25 Worst Wrestling Moments Of 2025

From failed comebacks to unbridled backstage chaos, literal Molotov cocktails in AEW and

supernatural zombie crews in WWE, 2025 has been another wild, wild year in the wild, wild world

of pro wrestling. It would probably be over the top to call it bad on the balance of things

but boy does it feel a little weirder than it did a couple of years ago. In AEW, the on-screen

vibes are good, certainly far higher than they were in 2023 or 2024, but this has not translated

into better business. Far from it, in fact. WWE, meanwhile, conspired to mess up the most

eagerly anticipated heel turn of all time. That was far from the company's only shortcoming in

a year that suggested that the Paul Levesque honeymoon period is long gone. There are always

highs and lows in wrestling. These companies produce a mind-boggling amount of content each

year, so naturally, some of it is going to suck. Today, we take a look at what sucked the most

in 2025, from the perversely entertaining to the stuff that had you questioning your entire fandom

and everything in between. So grab your popcorn, pop open a crisp bottle of haterade, and enjoy

the ride. I'm Andy from WhatCulture, and these are the 25 Worst Wrestling Moments of 2025

Number 25, Triple H Has Bad News for New Orleans. Perhaps this is conspiratorial

but after nearly three decades of sniping between The Rock and Triple H, it's hard not to look upon

every big swing they take as being intended for the other's face. When Dwayne Johnson announced

that WrestleMania 42 was going to take place in New Orleans back in February, he couldn't have

known that everything was going to change. WWE ended up moving the event to Las Vegas

which also ruled out any possibility of WrestleMania 43 going to New Orleans as well

when that show is now booked for Saudi Arabia. It makes the bombastic announcement from The Rock

all the more cringe-worthy, particularly in contrast to Triple H's apologetic, corporate-speak walk back on the May 23rd Smackdown. There, he repeated a change that

had controversially been made public 24 hours earlier before offering Money in the Bank 2026

as a tame replacement for the City losing Mania. The difference in tone and presentation between

these two talks couldn't have been starker, and although surely not by design, Johnson looked

like something of a snake oil salesman compared to the suited, booted and nuanced Levesque

Regardless of who won that particular optics war, WWE lost yet another one with their fanbase

Vegas was and will be again an incredible host city for Mania, but the unprecedented venue shift

in the chase of dollars was yet another example of WWE shamelessly alienating the emotions and

wallets of its core audience. 24. Eddie Kingston's AEW Return I cannot believe I am saying this, but as I record this, AEW has somehow conspired to fumble an

Eddie Kingston comeback of all the things in the world they could possibly fumble

At All Out 2025, Kingston returned to the ring after a whopping 17 months away in a wonky match

with Big Bill. The build had already been criticised for how frustratingly low key the whole thing was

It was as if AEW simply didn't understand how much The Mad King means to their fanbase

how much he was missed, and how valuable he was to a weekly world that was notably lacking

several of its top stars. Within weeks of the whiffed Urican that scored him the win over Bill

Kingston was stuck in the mire of tag matches with Hook, who I like, but come on. The race to put

Hook under yet another wing was annoying, as was the choice to so quickly maroon Kingston on the

B-Show collision without so much as one lengthy promo on Dynamite to show just how back he was

The normalisation of a top star is indicative of wider problems as much as anything else

and Kingston's return should have been a home run. Instead, it started not with a roar, but with a

whimper. Number 23, the worst botch of the year. There are botches and flubs, and then there are

botches and flubs that result in even more botches and flubs, talent getting hurt, and live televised

made events collapsing so badly that the audience turns on everyone involved. This was the case on

the September 26th episode of SmackDown, when, during a WWE Women's Title triple threat between

champion Tiffany Stratton, Nia Jax, and Jake Cargill, an accidental injury resulted in a chain

of events that made a laughingstock of all three and referee Daphne LaShawn. A solid match completely

fell apart at the finish when Stratton was late to a kickout save while Cargill had pinned Jax

Jax had no choice but to kick out, otherwise she would look like a buffoon, but then Stratton

attacked anyway, rolling onto Jax for yet another pin attempt even though the irresistible force had

already recovered. LaShawn realised that she was counting and held her free before her hand could

hit the mat, presumably in some telepathic hope that Naya would roll her shoulder again

She did, but not for what felt like an ice age on television and presumably in the building

Of note, all of this took place minutes after Jade Cargill had been bloodied hard way. She was

launched into the steel steps by Jax, and based on the size of the gash that opened up on her head

was lucky to escape the ordeal without a more serious injury. Number 22, The End of the Hurt Syndicate and MJF Story

Low-key controversy has followed the Hurt Syndicate around AEW since they got there

and it has opened up an interesting debate between fans about the way they would like to see talent conduct their backstage business

There is more than a dash of old-school mentality in the manner MVP Bobby Lashley and Shelton Benjamin have politically protected themselves

But when Moms of Build between the group and MJF was flushed down the toilet in one segment in August

it felt as if the contentiousness was now coming at the cost of good creative

To recap, MJF wanted in the Hurt Syndicate, the three members teased a thumbs up, thumbs down bit that got over massively in the building, MJF was allowed in, and all seemed rosy in the garden

Then MJF scored a world title shot while Bobby and Shelton were tag team champions

Then out of nowhere, the original trio all got completely sick of MJF and booted him out

And that was it. No follow-up, nothing. Barring an unrealistic and now unwanted long game, the whole thing is something that everybody's got to pretend just never happened

21. Hurt Syndicate Don't Lose at Forbidden Door Bobby Lashley and Shelton Benjamin's run as AEW Tag Team Champions flattered to deceive

Initially cast as a new-age version of the Road Warriors thanks to their massive size advantage

over pretty much everyone else in the company, their squashes were too competitive and too long

to properly do the job. Then came countless stories of the Syndicate's apparent unwillingness to do

jobs which hurt suspension of disbelief and any reason to invest in the fiction without thinking

about the facts. Forbidden Door 2025 was a confluence of all three issues. A well-booked

tournament to determine the number one contenders brought FTR and Brodido together for an epic

finale that ended in a draw. This put both teams into the final for a freeway dance against Lashley

and Benjamin at Forbidden Door, and fans cynically assumed this was political protection to save the

title holders from doing a job. But if it were only that simple. Brought into a feud with Ricochet

and the demand, the Hurt Syndicate were dragged into a brawl mid-match, meaning that they weren't

even on screen for the deciding fall. A fall which was unfortunately badly botched when Cash

Wheeler was late for a save ahead of the actual recount. Brodito became champions and are, in truth

one of AEW's biggest success stories this year. It's just unfortunate then that the moment that

made it so was so awkwardly done. 20. Swing and a miss for Funda Rosa

Megan Bain and Penelope Ford. There has never been quite enough focus on the AW women's division

since the company launched, and while 2025 brought yet more enormous strides in the right direction

a lack of organisation brought disastrous consequences for Funda Rosa, Megan Bain

Penelope Ford and Chris Statlander in February. The spot was seemingly simple enough, and maybe

that's why it stuck out as such an embarrassment. The heels were laying a beating on Statlander

prompting Thunder Rosa to arrive on the scene with a chair and chase them all off

Only, they didn't run away, they didn't powder, and this forced the former women's champion to

simply hold the chair and wobble it around a little bit in their direction until they calmly

left the ring. Ford was so unbothered that she appeared to wrestle the chair away from Rosa

who couldn't let go lest she look weaker still. The subsequent tug of war was absolutely excruciating

It looked as though they'd successfully called the babyface's bluff, and as with all flubs in

wrestling, it happened while everyone was standing completely still. Per all reliable reports on the matter it was completely by accident rather than a case of a work becoming a shoot or an attempt to bury anybody but the talent were left paying the price for multiple damaging miscommunications Number 19 The Bayley Nervous Breakdown Character

In one of the stupider WWE plot developments since Vince McMahon buggered off in 2022

Bayley's failure to help Lyra Valkyria win back the Intercontinental Championship from Becky Lynch

coinciding with a personal losing streak resulted in the role model experiencing a serious and visible case

of split personality disorder. This was communicated by a video package in which we could all hear the voices in her head

but the rest of the roster, including her concerned friend Valkyria, could not

When Bayley's scattershot behaviour made it to the arenas, Lyra was at least the one who flagged it with Adam Pearce

But he didn't care, really, as he tends not to when females on the roster are booked to express their concerns

Meanwhile, the former Intercontinental Champion found herself on the wrong end of the role model's acid tongue

just to be embraced minutes later by the hugger. Everybody could see what was happening now. So the script flipped and Valkyria herself was the one

who was randomly confused again. Breaking fourth walls and rules alike, the story was a reminder

of the quality bar gradually rising over the years. Even in the cartoon world of WWE, these

felt like two animated characters just waiting for a weekly reset. It was the kind of stuff that Vince

came up with and boy, do we not need any more of that ever again

18. Kyle Lore The 7th October episode of Dynamite featured a match between Kyle Fletcher and Kyle

O'Reilly. Fletcher's TNT title was on the line, it followed the standard AEW formula as well of a

good TV match, and there was the added bonus sort of Don Callis family lore. The two Kyles had

wrestled once before and they were greeted with Kiiiiiiiiiile chants in the arena. So O'Reilly

decided to contribute something to social media that took a largely satisfied audience and split

it in half. Revealing some preposterous Kyle lore hours before the bell, O'Reilly's post got so

deep into magical mystical bollocks that it inadvertently got sections of the audience

asking far bigger questions than who would win the title match. Here, I'll read some of it to you

Once upon a time, there was an ancient kingdom known as Kyletron, named after the original Kyle

who was a mighty and just warrior renowned by his people for outlawing the abuse of baby

oil in wrestling. Oh, okay, okay, I think that's quite enough, thank you

The rambling Instagram post continued with talk of an evil dark mage brother named Lyle

and other such nonsense that probably should have been left in the drafts folder

To top it off, plenty of fans speculated that the entire thing may have been generated by

AI, just in case it wasn't already unbearable enough. The whole thing was played for geeky laughs and it sucked any juice out of the TNT title fight

Humor is extremely subjective, perhaps the most subjective thing in the world

And if you were on the negative end of this subjectivity, this sh** was unbearable and cringe. 17

Kit Wilson's Toxic Masculinity Persona At the start of the year, Pretty Deadly were

a useful unit for WWE, serving as an over-act that other tag teams could beat en route to

winning the titles. of people won the gold, lots of people thus needed to score a win over Pretty Deadly

and as warm comedic foils, the British duo stayed over enough to keep the machine rolling

With a loss to Fraxium in May, it came to a screeching halt, and Kit Wilson's rubbish

comeback on Smackdown was disappointing and retrograde as an outcome. On the off chance that

WWE Unreal didn't highlight the lack of diversity at the company's writing table enough, just listen

to the words coming out of Kit Wilson's mouth before he's thrown through the walls or wheeled

down some stairs. Basically, it's a bunch of creative team fossils misplacing terms they've

read on social media to take pops at younger or different portions of the fanbase who perhaps

didn't like everything that was being served to them by the market leader. Customers, mind you

Customers who are consuming at a stronger rate than ever and being charged the most in history

for the privilege. History always repeats. When wrestling companies cool off, they always take

shots at the audience. Potshots at the fans aren't exactly top of the priority list after all when

the customers are satisfied, and this is the kind of rubbish that should really be set on fire

somewhere. Speaking of which, number 16, MJF threatens to set Mark Briscoe on fire. More than

just the millionth case of unreported attempted murder in pro wrestling, this particular near

fatal incident was more egregious because of its bizarre placement as the emotional climax of an

otherwise very good program between Hangman Page and MJF. The salt of the earth had been needling

Paige, going back to before he even regained the belt, in a cute callback to their original

exchanges back in 2019. After Hangman beat Moxley on the same night that MJF earned a contract

the two came together, but Paige, the smart babyface, convinced Max to use his shot at an

upcoming Forbidden Door pay-per-view rather than saving it for a more opportune cowardly time. MJF

said yes, and the match was made. Then, just a week later, and in a preposterous development

By threatening to burn Mark Briscoe alive, MJF got his shot back, went back on his original deal

and forced the champion to comply within his own weighted stipulations. The nature of the threat was dumb, but the damage it did to the audience's trust in AEW's creative process was even worse

Bad booking at the top of the card in an era where AEW could still do with convincing audience that this sort of thing was long gone

Number 15. The Charlotte Flair-Tiffany Stratton promo. For some, a glimpse into the chaotic version of WWE they'd rather watch, and for others

a dim and distant reminder of Catastrophe's past. The verbal sparring session between Charlotte

Flair and Tiffany Stratton on the 4th April episode of SmackDown was a chilling recollection

of why, sometimes, scripts aren't so bad. Some typical turn-taking very quickly got nasty

Both dove deep into the other's personal lives, with Stratton referencing Flair's divorces before

bailing, resulting in Charlotte making a crack about the champion's partner, Ludwig Kaiser

being in her DMs. The barbs felt over the line, and the report soon emerged that very little of

this segment played out as was planned. Stratton later noted that she believed Charlotte didn't

expect just how rough things were going to get. It was, however, totally telegraphed. A satellite

back and forth two weeks prior had been completely derailed by flair. A week after that, it was tiffy

time by necessity. She kept receipts and ultimately left Charlotte looking like quite the fool. The

jagged build had a mixed impact on the feud. Some people fought the match due to the chance of

breaking out into a shoot, while others noted that the lack of trust hadn't exactly been good for

match quality in the past. The gritty but at times sloppy WrestleMania match was a compromise of

outcomes, but never had it looked more in doubt than doing this SmackDown verbal duel

Number 14, MJF and Jeff Jarrett start and end a feud. A program that made sense on paper

the planned storyline between MJF and Jeff Jarrett vanished off the face of AEW's earth after a

terrible promo segment between the two that did just as much damage to Jarrett's planned retirement

run as it did the storyline. It started well enough. In the shadow of Sting's amazing farewell

the previous year and with a John Cena retirement tour also kicking off in the other company

Double J teased his own extended exit before revealing that he'd signed one last contract

as a talent on January 1st. In doing so, he confirmed that he wanted AEW gold, and doubled

down on the ambition by saying that he was going after the World Heavyweight Championship. MJF took

an interest in this, and a week later, he offered The Last Outlaw a deal. Join up with me to get the

title back, and I will give you the first shot. Now a babyface, Double J said no. A week after that

they engaged in a promo exchange so outdated and overthought that the entire program was binned

In a sad tribute to MJF's classic sparring sessions with CM Punk, Jeff responded to various

barbs by calling the former champion's fiancé a Canadian call girl, and much worse, to make his

point, before closing out by saying that MJF was drowning in his own shit. MJF replied with

references to Owen Hart, before Karen Jarrett found herself in the middle and then on the deck

Jeff wrestled only one more match for AEW in the aftermath, losing to Claudio Castagnoli on the

29th of January, while neither wrestler ever brought up their feud again. It was damning

Tony Khan drops very few programs cold, but he dropped this. 13 Jon Moxley kidnaps the Rock and Roll Express It took a long time for the Deathriders storyline to mature into something effective and debate will continue to rage thanks to the brilliance that was Hangman Page crowning as AEW world champion at All In Texas But was it really worth all of this

In his bids to rebuild AEW in his own image, Jon Moxley set about unleashing acts of aggression

upon all the people he deemed responsible for the company's decline. Using the organization as a

babyface institution was as flawed as many of Moxley's own methods, but never did the concept

feel as dead as it did when the world champion kidnapped the Rock and Roll Express to anger-rated

FTR. I mean, what even was Jon Moxley at this point? Was he the ass-kicking hard lad that the

likes of Marina Shafir and Wheeler Yuta would follow into war? Was he the biggest stooge of

them all, masking his insecurity with authoritarian leadership? Or was he, based on this and other

incidents like it, a curious little petty criminal with actions that fell apart underneath any level

of scrutiny? The lack of reaction to Ricky Morton and Robert Gibson's plight was unsurprising but

damning, as was the match that this nonsense was supposed to be selling. Number 12. Mox and Cope at Revolution

It's to AEW's credit that very few matches from the company's year could make any kind of worst

of list. More on that in a few days. Matches are what the companies do best, better than their

opposition, in fact. The effort to maintain where the best wrestle as a legitimate catchphrase is

constant and obvious. And even when the storylines might not create the most anticipation for the

matches, they are at the very least good enough to ensure that the business end of the business

is taken care of. Jon Moxley's Revolution title defence against Adam Copeland was a bleak

rule-proving exception that signified everything so annoyingly flawed about the divisive Death

Riders. The pair worked a slow and drab match with an interference-heavy layout and did so in

the main event of a Revolution pay-per-view with at least two matches that many would have on their

match-of-the-year list. It felt completely incongruous, which in turn made Moxley's mission looked like it would destroy AEW's credibility as a shoot before anything could

be rebuilt as a work. It was topped off by Christian Cage's failed late stage execution

of his title shot contract, a cash-in so alienating in how close it was to WWE that Tony Khan

eventually changed the rules. Moxley ended up beating Cage to win the match, meaning

yay, you got to see Cope vs. Mox again. Goodie. Number 11. Ron Killings returns, and so does R-Truth

Fans care when wrestlers get released, and this is nice. Since the heartless pandemic cuts of 2020's

Black Wednesday, the sentiment towards performers losing their jobs at any time is a strong one

and never was this more prevalent in recent times than when R-Truth's contract wasn't renewed by

WWE in June. The remarkable outpouring of support resulted in protests against WWE that hadn't really

been seen since The Rock took Cody Rhodes' WrestleMania spot in 2024. That move felt like

a political one that Creative Head Triple H was only too happy to reverse. This time, however

he didn't look quite as keen. According to reports, Nick Khan himself reversed the decision

and this was revealed when Truth made a shocking return to the company, doing a tag match pitting John Cena and Logan Paul against Cody Rhodes and Jey Uso at Money

in the Bank. On the Raw after the PLE, Truth, now going by this and his real name, Ron Killings

cut a serious promo and his hair, but just as people had fantasy-booked his insertion into the

the SummerSlam main event, he was shunted right back down the card where he remains to this day

John Cena's babyface turn ended up being a complete reversion for R-Truth as well. It was

if they had both agreed at the same time to retcon just about everything that had happened to them

in the three months prior. Number 10. The post-All-In Texas AEW cooldown. The run-up to All-In Texas was excellent for AEW and bordered on exceptional when it came

to the most creative task of the year. Hangman Page rescuing the AEW World Championship from

Jon Moxley almost justified the stranglehold that the Deathriders story had on the promotion

and the match was absolutely tremendous. But Tony Khan's historic problem with following up once

again reared its ugly head. From the heat of the summer, autumn and winter brought a notable

and frustrating cooldown on dynamite and collision. The pressure of monthly pay-per-views resulted in

a page title reign once again feeling nowhere near as good as it should have been, injuries

and absences to the likes of Will Osprey and Swerve Strickland left massive holes, and every

Every development passing through the show felt like a purposeless breeze rather than

the narrative earthquake the company needed. Eddie Kingston, Pac and Orange Cassidy were three major names that could have addressed

this, but a distinct lack of promotional spark behind their returns reflected badly of the booking

There are in-ring highs but Khan increasingly feels stubborn. He likes what he likes, we know what he likes, and if history repeats itself as much as it

usually does, we might just have to get used to it. 9. The TNA vs NXT storyline The problems with the TNA invasion of NXT

were many, and they existed long before the two sides went to a tepid war on a showdown

special that fell short of even modest expectations. A working relationship had already existed

between TNA and WWE for years, so it was never going to scan as a believable war, but both

sides gave up literally trying seven days before showdown when GM personas Ava and Centino

Morella were booked as best friends, ostensibly just messing with the lives of the wrestlers

on either side. The muddled state of TNA's various title pictures meant that NXT wrestlers holding

TNA gold were on different teams pending their storylines, to the point where plot holes

opened up in the booking and multiple performers looked as if they'd forgotten how to wrestle

in a bunch of botch-laden cross-brand matches. In the aftermath, which by the way ended in a draw, the two sides went back to just working

alongside one another anyway. was solved, with the net positives being entirely to do with TNA's alleged business growth

rather than anything that could simply be enjoyed or engaged with by the viewing audience

WWE trying to elevate TNA to a point where it stifles AEW is a strategy in keeping with

their usual corporate chicanery, but it has hurt the already dubious quality of NXT to

a very large degree. 8. Cody Rhodes vs. John Cena There was the temptation to blame two of the biggest stars in all of wrestling wetting

the bed at WrestleMania on the rapper doing a slow motion run-in at the end, but that

would be letting WWE off the hook. Travis Scott, despite his original enthusiasm, was not cut out for wrestling, but the people

making the decisions within WWE were stupid enough to place so many eggs in his basket

in the first place. His lame interference only buried the lead. Cody Rhodes and newly-heeled John Cena wrestled a chronically boring match that temporarily

damaged the reputations of both men and did more harm in the audience's trust in the creative

process than anything else that had happened in WWE up to that point. Ponderously slow and without

a narrative thread beyond Cena's punches and kicks somehow being enough to keep the prime

American nightmare down, this was a flashback to darker days where the fiction was impossible to

invest in. The reality of the situation got worse too. The furnace atmosphere at the start of the

match had completely gone away by the end and the looping rendition of Scott's Fiend was more

fever dream than dream match, and lord knows I never want to hear that piece of crap song ever

again. The five years it took Scott to get to the ring didn't help either, but the match was already

garbage before he showed up. A quality rematch at Summerslam helped a lot, but the WrestleMania

encounter was an unquestionable artistic low in the careers of both. It's the biggest match of the

year, the WrestleMania Night 2 main event, and they pissed themselves. Number 7. John Cena vs. CM

The long-awaited final showdown between John Cena and CM Punk was theoretically a generational dream rematch

and at the very least a promotional highlight for WWE. A nostalgic callback for longtime fans and a fresh spectacle, this was an open goal that was somehow fired wide

Running the match in Saudi Arabia guaranteed controversy, especially considering Punk's past criticisms of working there

Any story they tried to tell was doomed to be overshadowed by the perception that Punk was being forced to swallow his words

not least when Cena alluded to it going as close to the line as he possibly could without threatening the business relationship

Even without the geographic complications, the creative direction was, in keeping with Cena's heel run in general, a mess

Punk seemed begrudgingly at peace with his lot, as if chasing Cena was worth more than the various principles he once condemned

In response Cena exhausted and insincere recreation of Punk iconic pipe bomb promo suffered from naff delivery and the preposterous sight of Punk selling a Slim Jim table bump for about five minutes The Punk life

response from the voice of the voiceless a week later was pathetically lame and spoke to a man

who could neither check out nor lock in. The match itself was alright, it was something of an over

delivery, but it shouldn't have been given such a low bar to clear in the first place

6. Brock Lesnar's Return Like everything in the Vince McMahon slash WWE sex trafficking lawsuit, the reality of everything

going on behind the scenes with Brock Lesnar's return is far worse than anything as trivial

as some bad wrestling or a bit of nonsensical booking. So, in the interest of keeping this

video strictly about things that happened on screen, let's focus on how Lesnar has looked

since his bewildering return at Summerslam. Surprises draw pops, especially ones as unexpected

as Brock's comeback with the lawsuit still ongoing, so the noise greeting his return was less shocking than many might have considered

The true extent of how phoned in it all was was revealed, however, doing an abysmal face-to-face with Cena's new old best friend, R-Truth

on the September 12th edition of SmackDown. Forgetting and fluffing their lines, the two attempted some bad WWE comedy

Lesnar then battered Truth, split his trousers, and laughed off the whole mess

It sucked. Both performers looked terrible. Cena's inconsistency didn't inspire confidence, but a total lack of stakes and effort from all involved was foreboding to the extreme

This, effectively, was the only in-arena sales pitch for the Cena-Lesnar match that was due to happen at Wrestlepalooza

What could possibly go wrong there, right? 5. Wrestlepalooza A stinker of a show that stood as a monument to the wider creative problems of WWE in 2025

Wrestlepalooza was a spiritual sequel to Raw is Netflix in that it toasted a bold new relationship

with a streaming provider in just about the worst way possible. Everything had problems

The latest Triple H-nerated video package about the history of the company was very well produced

but it contradicted half of the Netflix one that they'd produced in January. AJ Lee and CM Punk's

mixed tag team match with Becky Lynch and Seth Rollins was red hot, but it went way, way too long

Stephanie Vaquer and EOSky's workmanlike effort could hardly be heralded as match of the night when so much of it played out to complete silence

Cody Rhodes doesn't really have bad matches, unless he's wrestling John Cena at Wrestlemania

but this title defense against Drew McIntyre was the weakest outside of that Cena disaster

And speaking of disasters, the Usos looked like they'd never met during their botch-laden mess with Bron Breaker and Bronson Reed

Tellingly, there was near-universal agreement about Wrestlepalooza's lack of quality. In tribal times defined by daily culture wars, most of WWE's base came together to acknowledge that the show simply wasn't good enough

The next few years of television will determine if this was just a blip or the true moment of no return, the creative boom

4. The Rock on Raw is Netflix There's an awful lot of Dwayne Johnson on this year's Worst of list, much like there should have been of him at WrestleMania 41

Ahead of pausing wrestling to promote an Oscar-baiting performance in The Smashing Machine, Dwayne Johnson had a near-devastating impact on two separate WrestleMania money matches when he strolled to the ring to kick off WWE's brand new year on a brand new platform

The Raw is Netflix debut edition of the flagship on January 6th was its own kind of nightmare for reasons also explained elsewhere, but Johnson got it off to a rather fitting start by spouting a load of nonsense and burning his lingering tensions with Cody Rhodes and Roman Reigns to the ground

The American Nightmare got a little hair ruffle ahead of a shared drink backstage, confusing fans who had waited for months to see how the white-hot tension established in 2024 was going to be followed up on

The answer was not at all. The Rock pinned Cody Rhodes at WrestleMania 40

24 hours after, Cody finished the story at Roman's expense. What would come of this was potentially captivating until the Great One bizarrely capsized the boat, attaboying the Tribal Chief following his win over Solo Sokoa

Two money programs that had asked for your time and feelings were suddenly put out to pasture

because it felt like a past-it icon had forgotten what he was actually there for

3. The Rock on NXT Fresh off blowing up WrestleMania on the Netflix debut

The Rock had apparently spent his time online reading feedback when he appeared on the developmental brand for the very first time the very next night

The New Year's Evil show appearance was an earthquake of sorts for Shawn Michaels

but rather than the ground opening up and swallowing HBK as he may have wished

Rock simply opened fire on his haters and swallowed up the time from the advertised matches instead

It was admittedly quite fascinating to see a star of this magnitude in a relatively small wrestling setting

but the longer Rocky wore on and on and on, the more the novelty wore off

Swearing up a storm and Stumbo bumbling his way through some absolute nonsense about the final boss being 20 steps ahead

in response to the criticism of his Netflix performance, The Rock attempted to tether himself

to an NXT concept he'd never had anything to do with, recapped his nicknames and continued to

reference how little time he had to speak, despite taking ages, to say absolutely nothing

It was a terrible promo in which Rock, who should probably be the most secure person in the world

came off like an insecure little boy. 48 hours that ultimately ended up defining a year

Number 2. WWE's Creative Decline It seems counter-intuitive, but compiling a list of approximately 25 moments for a worst list is

actually easy, even in wrestling's good years. Companies on hot streaks are not immune to duds

and in something as notoriously difficult as episodic weekly television, keeping the garbage

confined to double figures is very impressive, but it is the context, the nature, and the scale

of the clangers that should and do raise concern if you're a WWE hardcore. Let's run through some

of it. How about we begin with making a mess of the WrestleMania main event and in fact blowing

so much of the build to the biggest show of the year that the multi-person match is made up for

the singles slogs. There's becoming obsessed with reality show angles and work shoot bobbins so much

that it derails your programs and breakdowns audience trust. There's disappointing up the

arseholes of sponsors, executives, comedians and anybody else who wants FaceTime at the expense of

a real fan that wants to enjoy the show. And there's continuing to price those fans out with

brutal price gouging around every corner. Then there's the return of every bad habit, from non-finishes

to 50-50 feuds and dropped threads, followed by press conference bollockings that are way more

defensive than the booking practices themselves. These things are a trend, we don't just judge

individual moments and declare decline. The fact is that over the past year, WWE's moments of true

greatness have become fewer and farther between. And then there's the final thing on this list

1. John Cena's Heel Run Was this even supposed to happen? WWE Unreal told us so as part of an Ocean's Eleven-style plot between all the key players and Travis Scott

but the reality of the situation was reflected by how terribly it was handled in the aftermath

According to multiple outlets, The Rock decided in early 2025 that he wanted Cody Rhodes to turn heel and for The Rock to be the reason

Fortunately, enough people, including Cody himself, pushed back on this terrible idea and John Cena fulfilled the spot as a perennial good soldier

The Rock subsequently never appeared on television again in the aftermath, nor was he even referenced by Cena in multiple different You People speeches that he gave before winning the WWE Championship at WrestleMania 41

Multiple You People speeches because none of them worked. John tried some nonsense about an abusive relationship with the audience that was stuck in 2014 while still receiving the odd booze

He then acted his WWE shop socks off, trying to be a violent psychopath in the Builds to the Cody match, but dropped it when the bell rang

He then became a coward, a cheat, an enemy of R-Truth, a friend of Logan Paul, and was every kind of villain to the sound of every kind of sigh

It was terribly inconsistent. Grand design for Cena's last year or not, the whole thing was abruptly dropped on the

Summerslam go-home edition of SmackDown, in a move that was so relieving, and so many

people were so thankful it was over, that they just stopped complaining. In 2025, WWE somehow botched a John Cena heel turn, something you'd have been probably

locked up for suggesting a few years prior. How could anything else be number one