Tempting Fate/Professional Wrestling

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


  • After a WWE title match on Smackdown between Rey Mysterio, Jr. and the late Eddie Guerrero, heel manager Paul Heyman shows up, and after delivering a bigoted speech to both Eddie and Mysterio in which he expresses his desire to see the two of them and their families deported, he rants on about his "vision" for Smackdown, and ends the speech with "...and there's not a man alive who's going to stand in my way!" Guess who shows up seconds later to kick Heyman's ass.
    • The cocky rant itself was tempting more fate -- the next week he was drafted to Raw and minutes later quit his job.
    • A similar thing happened to William Regal during his phase as Raw's heel GM and King of the Ring, when he often blacked out the venue during fights and such. Well, with Regal on the verge of dictator, loudmouth Mr. Kennedy interrupts him asking for a fight. Regal responds, "The very next person who interrupts me, whether it be you or anyone else, will be fired on the spot." Guess who is the next person that interrupts Regal. And by the way, Regal would later lose his match versus Kennedy and get FIIIIIIIRRRRRRRRRREEED!!! as a result of Mr. McMahon's proposition.
    • Regal wasn't the first heel GM of Raw to meet this fate. When Eric Bischoff was the Raw GM a few years earlier, he opened Raw the night after the Survivor Series pay-per-view in an understandably bad mood as Raw's team had lost to Smackdown's team in a 5-on-5 elimination match the prior night. When nobody responded to his demand for an explanation of why they lost, he threatened to come back to the locker room area and fire whoever he saw on the spot. Cue the entrance music of Vince McMahon, the one person that Bischoff didn't have the authority to fire.
  • Any time a wrestler says something like "I could beat you with one hand tied behind my back!", you can bet the house that he'll be put in a match with such a stipulation.
  • Because Triple H, the WWE Champion, had been drafted to Smackdown in 2008, Smackdown had two champions and Raw had none. Edge, the World Heavyweight Champion, came to Raw to insult Jim Ross and Batista, who he had beaten the night before. He then proceeded to brag about how Raw had no champion, about how none of the top contenders would ever get a shot at his title, and how he would never come back to Raw. Unfortunately for Edge, he didn't count on Batista beating the tar out of him, or CM Punk (whom he had neglected to mention) cashing in his Money in the Bank briefcase to become the new World Heavyweight Champion.
  • During an episode of Raw in John Cena's hometown of Boston, Randy Orton pulled Cena's father out of the front row of the crowd and promptly punted him in the head. Cue Orton being on the receiving end of the most brutal beatdown Cena had ever administered to anyone in his career.
  • CM Punk himself managed two in the same promo in Ring of Honor during his feud with Raven: "Raven, where did being Extreme ever get you?", and "That beer you drink has never and will never touch my lips!" - after his dog collar match with Raven, Punk got jumped by Tommy Dreamer, tied to the ropes, and forced to drink beer. And three years later, he ended up in the revived ECW.
  • Whenever someone issues an open challenge and says he/she is ready for anyone on the roster, the result is usually being squashed by the biggest person in the company.
  • In the lead-up to the 1999 Royal Rumble, Vince McMahon is drawing his number after Austin is declared the #1 entrant and says that he'd sure love to be the #2 entrant. While he wound up getting #30, Shawn Michaels (the WWF Commissioner at the time) makes him the #2 entrant.