10 WRESTLING MATCHES THAT KILLED WWE PPVS

People Power = the opposite of giving fans what they want.

There are so many excellent examples of matches that have saved WWE pay-per-views (Steve Austin vs. The Rock at WrestleMania XV, Shawn Michaels vs. Diesel from 'Mania XI and HBK's Ladder rematch with Razor Ramon at SummerSlam 1995 come to mind) from being rotten and unwatchable.

What about the ones so poor or unremarkable that they actually killed the shows they were on?

Not every match here is a main event; wrestlers don't have to go on last to kill the crowd or leave everything else on the card feeling redundant. Sometimes, a match is so utterly useless that it destroys all hope for matches yet to come. In that sense then, this is a mixed bag of trash that had fans sitting on their hands and leaving the building with a sour taste in their mouths.

There are gimmicks and crappy finishes aplenty too, because nothing screams 'let's kill this town' like a poorly-executed stipulation or ending that has fans longing for simplicity. Remember folks, pay-per-view is where the biggest issues are settled.

Or not...

10. DAIVARI VS. TOMMY DREAMER (DECEMBER TO DISMEMBER 2006)

Massive, totally unmissable issues like Tommy Dreamer vs. Daivari. There's sarcasm dripping out of every syllable in the above sentence, and it's deliberate. As if a soft relaunch of WWE's ECW brand wasn't bad enough with wrestling zombies on the debut episode, along came December To Dismember at the end of 2006. For the record, it sucked. Paul Heyman palming his forehead during the main event Elimination Chamber match said it all. This was as far away from his original vision for extreme as it could possibly be. The truth is though, that Chamber match didn't kill the crowd. They were already dead following an uninspired undercard starring gems like Dreamer and Daivari.

Following a respectable tag match between The Hardy Boyz and MNM, the card took a nosedive. By the time it got to Daivari stealing a school boy win over an old ECW favorite and The Great Khali beating him up afterwards, fans in Augusta wanted their money back.

9. BRAUN STROWMAN & BOBBY LASHLEY VS. KEVIN OWENS & SAMI ZAYN (BACKLASH 2018)

That chant, designed to diss WWE's decision to put Roman Reigns vs. Samoa Joe on last, hammered home Backlash 2018's ineptness, but it wasn't the main culprit. No, as shocking at it may be to some who have always despised Reigns' as top babyface, he wasn't the one to blame for shattering fan enthusiasm.

Kevin Owens, Sami Zayn, Braun Strowman and Bobby Lashley were, and at least three of those men aren't the kind you'd expect to see in a crowd-killing match. Sadly, their tag-team effort before the main event relied too heavily on comedy (KO and Zayn took turns throwing one another to the wolves) and was backed by an unlikeable storyline between Sami and Lashley.

The exhibition style also felt like a cool down from back-to-back title matches like Charlotte Flair vs. Carmella and AJ Styles vs. Shinsuke Nakamura. The latter was a No DQ match too, and that didn't help the subsequent tag. Fans in New Jersey responded with complete apathy.

8. THE UNDERTAKER VS. THE UNDERTAKER (SUMMERSLAM 1994)

Reports have claimed that The Undertaker (the real one) was upset that a stirring brother vs. brother match between Bret and Owen Hart went long at SummerSlam 1994. In truth, he should've been thanking the siblings for sparing him the task of drawing out his doppelgänger main event against Brian Lee any longer.

Nine minutes was more than enough.

On a card featuring Bret vs. Owen locked inside a Steel Cage, this shouldn't have gone on last. Quite what Vince McMahon was thinking by putting 'Taker, still in his slow-plodding years, out there against an unconvincing lookalike copying his walking-through-concrete style is anyone's guess. This was never going to top what fans had just seen.

Bret vs. Owen had gone some lengths to rescuing a card that hadn't offered up much entertainment (aside from the decent Razor Ramon vs. Diesel match, that is), and it didn't deserve to be followed by such an lifeless punch-fest as 'Taker vs. 'Faker.

7. ROYAL RUMBLE (ROYAL RUMBLE 2015)

WWE shouldn't be blamed for thinking that fans would cheer Roman Reigns: Royal Rumble winner in 2015. After all, Reigns had been cheered heavily the year prior, and he wasn't to blame for the audience suddenly deciding anyone not-named Daniel Bryan was a t*sser.

The Rumble result was a rude awakening for everyone, and that included The Rock; as he raised Roman's hand post-win, Rocky looked like he was experiencing flashback trauma to chants of 'Die, Rocky, Die'. The unfortunate fact here was that, try as WWE might to change their minds, the fans wanted to see Bryan win.

It didn't help that, bar one match, the card was lacking.

A Triple Threat between Brock Lesnar, John Cena and Seth Rollins did an admirable job of bringing the crowd back up before the Rumble smashed their spirit. Roman's awkward grin, Rock's failure to bust out his best poker face and a babyface win nobody wanted ended the night on a bad note.

6. THE BRITISH BULLDOG VS. DIESEL (IN YOUR HOUSE 4)

Speaking of bad nights, that's something Vince McMahon had on 22 October 1995, and a main event he must've thought would save the day was the cause. In fairness to Davey Boy Smith and Diesel, the In Your House 4 card had been on life support long before their title match aired. However, here's the kicker: they were expected to give fans who had sat through nightmares like Yokozuna vs. 'King' Mabel and Razor Ramon vs. Dean Douglas something to smile about. They didn't. Instead, their 18-minute snorer was somehow worse than Diesel's previous IYH singles bores against Sycho Sid, and the lame disqualification finish was a bit of an insult to fans buying the show. This wasn't the Network era, and it was inexcusable to expect fans to be happy with a non-finish after they'd plopped down their cash. According to Bruce Prichard's podcast, McMahon threw down his headset in disgust and left the commentary position stern-faced afterwards. Even he knew the headliner had been unsatisfying.

5. BIG SHOW VS. ERICK ROWAN (TLC 2014)

Tables, Ladders, Chairs and...Stairs? Yes, in 2014, WWE decided that they'd "enhance" the TLC gimmick by promoting a match around the exclusive use of steel steps. It was as exciting as it sounds reading that; Big Show and Erick Rowan (one a past-his-prime giant and the other inexperienced) had no chance with this kind of booking.

WWE deserve special congratulations for managing to find a stip that was somehow worse than the torturous Chairs Match gimmick. They failed to recognize that the excitement of TLC lies either in wrestlers having something to wrestle for, like a title suspended above the ring, or in their ability to use every kind of weapon. Those steps that surround the ring? Well, they're hardly the most ominous of focal points for an entire match, and so Show vs. Rowan ended up being an 11-minute argument against shoe-horning stipulations into things for the sake of it. The farcical stairs idea made a mockery of every match to come on the show.

4. AL SNOW VS. BIG BOSS MAN (UNFORGIVEN 1999)

Some dogs humping around ringside was worse though. The actual premise for the 'Kennel From Hell' match wasn't too bad. No really, it wasn't. The thought of Al Snow getting revenge on a cruel Big Boss Man for committing doggy murder then feeding said dog to him made some sense (in the Attitude era, making sense of silliness was par for the course). Now, Boss Man would be ravaged by attack dogs for his crimes. The problem was that, in Snow's bid to avenge his darling Pepper, WWE accidentally promoted literal doggy style and had mutts crapping all over the ringside mats. Meanwhile, Al and Boss Man tried to work a match inside the Hell In A Cell structure and the announcers on/off pretended it was a serious issue.  Within minutes, the match degenerated into a elongated comedy spot that neither made Snow more of a likeable babyface nor had fans crying out to see the vile Boss Man get his comeuppance. Now, Unforgiven '99 immediately conjure up images of this tragedy and nothing else.

3. JOHN CENA VS. JOHN LAURINAITIS (OVER THE LIMIT 2012)

Ask a nearby fan what their memories of Over The Limit 2012 are and they might struggle. Was it a stunning clash between CM Punk and Daniel Bryan for the WWE Title? How about a fine Fatal-4-Way for the World Title between Sheamus, Alberto Del Rio, Chris Jericho and Randy Orton?

Nope and nope. The prevailing message coming out of Over The Limit was that John Cena beating up a husky-voiced authority figure for 17 minutes before Big Show turned again was more important than both top titles. For some reason, Cena vs. John Laurinaitis was picked as the main event, and it was a reminder, as if one was needed, that TV-style squashes don't make good pay-per-view closers.

Worse, Laurinaitis won, meaning this subpar heel screw job should've taken place on the undercard. Ending the show with a one-two punch of Christian beating Cody Rhodes for the IC Title and Punk beating Bryan would've been endlessly better than Ryback squishing Camacho and Johnny Ace in a morph suit toppling Cena.

2. TRIPLE H VS. SGT. SLAUGHTER (IN YOUR HOUSE: D-GENERATION X)

It's often forgotten that WWE blatantly copied WCW's idea for a faction-themed pay-per-view in 1997. What was In Your House: D-Generation if not a thinly-veiled retread of the NWO Souled Out? Like WCW's show, IYH: DX failed to provide much entertainment outside of a match or two.

Maybe that's because 49-year old Sgt. Slaughter was in a 17-minute 'Boot Camp' brawl against D-Generation X man Triple H. Now again, the actual thinking was logical; Slaughter wanted to stamp out DX's youthful immaturity from the company as Commissioner, and he was determined to make an example of Helmsley on pay-per-view. That tale couldn't alter the fact that fans didn't care about Slaughter and, being honest, liked the rebels more than him. The match ended up dragging on and on (and on) before Trips picked up the win. After it, fans in Springfield were only temporarily stirred from their slumbers by a brief fracas between The Rock and Steve Austin. Then, they reverted to their stupor, totally fatigued by a dull card killed by an even duller match.

1. KAMA VS. SHAWN MICHAELS (KING OF THE RING 1995)

With each passing match on the card, fans in attendance for the King of the Ring 1995 must have been checking their calendars to see if April Fool's Day had been randomly changed to 25 June. The entire evening, from tournament winner to 'Kiss My Foot' gimmickry and tag match main event, seemed like one big joke. Shawn Michaels wasn't laughing, and he seemed to publicly air his thoughts by visibly shouting, "Bullshit" after drawing with Kama in the Quarterfinals. Seconds later, he was staring a hole through Vince McMahon at ringside. HBK, like everyone, knew eliminating him from the tourney was a big mistake. He'd just turned babyface around WrestleMania XI time, and yet here he was being knocked out in a 15-minute draw and hitting the showers whilst lumbering disaster Mabel became 'King'. It'd be easy to think fan excitement died when The Undertaker was then ousted by Mabel in the next match, but the Philly Spectrum had already given up on the show when Michaels was beaten.

Suddenly, a horrible picture formed in their minds. Without fresh hero Shawn, there was a real chance somebody bogus would win. They were right. All hail 'King' Mabel and the worst KOTR decision ever.