The Worst WWE WrestleMania Match Nobody Talks About
WrestleMania may be the biggest professional wrestling event each and every year, not just for WWE but in the entire business too, but that doesn’t mean that everything has always been perfect. Over the years, the Showcase Of The Immortals has seen some truly awful matches.
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The likes of Butterbean vs. Bart Gunn, Michael Cole vs. Jerry Lawler, and more recently Mr. McMahon vs. Pat McAfee are among the bottom of the barrel when it comes to the worst WrestleMania matches of all time. One match does sometimes get overlooked though when comparing the worst of the worst, and that was the battle between Akebono and Big Show.
Big Show Is A WWE Legend But Has Had Embarrassing Moments
Big Show is someone who is well known in the professional wrestling industry, and is a sure-fire Hall of Famer. He has main evented WrestleMania, won several World Titles in both WCW and WWE, and has faced many huge names in different generations of the business.
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However, Show is also someone who has been subject to some of the more embarrassing and humiliating moments, matches, and storylines over the course of his career. For instance, it is hard to keep track exactly how many times Big Show has been made to cry on WWE television.
When it comes to WrestleMania, Big Show’s superhuman size and crossover appeal due to most casual fans and even non-wrestling fans knowing who he is, has led to some interesting matches. He once faced boxing legend Floyd “Money” Mayweather in a huge special feature match at WrestleMania, but this wasn’t the first time he faced another powerhouse in the world of sports. At WrestleMania 21, Big Show went toe-to-toe with Akebono - a Japanese sumo legend in his own right. However, this was far from the quality of even the match with Mayweather, and is among the worst matches of all time.
Fans Didn’t Care For Akebono Vs Big Show
In the lead-up to the event, the interest in this match was very little. Many WWE fans had no clue who Akebono was, especially since he had retired from sumo wrestling several years prior to even stepping foot in WWE.
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The idea was to attract an audience from Japan and increase the buys for WrestleMania in 2005, and Show was the one chosen to battle Akebono due to him being the only wrestler able to match his size.
The feud wasn’t all that intriguing, with the pair just showcasing different feats of strength to prove that they could out-power the other. One detail that left fans even less enthralled, was that their contest was set to be a sumo match. In the case of professional wrestling, often underhanded tactics and raw strength can be enough to help non-wrestlers fit into the squared circle without fans having to suspend disbelief too much. In the case of sumo wrestling, with it being a legit sport and Akebono being a hugely successful name in that field, it was instantly clear that Show had no chance of winning anyway.
Big Show Vs. Akebono Was An Awful WrestleMania Match
Show emerged at WrestleMania 21 wearing traditional sumo attire, and whilst this might have been seen as respectful to the sport of sumo wrestling, the whole point of it seemed to be to make fun of how Show looked. He has even said himself that this was one of, if not the most embarrassing moment of his career. In an interview with Fox News, via Wrestling Inc, he explained, “My sumo match versus Akebono, where I have 40 yards of silk crammed up my ass and it got down with water and tightened up. I would say that is probably the most embarrassing moment in wrestling.” The match itself was simply abysmal.
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The crowd didn’t care at all for the match, as Show and Akebono grappled for one minute with nothing that interesting happening. That is all it took for Akebono to dump Show and defeat him. The quickness and lack of anything creative happening made the whole thing feel pointless.
This match came on a stacked WrestleMania card, and it came within matches like Kurt Angle vs. Shawn Michaels, JBL vs. John Cena, and Batista vs. Triple H. For this reason, it threatened to hold the rest of the event down as it was such a step back in quality from everything else. It was plodding, awkward, and completely dead, making it one of the worst matches in WrestleMania history. At least Michael Cole vs Jerry Lawler had some crowd investment with the fans rallying behind Lawler and enjoying the inclusion of Steve Austin - but this sumo match had literally nothing to offer. Big Show raising Akebono's hand after the bell as though it had been hard-fought war was comical too.
