The worst of wrestling in the year 2025
So another year in wrestling has passed, and as always, I like to do a retrospective of the world of wrestling I watch. While this isn’t a global retrospective of wrestling—as I didn’t catch anything from AEW or ROH and won’t include them in my retrospective—they still would deserve to be included in some categories, and I won’t argue with those who want to include them.
So with that said, let’s start with the worst of list for 2025.
1. Worst male wrestler: BJ Ray
I know this is kind of a cop-out, as I could have picked anybody from WWE, TNA, AAA, or EVOLVE, but I went with somebody that wrestled on the WWE LFG show. The thing with him is that if it wasn’t for his personality, which fit the show, he probably wouldn’t have been one of the guys chosen. As a wrestler, the guy was awful and was clearly below everybody else on the show as far as talent is concerned. No wonder he got released by WWE right after Season 2 of LFG.
2. Worst female wrestler: Victoria Crawford
At first, I wanted to go with Gia Miller, but because she’s not an active wrestler and only had one match this year, I decided to go with the returning Victoria Crawford. I’m sorry, but I never understood how the former Alicia Fox was ever able to be a pro wrestler. She has a great personality and could be a great manager, but as a wrestler she has always been awkward, and this year’s return to the ring showed that nothing has changed.
3. Worst tag team: Chase U
I never understood why they decided to revive this gimmick, but this new version of Chase U just isn’t working for me. Andre Chase is a pretty decent talent and has some charisma, but I don’t see him getting called up, and that goes for Kyle Dixon and Uriah Connors as well. Where the original version felt like a group you could bring to the main roster, this version just feels like a Temu version of the team, and I could see them getting demoted to EVOLVE before getting released next year.
4. Worst commentator: Booker T
This was easy for me. I just can’t stand Booker T on commentary in NXT. In fact, I hate listening to him so much that I’m glad I understand French so I can switch the commentary track to French when I watch NXT. The way he always goes over the top to get the heels over and tries to drown out Vic Joseph every time he has the chance just makes it hard to enjoy the show.
5. Worst show of the year: WWE SmackDown
At first, I wanted to go with Women of Wrestling, as they had a tough end to the year creatively and have mostly been on repeats for the last few months. But since they still had a strong 2025 overall before going into replays, I decided to go with SmackDown.
Nothing against the show, but while they had a pretty decent summer with Cena being on the show for most of it, the rest has been pretty boring overall. The lack of credible contenders for Cody’s title has been a problem as well, especially since he won it back from Cena. The tag division has more or less been forgotten since September, and let’s face it—Solo’s group has become stale. In the end, SmackDown isn’t really the worst show of the year, just the most boring.
6. Worst match of the year: Thea Hail vs. Blake Monroe
While I saw a lot of good and bad matches over the year, I went with this one mostly because of the screwy ending. This was a decent match overall, but the ending made it a bad match in my book.
7. OMG worst moment of the year: The Rock’s involvement in the Cena heel turn
The Cena heel turn should have been a major moment in WWE history, and it still became one, but I think the way it started made it hard for Cena to truly do what he wanted with it. The Rock’s involvement made no sense and confused fans more than it helped them embrace the turn. The weak excuse they used afterward to explain Cena’s heel turn didn’t help either.
8. Worst PPV/PLE of the year: TNA Border Wars
This was an event that was exclusively shown on Zone·ify, and quite frankly, nobody outside the more hardcore TNA fanbase actually watched it—and that was a good thing. It was mostly a bunch of U.S. talent facing unknown Canadian talent in matches to see which country was more dominant. The production was awful, the stream constantly went to ad breaks every five minutes, and the whole show ended in a tie. For every big moment TNA had this year, this was one of the worst shows they have ever produced.
9. Worst promoter/booker: Tony Khan
I know I said I wouldn’t include anything AEW in my retrospective since I barely followed the product, but I couldn’t find anyone else to put here. WWE, NXT, and TNA all had more good creative moments than bad, and using David McLane from WOW wouldn’t have been fair in my opinion. So I went with Tony based solely on the data and reading weekly results online.
While AEW’s booking hasn’t been as bad as it was in 2024, it has still alienated a lot of fans—especially early on with the booking of Moxley on top and giving the belt back to Adam Page, which didn’t move the needle at all. Attendance is down from last year, ratings are down from last year, and the HBO Max deal didn’t produce the results WBD expected. Based on that, I went with Tony because he’s too set in his ways to see that while AEW is turning a profit, it’s not because of fan turnout or having a must-see product. It’s because he was able to secure a great deal from someone who wanted to spend money to enhance his own brand and prepare it for a sale.
10. Worst promotion: EVOLVE
Nothing against the WWE version of EVOLVE, but this is simply a show that doesn’t need to exist. It’s a way for WWE to send NXT wrestlers they either don’t have anything for or who are too green to be on the main NXT show. The problem is that the production looks awful, the commentary team is really bad, and it’s a completely forgettable show. The fact that they also use WWE ID wrestlers who aren’t officially signed doesn’t help.
In the end, this is the first part of my 2025 retrospective.
So I just want to wish you guys happy holidays. Enjoy all the pre-taped wrestling being shown this week, and I’ll be back with my best of list next weekend.