When someone discovers that several online betting sites allow betting on professional reaction, their initial reaction is one of confusion. Isn’t it scripted? Aren’t the results predetermined?
Well, yes, it is indeed scripted, and the results are predetermined. However, only a very select few people know the results to each match. When it comes to WWE for example, the likes of founder Vince McMahon, Head of Creative Triple H, and the wrestlers who are performing will know the result. The rest of the world is kept in the dark.
And this is exactly why establishments take bets on the world of professional wrestling. Companies such as Bovada have been providing stellar soccer, NBA, NHL, and NFL betting lines for a number of years. Now, however, they also accept bets on WWE.
WWE Backlash 2023
And one only needs to take a look at the surprising number of shocking results over the years where the bookies have their predictions completely wrong. Usually in the world of WWE betting, there is one extremely short-priced favorite and a heavy underdog. But if anyone checked the betting odds for the recent WWE Backlash event, which took place on May 6th in San Juan, Puerto Rico, they will have noticed that the favorite did not always win.
At the event, The Bloodline, consisting of Jimmy & Jey Uso and their real-life younger brother Solo Sikoa, were slight (+125) underdogs in their grudge match against former UFC star Matt Riddle and the Undisputed WWE Tag Team Champions Kevin Owens & Sami Zayn (-175). However, it was indeed the trio of brothers who managed to upset the odds to secure victory. There were also victories at the show for the likes of Cody Rhodes (-200), Austin Theory (-200), and music sensation Bad Bunny (-275), all of whom were the slightest of favorites in their respective bouts.
But the Bloodline is not the only underdog pick that has stormed to victory throughout the history of wrestling betting. Here are two of the biggest longshot WWE bets that have won in recent memory.
Brock Lesnar Snaps the Undertaker’s WrestleMania Undefeated Streak
Death. Taxes. The Streak.
Those were the only three things certain in life prior to 2014. Throughout the 20+ years previous, the legendary Undertaker had racked up a whopping 21-0 record at WrestleMania, WWE’s Super Bowl. He had defeated household names such as Triple H, Shawn Michaels, CM Punk, Batista, Randy Orton, Edge, Kane, Big Show, and many more.
Every year the Deadman’s match at the showcase was always a showcase event. While everyone knew deep down that he would never lose on the Grandest Stage of Them All, fans allowed themselves to believe, for a short while at least, that the referee’s hand could potentially hit the mat three consecutive times and bring an end to the greatest streak in the history of sports entertainment. Well, at WrestleMania 30, the impossible happened.
Heading into a blockbuster bout against former UFC Heavyweight Champion Brock Lesnar, The Undertaker was a -6600 betting favorite. To put that into context, you would need to put $6,600 down to win $100. The Beast Incarnate meanwhile was a +1100 underdog, meaning a $100 bet on Lesnar would return $1100 on top of your stake.
So, with those odds, it is obvious, isn’t it? After an exhilarating match, The Undertaker will continue on and extend his record-breaking winning streak to 22-0. Right? Wrong.
After a vicious beatdown from the Beast Incarnate, Lesnar landed a third and definitive F5 that laid out the Deadman once and for all. When the referee’s hand hit the mat for a third time, you could hear a pin drop inside the Mercedes-Benz Super Dome in New Orleans. But the unthinkable had happened, and the streak was over.
Roman’s Reign of Terror Continues at the Expense of Cody Rhodes
Another shocker was delivered as recently as last month, once again on the grand stage of WrestleMania. Since August 2020, Roman Reigns has been operating in God Mode, and he has laid waste to anyone that has dared challenge him in the two-and-a-half years since. He has formed the Bloodline faction alongside his real-life cousins and installed perennial bad guy Paul Heyman as his special counsel.
The results since have spoken for themselves, and throughout the course of 2022, it looked as though Roman’s reign of terror showed no sign of ending. That was until the Royal Rumble. At that event in San Antonio’s Alamodome, Cody Rhodes won the famed 30-man over-the-top-rope Royal Rumble match to punch his ticket to a first-ever WrestleMania main event. And many, the bookies included, thought that he was the man chosen to end the record-breaking reign of the Tribal Chief.
Heading into the recent encounter at SoFi stadium, the challenger to Reigns’ Undisputed WWE Universal Championship was a -300 betting favorite, while the champion was a +225 underdog. But if WWE fans have learned one thing over the last three years, it is that you never bet against the Head of the Table.
It looked as though the oddsmakers would be proved right when the American Nightmare hit Reigns with Cross Roads and looked to be en route to victory. However, in a stunning turn of events, Solo Sikoa would nail Rhodes with the Samoan Spike while the referee was distracted, leaving Reigns to hit the spear and ensure that his record-breaking title reign powers on toward 1,000 days.