The Worst of Wrestling in 2023 

Stop letting dirt sheets manipulate you

​@@dkmenace1990 fans weird tho. 😅.

@@dkmenace1990 That's how I felt at the time and since we have seen that's not the case 'Thank god'

I mean, Vince kinda sorta was back in that vacuum between Wrestlemania and the Endeavor merger. Gotta love Vince now having a boss who tells him to stay in his lane, though.

I imagine a lot of the rage towards that Raw was influenced in part by WM39 Night Two and Roman retaining the title through a lame finish, and what seemed like WWE immediately demoting Cody Rhodes with the start of the Brock Lesnar feud (although that turned out well for Cody in hindsight, given how said feud turned out).

Yeah, sadly the legacy of one of wrestling's most intriguing creative minds is going to be forever riddled with just the most baffling decisions, and I get why WWE would sugar coat history in any documentaries or match collections going forward but it'll leave a bitter taste in my mouth for sure.

I agree. WWE released a lot of Brays matches on RU-vid to honor his legacy but as a fan it reeks of mishandling and misjudgment. Vince never got fully behind Bray. They can sugar coat it all they want, fans know he deserved better.

I agree. WWE released a lot of Brays matches on RU-vid to honor his legacy but as a fan it reeks of mishandling and misjudgment. Vince never got fully behind Bray. They can sugar coat it all they want, fans know he deserved better.

I agree. WWE released a lot of Brays matches on RU-vid to honor his legacy but as a fan it reeks of mishandling and misjudgment. Vince never got fully behind Bray. They can sugar coat it all they want, fans know he deserved better.

I agree. WWE released a lot of Brays matches on RU-vid to honor his legacy but as a fan it reeks of mishandling and misjudgment. Vince never got fully behind Bray. They can sugar coat it all they want, fans know he deserved better.

LA Knight being the only person to benefit from feuding with Bray Wyatt while also being his last rival is kinda poetic in a way

That’s true.

And I think it's one of those ideas easy to blast in hindsight but also one that represents a risk we want promotions to take, knowing some such risks will flop as this one did

I honestly enjoyed the pitch black match. I was watching it with my friends and we enjoyed it. I was also a huge mark and waiting every second to see what would happen with Uncle Howdy. I do understand the lighting making everything worse visually and respect others' opinion, but I enjoyed it.

LA would've looked good had he been visible

NXT women’s division has been hampered so much by them. Cora who looked to be winning the title just went down. It all sucks

Admitting that women have susceptibility to ACL injuries does not contradict that they are on the same level as athletes with men. It’s in now way PC to say many women may deal with ACL problems. It’s just as important to also point out however also that all bodies across both gender are different and that being a woman inherently does not mean their ACL may cause problems, just that there’s a more likely chance unless they are bodily more unique (as the same for all men who may differe from the average male body). All that to say, it’s not ALL women but it’s likely for most and should be evaluated on an individual level than just a gendered one.

The women’s division in almost every company has been on a bit of a rough patch in general over the last year. Between injuries, bad booking, or just lack of star power.

Also I’ve never seen too many ever call saying that women are more likely to get ACL injuries as misogynistic and get called out by “PC people”. It’s like saying how men are more likely to get heart attacks or diabetes (both true), it’s just a thing with body types (which can differ for those of either sex or even more so intersex people on a masculine and feminine body type spectrum).

TNA and NXT (even with certain injuries like Cora Jade just a week ago) has been holding strong id argue and doing very well for a long time now, firing on all cyclinders.

100% believe they never had the deal and just did something controversial to give a reason why they didn't get it.

I'm guessing it would have been higher if NWA was a bigger deal, but it's a fifth-tier company at best.

My theory is that CW was just stringing Billy along as a tactic in their WWE negotiations, and the a-cola incident was just an excuse to break their promises to him.

i don`t think CW ever wanted NWA, they just used them to get WWE deal

I suspect the only reason it wasn't is that Endeavor went "HAHAHA NO, YOU'RE NOT ON CREATIVE, VINCE" within about a month.

Best moment brock roman cody drama i like that

Boy, this one has turned even more sour over the last week or so...

He moves like goofy on muscle relaxers.

It's hilarious to watch him run the ropes, it's almost sarcastic.

I've seen refrigerators that were more mobile than Tyrus

He's the best wrestler since Rick Flair you just hate him because he supports that mormon dude who definitely isn't trying to exploit victims of sex trafficking to make money.

Holy sh*t😂😂😂

The kindest thing one could say about the Texas chainsaw Death match. At the absolute very least it made money for charity.

"it just stops wrestling from being treated like a legitimate thing" bruh there's probably 50 things minimum that happened before the Cinnamon Toast Crunch entrance that made wrestling look like an even bigger joke

I couldn't agree more. I was at WrestleMania night 1 and saw Rey come out for what should have been an emotional blood feud with his own son, instead the giant stadium was lit up like a rainbow (it was seriousy so much worse in person) and Rey comes out happily dancing with a piece of cereal. It completely took me out of the moment. Honorable mention to the women's WarGames match being completely spammed by Ruffles. Fuck corporate sponsorships in general, especially in wrestling.

So are we gonna ignore that even sports in general gets sponsorships?

You mean the AEW vs WWE vs Cornette sucking club?

Thank You! Tribalism is killing pro wrestling.. It is! I can't enjoy anything about pro wrestling without some person saying *"This company sucks and you shouldn't watch them"* Like damn it man! Like what you like but damn if you don't like it move on and don't watch it.. Let others enjoy it for a change while you enjoy what you like..

I like how aew fans will always cry about tribalism only when wwe fires back in any way they can throw stones in their glass houses unimpeded though

@@kenrickeason Yeah. I am sick of going on videos that otherwise have nothing to do with AEW and there’s at least one comment making fun of it! It’s like these people need to do it or they’ll literally die!

Yeah, the worst thing about any sporting event is definitely that fans have a team they like that they want to see win.

Nah man put that thing in the best list, think of all the memes we’ve had because of Vince’s squirrel tail

Come on. That mustache was great. He looked like the stereotypical bad guy in a silent film.

Nah objectively yes it is awful but there's just too much comedy mined from it

I want pictures of spiderman!!!!

“its 2024, we dont have time for respect or humility or even basic human courtesy…you either think like i do or i shit on your existence, hmph!”

All of this, yes. No side is innocent, Tony should have never waited till after it spilled in front of him AGAIN to do something.

@@Joecbg100 He should've never hired Punk. He's proven time and time again he can't act like an adult

@@hyperchord It's morons like you that the OP is talking about.

Got it in one! all that was needed was a neutral negotiator (or backstage enforcer, worked back in the day didn't it) to tell both parties to wind their fucking necks in during the early stages, and it would have perhaps played out differently I hate that this played out the way it did, I hate what it's done to fans, but 2024 seems to have most of that stuff in the rear view mirror and we can hopefully look forward to some great wrestling and storylines this year on all si... ....what do you mean the head of one of the companies is acting like a complete and utter manchild on social media and showing his whole ass to the world?

And the most of the Bloodline storyline got boring as a result too imho

@@mrlaidback83 Yep, I really don't know why they thought they could stretch it out for another year. I'm so sick of hearing "finish the story" that I could puke.😆

I remember the discourse of people saying "Cody didn't work HARD ENOUGH, isn't READY!" and then others were like "JEY WILL WIN IT AT SUMMERSLAM DUH" and then, well, look how that turned out.

@@TravisBroskipeople were saying Cody wasn’t ready before the match and when he did people changed their gears

You got it wrong @platinumpagoda3079. Not defending the belt all the time makes it more prestigious.

I agree that's certainly a possibility, but the thing is we just don't know when he started to get sick. It's entirely possible that he was perfectly fine and at 100% during that entire time and only became sick sometime well after he had his last televised match.

It’s tragic he died. But let’s be honest. His entire return was the shits. Rambling promos and stuff that made no sense. There’s a reason he was let go.

@@choke9270 I suppose it's subjective. I liked his promos, and felt it was clear it was held back because he couldn't go forward with the storyline due to health issues (there were stories about his health issues the whole time, but we obviously didnt know how serious things were) - I also really liked the Fiend, and felt that was mostly held back by poor booking. That said, I've always loved a bit of "camp" in my wrestling - I'm all for crazy supernatural shit and the like. Hell, Papa Shango was one of my favourite wrestlers when I was like 8 years old lol. Anyhow, to each their own and all that.

Yeah Bray had many many huge chances to be creative and got several huge pushes. He was pretty dreadful and his ideas consistently sucked .

@@mikeygraves16 It was sometime before Wrestlemania 39, it was reported that Bray got sick which was why he couldn’t show up at WM and why Lashley vs Wyatt didn’t happen.

I'm genuinely confused why he was given a title shot. He was boring as hell when he won the belt, and he was never really a guy who I saw holding gold at any point in his career. He had nothing going for him besides being a fox news guy

@@Gammera2000 They should have known when he ran the ropes.

I think it's unfortunately accurate that Wyndham Rotunda's artistic vision for Bray Wyatt in the WWE was too "out there" for the medium. There's a certain amount of explanation and payoff required before fans stop paying attention because it's just Bray doing some weird shit again that will never be explained and then he'll move on to his next bit of weird shit. He needed the wrestling equivalent of a writing partner to edit his ideas into cohesive stories.

Me too. The night Jay died this 41 year old man cried like a baby.

Like 50 years old lol. So is edge. You’re either in shape or you’re not.

Except Tyrus was on TV every week with the belt. And, yeah, it was Fox. But there is still a large percent of wrestling fans who are White conservatives. I'm willing to bet there is actually a positive connection to Tyrus on TV and the CW originally picking up NWA because, if nothing else, Tyrus was getting publicity for the title. That made it a known brand.

I didn't know Morishima broke Danielson's orbital bone, I just knew he detached his retina

Long ago there was a rumor were Billy Corgan offered the NWA as a "bonus" to CW while negotiating the rights for his docu-reality show

The ppv itself was terrible

Batman Forever vibes

😂😂😂

Which can work fine if done right. But as people have pointed out, Jericho has basically become the same thing that made him leave WCW.

@@ryukami404 And he's the exact kind of person that he had a literal WrestleMania feud with, i.e. "The Old Timer Who Doesn't Know When to Stop Appearing". At least Ricky Steamboat was retired for years before his amazing trio of matches during that time, but Jericho is 100% what he was insulting Piper & Snuka (and Flair, too) for being.

@@ryukami404 seeing jericho red faced and slurring his words during a promo and it not be a part of an angle should have been a wake up call for jericho himself and tony khan.

He's ok at commentary just let him do that and maybe be on the creative team Tony

@@bigdaddythunder1982where’s Tony?

I agree with this take. TK not showing a backbone cost the company a surefire moneymaking program. He should have made the Elite and Team Punk sit down and work together.

Exactly. In the end, the lion's share of the blame falls on Tony for caring more about being everyone's buddy than being a business owner. The Bucks and Jungle Jerkoff should have been reigned in long ago and told to behave or take a walk. Punk needs anger management counselling. He was right to be mad, especially after going to Tony about his issues and seeing nothing done, but he ended up making himself look bad when he was in the right.

@@DerekScottBland ....what is this revisionist trash? We don't know what Tony did behind closed doors, but everyone has been ready to speculate. We don't know what Tony did to handle it because no one to this day has any clue? What is it with people making up this narrative like we know what happened with how Tony handled it? We were immediately told there were NDAs, so shit got serious enough that it was taken to court and handled. So we'll never know. And tell me you're being tribal without so many words (misplaced mind you). No one had a negative thing to say about The Bucks or Jungle Boy prior to the CM Punk blow out. The biggest controversy The Bucks had was the Booker issue backstage (which they admitted fault to and Booker said wasn't a big deal by any stretch). But what's this garbage about Punk having a right to be mad? Punk was made THE GUY of the company. Punk got anything he wanted and STILL acted like an asshole. Banning people from the show who didn't agree with him, etc. He made a toxic work environment then bitched about the work environment being toxic. Holy revisionist history do you guys just re-write things to fit your point of view. We have it documented from multiple people about what Punk's done backstage. Yet every pro-Punk "leak" from his camp was refuted and ultimately disproven every time. How do you guys come up with the mental gymnastics to ignore proof just to complain about AEW? Punk was known to have these issues back in IWA-MS, ROH, TNA, FCW, WWE, and now AEW. He's always been the asshole but since he's WWE, people want to act like it never happened and he was some poor victim.

this is the correct take

It really feels like to me that a lot of people wanting to pick sides in the CM punk situation have determined that one side started it and because that side started it, they are at fault for everything that happened afterwards and it's just, not how life works. Who knows what really started the bad blood between The Elite and Punk but I can say that both sides are to blame for what happened in their own ways and hopefully something like this doesn't happen again in any company. What happened was childish, could've been handled better by everyone involved and overall just served as a massive distraction that made an already toxic IWC a biohazard.

My introduction to Eddie Kingston and Ricky Starks

@@claymathewselevator8121 its how I first saw them too. And Thunder Rosa, and Eli Drake.

I know people love to say NWA was always terrible but pre-pandemic it was top tier wrestling.

​@@SpaceDragonX783it was probably my favourite wrestling show at one point. It was just an easy show to watch and i liked the more stripped back production. Nowadays.....oof

The pre pandemic era was great and as someone who grew up watching wccw, mid south wrestling, and JCP tapes that my grandfather owned I loved the old school aesthetic but once they're big names left, into the fire was gone and cornette being removed from commentary I tuned out when I saw that Tyrus became champion I knew I made the correct decision and as much as I liked her in TNA velvet sky is insufferable on commentary

I'm not even a Cody fan, and even I felt robbed. Roman's reign in 2023 was very sluggish and plodding, it could and should have ended at WrestleMania.

Not to mention the aftermath was clear that Reigns didn't need the title to keep things interesting.

​@@youngdolo8Same. I think Cody kind of sucks, but to watch him lose at WrestleMania even I was like, WTF?!

InNJPW’s defense, Naito finally won the gold and got to do the LIJ roll call at WK, hopefully he gets a long reign while Sanada solidified himself as main even talent after rebuilding from his Wrestle-1 stint

As a fan of NJPW I agree with everything you said, but I do believe that they will focus more on the younger talent this year imho.

TNA especially after hard to kill last week. I think that ppv in particular is gonna be remembered as one of their best.

@@swagz262 Yup, fingers crossed they can keep that momentum going

It was a year very similar to gaming: Some of the best games ever (that is no hyperbole) came out this year, and also some of the worst crap (that is also no hyperbole) came out the same year.

@@misteraskman3668 And to think people assume gaming and wrestling have no connections what so ever. Have they not seen Kenny Omega ever?! Lol

Nice rise and fall of wcw quote ✌️it’s very fitting.

Punk was fired.

@@daniel___________9129 Hard to not leave when you get fired.

​@@daniel___________9129its still leaving the company.

typical delusional aew marks ..things were not great before brawl out ....the company was still in the red

Holy shit this is the best comment I’ve read in a long time! I salute you sir!

After hearing the story from Col. DeBeers about the time the Iron Sheik asked a cab driver for the White Gimmick, I can never not refer to cocaine as such ever again 😄

@@WrestlingWithWregret I can definitely see what you mean. Also sucks that we lost The Iron Sheik last year too.

Exactly, this wasn't really that bad to put in a top 8, top 16 maybe

I personally liked the Yakuza/Like a Dragon match (probably because I'm a huge fan of the series) but I agree with you about the 2 matches. Those were hot garbage.

Mass Releases always happen

Thought that too, and for someone like Dolph, his career has been pretty stale and this is probably going to be the best thing for him, plus compared to other years it wasn't as much, and I don't even think they claimed it was due to budget reasons this time. @@dkmenace1990

Loses but looses

That entry is filled with puns 😂

TNA and gators fan? You get a like a from me

Exactly, this one really wasn't that bad. could've had way better ones to put on here

Thank u, I'm so done with him

Helps as well that the releases generally affected those who aren’t on TV or those who just needed to shine elsewhere and inject the indies with much needed talent. And then there’s Top Dolla (doing really well in TNA) and Matt Riddle (with MLW)

I never thought of that regarding Vince seizing control of creative. It certainly makes sense now that I think about it.

Asuka has been a complete afterthought with no actual character development since she started her Kana look. Bianca became the longest reigning champion so her retaining in WM was the right call

I don't know how true this is, but I heard that Vince actually wanted Roman to drop the belts but HHH wanted Roman to stay champion. Like I said, I don't know if this is what happened, but if so we can't blame Vince on that one

Not yet

How that finish will be received a year out from it will depend on whether or not we see vindication for Cody at WMXL. That said, even that seems uncertain now, with a certain Hollywood star barging in and calling his (as-of-yet undetermined) shot.

roman's a bigger draw than cody at this time ......WWE is not a mark company to put a title on buckaroos to please niche audience

@@prj7894 Roman is such a big draw they won't even put on TV.

It was the right call. Reigns as a part timer is still bigger than Rhodes while Rhodes needs multiple t-shirts to keep his momentum for his filler feuds on Raw.

​@dkmenace1990 You know how someone can become a big star? By winning big matches. Of course Roman is the biggest star. Anyone in his position would be if they never had to put another guy over.

@@mrcnub maybe Cody should have went for the WHC for now and keep himself busy instead of his "finish the story" smark talk. Roman Reigns has still been hot in levels that Cody has yet to reach.

He called them unfounded rumors and said that's why he wouldn't address them. That sounds like shutting it down as false