10 Times A Wrestler Exercised A Creative Control Clause

Creative control are two of the most feared words in professional wrestling as although giving a wrestler control over their own destiny can sometimes be a good thing, it is often associated with big stars flexing their big egos to make everything worse for everybody involved.

Sometimes in pro wrestling, free will isn’t always the best thing for the company, the wrestlers, and especially not the fans.

Check out 10 times a wrestler exercised a creative control clause below.

10. Brock Lesnar turns down facing Bray Wyatt at WWE WrestleMania 39

Starting with a recent example, we turn to a man who has done things on his own terms for the vast majority of his career.

Since his return to WWE in 2012, Brock Lesnar has been presented as a special attraction and one of the biggest stars in the company. As a result of this superstar status, Lesnar has been afforded a certain amount of say in who he works with. Or, in this case, who he doesn’t work with.

According to reports, Lesnar was offered the chance to do a programme with Bray Wyatt that would culminate at WrestleMania 39. This could have been a nice way to right the wrongs of ‘Mania 32, where the two men were supposedly meant to fight before Wyatt got injured.

However, for one reason or another, Lesnar pulled the plug and plans were changed. Maybe we’ll never know for sure why The Beast declined an opportunity to face The Eater of Worlds. Maybe he just wanted to have his match with Omos instead.

9. Shawn Michaels having none of Vader time at WWE SummerSlam 1996

The late, great Big Van Vader was one of the most unique wrestlers to ever grace the planet. His freakish combination of size, power, and agility made him a main-event player wherever he went, except in WWE.

The Mastodon was brought into WWE in 1996 and, by SummerSlam of that year, he was fighting for the world title against golden boy Shawn Michaels, who was in the prime of his backstage meddling.

The plan was for the two men to have a multi-month programme over the belt. Shawn would defend at SummerSlam, drop the title at Survivor Series, and then win it back at the Royal Rumble in his hometown of San Antonio.

Shawn was having none of that, though, and he got the series cut down to the one SummerSlam match, with claims of Vader being a bit “snug” not working for HBK.

This was ultimately one of the last times Vader was taken seriously as a main-event player in WWE.

Instead of Vader, Michaels would drop the WWE Championship to Sycho Sid at Survivor Series, before reclaiming the gold from the big man at Royal Rumble, as originally planned for Vader.

8. The Ultimate Warrior remains a babyface - WWE SummerSlam 1992

SummerSlam 1992 remains the pinnacle of professional wrestling in the United Kingdom (until AEW All In later this week anyway) and the match of the night that often gets talked about is Bret Hart vs The British Bulldog for the Intercontinental Championship.

The match is remembered as one of the best in WWE history, with the closing stages seeing British Bulldog win the IC Title in front of 79,000 adoring fans.

There was still plenty of decent action elsewhere on the card, though, as Randy Savage defended his WWE Championship against The Ultimate Warrior, with Ric Flair and Mr Perfect looming over the entire thing. It was speculated that one of the two good guys would join up with the baddies, turning evil in the process.

Apparently, though, Warrior outright refused to turn heel. In fact, Jim Hellwig never portrayed a villain in his entire WWE career, remaining the fan favourite throughout his multiple runs in the company.

7. Ric Flair refuses to be Stacy Keibler's baby daddy - WCW 2000

Let’s move over to WCW, a place that could politely be described as the inmates running the asylum.

The company became famous for its wackier storylines in its later years, thanks in no small part to the acquisition of Vince Russo as head writer. One of his “masterpieces” was the mystery surrounding the father of Stacy Keibler’s baby. We were all led to believe it was David Flair, Stacy’s on-air squeeze at the time.

But, before you could say “swerve bro!”, the pregnancy was revealed to be fake. Was this the plan all along? Of course not! This was WCW in 2000!

One of the original ideas was to reveal David’s father Ric as Stacy’s baby daddy, but The Nature Boy refused to do the storyline as he considered it in bad taste.

But who was the other candidate? Vince Russo himself!

6. Goldberg turns down a programme with Chris Jericho - WCW 1998

Sticking with WCW now and a feud that took place behind the scenes, but not in front of the cameras.

In 1998, both Bill Goldberg and Chris Jericho were making big names for themselves. Goldberg was the undefeated WCW World Heavyweight Champion, whilst Jericho was the slick-talking, cowardly villain of the cruiserweight division.

A feud between the two began, in which Jericho would continually mock the former Atlanta Falcon. He even stole his entrance one week, which may or may not have inspired the character of Gillberg.

Y2J held up his end of the bargain and put in some great work, but the big man wanted nothing to do with him. He didn’t see Jericho as a legitimate challenger, so refused to participate in the feud.

This led to legitimate bad blood between the pair, resulting in a real-life scuffle when they were both signed to WWE. A scuffle that Jericho reportedly won, by the way.

5. John Cena buries The Nexus - WWE SummerSlam 2010

Prepare to have your heart broken because John Cena wasn’t above exercising his creative control.

Big Match John has infamously halted the rise of many young wrestlers and perhaps the worst example of this came at SummerSlam 2010. Cena was leading his team of WWE loyalists against The Nexus, seven of the rookies from the original season of NXT.

Instead of giving the exciting new faction a big win on pay-per-view, Cena overcame a DDT on the concrete floor to beat both Justin Gabriel and Wade Barrett and score the win for his team.

Apparently, the 16-time World Champion was the one who lobbied for him to take the DDT on the concrete and then make a comeback. Edge and Chris Jericho even spoke to Cena about the spot, but Big Match John got what he wanted.

Whilst Cena may not have been solely responsible for The Nexus losing, this spot completely took everyone out of the match and made the group look even weaker than they already did.

4. Stone Cold Steve Austin has no interest in working with Jeff Jarrett - WWE

When you’re one of the biggest and most important wrestlers of all time, chances are you’re going to be afforded a lot more backstage power than most.

Stone Cold Steve Austin challenged creative decisions plenty of times in his career. He apparently reneged on plans to turn WrestleMania 15’s main event into a triple threat - but that may have been because Shawn Michaels got in his ear.

He famously walked out after he was told to lose to Brock Lesnar on free TV. Sorry, he “took his ball and went home”, as WWE said at the time. He also outright refused to work with people, including a certain country singer.

Jeff Jarrett had returned to the Federation two years earlier and WWE had plans to push him into a feud with the Texas Rattlesnake. However, this was cancelled because the two were far from friends in real life.

Double J had called out the “Austin 3:16” promo as “blasphemous” and Stone Cold had been unhappy with the way he was treated whilst working for Jeff’s father in his rookie days.

As a result, The Bionic Redneck vetoed working with Jarrett, and that was that.

3. The Montreal Screwjob - WWE Survivor Series 1997

Of course the Montreal Screwjob was included on this list!

There has been much debate over who was in the wrong and what could have been done to prevent it, but it’s important to remember that Bret Hart’s stubbornness did play a part in the events at Survivor Series 1997 that saw him drop the WWE Title to Shawn Michaels in stunning circumstances.

The Hitman was on his way to WCW after the company revealed they couldn’t afford to honour his existing contract. The problem was, he was WWE Champion at the time, and he absolutely despised the man who was supposed to take it off him, especially after Shawn Michaels had previously refused to put over The Hitman.

Many words have been spoken about how much Bret and Shawn Michaels hated each other. What made things worse in Hart’s eyes was that he was being asked to lose in his home country, where he was treated as a minor deity.

In the end, Hart refused to lose to Michaels on the night, which set in motion the entire chain of events that we’re still discussing all these years later.

2. Shawn Michaels def. The British Bulldog - WWE One Night Only

Speaking of Shawn Michaels, the One Night Only pay-per-view from 1997 was another show emanating from the United Kingdom.

Like at SummerSlam ‘92, Davey Boy Smith once again found himself in the main event of a show in his home country. This time, he was defending the European Championship against none other than the Heartbreak kid. Not only did The Showstopper manage to wrangle the main event spot over Bret Hart vs. The Undertaker, but he also got the booking team to change the result and have him go over Davey instead of the other way around.

This, after The Bulldog had already dedicated his upcoming match to his cancer-stricken sister.

And what did Michaels do with the belt he had politicked so hard for? He literally laid down for Triple H so he could win the title instead.

1. Hulk Hogan in WCW & WWE

How else could we finish a list about worming out of things without talking about Hulk Hogan?

The Hulkster was reportedly responsible for dozens of squashed pushes, changed finishes, and general career derailments throughout his time in the industry. We don’t have the time to mention all of them here, so let’s focus on one example from both WWE and WCW.

In Ted Turner’s house, Hogan used his status to refuse to lose to Sting at Starrcade 1997. This is according to Eric Bischoff, who, admittedly, also said that this was the only time in the promotion that Hogan used his creative control.

As for his time in WWE, let’s talk about the time he went one-on-one with The Showstopper. A planned three-match series between the two was pared back to a single bout at SummerSlam 2005 after Hogan decided he didn’t want to lose.

Michaels got the last laugh in the end, though, when he proceeded to bump for the Hulkster like he was the reincarnation of, well, a 1980s Hulk Hogan.