Debunking The WWE/Hometown Losing Myth

Hi, I’m Justin Watry. You may remember me from such classic columns as March 2012’s “WWE WrestleMania 28: Sheamus Should Defeat Daniel Bryan in Less Than a Minute” and October 2015’s “WWE NXT: Bobby Roode, You’re Next.”

12 Days of Wrestle-mas

Lame name aside, I have decided to join in the holiday spirit and write 12 columns in 12 days in the leadup to Christmas Eve. A tall task indeed. However, if anybody can do it, I am the man for the job. This is being done for two reasons. First is to spread the word about my @JustinWatry Twitter giveaway, which has been ongoing since the summer (details at the bottom of the page). It needs a kick in the pants so to speak. Hopefully, this will help. Minus that, it is also being done to promote the Love-Alive charity that I recently donated to. Any amount, big or small, is more than welcome. Even just $1 can go a long ways.

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Now to the column…

WWE Hometown Winners Or Losers?

Call it a myth. Call it a conspiracy theory. Call it whatever you want. There has always been this belief that Vince McMahon and WWE just love it when their wrestlers lose in their hometowns and/or get humiliated. That they get some sort of sick pleasure in seeing their guys/gals lose in crushing fashion in front of friends and family.

I don’t know about you, but I call BS on that one. Seems a tad bit TOO petty for my liking, and evidence (as usual) backs me up on this. Don’t believe me? Fine, let’s take a look…

Bill Goldberg/WCW Nitro – Okay, this was not WWE admittedly. However, I may as well just mention it now because of how massive and memorable the scene was and get it out of the way. WCW set up an entire Nitro main event in the hometown of Bill Goldberg revolving around him winning the WCW Championship clean as a whistle over Hulk Hogan. Atlanta loved it, as did the audience. Again, not WWE, so moving on!

Just Last Week…

Seriously, fans are often labeled as having short memories, and yeah…I agree. Anybody care CM Punk was leading the garbage New Nexus before his pipebomb? Nobody cared five seconds into his infamous promo. Or that Daniel Bryan was doing nothing before winning the World Title? Nope, didn’t matter. We sat through it and moved on to the new direction as soon as it happened. Just this past month, there was whining and crying over wrestlers losing in their hometowns.

Yet, WWE had Shinsuke Nakamura drop the NXT Championship at NXT Takeover: Toronto back in November for the sole reason of giving him his victory back in Japan. It JUST HAPPENED! Short memories are looked down upon…except we are all guilty of it.

Trish Stratus Retires

Need I say more here? Again, WWE set up an entire story line with the entire basis being a star winning a title in their hometown, in their farewell no less. Wrestling 101 says Trish Stratus should have lost her ‘final’ match to Lita and let her reign as champion. No way, no how. Not in Toronto at Unforgiven 2006. Trish won clean, retired as Women’s Champion, and soaked in the applause from the hometown crowd. Boy, talk about humiliation, huh?

Kurt Angle

Stone Steve Austin was the reigning and defending WWE Champion in 2001. Kurt Angle was the challenger and absolutely poised to claim the gold at Summerslam 2001. It was his moment, his time, and the bout was well built with great in-ring action in between.

Angle didn’t win the belt that night.

He did a month later in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania at the Unforgiven pay-per-view. His hometown with his family at ringside. A huge celebration occurred afterwards, and it was a pretty special moment. Awesome way to end the show. There has been speculation that the hometown Olympic hero won because of the 9/11 attacks earlier in the month, and while that may have played a role, you have to think the location (Pittsburgh) did as well.

More to the point, Steve Austin just won the title back two weeks later anyways – confirming the Kurt Angle victory was just a one-off cool moment for the hometown fans.

Santino Marella/Raw

Alright, not really but still a decent example in the kafabe world. Santino Marella fit the character WWE was looking for during a tour of Italy. What happens? He debuts by coming through the crowd as a fan and wins the IC Championship. Yep.

WrestleMania 28 Main Event

The Rock, despite not having a one on one match in over eight years, defeated John Cena in the main event of WrestleMania 28 in his hometown Miami, Florida. When all logic and sense for the future dictated the opposite result, it didn’t matter. Rocky won, celebrated, collected all the praise, and was the focus for a full year’s worth of hype. Obviously, this situation is different than your standard match on RAW or Smackdown, I get that. Next story…

CM Punk/Chicago

Oh yeah, that CM Punk guy? The one threatening to leave the company and take the WWE Championship with him? Remember that? Silly me, I could have sworn the build up ended with him pinning John Cena (fairly clean) win the the belt…in his hometown of Chicago, Illinois. Of course, folks tend to forget about this one for whatever reason when discussing all the ‘humiliating’ losses for wrestlers in front of family and friends. Boy, must have been a miserable night for him.

Summerslam 1992

Huh. Would you look at that? An older match but the same result. Shocking.

Then you add in Batista retaining his World Title in Washington DC at Summerslam 2005, Shawn Michaels getting everything changed up and switched – to win back the WWE Title in San Antonio, Texas at Royal Rumble 2007. Heck, even Kaitlyn won the Divas Championship on RAW in her hometown, which was actually a cool moment that gets overlooked. Ric Flair in North Carolina, Edge in Toronto, John Cena in Boston, Stone Cold in Texas, etc. I could go on and on with examples – pretty sure my point has been made.

Now for the flip side…

Sasha Banks/HIAC 2016

Yeah, this one was tough. I admit that.

The first ever PPV headlined by women. The supposed final chapter of a great rivalry. The first ever Heck on a Deck match between females. The sole focus of advertisement. The freakin’ chair at the arena! All in BOSSton for Sasha Banks beating her long-time foe Charlotte. Except, that wasn’t the case at all. The heel won as fair as you can inside the cell and let the hometown face lay there defeated. Unreal.

To make things even, WWE flipped the script about a month later when Sasha Banks beat Charlotte in HER hometown. Ha.

Edge/John Cena In 2006

Hmm, John Cena lost in Boston to Edge at Summerslam 2006. Then the following month, Edge lost to Cena in Canada. Unlike Trish Stratus that night, The Rated R Superstar did not claim victory in front of friends and family. Sorry. This was just a situation where Edge was not going to leave the feud with the title belt no matter what location was on the schedule. Interesting that Cena first lost in Boston though; WWE could have simply had him win there but didn’t…

Montreal Screwjob

Well, yeah. We know the deal here. No use beating this dead horse for the millionth time.

MVP Eliminated Quickly

Miami, Florida baby! Mr. MVP! Survivor Series elimination tag team match!

Sorry buddy, first pinned and sent packing. Story has it MVP was already looking elsewhere in his future endeavors; this may have been the final straw. Or WWE knew. Either way, the event could have used some hometown buzz and energy. Instead, MVP did nothing of note here. Boo!

Jim Ross Joins A Certain Club

Alright, this is exactly what I mean. Every single time Jim Ross is at a show in Oklahoma City, fans have to bring this up. Yeah, JR kissed the behind of Vince McMahon in his home state. Was William Regal in his hometown when he did it? No, of course. Maybe not a 100% coincidence on the scheduled timing of the location but whatever the truth may be, one guy (Jim Ross) had to do it in his hometown while others did not. Make of that what you will.

Like the opposite of this discussion, there are plenty of examples and tons of matches I could bring up.

The Verdict

Here is the deal folks. Some wrestlers win in their hometowns, and some lose. That is the conclusion I came up with. Very scientific I know. Should WWE want to get a heel over big, they will beat up the hometown star to help the crowd reaction. Should WWE want the face to get the big moment, the result is flipped. Who cares if Curtis Axel loses in Minneapolis? Seriously, who cares? On the flip side, Nakamura just got the red carpet treatment in Japan. There is no ‘set rule’ that stars have to be humiliated for no good reason besides where the event is…while one could argue there are more examples of hometown celebrations being planned in advance than the contrary.

What say you?

Does this myth actually have merit or (as is typically the case) has the internet run with an idea that doesn’t actually exist?

Finals Plugs

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