10 Biggest Losses Of John Cena's WWE Career

John Cena's direction at the moment is a very interesting one. Over the years he's walked into WrestleMania match after WrestleMania match, a natural consequence of being one of the biggest WWE Superstars of all time.

But this year - whether you find it believable or not - WWE are determined to have us believe that Cena 

might not make 'Mania this year

. He failed to win the Royal Rumble, failed to win the men's Elimination Chamber match, and (at the time of writing) is probably going to come up short in the six-way title bout at Fastlane.

Again, however much a fan you are of the storyline, it's hard to argue that Cena's current storyline is an interesting one. He's been a figure so heavily associated with winning over the years, seeing him admit to coming up short is very unusual indeed.

So we feel it appropriate to now take a look back at the biggest losses of John Cena's career. Yes, he may have far more wins than defeats over the course of his wildly successful stint in WWE, but when Big Match John actually loses one of those big matches, he loses 

hard

.

From the zeitgeist-shifting loss to CM Punk at Money in the Bank 2011 to heartbreaking defeats on the grandest stage of them all, let's relive those matches where Cena forgot he was Superman, and actually became something far more compelling instead.

10. AJ Styles - SummerSlam 2016

We begin with the most recent loss of the list, and one which didn't have too much impact on the surface. Sure, Cena may have lost that epic match to AJ Styles at SummerSlam, but he avenged himself a few months later at the Royal Rumble (and took Styles' WWE Championship from him in the process).

However, if we dig a little deeper, it becomes clear that the result of their SummerSlam classic actually held far more importance than we might think. Despite no title being on the line, this was a passing of the torch, pure and simple.

Cena threw absolutely everything at AJ, and still lost to the man who had represented everything anti-WWE for the majority of his career. In putting over a smaller, flippier, more

indie 

opponent, it was almost as if John realised that his era was coming to an end.

From NXT to the main roster, we now see so many wrestlers inspired by Styles and his kind - while Cena-esque WWE creations are perhaps struggling for prominence.

9. Shawn Michaels - Raw, 23 April 2007

In terms of scale, Cena's loss against Shawn Michaels is surely outranked by many other defeats of his career. It came on a seemingly innocuous episode of Monday Night Raw, and didn't result in a title change or significant shift in card position for either man.

However, the match has since gone down in history as one of the longest (and best) in Raw history, clocking in at almost an hour - and the fact remains that Cena lost.

This bout is also crucial for John's career as a whole. A few weeks prior, he had defeated Shawn Michaels in the main event of WrestleMania 23 - one year after doing the same to Triple H. His loss here helped sooth the vitriol aimed at 'SuperCena' and reminded us all that anything can happen in WWE.

Simply put, if there's one loss on this list that prevented Cena from transcending the mortal realm and becoming an indestructible force of nature, it's this one.

8. Daniel Bryan - SummerSlam 2013

In hindsight, this defeat is quite reminiscent of Cena's SummerSlam 2016 loss to Styles. Three years prior, he again lost to a smaller indie darling on a SummerSlam pay per view - but the circumstances of this one were a little different.

It's probably fair to say that Cena had never eaten a defeat quite like this before - certainly not since becoming a main eventer early in his WWE career. He wasn't put down by a finisher, or a series of finishers, or even a 'super' variant of a signature move.

Daniel Bryan simply charged across the ring and kneed his opponent square in the face. It was arguably closer to the finish of a Ring of Honor match than a Sports Entertainment-style main event. Bryan's immortal knee led to his capture of the WWE Championship, only for Triple H and Randy Orton to screw him out of it moments later.

This would rank higher on the list, were it not for the fact that Randy's cash-in shoved Cena out of the spotlight somewhat. Still, it can be remembered as a monumental loss in his career.

7. CM Punk - Money In The Bank 2011

CM Punk didn't hate John; he liked him a hell of a lot more than most of the guys in the back.

This wasn't a blood feud between two intense rivals; it was something much grander than that. The Summer of Punk angle saw the entire landscape of pro wrestling shift. Finally, internet-based 'smark' fans had a hero to cheer for.

Punk wasn't so much wrestling Cena; he was wrestling WWE's booking of Cena over the past decade - and fighting to make a difference in the process. Yes, he ultimately ripped the WWE Championship from John, and transformed himself into a megastar in the process - but I'm not sure if we remember Cena's role in this feud as much as we should.

So despite being perhaps his most famous loss of all time, we're not placing this defeat too high on our list. Sometimes it's just more about the other guy.

6. Randy Orton - TLC: Tables, Ladders & Chairs 2013

This is probably the least-beloved match on the list, chiefly because it was yet another instalment of the never-ending Cena vs. Orton saga. The two leading lights of the 'Ruthless Aggression' era clashed again at TLC 2013, this time to unify the WWE and World Heavyweight Championships.

In purely kayfabe terms, this is maybe the biggest loss of Cena's career. If we temporarily ignore the internet's apathetic view of the bout, it's one with huge stakes.

Despite consistently being portrayed as stronger and more capable than Orton in a fair fight, Cena lost after being handcuffed to the bottom rope. It was a unique finish to an otherwise unpopular match, and despite not being one of the more well-received losses of his career, it remains a shocking one.

5. Rob Van Dam - ECW One Night Stand 2006

At Money in the Bank 2011, Cena walked into one of the most hostile environments he'd ever experienced. But while that match was more about the hometown boy vs. the outsider, and the internet darling vs. the WWE Superstar, his bout with Rob Van Dam at One Night Stand 2006 was about pure hatred.

ECW fans have never been a shy bunch, and their anti-authoritarian vitriol was never more dangerously concentrated than in this match. RVD was the first Money in the Bank holder to announce his cash-in ahead of time, and couldn't have picked a more favourable date.

This bout featured the now-infamous 'If Cena Wins, We Riot' sign, and although he didn't at all lose in clean fashion (after being jumped by Edge), nobody really cared. When Paul Heyman charged the ring to count the pinfall, he cemented one of the most raucously-received defeats of Cena's entire career. It was also probably his best heel performance ever, despite remaining a total babyface throughout - or maybe

because

of that.

4. Edge - New Year's Revolution 2006

Like the last match we discussed, this loss simply felt unfair - not that the majority of anti-Cena fans minded. Elimination Chamber was still a fairly new concept at the beginning of 2006, and the idea of a Money in the Bank cash-in was totally new.

Therefore, when the two were combined, it created one of the most electrifying moments of Edge's career - and one of the most crushing disappointments for John Cena.

Having battled his way through a bloody Chamber match, Cena lay exhausted in the middle of the ring, only for Vince McMahon to take to the stage and announce that the Rated R Superstar was cashing in his MITB contract.

Cena fought valiantly (for a very short while, admittedly), before succumbing to the new champion. It was a swerve that represented Sports Entertainment drama and surprise at its very finest.

3. The Miz - WrestleMania XXVII

Again, another match that isn't too fondly remembered - but certainly one of the biggest defeats of John Cena's career, given the sheer scale of the stage on which it occurred.

Before the main event of WrestleMania XXVII, Cena had a 6-1 record at 'Mania. His previous two trips to the biggest main event of the year had seen him defeat both Triple H and Shawn Michaels clean in consecutive years.

2011 saw Cena face The Miz, a match billed as a cowardly paper champion against a strong, heroic challenger. Unfortunately, Miz was knocked loopy midway through, meaning that the bout is hardly remembered as a 'Mania classic.

Instead, the biggest talking point came at the end, where The Rock (who was 'hosting' WrestleMania that year) flagrantly interfered and cost Cena the match. Despite being cheap, it may well have been the biggest loss of his career - at least until the following year...

2. The Rock - WrestleMania XVIII

It doesn't really get much bigger than The Rock vs. John Cena at WrestleMania XXVIII, and were it not for a particularly devastating loss, this would surely have been number one on the list.

Not only was Rocky's defeat of Cena a surprise - given that it featured an older part-timer coming back to defeat the biggest star in WWE - it also felt monumental. The shot of Cena sitting despondently on the entrance ramp should have lingered long in the memory as a defining moment of his career.

This defeat was unquestionably huge, but we probably don't remember it being as crushing as it could have been. That's because despite billing it as a 'once in a lifetime'bout, WWE repeated the trick at the following year's WrestleMania - and, naturally, gave Cena his win back.

1. Brock Lesnar - SummerSlam 2014

In just about every match on this list (bar Edge's cash-in at New Year's Revolution 2006), Cena's defeats have been very hard-fought affairs indeed. In order to beat Big Match John, an opponent either needs to dig impossibly deep (AJ Styles, Daniel Bryan) or benefit from outside interference (RVD, The Miz).

That's not what happened when Cena lost the world title to Brock Lesnar at SummerSlam 2014. Never before had we seen WWE's Superman dominated in such ungodly fashion. Lesnar hoisted him around the ring with such relentless ease, it even gave birth to a whole new catchphrase: Suplex City.

Although it lasted over 15 minutes, the bout felt much shorter than that, so abrupt and shocking was Brock's dominance. If there's one match that really stands out among Cena's biggest losses, it's this one. John didn't push somebody to the limit or fall to despicable heel tactics. He was simply beaten by a monster of a man and made to look like any other wrestler in the process. Truly outrageous.

10. The Next Big Pitch

WWE.com

Typically, when someone comes in to do 'extra work' for WWE, they just try and blend into the background and hope that someone like Bob Holly doesn't get mad at them for sitting in their chair in the locker room.

The trick is to go in, act professional, do the job as asked and, hopefully, if you make a good first impression they'll ask you back again somewhere down the line.

Before signing an official contract with WWE, Beth Phoenix did some extra work and apparently didn't get the memo about keeping her mouth shut and eyes open (and making sure you don't sit in Bob Holly's chair).

This month the Glamazon tweeted out that during one of her first extra gigs she pitched a detailed storyline to WWE writer Michael Hayes that would see her be brought in as Brock Lesnar's sister.

Beth admitted at the end of the tweet that she had 'zero chill', but fair play to her for being so gung-ho and trying to get her foot in the door.

I bet Brock would have had a whale of a time acting in skits with his storyline sibling, too. I'm sure he would have loved that.

9. The American Horndog

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So Bryan Danielson has spent a lot of time this month not only kicking people's heads in and having great matches for AEW, but also talking about sex.

Appearing on The Bellas Podcast and speaking with wife Brie, The American Dragon discussed the art of making love.

First, after speaking about how much he enjoys being chopped during matches, Brie asked him whether she should bring that forward into the bedroom, to which Danielson responded:

"No, no, no. There are people who are super into that and I don't want to take anything away from them, that's other people's thing. I experience enough pain in my regular life that I do not want it in the bedroom".

He also noted that he's not aggressive between-the-sheets. So that's good to know.

Bryan's pal Jon Moxley's book got a plug, too, with the former WWE Champion mentioning that it contains good sex advice for married performers on the road:

"He actually has some great sex advice in [his new book]. Yeah, yeah. He said, and it's at the very end and it's for married guys specifically, but it's like, 'Hey don't watch porn if you're on the road and you're going to do your thing, just think about your wife. And if it's even the dirtiest thing like something she would never do and you would never do with her…', but then the way he put it was really good. 

He's actually a great writer. I read it and I was like 'this is the book that I wish I wrote', right? But anyways, and then he says, 'then when you come home, your wife is not just your wife, she's also the one that you're fantasising about".

You can't fault the logic and, really, who are we to question the Titty Master on such matters?

8. Flair Talks Savage

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Ric Flair is back with a new podcast and Wooooo Nation Uncensored is already ruffling feathers and getting people talking.

During the debut episode, Flair touched on everything from current stars and ratings trends to the injuries he has sustained throughout his career and the 1985 Chicago Bears.

A large portion of that first show was focused on the Nature Boy leaving WCW and going to WWE in 1991, specifically his matches with Hulk Hogan and Randy Savage.

Regarding his relationship with the Macho Man and their WrestleMania VIII match (which took place instead of the much-rumoured Flair/Hogan bout), Slick Ric said:

"I was at WrestleMania. I wrestled Savage. We had a decent match. It could have been a lot better, but Randy obviously, for very well known reasons, was so distracted. That was the last time he and Liz ever saw each other or worked together. It was a very strenuous week of preparation. Aside from that, I thought we had a decent match. They went their separate ways. 

I've always had a lot of time for Randy. I helped break Randy into the business. He came into Charlotte. He had been playing minor league baseball. He came in and he was a 170 pound kid. To this day, I have a lot of respect for Randy. I don't think he's a great worker. I can give examples why, but I thought he was really good, and he had a great gimmick. He and Liz were just delightful. In my mind and always will be, two of the biggest stars that I've ever had the opportunity to work with".

After losing the title to Savage at 'Mania, Flair regained it five months later at a Prime Time Wrestling TV taping in a match that was infamously stopped as it was in progress and later restarted after Vince had had a word with the participants.

Here are Flair's thoughts on the situation:

"People didn't want to see the match. They weren't reacting. I think Vince saw that and right away, he sent Razor (Ramon) down, or Bobby (Heenan), or somebody, to stop the match. I don't know what the deal was. I know that Randy didn't want to lose it. It's one of those situations. You have to remember that I came in out of nowhere. I don't think I was held in the same esteem in Randy's eyes as a guy that had been there a long time. Who knows? It's one of those things that just didn’t go well. 

The match was horrible. It's nothing I could ever say I'm proud of, but I can't remember all the mechanics of it. I just know Vince wasn't happy with it. Randy didn't want to lose, and it's pretty hard when someone doesn't want to do business. I didn't take it personally, but I just think that they thought that without Liz, Randy didn't have as much drawing power as he did with her. That would be my take on it".

The title switch happened as planned on the second go around and aired as scheduled almost two weeks later.

I've seen the match that aired, but I'm way more curious to see this supposedly horrible bout that they had prior to getting their act together.

7. Brucey P Can't Hang With Big Night Out John

WWE.com

On a recent episode of the Something to Wrestle With Podcast, Vince McMahon's favourite 'yes man' WWE creative force Bruce Prichard regaled listeners with a story of how we was put in charge of overseeing the premiere of John Cena's first film - the WWE Studios feature The Marine - back in 2006.

Big Brucey P was called in on three days notice since Vince apparently didn't have the confidence in anyone else to run the show.

After the premiere was over, the star of the movie kept the celebrations going back at the hotel bar. This did not end well for the man FKA as Brother Love.

As Prichard tells it, the drinking resulted in him not making a scheduled flight for the first time in his long career.

"We were celebrating, and of course we got back to the bar in the Marriott in San Diego and Cena kept the bar open for us, and so we're celebrating, having a good time, and they're doing shots.  

I don't do shots. John's like, 'Bruce, it's my first movie, it could be my last movie, do a shot with me'. So I did the 'Ric Flair' and I tossed the shot and he caught me. He's like 'I've never been so insulted'. And it was a Dirty Sanchez, which is tequila and some other crap. Tequila does not sit well with me, there's something about it, man, that can make you get metaphysically crazy drunk, and I did it with him. Then we sat together and we did every shot making sure that the other one was drinking everything that they had in it.

Long and short of it is I woke up in my bed, tucked in. When I say tucked in, I was put in my bed in my suit, shoes still on, tie still on, in my suit, and the covers tucked into the bed. So that when I started to come to and started to get up, it's like everything's tied down. Not tied down, but tucked into the bed and sheets. 

Cena had apparently got me back to the room, put me in bed, tucked me in, took my briefcase, and put what he thought was my phone on my briefcase, and I guess went and tucked in everybody else he needed to tuck in. When I woke up, it was 3:45 in the afternoon the next day. It is the one and only time I had ever missed a flight, especially going home by waking up late or doing something stupid like that. So my entire career, I had never missed a flight and that was the one and only time that I actually missed the flight for not being able to get to the flight. I know that I had wake-up calls and alarms and all that sh*t set".

John, if you're reading this, you're invited to the next (first?) Cultaholic.com Lads on Tour, er, tour. I can't wait for you to tuck us all in.

6. The Red (Head) Is A Blue!

WWE.com

WWE have not long wrapped up their tour of the UK, the first one they've been able to do since the pandemic began last March.

The tour, by all accounts, was a success.

When the crew stopped by Manchester, however, it turned into a night to forget for Sheamus.

The Celtic Warrior is a known Liverpool fan and, being in the city of his one of his team's most bitter rivals, it was a good opportunity to have some fun.

Before he teamed up with WALTER to take on Cesaro and Finn Balor, Sheamus was addressed in a promo by Manchester City right-back Kyle Walker, who added the stipulation that should Sheamus lose the match, he would have to don a Man City top with Walker's name and number on the back.

Which he did, of course, having the shirt forcibly put on him by the Swiss Superman after some post-match protestations.

5. The First Day Of The Rest Of Your Nightmare

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Hollywood actor and (amazingly) former WWE writer Freddie Prinze Jr. is back in the podcast game with a show specifically dedicated to wrestling.

Speaking on the debut episode of Wrestling with Freddie, the She's All That star went into detail about how he got his job with WWE and spoke about his bizarre first day working at Titan Towers.

Prinze got the job after informally speaking with first Stephanie and then Vince McMahon over the weekend of WrestleMania XXVIII. It was a positive experience, and Freddie was excited to work there and determined to impress his boss.

However, he did note that his first day on the clock was weird and started with an awkward interaction.

"I get to Titan Towers. I’m super excited and I meet my superior, Michael PS Hayes. 

Michael, who's seen it all, now has to deal with this Hollywood guy coming into his writer's room, and he’s supposed to teach me the wrestling business, and I'm supposed to write better scripts. Nobody's been told anything about the other person. I got in there. I have my meeting with him and he's awesome. He couldn't have been cooler to me. He had just been in some trouble with the company, I was told, so he was kind of humbled, and maybe that's why he was nice, but Michael and I by the time I left were really really tight. He kind of breaks it down for me.  He said, 'Here's how many wrestlers you have on the TV roster that are going to be working and you have to give me four weeks of stories for all of them. Most of the time it's not going to go through because there's not going to be enough time in the show, but that's your job no matter what.  

I said cool. If that's my job, that's my job. While I'm having a meeting with him, they knock on his door and they say 'Vince wants to see Freddie in his office' and Michael is like 'You need to go'. I go to Vince's office and there's this other dude sitting in there named Brian and I sit on the other side.  Vince shows me the Monday Night Raw script and he says 'Brian, this is Freddie. Freddie, Brian'.  I'm like, 'Nice to meet you'. Brian's looking at me all side eyed at me. He's like, Who is this guy? Vince shows me the script and says, 'Brian, Freddie is here to help out with all the scripts and the dialogue.  I'm going to have to send you back to the drawing board on this one'. 

He hadn't even read it yet. Brian visibly and audibly snaps a number two pencil in half upon hearing this. He snapped a lot of pencils. He goes out, makes a big sigh, and grabs the script. Vince looks at me and kind of smiles, like this is a test. He's going to pit me against these guys and see if I can freaking take it. This is who this guy is.  

I don't mind the challenge so I walk out. Brian is not waiting for me by the way. He's already halfway down the hall. I catch up to him and I say, 'Hey man, that's a terrible way to meet. I'm so sorry. I'm not here to rewrite your stuff. He said, 'This is because of you, man',  just straight-up all the cards on the table right away and I'm like, this guy hates me.  

He did, but by the time I left, Brian and I were really tight too. We're not like friends. We don't send each other Christmas cards or anything like that, but if we ever randomly see each other or randomly like are on the same chain on the social media thing, it's always all love, and I always check in on him. He's a good dude. 

So I'm sitting there like they just threw me in the fire on day one. So I go back into the writers room and Freebird goes, 'So how was your meeting?', and he has this big grin because he knows, like this is a routine for Vince. I wasn't the first Hollywood writer they had there. They brought writers from USA TV shows in there all the time. I said, 'Yeah, everything is fine'. He said, 'So are you ready to work on some storylines that are going to get cut every week or not?'. 

I sat there. I sat down. I opened my computer and I just started writing".

4. King Recognises King

WWE.com

Booker T and William Regal formed a winning partnership as part of the King's Court in 2006.

The stable - which also featured Finlay and Booker's wife Sharmell - helped assist King Booker in his pursuit to hold onto the World Heavyweight Championship at all costs.

Sir Williams fit the bill perfectly and displayed great chemistry in skits and matches with the former Five-Time WCW Champion.

As Booker told it recently during an episode of his Hall of Fame podcast, however, his relationship with Regal wasn't always so good and, the very first time they met, they almost came to blows.

"The first time I met Regal, we almost got into a fight. I swear, the first time. 

I remember so vividly, it was Main Event gym, Sting and Lex Luger had a gym and my brother and I walk in with Sid Vicious and Regal is walking out the door. I look at Regal, and he looks at me and we look like we want to kill each other. From that point on, we really didn't have a great relationship, we wasn't friends, we wasn't pals, we wasn't buddies or anything like that. Then, all of a sudden as King Booker we are working together. Man, we had one of the greatest runs ever as far as King of the Ring goes, so you know, he's a good friend of mine, William Regal now. 

Though they weren't exchanging Christmas cards back then, Booker still appreciated Regal's talent as a performer.

"I thought William Regal was one of the best. Before I got to WCW, I saw William Regal, the Television Champion, William Regal from England. I thought this guy was so real. His wrestling made me say, 'good God, I don't know what I would do if I am working with this guy', and I am thinking like that in my mind like it's real. Because I am watching this guy do it like it’s real".

What do you mean 'like it's real'?

3. Speaking Of Kings...

WWE.com

Jerry 'The King' Lawler was the guest on a recent episode of Stories with Brisco & Bradshaw and mentioned that there had been discussions between Lawler and Elvis' father about the music megastar participating in a match shortly before he died.

"Elvis was known as the King of Rock and Roll. I was known as the King of Wrestling. As a matter of fact, in 1977, I had this manager named Mickey Poole. This was after Sam Bass got killed in the car accident in '76. We actually hired him (Poole) to drive me on the trips. I just hated to drive. When Sam was there, Sam would always drive to Louisville and Evansville and I would sit on the side and read comic books. We hired this guy named Mickey Poole, who it was like he wasn't exactly right, maybe just a little bit off. 

Anyway, he was a good driver. Anyway, we were driving to Louisville, and an Elvis Presley song came on. The news was out then that Elvis was doing this martial arts stuff with Kang Rhee who was a famous karate instructor down in Memphis. I said to Mickey, 'You know what would be cool is if we could somehow get a hold of Elvis Presley and do a wrestler vs karate match', because they already did the Muhammad Ali and Inoki match.

Just crazily, out of the blue, he said, 'Well you know what? I'll tell my brother to ask him if he would want to do that?'. I said, 'What do you mean, you'll tell your brother?'. He said, 'My brother is the president of the Elvis International Fan Club and has been for seven years. He hangs out at Graceland at the front with Elvis' uncle Vester'. I didn't even believe him, and I said, 'Yeah, get your brother to ask him if you would'. Two days later we're driving somewhere else and he said, 'By the way, my brother talked to Elvis' dad, Vernon Presley. Vernon asked Elvis if he would be interested, and they loved the idea so Vernon Presley is going to call you. I gave him your number'.

I said, 'Are you serious?'. He said, 'I swear'. Mickey was known for being a goofball and I still didn't believe him. It was on a Wednesday and I left about 1 o'clock to go to Evansville, IN and this was before cell phone days. I was married at the time living in Hendersonville. I got back that night and my wife said, 'Somebody called you this afternoon. His name was Vernon Presley'. I said, 'Are you serious?'. She said, 'Yes. He said he'll call back tomorrow'. The next day, I waited by the phone. No call. So I went to the town and wrestled. I got back that night, and my wife said, 'Well, that Vernon Presley called again'. I said, 'What did he sound like?'. She said, 'He sounds like a real nice, real southern accent guy, and I told him to call you in the morning and he said he would'. 

Sure enough, the next morning the phone rang, I picked it up. 'Jerry, this is Elvis' father, Vernon Presley. They got through to us with the idea of you and Elvis doing something at the Mid South Coliseum and Elvis loves the idea'. I'll never forget how he said this. He said, 'I'll be honest with you Jerry. Elvis is not in too good a shape right now, but he's fixing to start working out. He's got this tour coming up next month. He's going to work out for that, and as soon as he gets back from the tour, we'll get in touch with you and we'll put this thing together. And then, of course, he died before he even did the tour". 

...or did he?

2. A Prelude To Montreal?

WWE.com

Stories with Brisco & Bradshaw co-host Gerald Brisco made an appearance on another podcast this month, guesting on a Something to Wrestle episode that looked at the Montreal Screwjob.

Come on, it couldn't be November without at least some talk of Survivor Series 1997, could it?

When discussing the Screwjob, Brisco revealed that just days before it all went down that Bret refused to lose to The Undertaker during an overseas tour.

Per Brisco:

"We were over in Bahrain. It's a little island right off Saudi Arabia. We're running an outdoor show there. This is probably the same year. We had a tournament. It came down to Bret and Undertaker as the main event. It wasn't a title match, it was just a Bahrain tournament. Bret said, 'I'm not going to drop the match here. I can't get beat here'. I'm thinking, we're in the middle of nowhere. I asked Bret, 'Why? It's The Undertaker'. He said, 'There's too many fans'. 

Granted, there were a contingent of Canadian soldiers in attendance, so he was right in that aspect. There were some Canadian soldiers, but most of the people were native people there. It wasn't like there were overwhelming Maple Flags flying there. We're 10,000 miles away from anywhere, and back in those days, there wasn't any social media or anything like that. Of course, I made my phone call to Vince. Vince said, 'Just get the match in the ring'. When Undertaker comes in, he likes to know what he's going to do so he can develop a game plan in his head during the course of the event.

I’ve never told this story before. Vince said talk to 'Taker. Just get the match in the ring. Do what you have to do, but get it in the ring. It's the last night of the tour, get the hell out and come home. We'll deal with it then. I tell 'Taker what's going on. He said, 'He doesn't want to drop the title to me?'. I said, 'No, he doesn't want to drop it. There's too many Canadians here'. 'Taker looked at me with a look of shock with those piercing eyes of his that scared me to the bone. 

I said, 'Well, what do you want to do?'. He said, ‘The hell with it. I'll put him over'. That's the professional that 'Taker is. I approached Bret and said he'll put you over. He said, 'Well, I don't have to pin him. I can put the Sharpshooter on him'. I said, 'Well you're not going to put the Sharpshooter on him. You're going to pin him'. So we worked out the match for VKM. That was my first example with Bret".

It's a hell of a tale, but not without a few inaccuracies that are easily checked thanks to public records and the wonder of modern technology.

The tour in question was only two days long. WWE first ran a show in Muksat, Oman on October 29, before running Bahrain the next night.

On the first show, The Hitman and The Deadman went to a double countout in their WWE Title match, while the next night 'Taker and Dude Love went over on Bret and Jim Neidhart in the main event.

Those were some of the last matches of Hart's full-time WWE career.

1. The DeadMMAn

WWE.com

And we finish off for the month with another bit on The Undertaker, who claimed recently that he was considering jumping into MMA in the mid-2000's.

While appearing on the Dallas-based Shan and RJ Radio Show, The Phenom disclosed that he fancied testing himself in the Octagon right as UFC's popularity was on the rise.

"It was probably 15 years ago, maybe more. UFC was really coming along, and I've always liked tests, testing myself in one way or another. I boxed a little coming up as a kid in my late teens, but I think if I had had any kind of wrestling pedigree, I might have just tried to dip my toe in there. 

My love has always been for the WWE and what we do. I just thoroughly enjoy what we do. Occasionally, you want to test the waters and see how you match up with people’s different genres and sports. That was probably the biggest reason why I didn't, and probably Vince would've had a coronary. He would've said, 'You want to do what?'. He would've probably balked at the idea, but I think if I had a stronger amateur wrestling background, I might have tested the waters". 

I think fantasy well and truly has reality beat here, since Mark Callaway was contemplating wrestling retirement as early as the late 90's due to the ridiculous amount of injuries he had accrued during his career.

Odds are he doesn't come close to passing the UFC's physical and, if he did get in there with a professional fighter, The Undertaker's aura would have been shattered (along with his face).

Still, at least he'll always be the 'best pure striker in WWE history' to Michael Cole. That's something.

Isn't it?