Career-Killing and Career-Making Losses

[Mrzfn]

This one is more of a what-if, but wasn't Ultimate Warrior going over Undertaker originally penciled in for WM8? Might not have killed his career outright, but could have had a huge negative effect down the line.

[Champagne]

If there's such a thing as a career killing win, I'd say it's Luger beating Windham at Great American Bash '91.

[Johnny Sorrow]

Does anyone think Christian dropping the World Heavyweight Title to Randy Orton on Smackdown two days after winning it at Extreme Rules qualifies as a career killing loss?

Christian doesnt.

[Matt D]

I think JR caused a big stink at the time, because people were upset about it. He told everyone to wait and see, because the heel turn and getting the title back for another short run was obviously happening. That completely missed the point, however, which was that the fans wanted to enjoy the unlikely feelgood moment with a babyface Christian for a while. It wasn't that they were worried he was going to get depushed. It's that this was something that mattered to them and it felt like the company swept the rug out from it (as opposed to a heel doing it). The heat was in the wrong place. If they were going to go with a long Christian heel run and there was someone else for them to get behind it might have been different (see Survivor Series 98 where they had a real wealth of riches) but both in the premise and the execution, it was a very big misread of the audience. Fans don't always get what they want, nor should they, but if they do stupid shit, poorly executed, then they should get called on it.

[Jimmy Redman]

I was mad at the time about that, and I don't think they would have lost anything by doing the switch at the PPV instead and giving him three weeks. But it definitely didn't do anything close to killing his career, and it all worked out in the end because that was an awesome program and we ended up with Orton putting Mark Henry over. All's well.

[Matt D]

I was mad at the time about that, and I don't think they would have lost anything by doing the switch at the PPV instead and giving him three weeks. But it definitely didn't do anything close to killing his career, and it all worked out in the end because that was an awesome program and we ended up with Orton putting Mark Henry over. All's well.

Did he ever brush the top of the card again? (Though he became injury prone after that to be fair).

[Jimmy Redman]

Would he have brushed it more if he'd have held the title a little longer? I don't think so.

[Mrzfn]

If they had him ride the sentimental win off of Edge's retirement and not turned him or had him drop back to Orton, then I could actually see him potentially be more solidified in the main event. If he had held it long enough to drop it to Mark Henry, for instance.

[Matt D]

The Del Rio loss at Mania against Edge sure didn't help Del Rio.

[jpchicago23]

Kid losing to Bret helped make him and earlier Razor losing to Kid helped solidify himself as a big time babyface

[Mrzfn]

The Del Rio loss at Mania against Edge sure didn't help Del Rio.

 

I wonder if that's also a case of a career killing win? Never felt Del Rio was ready to win the Rumble at that point. It propelled him up so fast that one could argue the fans never got the bad taste out of their mouths.