5 WWE Superstars who reluctantly agreed to put someone over
Although win ratios are not as important in sports entertainment as they are in the sports world, some WWE Superstars have still been known to take their win-loss records very seriously.
Plenty of stories have emerged over the years about WWE Superstars outright refusing to lose against a certain opponent, with Steve Austin’s refusal to lose against Brock Lesnar in 2002 being the most famous example.
On that occasion, Austin did not want to lose against the up-and-coming WWE Superstar in a match that had no storyline build-up, so he no-showed RAW and ended up taking seven months off.
Now, unlike Austin, did you know that several WWE Superstars have found themselves in a similar situation to The Texas Rattlesnake, only they decided to show up and lose instead?
In this article, let’s take a look at five WWE Superstars who reluctantly agreed to put someone else over.
#5 Sycho Sid reluctantly agreed to lose to Bob Holly (WWE live event)
Two-time WWE WrestleMania main-eventer Sid Eudy (better known as Sid Vicious and Sycho Sid) agreed to lose against Bob Holly at a WWE live event in January 1996.
Sid, who had real-life issues with Kevin Nash and Shawn Michaels behind the scenes at the time, was viewed as one of the top Superstars on the WWE roster. Holly, meanwhile, hardly ever appeared on WWE television and the majority of his WWE appearances came at live events.
Writing in his book, The Hardcore Truth: The Bob Holly Story, Holly implied that Nash and Michaels had politicked Sid out of WWE's main-event scene, which ultimately caused the six-foot-nine Superstar to quit after their match.
“In January of ‘96, they [Nash and Michaels] pushed it too far. He and I were traveling to the arena together and Sid came up to me after we’d arrived and said, ‘How do you wanna beat me?’ And I replied, ‘You’re f***ing with me, right?’ And he says, ‘No, we’re wrestling tonight and they want you over.’”
Holly said Sid considered it an insult that he had to lose against one of WWE’s perennial losers, but the two-time WWE Champion still agreed to go ahead with the match.
“I wasn’t offended that he was mad at having to lose to me. It was an insult to him. Here you have me, who loses to everyone all the time, and then you have Sid, this big monster, and he had to put me over clean.”
Following the match, Sid used a fake neck injury as an excuse to leave WWE. However, according to Holly, he was not hurt and he only wanted to leave because he was fed up of dealing with backstage politics.
Five months later, Sid agreed to return to WWE and he ended up headlining the following year’s WrestleMania against The Undertaker.