WWE's Most Heartbreaking Moments in 2013
Overall, 2013 was a very good year for wrestling fans, but it also gave us its fair share of devastation.
Many great things happened this year. We got to see so many stellar matches, and some captivating stories were told. Unfortunately, not all stories have happy endings.
While superstars like John Cena and Randy Orton had some career highs, other talents weren’t so lucky, and we shared in their defeat. In other instances, it was WWE's booking that let us down.
The following is a list of 2013's most disappointing moments.
6. SummerSlam Buyrates Down
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SummerSlam was arguably the best pay-per-view of the year, but it couldn’t be described as a box office smash.
The show was headlined by Daniel Bryan vs. John Cena and CM Punk vs. Brock Lesnar; two matches that would certainly be in anyone’s top five of 2013. The undercard was highlighted by strong bouts that saw Alberto Del Rio face Christian and Cody Rhodes defeat Damien Sandow.
All in all, it was a terrific show. Unfortunately, the buyrate came in at 298,000—a full 52,000 buys less than last year’s event, which scored 350,000 buys.
Vince McMahon himself called the event a “swing and a miss." The Internet, paranoid as it is, quickly fretted that CM Punk and Daniel Bryan would get the blame for the low numbers, but we’ll find out if that’s true come WrestleMania season.
It’s hard to tell how the lower buyrate has affected the show, but regardless it’s worrying to see the WWE Universe react so lukewarmly toward such a strong show.
5. Christian Gets a Concussion
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As a huge Christian fan this is so hard to say—Captain Charisma is ridiculously injury prone.
At 40 years old, Christian’s in-ring abilities haven’t faded one bit, in fact he’s only gotten better with age and is one of the most consistently excellent workers in the company.
The problem is that he gets hurt far, far too frequently.
He spent the first half of the year recovering from an aggravated shoulder injury but would return on June 17. On August 26, a little over two months later, he would suffer a serious concussion in a match against Randy Orton and has been out of action since.
In that two months he wrestled some outstanding matches, which makes it even sadder to see him on the sidelines—again.
4. Brock Lesnar vs. Triple H II
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Firstly, it should be acknowledged that Triple H and Brock Lesnar had two quality matches at WrestleMania XXIX and Extreme Rules.
Yes, the matches themselves were good, but their continued feud felt poorly timed and utterly unnecessary.
Brock Lesnar defeated Triple H in the main event of SummerSlam in 2012. We only get to see The Beast wrestle two or three times a year, so the last person he needs to face after beating Triple H is Triple H.
Their whole WrestleMania program seemed built around putting The Game over—Lesnar would go on to win their bout at Extreme Rules, but the match that everyone remembers will always be the one at The Show of Shows—the one that Triple H won.
Lesnar vs. Triple H II would have been a terrific addition to WrestleMania XXX or XXXI. XXIX was too soon and felt like a wasted opportunity. Thankfully, The Beast was put to good use months later at SummerSlam.
3. Daniel Bryan Dropped from the Title Scene
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Daniel Bryan won the Slammy award for 2013 Superstar of the Year for a reason—he is and was the most consistently over performer throughout the entire year.
Depending on the city, John Cena may get a louder reaction than Bryan, but the dynamic is completely different. Half of Cena’s noise is jeers, but everyone cheers for Bryan.
It seemed that WWE would finally give the Submission Specialist the ball, and at SummerSlam the unthinkable happened.
Daniel Bryan, the King of the Indies, beat John Cena, the 13-time world champion, clean.
He would immediately drop the belt to Randy Orton, and after a two-month program with The Viper he lost at Hell in a Cell and was dropped from the title picture altogether.
It seems likely that officials are saving Bryan's true moment of glory for WrestleMania, but even if that’s true, it was still hard to see him relegated to the midcard.
It was even harder seeing Big Show take his place.
2. Twice in a Lifetime
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The devastation of The Rock vs. John Cena II is twofold.
John Cena would win the Royal Rumble to become No. 1 contender to the WWE Championship, which makes sense. He is the company’s top star, after all.
After that, though, we had to watch The Rock defeat CM Punk and bring an end to his epic title run. Inside we all knew it would happen, but it was still a disappointing sight.
But only a fraction of the disappointment was seeing Punk’s reign end. It mainly came from the anticlimactic booking decision of having Rock vs. Cena II.
Seeing Rocky wrestle Cena at Mania’ XXVIII was novel, but their match wasn’t good enough to merit a rematch, and even considering Rock’s questionable ring shape, their performance in the main event of 2013’s Show of Show’s can’t be described as anything other than a letdown.
Triple H vs. Brock Lesnar II and III were wasted opportunities, but at least they delivered in the ring. Rock vs. Cena II had the similar stank of rehash, but the match they put on only made it more insulting.
1. Dolph Ziggler Loses the World Heavyweight Championship
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Watching Dolph Ziggler lose to Alberto Del Rio at Payback was the most heartbreaking moment of the year, and by a long shot.
We’ve seen Nick Nemeth grow and develop as a performer in front of our eyes. He started out as Chavo Guerrero’s caddy, but has since developed into a strikingly well-rounded superstar.
He’s got charisma, he can talk and he can definitely wrestle. We shared in his glory when he won the world championship the night after WrestleMania, and that was because we knew how hard he’d worked for it.
Tragedy would strike and The Show-Off would be sidelined with a concussion, but he would return in time to defend his title at June’s Payback event.
It seemed like a foregone conclusion that he would retain the gold; it was his first defense, after all.
Nope.
Ziggler would suffer a decisive loss to Alberto Del Rio and would fail to recapture the title the month later at Money in the Bank.
Ever since then, he’s slowly slid down the card and was last seen on PPV in a pre-show losing effort to Fandango.
Hopefully this tragedy turns around in 2014.
Follow Daniel on Twitter @dvanboom.
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