The past year of wrestling has been an exciting year filled with wild spots and death-defying stunts in the WWE.
From Shane McMahon's fall off the Cell at WrestleMania to Shane Thorne’s Senton off the huge structure holding Paul Ellering’s shark cage in the finals of the Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic, there have been tonnes of moves that will be highlighted for years to come.
Not all moves go as planned, however. Sometimes suplexes do not look like suplexes, suicide dives result in somebody landing on their head, and nobody remembers to catch Prince Pretty.
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These are the moments that we affectionately refer to as botches and 2016 had its fair share of them. From Sean Maluta’s extra 360 degree rotation during the Cruiserweight Classic to Sasha Banks’ nasty fall in the corner at WrestleMania, these manoeuvres had all of us fearing for the participants’ safety.
Not only are all Raw and SmackDown Live shows and Pay-Per-Views considered for this year-end roundup, NXT and the Cruiserweight Classic have been included as well. So without further delay, proceed on to see the botchiest WWE moves of the past 12 months.
#10 Overthrowing Tyler Breeze
It’s a good thing that Tyler Breeze has reinvented himself alongside Fandango into their hilarious fashion police gimmick because earlier this year his main roster run appeared to be Dead On Arrival.
Also read: The biggest recent botches in the WWE
He seemed like such a lost cause back in January that this botch was being pegged as unintentional symbolism (Titus O’Neil represents NXT in this scenario, launching Prince Pretty to the main roster. Mark Henry then represents the main roster, completely missing the gold that was gifted to him. You get it, right?).
Even with this unfortunate moment for Breeze, at least we can be reminded of how much big Titus doesn’t even realise his own strength.
#9 Tag Team miss
NXT’s Tag Team Division has been one of the shining stars (no pun intended) of the entire division throughout 2016. Virtually every TakeOver special has had a phenomenal bout for the title straps and the contest between American Alpha and The Revival at April’s big show in Dallas was no different.
This match was stellar but there was this one noticeable mistake.
Dawson & Wilder had Chad Gable up for a fancy double team manoeuvre that really didn’t amount to much of anything. Were they going for a clothesline here? It’s hard to tell. Dallas was forgiving though because this was still a hot match.
#8 No fireworks for Becky
July 4th is the day of Independence in the United States, but in 2016 it can also be remembered as the day that Summer Rae dropped Becky Lynch on her head.
Going for a simple suplex during a match on Raw, it looked like Becky jumped into the move about a second before Summer was ready. She then paid the price for that error with her skull.
Becky would later tap out to the Disarm-her in this contest.
#7 Can’t stick the landing
Before Sheamus tagged with Cesaro to defeat New Day for their Tag Team Championships at December’s Roadblock: End of the Line, Sheamus tagged with Wade Barrett in a losing effort against the same team for the same belts at March’s Roadblock.
There’s a lot of similarities between the two encounters but one botch can be used to set them apart.
Big E tried to set up Sheamus for the Midnight Hour, but Sheamus was able to escape from it. Kofi already jumped off the top rope and whether he was supposed to make contact with the Irishman or not, his knees caught his back anyway.
#6 Best of 7 botch
Before Sheamus & Cesaro became the tag team to end New Day’s history title reign, they were involved in a seemingly never-ending feud. This culminated in a Best of 7 Series that promised the winner a title match. The final contest happened at Raw’s Clash of Champions Pay Per View.
The scariest moment of Match #7 was when Cesaro went for a suicide dive out of the ring, landing in an accordion-style manner.
Cesaro was able to shake this rough landing off but neither man would be named victor that night. Considering they are currently the Raw Tag Team Champions together, it looks like everything worked out all right between the two.
#5 Can’t escape the Lionsault
This must’ve been an instance of miscommunication because Chris Jericho was going for a Lionsault at the exact same time Apollo Crews tried to kip up.
Whether Crews should’ve already been out of the way or whether he never should’ve moved to begin with, he audibly accepted full blame for this one. Apollo was clearly heard saying “I’m sorry” during a subsequent pinfall.
The way Jericho’s knees collided near his challenger’s head, Crews is lucky he didn’t accidentally get a concussion off of this mistake.
#4 Powerbomb into the barricade
Talk about a heartbreaking moment and it wasn’t even an obvious botch during the first viewing.
Finn Balor took this Powerbomb into the barricade very early into this match against Seth Rollins at SummerSlam. Due to him extending his arm out to brace for the impact, he suffered an injury that would rob him of his subsequent Universal Championship reign.
Balor had to relinquish his belt the next night on Raw and it was all due to landing wrong on a running Powerbomb. Here’s to him picking up where he left off in 2017.
#3 Charlotte dropped Sasha
Charlotte and Sasha Banks have had one of the better feuds of the year. Even if you’re sick of the rivalry, it’s hard to argue that they didn’t deliver when they stepped inside the ring. Because of this botch during their SummerSlam match, however, this rivalry could’ve ended way sooner.
Whatever Charlotte was planning on doing here, it did not work out as planned. Sasha simply dropped to the mat, landing primarily on her neck and head.
Sasha seemed fine throughout the rest of the match but news would later reveal that she was already planning on taking time off after this match to nurse an injury, potentially relating to her neck.
She teased a retirement angle a few weeks after this but it must not have been too serious. The angle was all a swerve to introduce her back into action.
#2 Way too many rotations
Sean Maluta’s most memorable moment in the Cruiserweight Classic happened to be the time when people most feared for his well-being.
Facing off against tournament favourite Kota Ibushi, Sean attempted a topa over the ropes... or perhaps a senton, it was hard to tell. Regardless, he definitely found himself turning way more times than he had originally intended.
Thankfully for Maluta, he was perfectly fine after this instance of too much momentum. Ibushi was victorious in this match but at least this competitor representing American Samoa can claim to have inadvertently invented a new move. Maybe we’ll call this a Somersault Apron-assisted Topa?
#1 Enzo and the bottom rope
This is likely the botch that was most remembered by WWE fans as it was a scary moment that everyone held their breath on.
During a Number One Contender’s tag match at the May 2016 Payback event, Simon Gotch simply threw Enzo Amore into the ropes. It looked like he was trying to baseball slide Enzo underneath the ropes and out of the ring, but that’s not exactly what the result was.
Enzo’s head snapped on the bottom rope, knocking the Smacktalker Skywalker out cold. The match was abruptly ended as Amore was rushed to a local medical facility. Enzo suffered a concussion and was, thankfully, only out of action for a few short weeks.
This moment earned him the top spot on a countdown he likely won’t want to be number one on again in 2017.
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