Last week, I saluted the 100 people who made wrestling so great this year. This week, I’m shining a spotlight on the people who had startlingly little or negative influence on wrestling this year. From promoters who dropped the ball to wrestlers that embarrassed themselves, these are the people we weren’t going out of our way to watch a match for this year. Aside from the top 10, this is in no particular order, just in the order I thought of them in.

1. Billy Corgan-Corgan’s running of NWA has been such a disaster, it’s made the various missteps that Tony Khan and Triple H made this year look like small potatoes. He was going to be on this list just for putting his top title on a morbidly obese Fox News host who can’t wrestle. But then the Samhain PPV happened and I knew Corgan had to be number one. This PPV happened after word got out that NWA would be on The CW. However, The CW wasn’t real interested in the PPVs, just the show. Corgan decided to run a spot that he thought for sure would make The CW want to get involved with their PPVs. Said spot involved with Father James Mitchell snorting cocaine on-air. A few days later, The CW announced that they would be airing NXT instead. But The CW would air NWA still… on their buggy streaming app. Most insiders agree that the cocaine spot killed NWA’s chances of being on The CW. Legitimately in awe of this, Corgan has done more damage to the NWA than Shane Douglas could ever hope to do.
2. Tyrus-The aforementioned morbidly obese Fox News host that Corgan thought was the greatest thing ever. Tyrus couldn’t make it to the ring without getting winded (compare him to other hefty men like Otis or Big Van Vader, who could wrestle circles around Tyrus) and all of the matches he did have (which weren’t a lot, he had fewer matches than Roman Reigns this year) were utterly awful. He bottomed out with an atrocious match with EC3 that saw the former Ethan Carter III pinning him to be the new NWA champion. Tyrus was so loathed that everyone was glad that EC3 won, and he loves to drop Nazi dog whistles. Also, Tyrus said he’d beat his kids if they changed their pronouns, so double fuck him.
3. Jack Perry-Perry started the year in the middle of an amazing feud with Christian Cage. He ends it with not being on-screen for the last fourth of the year. No wrestler had such an epic fall from grace this year. The cracks started showing during the “Four Pillars” storyline. As an upper mid-card face with a catchy theme, he was great. As an essential part of the company however, he flopped hard. Of the four pillars, he came off as easily the worst with MJF, Darby Allin, and even Sammy Guevara running circles around him on both the mic and in the ring. Guevara was so hated that he was legitimately afraid that people would boo him when he announced he would be a dad and he still came off better than Perry did in this feud. After that storyline ended, Perry floundered around until he eventually turned heel by attacking his friend Hook. People were wanting this to happen, thinking his face run was getting stale. We then got the most embarrassing heel run of the year and those people realized that they were horribly wrong. This heel run was stunted when Perry managed to piss off CM Punk, leading to the Brawl In fight that led to Punk getting fired. Since then, Punk has returned to WWE and Perry hasn’t been on-screen since.
4. Gable Steveson-Steveson is as good a wrestler as he is a person… so yeah, one of the worst we’ve ever seen. He’s only had one match this year and that was one too many. When the crowd instantly starts cheering for Baron Corbin, you know you’ve fucked up.
5. Matt and Jeff Hardy-Both of the Hardy brothers have lamented their spot in AEW this year and I can’t think of anyone less justified in complaining about their spot. Matt waddles around the ring like he’s Cotton Hill and Jeff is more liability than man at this point. They’re damn lucky Tony Khan is such a mark.
6. Matt Riddle-Riddle has one of the most abrupt downfalls this year. After a few months of wrestling after his return for violating the wellness policy, he had a bizarre online outburst when he accused an airport cop of abusing him. It was quickly deleted, either because his management told him he was open to a libel lawsuit or because it reminded a lot of people that he had been accused of abuse too. The airport responded by revealing that Riddle had been having a drunk meltdown, which they were planning on letting slide until Riddle had his outburst. He was released shortly afterwards, being one of the few released that didn’t have people sad. Riddle has talent, no doubt. But he’s not worth it at this point. Good look Bud Court!
7. Saraya-Saraya becoming a key figure in AEW’s women division is exhibit a for Tony Khan being unable to book women. She can’t wrestle anymore (if she ever could) and her promos are just awful. She was the lead of The Outcasts, a group of nWo wannabes that even Eric Bischoff would be embarrassed of. Also, her boyfriend is a Gable Steveson-level punk.
8. Ronda Rousey-Ever since AEW siphoned away most of the hate-watchers and then Triple H took over, WWE fans have been very forgiving. So what does it say that they were booing Rousey all year long? She was an exciting addition to the roster in 2018 but that was five years ago and she’s not improved in any measurable way. She had a brief run as Women’s Tag Team champion until her partner Shayna Baszler attacked her. Baszler subsequently started getting babyface pops afterwards. They then had one of the worst matches of the year before Rousey let her contract run out. Aside from a few brief appearances to hang out with Marina Shaffir, she seems to be done for wrestling for now. And thank god for that.
9. Austin Theory-He beat John Cena and no one cared. The reaction wasn’t “He beat Cena, he’s a beast” or even “This tool beat Cena?” but “I hope the next match is better.” He’s since lost the U.S. Championship to Rey Mysterio and he then lost it to Logan Paul. Both have been more warmly accepted than Theory has been as U.S. Champion.
10. Ryback-When the rumors were starting to kick into overdrive about CM Punk returning to WWE, Ryback decided to give his two cents. The night before Survivor Series, he said that he would retire from wrestling if Punk returned tomorrow night. When Punk did return, he said that he meant if Punk returned to Collision. It’s a moot point anyway, since he hasn’t wrestled a match since 2018. He’s still a wrestler as much as I’m still a Movie Tavern employee.
11. Rick Steiner-Steiner caused a huge uproar this year when he went on a transphobic tirade against Giselle Shaw. He got ejected from multiple wrestling conventions and torpedoed his chances of getting the Steiner Brothers into the Wrestling Observer Hall of Fame (Dave Meltzer himself pins them not getting in on Steiner’s tirade). Also, this is minor in the grand scheme of things but he did this the same day his son had an important match. Bron Breakker had to answer awkward questions about what his dad did for a few weeks (which he answered responsibly).
12. Kevin Patrick-WWE has improved considerably this year in almost every way this year. The only area that they’re not doing super well in is with commentary. Michael Cole, Corey Graves, Wade Barrett, and Vic Joseph are all doing good work but Kevin Patrick manages to tank that average. One of the most boring people in the business, he’s basically Valium in commentary form. This was made especially clear when Cole was added to his and Graves’ commentary team and he was thoroughly outclassed by the two veterans.
13. Kevin Kelly-Kevin Kelly is a titan of wrestling commentary but he straight up gave up this year. Fans were excited to see him do commentary on Collision, hoping to see the passion he brought to NJPW here too. Instead, we got a confused old man making constant mistakes. Fans were hoping he would acclimate to the position but he never got any better.
14. SCRYPTS-Many NXT 2.0 duds have turned around thanks to Shawn Michaels’ guiding hand. One of the few exceptions was SCRYPTS, who went through a bunch of awful gimmicks before landing on his current gimmick as “guy who hangs out with Out the Mud.” Annoyingly, Axiom got stuck dealing with him for a few weeks. He’s thankfully free of him now.
15. Ruby Soho-Ruby Soho was having a good year until she joined The Outcasts. It was hoped that her joining them would be a shot in the arm for the group. Instead, she’s been lowered to their level. Also, we don’t hear her Rancid theme anymore.
16. Evil-The most evil thing about Evil is that he’s still stinking up NJPW shows.
17. Britt Baker-Going to ignore her rapidly deteriorating ring skills and going to focus on her storyline on AEW All Access. All Access was your basic reality show B.S. but the Britt Baker/Thunder Rosa stuff on there was just embarrassing. It featured Baker laying into Rosa for basically being injured and not wanting to wrestle while injured. She also criticized her for giving up her Women’s Championship in a quick backstage segment instead of an in-ring segment… which was Tony Khan’s idea. This just made her look like a bully and a dumb one at that.
18. Ric Flair-Ric Flair showed up in AEW this year, for Sting’s retirement run. More importantly, he showed up not long after Tony Khan’s Twitter meltdown over NXT beating Dynamite in the ratings, where he resorted to taking shots at Vince McMahon for his abuse allegations. Considering Flair’s own abuse allegations, this just made it clear that Khan didn’t give a shit about actual abuse victims and was just going for cheap heat. Flair has not helped things by asking women younger than Charlotte to come visit his hotel room and then making embarrassing woe is me Instagram posts.
19. Wardlow-THIS IS WAR-*gets taken off TV for months again*
20. Luchasaurus-Just turn on Christian Cage already.
21. Quincy Elliott-Don’t recognize the name? They appeared on TV this year for literally less than 10 seconds, getting eliminated first in a battle royale on NXT before being released later in the year. Getting caught outing closeted members of the roster will do that.
22. Davey Richards and B.J. Whitmer-Two very talented wrestlers who were revealed this year to be domestic abusers and lost their jobs like they deserved.
23. Dana Brooke-Dana Brooke went down to NXT to do a storyline where she helped mentor a new wrestler, Kelani Jordan. However, it quickly became apparent that Jordan was already better at wrestling than Brooke is and they pivoted to Brooke maybe turning heel. Then she was released and Jordan went on to become one of the highlights of NXT this year. Real shame since Brooke is by all accounts a lovely person.
24. Val Venis-The former wrestling porn star earned a massive amount of ire this year thanks to a deranged anti-vax rant where he pinned Bray Wyatt’s untimely death on the Covid vaccine. Shameful stuff.
25. Matt Menard and Angelo Parker-Of the former members of the Jericho Appreciation Society, Sammy Guevara is decently over and Daniel Garcia has reminded people that he beat Bryan Danielson without sacrificing his dancing gimmick. And then there’s these two, who are floundering without Chris Jericho. Parker gets special demerit points for his romance subplot with Ruby Soho.
26. Brock Anderson-That match Brock Anderson had with Luchasaurus is etched into my mind, few matches have caused psychic damage that badly this year.
27. QT Marshall-He was in one of the very worst gimmicks in AEW history (QTV), made fans not want to watch John Morrison, had an uneventful run as AAA champion, and Triple H basically said he sucked at training without even having to mention his name. Leaving AEW is one of the least bad things to happen to him this year.
28. Tommy Dreamer-Please retire, it’s just getting sad at this point.
29. Dabba-Kato-One of the least talented wrestlers at WWE, the only thing he had going for him was his height. Then Omos showed up and Dabba-Kato lost that. At least it’s fun to see Omos in a battle royale. Few people were surprised when Dabba-Kato was released.
30. Tanga Loa-Tanga Loa strikes like Orange Cassidy kicks, except he’s not in on the joke.
31. Dorian Roldan-Dorian Roldan is the head of AAA. This year in AAA, there’s been multiple matches with Vampiro (who has Alzheimer’s), Don Callis was legit attacked thanks to their lax security, AAA tried to partner with a social media star that makes Logan Paul look like an angel, and they gave one of their titles to QT Marshall. The only thing they had going for them is El Hijo del Vikingo their partnership with AEW and the latter is starting to backfire on them. Quite a few AAA wrestlers have been jumping ship to AEW (and I won’t be surprised if Vikingo follows them) and, with how Roldan is running it, it’s impossible to blame them. And then AEW signed a partnership with CMLL, AAA’s main rival…
32. Xyon Quinn-I have no idea if this guy is even real.
33. Alberto el Patron-Poor guy, still thinks WWE will take him back
    *remembers what he did*
    I take the “poor guy” part back.
34. Trench-Remember? The guy with the face tattoos that was going to be part of Swerve Strickland’s crew? The guy that never actually wrestles a match for AEW before being released? No? Can’t blame you.
35. Rich Knox-“Huh, Moxley looks a little shook up, maybe I should do something? Nah, I’ll just let it play out.”
36. Sunny-Enjoy jail, it’s where you belong.
37. Teddy Hart-Hart returned to wrestling for the first time in years, almost certainly to take advantage of the hype from the documentary series last year about how he probably killed his girlfriend. He teamed with a pedophile and then got arrested a day later for possession of ecstasy and steroids. On brand for him.
38. Christopher DeJoseph-
    
39. Disco Inferno-There’s no shortage of old timers that complain about modern day wrestling but few are as hilarious about it as Disco Inferno. He talks like he was a legendary wrestler who has a lot of advice to give when he was one note joke gimmick with hilariously bad advice. Wonder if it burns him that Norman Smiley (someone thought of as a one note joke gimmick too) is now a respected backstage worker while he’s stuck whining about Stardom on Twitter.
40. Shanky-Spent over a year off of TV, brought back just to wrestle a show in India, and then got released. Vince loved him (for being tall) but Triple H apparently had little interest in him.
41. Jacob Fatu-Jacob Fatu went from the member of the Anoa’i that fans wanted most to be in WWE to the member most are glad isn’t in WWE after he scammed a charity. He was supposed to show up at a charity show for Jake’s Network of Hope but no-showed the event due to a “family emergency.” That was revealed to be a lie and he never returned the fee he got in advance. Scum.
42. Rick Boogs-When Rick Boogs was released by WWE, a lot of fans, even ones that didn’t care for him, felt bad for him. When he made vague comments about how he was released due to WWE going woke, people stopped feeling so bad.
43. Lacey Evans-Lacey Evans always had a problem with maintaining a gimmick and this year was no different. She seemed to change it every few weeks, with the most awkward being a lady Sgt. Slaughter gimmick that was criticized by the actual Sgt. Slaughter (that said, Evans is an actual veteran while Slaughter isn’t). She eventually waited out her contract and switched to living off of OnlyFans (no disrespect intended, it’s a legitimate way to earn money).
44. Sabu-Showed up for a bizarre segment in AEW to set up a PPV appearance, people remembered all the awful shit that he’s said, and then he barely did anything at that PPV.
45. Carlito-Feel bad about including him but his return has been very bizarre. He shows up for a very well-received appearance at Backlash, gets signed to return to WWE, doesn’t get used for months, finally shows up, and then gets written off before a PPV match.
46. Vickie Guerrero-This is not going to be a fun entry. It was learned earlier this year that Vickie Guerrero’s husband Kris Benson had abused her own daughter Sherilyn. Despite Chavo Guerrero and her other daughter Shaul backing her up, Guerrero and Benson denied the allegations, threatening to sue her. Guerrero went even further and slut-shamed her own daughter. In hindsight, that one WWE audience member who shouted “the wrong Guerrero died” wasn’t wrong. Guerrero left AEW shortly afterwards, there were reports that footage of her in pre-show packages were booed heavily. She then made overtures about returning to WWE to get involved with Dominick Mysterio’s storyline. Mysteriously, this didn’t happen.
47. Dana Massie-The wife of Matt Jackson was in charge of AEW’s merchandising until a week ago. By all accounts, she’s a lovely person but she desperately needed to be gone. She dropped the ball hard when it came to merchandising. There have been horror stories about how bereft of merchandise AEW shows have been. When Sting did one of his patented “Sting wearing a Sting mask” bits, they had to create one from scratch because they didn’t think to make a Sting mask. They thought that black-eyed Britt Baker shirt was good to sell. She did a good job when she was selling just Elite merchandise but is hopelessly out of her depth when it comes to merchandising for an actual company.
48. Chris Jericho-I’d been wanting to feature Jericho on this list due to his clout vampire ways (latching on to an up-and-coming act and basically sucking all their hype from them) but I figured he had too much sway to include. Then old sexual misconduct allegations resurfaced and I finally had the reason to include him… and now I wish I didn’t because goddamn this sucks.
49. Ashante Adonis-Top Dolla failed so hard it’s sort of endearing, especially after he revealed that the now infamous botch that he’s now known for saved his life. The same cannot be said for his Hit Row stable member Ashante Adonis. He’s so uninfluential that it feels like they forgot he existed when they were releasing people.
50. Vince McMahon-Vince still wields a lot of power (he helped set up UFC’s Saudi Arabia shows). However, it’s not the power he wants to wield. He set up the merger with UFC so he could remain in charge of WWE. However, the new Endeavor overlords liked Triple H’s booking better and basically kicked him upstairs. Amazing.
51. Rob Black-I originally had Rob Black in the top 10. But then I realized that he’s so utterly uninfluential that putting him that high up would be a compliment. So, I’m putting him at the very end of the list, like a vestigial body part. It’s what he deserves.