10 Most Ridiculous WWE Oversells

The realistic selling of moves is key to helping fans suspend their disbelief while watching WWE programming.

And while there’s a place for overselling (and for that matter no-selling), sometimes the overselling of moves takes the viewer out of the moment and reminds them that this really is just grown men fighting in their underwear after all.

Other times, however, the oversell (ridiculous as it may be) works in the moment and helps an otherwise routine segment or match stand out.

These are the 10 Most Ridiculous WWE Oversells.

10. Triple H After Randy Orton's Boot

While oversells on live WWE television are rare, wrestlers are more likely to let loose and goof off on a non-televised house show or during a post-show dark match designed to entertain the live crowd after a taping.

Case in point, Triple H.

The Cerebral Assassin teamed with Ric Flair to take on Shawn Michaels and Randy Orton in a tag bout after the January 14, 2005, episode of Raw was over.

Thankfully, WWE’s cameras were still rolling and the match made its way to the 2014 DVD release ‘The Best of Raw After the Show’.

We say thankfully because that has meant that Triple H’s prolonged oversell has been captured for posterity.

While he was taking a beating, The Legend Killer countered The Game’s flying jump with a raised boot to the face. This brutal strike caused Hunter to teeter on the verge of collapse for an entire minute, as Michaels looked on quizzically from the ring apron.

It appeared as though Trips had shrugged it off and went to make the tag…only to Flair Flop as a punchline.

9. Rick Rude after An Atomic Drop

There were several things that made up Ravishing Rick Rude’s memorable WWE routine.

There was the audience and opponent insulting pre-match promo, the elaborate removal of the robe and the posing and flexing of those lovely muscles of his. And that was all before the bell had even rung.

Once the match officially started, Rick had an altogether different routine that often included elaborate selljobs.

One of the best and most ludicrous aspects of this was the running gag of Rude’s reaction whenever he took an atomic drop. Wide-eyed, standing on tip-toes and sticking out his svelte backside like a bee bit his bottom and now his bottom big, Rude would react to this standard move as if it were the most painful finisher in the world.

The former Intercontinental Champion continued this in WCW and beyond and these days there’s even a whole Twitter account dedicated to posting clips of this particular oversell.

8. Rob Van Dam after a Piledriver

While Rob Van Dam is noted for his athleticism, laid-back demeanour and snazzy airbrushed singlets, it shouldn’t be forgotten that the man could sell his bottom off when the occasion called for it.

Always one to push the boundaries, RVD would habitually take moves like DDTs and German Suplexes by landing right on top of his head and neck.

But The Whole F’N Show reserved his most audacious F’N sell for when he was hit with a piledriver.

Anyone who had Limewire in the early 2000s will be familiar with the clip of Van Dam taking a piledriver from Tommy Dreamer at ECW November to Remember 1997.

Bouncing about three feet in the air upon impact, it was hard not to be impressed by the springiness of it all. It was equally as impressive when Van Dam did it again in WWE’s rebooted ECW a decade later.

During an Extreme Rules four-way on the May 1, 2007, episode of ECW on SyFy, The Innovator of Violence and Mr. Tuesday Night ran it back seamlessly, albeit to a fraction of the reaction the original received.

7. Batista after Mark Henry's light Push

This probably won’t come as much of a shock to you, but Mark Henry was strong. He was strong enough to bend frying pans, strong enough to pull two tractor-trailers at once and he was strong enough to break a steel padlock in order to rip the cage door off its hinges.

Those were all shoots, brother.

What Mark Henry was not strong enough to do, however, was launch Batista all the way across the ring with a simple push to the chest.

Well, actually, Mark Henry might have been capable of shoving The Animal across the ring, but it still looked ridiculous when it happened on the May 10, 2010, episode of Raw.

Perhaps if Big Dave had done it in one smooth motion it would have looked alright, but he first took a couple of steps backwards and seemed to look over his shoulder to ensure nobody was behind him before taking a delayed bump.

To be fair, maybe Batista was just mentally checked out at this point, since he knew he was leaving the company just a couple of weeks later.

6. Montez Ford Following The Spirit Bomb

The general consensus on Keith Lee is that WWE dropped the ball with him.

Lee’s WWE run may have been a missed opportunity overall, but he occasionally got to show glimpses of what he was truly capable of across his NXT and main roster runs.

Like in 2019’s men’s traditional Survivor Series tag match, where the Limitless one looked like a killer and eliminated Seth Rollins before being the last man eliminated by winner Roman Reigns.

To make Lee look strong ahead of the pay-per-view, WWE booked him to stand tall during a three-brand brawl at the end of the go-home edition of SmackDown.

That included the big man hitting Montez Ford with a huge Spirit Bomb.

It would have looked impressive on enough, what with Lee launching Ford high into the air before catching him and drilling him with the Sitout Powerbomb. But Montez tried to put things over the top by instantly getting to his feet and then going back down to his back with another bump.

5. JTG after the Cobra

Former WWE star JTG has pretty much admitted to trying to stay out of the way in WWE, going so far as to hide in catering during the day so nobody in power would notice he was still collecting a paycheque for doing much of nothing.

But the former Cryme Tyme member made sure all eyes were on him when he took on Santino Marella in a match taped for the September 20, 2013, edition of Superstars.

Per JTG, the two men had clashed on several occasions before and he had wanted to ‘outdo’ his sell of Santino’s Cobra every time.

The Cobra, lest we forget, saw the Milan Miracle put a snake sleeve on his arm and strike his opponent on the neck with his fingers. It is one of the most absurd finishers in WWE history, but it was over and fit Marella’s comedic character to a tee.

After successfully dodging it a couple of times, JTG eventually succumbed, selling the ‘venomous’ blow by going into an almost seizure-like state and falling in stages to the mat.

4. Brock Lesnar after The Undertaker's big boot

When Brock Lesnar burst onto the scene in 2002, the rookie sensation showed on a weekly basis just how enviably athletic he was.

One way the NCAA Division 1 Heavyweight Champion’s athleticism was on display was in how Lesnar chose to sell some particular moves.

Despite being such a big and naturally intimidating freak of nature, Brock understood that this was entertainment and that he had to put on a show, particularly if he wanted to help his rivals look good.

And the one person he definitely wanted to help shine was SmackDown’s locker-room leader.

The Next Big Thing bumped his socks off for The Undertaker during their feud over the WWE Title, setting the tone for what was to come during their in-ring confrontation the night after Lesnar became the youngest WWE Champion in history.

At the end of a segment involving Brock, Undertaker and Triple H, The Deadman sent The Beast Incarnate packing with a big boot.

The force of ‘Taker’s shoe connecting with his face caused Lesnar to turn, sail over the top rope and roll all the way to the bottom of the entrance ramp in a moment that stretched believability just a little bit.

3. Shawn Michaels after any of Hulk Hogan's offence

When you think of WWE stars who oversell, the name Shawn Michaels is likely one of the first that will come to mind.

The Heartbreak Kid made a career out of flipping and flopping all over the place, whether he was taking a simple punch to the face, an Irish whip to the turnbuckle or an opponent’s finisher.

Shawn’s theatrics lessened during his second, Born-Again spell with the company, but he made an exception for somebody who had an even bigger ego than his own.

When HBK clashed with Hulk Hogan in the main event of SummerSlam 2005, he turned the clock back a decade and proceeded to bump around for Hogan in such an exaggerated way that everyone watching thought he was doing it just to stick it to the Hulkster.

Seriously, there are six or seven separate instances during the course of the match where it looks like The Showstopper is full-on taking the p*ss.

According to Michaels himself, he was simply doing what he had done when he worked as a heel and fed for the heavyweights during his first WWE run, only times had changed and it didn’t look right anymore. This, of course, may have been a lie from Shawn Michaels.

2. Dean Ambrose after Seth Rollins' Stomp

I noted earlier in this video that Batista’s oversell may have been because the former WWE Champion was mentally checked out when he flew backwards for Mark Henry just a fortnight before he walked out of the promotion.

It’s fair to say that Dean Ambrose was probably feeling the same when he took on Seth Rollins on the January 28, 2019, episode of Raw.

In the night’s first contest, the two ex-Shield members went at it in a rather ordinary match that went around 12 minutes.

The bulk of the action was unremarkable, but the ending spoke to The Lunatic Fringe’s mindset at the time. Receiving Seth’s Curb Stomp finisher, Ambrose first took the standard face-first front bump, then got immediately back to his feet, only to then take a big ol’ back bump and, as an exclamation point, flop like a dead fish prior to being pinned.

A day later, WWE.com announced that Dean Ambrose would not be re-signing with the company when it expired in April.

1. Everyone after Stone Cold Steve Austin's Stunner

The Stone Cold Stunner is one of the most devastatingly effective finishers in professional wrestling history.

When Steve Austin hit the move, nine times out of ten it would signal the end of the match (and the start of a beer bath).

Simple but brilliant, the move looked its best when it was being taken by, say, someone like Bret Hart, who acted like his jaw had been broken upon impact.

This is how the Stunner was usually sold early on. Over time, however, it became almost something of a running contest among WWE stars to see who could sell it in the most overblown way.

There was The Rock, of course, who would habitually roll around the ring, kicking his body up so that he often ended up lying in the ropes.

Then there were the likes of Scott Hall, Shane McMahon, Santino Marella, Xavier Woods, Austin Theory and a tonne of others who took the move by launching themselves backwards into the air. Booker T was once eliminated from the Royal Rumble due to the sheer force of the Stunner he took.