Kevin Nash’s last match was not the best of his career, but it could have been so much more if he had been cleared in time to face the former WWE Champion
Whilst Kevin Nash‘s last full match was technically the 2014 Royal Rumble, we will not be considering that his final match.
Many legends have had one last hurrah in the Royal Rumble, entering as a surprise legend appearance before being swiftly eliminated. Getting one last pop is the most important part for the legends, and is the last step for most en-route to the WWE Hall of Fame.
Kevin Nash’s last match in WWE (not counting Royal Rumbles) ruined one of the hottest WWE angles in years and cost WWE the chance to capitalise on a superstar in making and launching WWE into the mainstream for the first time in decades.
Kevin Nash Last Match
Kevin Nash’s last match in his career came against long-time friend Triple H in a Ladder match at WWE TLC 2011.
The match had special rules compared to a normal ladder match. This match had a sledgehammer – Triple H’s signature weapon – hanging above the ring in lieu of a championship belt.
Whoever climbed the ladder first and retrieved the weapon would be able to use it against their opponent and have a better chance of winning the match.
This was more reminiscent of the classic “weapon on a pole” matches made famous by Vince Russo’s WCW, something Kevin Nash was a key part of.
However, this match was a lot more well built and entertaining than those matches, due to the two supreme wrestlers in the match.
The match itself was fine. It was better than most people thought it would be, especially with this being Kevin Nash’s first singles match since he faced Abyss in TNA in 2009 (it was also his first WWE match in 8 years).
Triple H won the match after using the sledgehammer to win the match, which went incredibly long as it clocked in at over 18 minutes in length.
Kevin Nash was not the best wrestler in the world in his prime, so at 52 years of age he is well past his prime.
He was always good for a big man, maybe even one of the best of his generation, but that time had gone and that magic did not work against someone who is as large as Triple H. There was no way the fans bought Triple H as the underdog, which is what WWE tried to sell the story of this match as.
While Kevin Nash’s final WWE singles match ended in defeat, it was not always planned that way. He was supposed to face CM Punk during this final run in WWE and his inclusion into CM Punk’s summer storyline ruined one of the most intriguing potential storyline’s in wrestling history.
The Summer of Punk
CM Punk cut his famous Pipe Bomb promo in 2011 which launched him as the new hottest star in WWE. He defeated John Cena at Money in the Bank that year before walking out of the company, with the WWE Championship belt in tow.
He returned a week later as the new hero to the masses and started a feud with Cena as the new “Voice of the Voiceless”.
He would lose the belt to an Alberto Del Rio Money in the Bank cash in at Summerslam 2011, after being viciously attacked by a returning Kevin Nash to set up a feud between the two former WWE Champions.
The rivalry began then, but soon petered out into a confusing mess that benefitted nobody (except Triple H). Kevin Nash vs CM Punk never ended up happening due to Nash not being cleared to wrestle by the time Night of Champions came around.
“I never went into it and WWE never went into it because of the privacy issue. What happened was, because of the wellness program Because my dad died of a heart attack at 36 years old, they do beyond a thorough physical. Well, my heart and everything else was fine, but I’m on Plavix, and Plavix is a blood platelet agulator; they call it a blood thinner.
Kevin Nash on his match with CM Punk not happening
CM Punk ended up wrestling Triple H instead. In a momentously stupid decision, WWE decided that Triple H should defeated the new biggest star in the company, coming out of retirement for the match then dipping back into it once that final bell rang.
Kevin Nash would later confess to texting himself from Triple H’s phone to attach Punk at Summerslam (no, me neither), which would set up Triple H vs Kevin Nash at TLC. Nash was cleared for this match, making the whole Night of Champions ordeal seem entirely pointless and just something to annoy CM Punk with.
Kevin Nash’s last match should have been against CM Punk, but the entire feud ended up being another way for Triple H to get one over on Punk and have one last match with his friend.
While the Triple H match was Kevin Nash’s last WWE match, his alter-ego Diesel would wrestle one last time three years later. He was a surprise entrant into the 2014 Royal Rumble, 20 years after his first ever pay per view match in WWE.
Kevin Nash was later inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame twice. The first was in 2015 as a solo act whilst the second was in 2020, alongside Scott Hall, X-Pac and Hulk Hogan as part of the legendary New World Order (NWO) stable.