Lesnar for the WWE Universal Championship at the Royal Rumble in a match that had been in the works for several weeks, but Finn Balor replaced him at short notice and ended up taking on “The Beast” instead.
On rare occasions, last-minute alterations have also resulted in McMahon changing the finish of a WWE match, even when the original winner had already been told that they were supposed to earn the victory that night.
In this article, let’s take a look at four times that Vince McMahon changed the outcome of a match on the day of a show, as well as one example of the WWE Chairman keeping the same outcome but agreeing to a different finish.
#5 WWE SummerSlam 2010 main event
The main event of SummerSlam 2010 saw Team WWE (Bret Hart, Chris Jericho, Daniel Bryan, Edge, John Cena, John Morrison and R-Truth) defeat Team Nexus (Darren Young, David Otunga, Heath Slater, Justin Gabriel, Michael Tarver, Skip Sheffield and Wade Barrett) in a seven-on-seven elimination tag team match.
In the weeks building up to the pay-per-view, The Nexus had established themselves as one of the most dominant heel factions that WWE had seen in years, and they were originally supposed to defeat Team WWE – led by John Cena – in the final match of the night.
Speaking at an Inside The Ropes event in 2017, Wade Barrett revealed that The Nexus had been told one week before SummerSlam that they were going to win the match, but the finish changed on the day of the show.
Barrett added that Vince McMahon explained the match finish by saying he wanted to send WWE fans home happy after SummerSlam, which is why the babyfaces were chosen to win.
#4 Curt Hawkins vs. Heath Slater (WWE Main Event)
Between October 2016 and April 2019, former WWE Superstar Curt Hawkins lost an unprecedented 269 matches in a row before he finally picked up a victory with Zack Ryder against The Revival in a RAW Tag Team Championship match at WWE WrestleMania 35.
Midway through the unplanned losing streak, which WWE eventually turned into a storyline, Hawkins was supposed to lose a relatively meaningless match against Heath Slater on an episode of Main Event.
But, as Hawkins revealed on NotSam Wrestling in 2018, he asked WWE’s creative team if he could lose the match to keep his winless streak alive.
McMahon agreed with Hawkins’ request and Slater was booked as the winner of the match instead.
#3 Dolph Ziggler vs. Alberto Del Rio (WWE RAW)
Arguably the most memorable moment of Dolph Ziggler’s WWE career came in April 2013 when he cashed in his Money in the Bank contract on Alberto Del Rio on RAW.
Del Rio had just defeated Jack Swagger and Zeb Colter in a 2-on-1 handicap match, one night after retaining his WWE World Heavyweight Championship against Swagger at WrestleMania 29.
WWE’s decision-makers originally planned for “The Showoff” to attack Del Rio with the Money in the Bank briefcase on RAW before picking up a quick 1-2-3 victory, but Ziggler revealed to talkSPORT’s Alex McCarthy in 2019 that he came up with a different idea.
Vince McMahon agreed to the change of finish and Ziggler ended up receiving one of the loudest WWE crowd reactions of 2013 when he finally pinned Del Rio to win the World Heavyweight Championship.
#2 The Shield vs. John Cena, Ryback & Sheamus (WWE Elimination Chamber 2013)
The Shield burst onto the WWE scene in November 2012 by attacking Ryback in the main event of the WWE Championship Triple Threat match – also involving CM Punk and John Cena – at Survivor Series.
Dean Ambrose, Roman Reigns and Seth Rollins proved themselves to be the future of WWE in the months that followed, which included a winning streak that lasted almost half a year.
Seven weeks before their statement-making victory over The Big Show, Randy Orton and Sheamus at WWE WrestleMania 29, “The Hounds of Justice” were originally booked to lose a six-man tag team match against John Cena, Ryback and Sheamus at WWE Elimination Chamber.
Ambrose explained on Talk Is Jericho in 2014 that all three Shield members went to Vince McMahon’s office and made it clear what they thought of the plan.
McMahon agreed with The Shield and booked them to win the match instead, with Rollins pinning Ryback to pick up the victory for his team.
#1 The Undertaker vs. Brock Lesnar (WWE WrestleMania 30)
Brock Lesnar defeated The Undertaker at WWE WrestleMania 30 in arguably the most shocking match outcome in WWE history.
“The Deadman” had won 21 matches in a row at WWE’s biggest event of the year and he was set to go 22-0 with a victory over Lesnar, but Vince McMahon changed his mind on the day of the event by selecting “The Beast” to end ‘The Streak’.
Speaking on Pardon My Take in 2020, The Undertaker admitted he had reservations over the outcome because he was unsure whether the WWE Chairman was 100 percent sure that it was the right thing to do.
Unfortunately for The Undertaker, he suffered a concussion during the match and he does not remember anything that happened on the day of WrestleMania after 3.30 pm.
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