6 Major instances where WWE attempted to re-write history
Sometimes the WWE Universe forgets that WWE now presents three live shows every week without their monthly premium live event brought into account.
The company has been running for more than three decades, and more often than not, the company does forget its own history. There have been instances where statistics shared have been wrong, and they have pushed that certain stars have never faced off one-on-one when they most definitely have.
Whilst some of their mistakes can be marked down as just forgetful, others have clearly been the company looking to rewrite their history whenever they need it to fit their own narrative.
The following are just six major examples of when WWE has decided to re-write history.
#6. The Chris Benoit saga meant that WWE erased him from their history
#OnThisDay in 2003: WWE Survivor Series PPV: Team Angle (Kurt Angle, Chris Benoit, John Cena, Hardcore Holly, and Bradshaw) defeated Team Lesnar (Brock Lesnar, The Big Show, Matt Morgan, Nathan Jones, and A-Train) 5-3 in a Survivor Series match. https://t.co/iYiMY8vVTE
Chris Benoit was a Royal Rumble winner, WrestleMania main eventer, and former World Champion. Following his 2007 demise, the company's knee-jerk reaction was to erase him from history and distance themselves from all links to the former star.
This meant that he was never mentioned again. The company even began altering stats to reflect this narrative, including the fact that John Cena was the sole survivor at Survivor Series in 2003.
WWE completely erased Benoit from history before later adding him back in 2014 when the network was introduced. The company sent out a disclaimer ahead of any shows that included the former Champion.
#5. Ric Flair is billed as a former 16-time World Champion
Ric Flair has been seen as the most decorated champion in the company's history for more than two decades. The two-time WWE Hall of Famer is billed as a 16-time World Champion, which is an altered statistic since Flair's actual tally is more than 20 Championship reigns throughout his career.
Flair is a 12-time NWA Champion, a six-time WCW Champion, and a two-time WWE/F Champion, but the man himself estimates that he is around a 21-time Champion. It's unclear why WWE doesn't recognize the rest of his Championship reigns, but it seems that the 16-figure just matched their storyline at the time and has stuck ever since.
Flair isn't the only member of his family who has been re-written by WWE since Charlotte Flair's Championship reign tally changes daily. Flair is a two-time NXT Women's Champion, Divas Champion, six-time RAW Women's Champion, six-time SmackDown Women's Champion, and a former Women's Tag Team Champion.
If these reigns were all added together, she would be a 15-time Women's Champion, not including the Tag Team reign, but instead, she is billed as 13 because WWE doesn't include the NXT reigns, even though her second title was won at WrestleMania and part of a main roster storyline.
#4. What is Kane's backstory and why does it keep changing?
Paul Bearer and Kane backstage 📸 https://t.co/PoXd1czv6D
Kane was introduced as a character in WWE in 1997 and went on to feud with The Undertaker after Paul Bearer revealed that it was The Deadman who burnt down his home and murdered his parents.
It was later revealed that Paul Bearer himself was Kane's real father before the whole Katie Vick saga seemed to hint that Kane hadn't been in captivity his entire life hiding the hideous burns he suffered.
When he was finally unmasked, it was revealed that all the burns were psychological, which is why there were no marks on his face or body. The fire was also shown to have shattered his vocal cords at one point, but somehow Kane could still talk later in his career.
#3. Charlotte Flair has tapped out several times in the past
@WWE @RondaRousey Charlotte's never tapped out? Stop friggin lying. #SmackDown https://t.co/SknRLjvbUx
Ronda Rousey chose Charlotte Flair as her opponent for WrestleMania 38 under the pretence that she wants to be the first woman to force The Queen to submit. This would be a WrestleMania-worthy storyline if it were true since Charlotte has submitted several times in the past to the likes of Becky Lynch, Sasha Banks, and Asuka.
These matches have happened on the main roster and in order to fit the narrative for their match at WrestleMania, WWE has completely erased all other submission losses that Charlotte has had in her career.
This appears to be building towards Rousey forcing Flair to submit next month at WrestleMania in order to claim some kind of record, despite the feat being a reality several times.
#2. Remember that time that Vince McMahon faked his own death, but appeared on TV two weeks later?
In hindsight, 2007 was a strange year for WWE and included the Chairman himself walking out into the parking lot and his limo exploding with him inside it. It's clear that the idea was for the WWE roster to all become murder suspects after Vince McMahon had walked past every one of them on his way out.
Instead, the story was dropped after two weeks and despite being in an explosion, Vince returned to TV a few weeks later looking fit and healthy. The explosion looked so realistic and was so well thought out that many believed it was real, with the media covering it as a real story and Donald Trump even later noting that he thought Vince was dead.
#1. Hulk Hogan was not the first person to slam Andre The Giant
WrestleMania III was one of the biggest shows in the history of the event and was headlined by Hulk Hogan and Andre The Giant, where Hogan was finally able to slam his long-time rival to pick up the victory.
The issue here is the fact that WWE made a huge deal out of Hogan being able to lift Andre and it being the bump that was heard all over the world, but Andre had been slammed several times before.
Harley Race, Kamala, and even Hulk Hogan himself had been able to perform the move on The Giant in the past, but leading up to the show, the company wanted this to be the main talking point.