Bradshaw vs Christian (found footage of unaired professional wrestling match; 2001): Difference between revisions

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(The full match was released on Facebook by WWE!)
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{{InfoboxLost
{{InfoboxFound
|title=Bradshaw vs Christian (unaired 2001 match)</center>
|title=Bradshaw vs Christian (unaired 2001 match)</center>
|image=Bradshawvschristian1.jpg
|image=Bradshawvschristian1.jpg
|imagecaption=Christian as the WWF European Champion.
|imagecaption=Christian as the WWF European Champion.
|status=<span style="color:red;">'''Lost'''</span>
|status=<span style="color:green;">'''Found'''</span>
|datefound=17 Aug 2023
|foundby=WWE
}}
}}
During filming for the 1st November 2001 edition of ''WWF SmackDown!'', Bradshaw defended his WWF European Championship against Christian. Christian would pick up the victory, pinning his opponent following a belt shot while the referee was distracted. Despite the match featuring a title change, '''it has never actually been aired by the company'''.
During filming for the 1st November 2001 edition of ''WWF SmackDown!'', Bradshaw defended his WWF European Championship against Christian. Christian would pick up the victory, pinning his opponent following a belt shot while the referee was distracted. Despite the match featuring a title change, it was never actually by the company on television.


==Background==
==Background==
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According to ''Online World of Wrestling'', the match itself generally saw Bradshaw gain the upper hand, using his strength advantage to deliver power moves to his opponent. However, Christian's Un-Americans partner Lance Storm ran in, and Christian took a chair into the ring. Bradshaw successfully removed the chair from Christian, only for the referee to confiscate it from him. While the referee was distracted removing the chair from the ring, Christian grabbed the European Championship and hit his opponent with it. He then pinned Bradshaw to become the new European Champion.<ref name="online"/>
According to ''Online World of Wrestling'', the match itself generally saw Bradshaw gain the upper hand, using his strength advantage to deliver power moves to his opponent. However, Christian's Un-Americans partner Lance Storm ran in, and Christian took a chair into the ring. Bradshaw successfully removed the chair from Christian, only for the referee to confiscate it from him. While the referee was distracted removing the chair from the ring, Christian grabbed the European Championship and hit his opponent with it. He then pinned Bradshaw to become the new European Champion.<ref name="online"/>


WWE states that Christian's reign began on 1st November instead of when he actually won it on 30th October, because SmackDown! aired on tape delay.<ref name="christian">[https://web.archive.org/web/20120616064248/http://www.wwe.com/classics/titlehistory/euro/358732 Archived ''WWE.com'' detailing Christian's European Championship win and reign.] Retrieved 7 Jan '22</ref><ref name="euro"/> This means that Bradshaw's reign is recognised as lasting a day older,<ref name="bradshaw"/> while Christian's ended a day earlier.<ref name="euro"/> Christian would hold the title until the 31st January 2002 edition of SmackDown!, dropping it to Diamond Dallas Page, with the match itself having been filmed on 29th January.<ref name="euro"/> This would prove to be Christian's only reign with the title.<ref name="christian"/><ref name="euro"/>
WWE states that Christian's reign began on 1st November instead of when he actually won it on 30th October, because SmackDown! aired on tape delay.<ref name="christian">[https://web.archive.org/web/20120616064248/http://www.wwe.com/classics/titlehistory/euro/358732 Archived ''WWE.com'' detailing Christian's European Championship win and reign.] Retrieved 7 Jan '22</ref><ref name="euro"/> This means that Bradshaw's reign is recognised as lasting a day longer,<ref name="bradshaw"/> while Christian's ended a day earlier.<ref name="euro"/> Christian would hold the title until the 31st January 2002 edition of SmackDown!, dropping it to Diamond Dallas Page, with the match itself having been filmed on 29th January.<ref name="euro"/> This would prove to be Christian's only reign with the title.<ref name="christian"/><ref name="euro"/>


==Availability==
==Availability==
Despite the match outcome resulting in a title changing hands, neither the Bradshaw-Christian match nor the Casey segment were included when the 1st November 2001 edition of SmackDown! aired.<ref>[https://wrestletalk.com/features/the-history-of-the-wwe-european-championship/7/ ''Wrestle Talk'' noting the match was not televised due to time constraints.] Retrieved 7 Jan '22</ref><ref name="mania">[https://411mania.com/wrestling/the-smark-raw-rant-november-5-2001/ ''411 Mania'' detailing the 5th November 2001 edition of Raw, noting the European Championship win on SmackDown! was cut due to time constraints.] Retrieved 7 Jan '22</ref><ref name="what">[https://whatculture.com/wwe/10-wrestling-matches-too-horrible-for-wwe-to-air?page=2 ''WhatCulture'' detailing Christian's unaired win, possibly cut due to being deemed of low quality.] Retrieved 7 Jan '22</ref> According to the November 12, 2001 edition of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, "The Christian vs. Bradshaw European title change match scheduled for this show never aired due to time constraints however it is recognized as a title change. I guess they felt the Regal-Tajiri squash was more important which would be the matches to decide to cut potentially out of that show. Guess that was done because so much has been made of no resolution to the Regal-Tajiri duo with Regal's turn so they did the angle a few weeks later to tie up that loose end."
Despite the match outcome resulting in a title changing hands, neither the Bradshaw-Christian match nor the Casey segment were included when the 1st November 2001 edition of SmackDown! aired.<ref>[https://wrestletalk.com/features/the-history-of-the-wwe-european-championship/7/ ''Wrestle Talk'' noting the match was not televised due to time constraints.] Retrieved 7 Jan '22</ref><ref name="mania">[https://411mania.com/wrestling/the-smark-raw-rant-november-5-2001/ ''411 Mania'' detailing the 5th November 2001 edition of Raw, noting the European Championship win on SmackDown! was cut due to time constraints.] Retrieved 7 Jan '22</ref><ref name="what">[https://whatculture.com/wwe/10-wrestling-matches-too-horrible-for-wwe-to-air?page=2 ''WhatCulture'' detailing Christian's unaired win, possibly cut due to being deemed of low quality.] Retrieved 7 Jan '22</ref> According to the 12th November 2001 edition of the ''Wrestling Observer Newsletter'', "The Christian vs. Bradshaw European title change match scheduled for this show never aired due to time constraints however it is recognized as a title change. I guess they felt the Regal-Tajiri squash was more important which would be the matches to decide to cut potentially out of that show. Guess that was done because so much has been made of no resolution to the Regal-Tajiri duo with Regal's turn so they did the angle a few weeks later to tie up that loose end."<ref>[https://www.f4wonline.com/newsletters/wrestling-observer-newsletter/november-12-2001-observer-newsletter-chaos-continues-wwf-more-271011 12th November 2001 edition of the ''Wrestling Observer Newsletter'' reporting on the match being scrapped due to time constraints.] Retrieved 30 Oct '23</ref>


Aside from a mention on the 5th November edition of Raw,<ref name="mania"/> little reference was made concerning the match, with speculation that the fight was not televised due to its lack of quality.<ref name="what"/> As of the present day, the match remains missing, although it does have the possibility of eventually being aired on the WWE Network as part of its Hidden Gems collection.
Aside from a mention on the 5th November edition of Raw,<ref name="mania"/> little reference was made concerning the match, with speculation that the fight was not televised due to its lack of quality.<ref name="what"/> It was not until 17th August 2023 that WWE publicly released the full match on its Facebook page.


==See Also==
==See Also==
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*[[WWF Shotgun (partially found July to December season of syndicated wrestling show; 1997)]]
*[[WWF Shotgun (partially found July to December season of syndicated wrestling show; 1997)]]
*[[WWF Xperience (found pay-per-view event footage; 1996)]]
*[[WWF Xperience (found pay-per-view event footage; 1996)]]
==External Link==
*[https://fb.watch/n-riJaMoki/ The full match on WWE's Facebook page].


==References==
==References==
{{reflist}}
{{reflist}}


[[Category:Lost recordings of sports events]]
[[Category:Found media]]
[[Category:Completely lost media]]
[[Category:Found recordings of real incidents]]

Revision as of 13:48, 30 October 2023

Bradshawvschristian1.jpg

Christian as the WWF European Champion.

Status: Found

Date found: 17 Aug 2023

Found by: WWE

During filming for the 1st November 2001 edition of WWF SmackDown!, Bradshaw defended his WWF European Championship against Christian. Christian would pick up the victory, pinning his opponent following a belt shot while the referee was distracted. Despite the match featuring a title change, it was never actually by the company on television.

Background

Heading into the match, Bradshaw was in his first and only reign as European Champion, having held it for a eight days after winning it from The Hurricane on the 27th August 2001 edition of WWF Raw.[1][2] Meanwhile, Christian had never won the title beforehand.[2] Prior to the match, a taped segment showed Christian encountering Cincinnati Reds' first baseman Sean Casey, who was signing autographs. Christian berated both the Reds and Cincinnati, bragging to Casey that he was going to do something that nobody in Cincinnati had done in years, in that he would win a championship. As Christian walked away, Casey called him a "chumpstain".[3]

According to Online World of Wrestling, the match itself generally saw Bradshaw gain the upper hand, using his strength advantage to deliver power moves to his opponent. However, Christian's Un-Americans partner Lance Storm ran in, and Christian took a chair into the ring. Bradshaw successfully removed the chair from Christian, only for the referee to confiscate it from him. While the referee was distracted removing the chair from the ring, Christian grabbed the European Championship and hit his opponent with it. He then pinned Bradshaw to become the new European Champion.[3]

WWE states that Christian's reign began on 1st November instead of when he actually won it on 30th October, because SmackDown! aired on tape delay.[4][2] This means that Bradshaw's reign is recognised as lasting a day longer,[1] while Christian's ended a day earlier.[2] Christian would hold the title until the 31st January 2002 edition of SmackDown!, dropping it to Diamond Dallas Page, with the match itself having been filmed on 29th January.[2] This would prove to be Christian's only reign with the title.[4][2]

Availability

Despite the match outcome resulting in a title changing hands, neither the Bradshaw-Christian match nor the Casey segment were included when the 1st November 2001 edition of SmackDown! aired.[5][6][7] According to the 12th November 2001 edition of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, "The Christian vs. Bradshaw European title change match scheduled for this show never aired due to time constraints however it is recognized as a title change. I guess they felt the Regal-Tajiri squash was more important which would be the matches to decide to cut potentially out of that show. Guess that was done because so much has been made of no resolution to the Regal-Tajiri duo with Regal's turn so they did the angle a few weeks later to tie up that loose end."[8]

Aside from a mention on the 5th November edition of Raw,[6] little reference was made concerning the match, with speculation that the fight was not televised due to its lack of quality.[7] It was not until 17th August 2023 that WWE publicly released the full match on its Facebook page.

See Also

External Link

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 WWE.com detailing Bradshaw's European Championship win and his reign. Retrieved 7 Jan '22
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 Wrestling-Titles detailing the European Championship's history. Retrieved 7 Jan '22
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Online World of Wrestling detailing the Casey segment and the match. Retrieved 7 Jan '22
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Archived WWE.com detailing Christian's European Championship win and reign. Retrieved 7 Jan '22
  5. ↑ Wrestle Talk noting the match was not televised due to time constraints. Retrieved 7 Jan '22
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 411 Mania detailing the 5th November 2001 edition of Raw, noting the European Championship win on SmackDown! was cut due to time constraints. Retrieved 7 Jan '22
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 WhatCulture detailing Christian's unaired win, possibly cut due to being deemed of low quality. Retrieved 7 Jan '22
  8. ↑ 12th November 2001 edition of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter reporting on the match being scrapped due to time constraints. Retrieved 30 Oct '23
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