Welcome to the 2013 Terrible25!
Wrestling is fun. That's why we watch. The combination of sports and entertainment is intoxicating - and as long as we can sustain our disbelief in what we're watching then we're happy campers.
Sometimes though, we're presented with something that's just too unbelievable, something that breaks that suspension of disbelief, something that's just plain stupid!
The Terrible25 is a list of the worst things in wrestling PERIOD! Wrestlers, announcers, crowds, angles, production errors, DUI charges, creative control clauses, ... you name it, as long as it was related to the past year in wrestling then it's fair game for the Terrible25!
Read on now to find out the twenty-five worst things about wrestling in 2013 according to YOU, the fans of Pro Wrestling Planet and the members of The Wrestling Forum!
25. The Rocks Wrestling Stamina
I'm gonna be brief with this first one because there's more on The Rock later. The Rock wrestled just three times in 2013, all three matches were for the WWE title and all of them were deemed main-events. So why is it that this guy with a Billion dollar body, that's wrestled full time in the past, can't wrestle for more than five minutes without sucking wind?
24. The Rushed Unification of WWEs World Titles
WWEs version of The Big Gold Belt made it's re-debut in September 2002. It's been around for eleven years and WWE have, at times, attached the lineage of the NWA World title to it to give it historical significance.
Why is it then, that a title that WWE want you to believe has a history that stretches back to Georg Hackenschmidt and Frank Gotch has to be eliminated with practically no build up on an end of year "B" show?
The initial tease for unification was made at the end of Survivor Series on November 24th, the match was made the next night and the belts were unified on December 15th. That's a three week build, from beginning to end, to unify the two most well known titles in wrestling. That's a rush job by anybody's standards.
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| It wouldn't be a Terrible25 without Khali... |
The man whom this ranking could well be named after makes his customary appearance on the list. For those interested, this is the seventh annual TWF Terrible25 and Khali has topped the table four times - this is his first appearance outside of the top five.
22. The Authority
Did WWE name this group as a rib on the IWC? Authority figures are a lot of wrestling fans pet hate, they're characters that will be around for years taking up TV time without ever getting their comeuppance. This year WWE decided to place "The man with the never-ending promos" (Triple H) into an authority position. WWE now have five (count 'em) and we are all bored.
21. Robbie E vs Robbie T
I can't remember this match from Lockdown. Maybe I've blocked it from my memory. If you're the masochistic type and want to watch it, Click Here, it starts at 16:40
20. The Mishandling of AJ Styles World Title Push
"We're gonna do the Punk Money In The Bank angle but better!" said somebody in TNA creative at some point.
What they actually did was have AJ change his character completely, turn heel then face, say he was only here for the money and then refuse an improved contract offer, wrestle just twice for other promotions and play the footage to death AND THEN, in the real world, allow his contract to expire. Awesome!
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| Hey! They captioned it for me! |
Stock John Cena Terrible25 Ranking
18. The Big Show Crying
"What's that? The physically largest individual we have on our roster? He's been around more than long enough to pay his dues and you want to make him an imposing monster? Don't be silly, lets make him cry instead."
17. The Wrestlemania Build
OK, so this making the rankings was at least partly down to the situation that's taken our number one spot, but lets not forget that WWE have an entire year to build for their biggest show and heading into this years there was nothing, Undertaker vs Punk aside, that made the majority of us want to watch.
16. Titus O'Neil Barfing
On the 27th of November edition of Smackdown WWE had a food eating competition between Titus O'Neil and The Great Khali. Vicky Guerrero then booked O'Neil in a match with Antonio Cesaro. After the match, O'Neil barfed into JBLs hat and then slapped it onto Michael Coles head. Presumably Vince McMahon laughed.
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| Just like watching Battleground! |
This show was a horribly booked, thrown together mess and to top it all the PPV feed got cut for several minutes leaving viewers at home watching a blank screen.
14. Divas Musical Chairs
The WWE want you to believe that their "Divas" (female wrestlers to most of us) are "Smart, Sexy and Powerful" women. So you'd expect them to wrestle in competitive matches mayve give insightful color commentary or something along those lines at least, right? Well, WWE think that means they should play Musical chairs in the ring.
13. WWE Creative
If we'd taken everything that can be attributed to these guys on this list and scored the points all under the one banner of WWE Creative, then these guys would top this years Terrible25 without a single shadow of a doubt. My particular favorite examples of their "talents" from 2013 are Bad News Barrett and the three week build to unify the World titles, but I'm sure you have your own.
12. The Miz
I'm going to quote this one exactly from my nomination of the Miz for our "I Can't Believe You Haven't Been Future Endeavored Yet" award. *ahem* "No personality, no charisma, no ability to regurgitate a script with any semblance of realism, no wrestling ability... why is this guy still employed, let alone on TV?" Yeah, that just about covers it.
11. Total Divas
Some people like it, some people don't, personally I've never seen it, but it made our list at number eleven so it's probably not something you should watch... Or maybe it is, let us know on the forum!
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| Bad News? Nah, just a bad gimmick. |
He's 6'7", almost 250lbs, arrived as the leader of the hottest faction in years AND he has a British accent.
This man is a perfect main event heel!
WWEs idea for him?
Bad...News...Barrett.
I rest our case.
9. The group of Natalya, Khali & Hornswoggle
There was a time in wrestling when entertaining comedy characters were used to break up the serious, intense, in-ring action.
Not anymore. Now they're used just to waste some time on a show that's far too long.
8. WWE blaming Daniel Bryan for PPV Buys
The buy-rates for the 2013 editions of Summerslam and Night of Champions were down by a significant figure. As both events featured Daniel Bryan in the main event WWE seemed to lay the blame at his door. Where they should have been looking was at their horrible booking of the build up to those shows and the aftermath of the Summerslam main event.
To recap :- The build to their Summerslam match was John Cena "giving(!)" Daniel Bryan a championship match because he deserved it. There was no animosity between the two, no Daniel Bryan winning streak to make it meaningful, there wasn't even a relevant storyline. The whole angle was that Cena was a benevolent Champion that was handing out title matches. (Shouldn't somebody in actual power be doing that?) Either way, the build up was horrible.
Then, at Summerslam, after Daniel Bryan had pinned John Cena cleanly in the center of the ring to become the New WWE Champion, the special referee for that match, Triple H, nailed Bryan with the Pedigree allowing Randy Orton to cash in his Money In The Bank contract and take the title. People had been clamoring for Bryan to be their Champion for months and WWE took it off them before the event had even gone off air. The buying audience were let down by WWEs booking and felt that they'd be screwed again at the next pay-per-view - Night of Champions..
Those are the reasons those events failed, NOT the most over performer in the company.
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| The idea of Jackson as an enforcer was actually pretty cool |
To be fair to TNA, it seems that their promotion of Quentin Rampage Jackson and Tito Ortiz was because of the pressure put on them by Spike TV rather than their own choice. Either way the promotion spent several weeks promoting a match that TNAs viewers were neither interested in nor would get to see the pay-off from without investing in a Bellator PPV.
The real beauty of this was that a Tito Ortiz injury meant that the match never took place anyway.
6. Mishandling of Ryback
"Bury him"
5. The Rocks Return
From the moment WWE simply had Rock announce that he was having a title match at the Rumble rather than creating a storyline to explain it, The Rocks return has been a disappointment.
Despite veering away from the PG promo style that WWE have forced on everybody else on their roster, The Rocks still felt childish and contrived and, on top of that, he just wasn't in wrestling shape - as is evidenced by the torn adductor muscle he sustained during his Wrestlemania main-event with John Cena.
It was a poor return that no doubt tarnished some rose-tinted memories of the Great One in his prime.
4. Obnoxious Smark Fans
There are two trains of thought on this. Either you loved the Raw the night after Wrestlemania or you hated it. Either way your opinion of that show is probably based on how you felt about the fans in attendance that night.
It's not just that one particular night in question either, when Bray Wyatt made his return he received Husky Harris chants for weeks - because clearly these fans are so smart that they know what this guys previous character was called and just HAVE to let us know their brilliance. Of course we knew anyway and, in most observers opinion, the people chanting these things are just damaging the performer in question while simultaneously looking like dicks, but hey, they know his former name, they must be awesome!
Either you believe the fans are simply the backing track for the in-ring action or you believe that buying a ticket to the event gives them the right to express their opinions on what they are presented with by the company in question. In my opinion neither of those views include the right to damage a show or worse yet, a performer.
3. Total Nonstop Action Wrestling
What's so bad about TNA? Well, everything, according to our poll.
2. The Length of Daniel Bryans Title Reign
The length of Daniel Bryans two WWE title reigns combined is less than 24 hours. That is all.
Without any shadow of a doubt THE single most interesting character development and angle heading into this years Wrestlemania was the addition of Zeb Colter to Jack Swagger and his re-branding as a racist.
Sure, WWE didn't use that word to describe him, but that's essentially what the character was and it was easily THE most edgy character on television. Almost from nowhere Swagger started getting heat, thanks in no small part to Dutch Mantells (what did I just say about Smark Fans?) brilliance on the microphone.
Unfortunately WWE then seemed to run scared of the media they were trying to court with this controversial character, going so far as to have Colter and Swagger break character to explain the storyline to the likes of Glenn Beck who had rallied against the character.
But that's an aside, because Swagger was doing a spectacular job of dismantling the best opportunity he's ever had all by himself by being stupid enough to get arrested for DUI and carrying Marujana.
Most people believe that if Swagger hadn't got arrested he was on for a huge World Title win over Alberto Del Rio at Wrestlemania and, with Zeb Colter at his side, probably a lengthy World Title reign too.
But he did and the management of WWE lost faith in him. Swagger finished up the year as the Marty Jannetty to Antonio Cesaros Shawn Michaels in a tag-team.
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