Recently I was thinking about all the times a person lost a match but received a Title Match on the next PPV and the defeat wasn’t to the champion nor was there interference from the champion and to make matters worse, the person who won that particular match wasn’t even in the Title Match.
The ones I could think off are:
Diesel losing to The Undertaker at WM 12 but challenged Shawn Michaels at In Your House 7
Steve Austin losing to Triple H at No Way Out 01 but challenged The Rock at WM 17
Kurt Angle losing to Triple H at Unforgiven 2000 but challenged The Rock at No Mercy 2000
Hulk Hogan losing to The Rock at WM 18 but challenged Triple H at Unforgiven 02
Ryback losing to Mark Henry at a WM but challenged John Cena at the following PPV
Any others?
AJ Styles lost to Chris Jericho at WM 32 but challenged Roman Reigns at Payback 2016
AJ Styles lost to Finn Balor at TLC 2017 but challenged Jinder Mahal on the next Smackdown and won
Taker over Diesel was probably b/c WWF knew Diesel was leaving and didn’t want him going over someone who was staying. Could say the same for jobbing to Shawn Michaels.
The Hulkster lost to Rock to put the new generation over, but his overwhelming popularity at WM18 forced WWE to “Strike while the iron is hot” and put the belt on him, for one more feel-good moment of Hulkamania runnin’ wild, brother.
Diesel was also the heel. Taker must pose pal.
As for him getting a Title shot at the next PPV. He was the only top challenger available. Bret was on vacation and Taker was side tracked by Mankind. So Diesel challenging made perfect sense.
Austin also won the Rumble so he was getting the title match regardless. Loss didn’t hurt him any. That match was fantastic so I might have to watch it again soon