John Cena; Hollywood actor — 3 WWE legends who refused to do a job for AEW stars
The world of wrestling is filled with backstage drama and politics. Every WWE and AEW star has the same dream of making it to the top and staying there, sometimes by whatever means necessary. That is why, on some occasions, wrestlers outright refuse to "do the job" and lay down for their opponents, even after being asked to do so by higher-ups.
The most infamous of these cases is the Montreal Screwjob. At Survivor Series 1997, Bret Hart outright refused to lose the World Championship to his real-life rival Shawn Michaels. To add fuel to the fire, the event took place in The Hitman's home country of Canada. As a result, Vince McMahon and his cohorts took matters into their own hands to ensure the title change took place.
While the entries on this list might not be as well-known, they all follow suit in involving an act of defiance between colleagues. Here are three WWE legends who refused to do the job for current AEW stars.
#3. Hogan says losing to Sting is not good for business
25 years ago today.
Arguably the most famous main event of the '90s era of wrestling, and perhaps, one of the most consequential.
Is the Starrcade 1997 Hogan/Sting main event blown out of proportion? What say you? https://t.co/Feb8LnkybJ
Hollywood Hogan was the WCW World Heavyweight Champion heading into WCW Starrcade 1997. His opponent on the night: "The Icon" Sting. After a year-long buildup of their feud, WCW higher-ups wanted Hogan to lose the title to the current AEW star — but that didn't work for the Hulkster.
"I had a problem with it because if you're gonna beat me when I've got this type of momentum, this is about making money. If you beat somebody, you beat them in a way that they're better off after they're beat than they were before, and Eric [Bischoff] really wasn't sure where we were going with this thing," said Hogan on an episode of A&E Biography: WWE Legends.
Using the creative control clause in his contract, Hogan got the finish of the match changed. The WWE Hall of Famer seemingly won the match when the referee counted to three, only for the decision to be overturned by Bret Hart, who claimed that referee Nick Patrick performed a fast count.
Hart restarted the match with himself as a referee. After Sting sinched in a Scorpion Deathlock, Hart called for the bell and awarded Sting the win. The confusing ending to the match is talked about in wrestling folklore all these years later.
#2. John Cena refuses to lay down for Jack Swagger
Jack Swagger is better then John Cena. #CenaSucks #SupportSwagger http://t.co/exxEMerJ
Jake Hager (fka Jack Swagger) won the World Heavyweight Championship from Chris Jericho in 2010 after cashing in his Money in the Bank contract. However, things could have been different had John Cena, WWE Champion at the time, been willing to take a pinfall from The Real American.
"The night before [Hager's cash-in on Jericho], I teased it on RAW where I would almost hit Cena with the briefcase. I snuck up on him and then we had one of his brilliant promo segments. Later come find out he refused to do the job for me for the world championship, but we won't talk about that," Hager said on a 2020 episode of Chris Jericho's Talk is Jericho podcast.
Although Cena refused to hand his championship over to Hager, the current AEW star would still claim one of WWE's top prizes and would form a good relationship with Jericho. Hager and Y2J have been closely tied together in AEW as members of The Inner Circle and The Jericho Appreciation Society.
#1. "It doesn't make sense" for Daniel Bryan to beat Batista at WWE Payback
Bryan Danielson FKA Daniel Bryan Winning Both the WWE & World Heavyweight Championships at WrestleMania 30 in the Main Event
An All Time Underdog story that Embodies what Wrestling Is.
#wwe #smackdown #prowrestling #WRESTLEFLICKS #bryandanielson #WrestleMania #Raw #WWEChamber https://t.co/f5ei4tUNrB
Bryan Danielson's (fka Daniel Bryan) crowning moment in WWE came at WrestleMania XXX, where defeated Batista and Randy Orton to win the WWE World Heavyweight Championship. WWE attempted to emulate the feel-good moment at Payback 2014, but Batista was not up for the job.
Higher-ups wanted Batista and Bryan to square off in a singles match, but The Animal had only recently reunited with his Evolution stablemates and didn't understand the proposed booking decision.
"We were just starting the Evolution thing, so why couldn't we run with that instead of me putting Daniel over again, which I just did at WrestleMania? We're not going to have a better match there than we did at Mania. Let's just work more with Evolution and build these guys [The Shield] up. So we did," Batista said in an interview with Daily Dead.
Bryan suffered a neck injury before Payback 2014, so the match almost definitely would not have happened anyway. Since then, Bryan has left WWE to join AEW, and Batista has become one of Hollywood's most hotly sought-after talents.