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Dishonourable mentions are vast in a year that, pandemic aside, was the least inspiring period of time in the business since things got really interesting in 2018.
In WWE, Solo Sikoa was relegated from major upper midcard heel to prelim clown. He was very handily defeated by Roman Reigns on the Raw Is Netflix premiere, and fans were never asked to take him seriously again. The dumbass bit actually suited Solo – but this was a guy built up to be one of the first names on the WrestleMania whiteboard. He headlined SummerSlam 2024!
The novelty of Nia Jax as a credible monster faded. Carmelo Hayes didn’t get anything from Triple H.
Is CM Punk a candidate here? He’s still great on his day in this strange, mellowed-out chapter of his career, but the feud with Seth Rollins was a bland, protracted exercise in long-term storytelling for the sake of it. His renewed rivalry with John Cena was embarrassing. Punk wasn’t even that great on the mic against Gunther.
In AEW, the Paragon were nowhere near the Tag Team title scene. Roderick Strong lost a lot, AEW indulged Kyle O’Reilly’s irksome goofy side too often, and while they were often good in the ring, they had a nightmare against FTR back in April. Scorpio Sky embarked on yet another dud of a comeback. Daniel Garcia feuded with former AEW Champion MJF in 2024; in 2025, he was a permanent “little bro” constantly being mentored by somebody or other. Wrestling has a problem, generally, pushing young wrestlers as ready-made stars. Garcia feels like an awkward wayward teenager, not a prodigy. Same goes with HOOK.
The state of falling off is not permanent. Virtually everybody wrote off Kota Ibushi at the start of 2025, and while he ended it on the AEW injury list yet again, his superb Dynamite match opposite Kazuchika Okada was an elegant, mature performance – a cruel glimpse of a great old man wrestler run.
The following wrestlers aren’t finished forever – but it will take some doing to repair their reputation…
Posted On:
29th Dec 2025
