Worst wrestling angles of the 2020s

[TheScarlettChad]

The Bloodline went to shit around the time Roman didn't lose at 39. Up to that point, it was an amazing story. I won't say it helped create a boom period (The boom period never existed.) But it was a great storyline and really helped WWE become watchable. But it became a slog in 2023. They had to create a civil war to prolong it. Then Big Jim turned heel a month after turning on Roman which just made no fucking sense.

[DavidB6937]

3 minutes ago, TheScarlettChad said:

The Bloodline went to shit around the time Roman didn't lose at 39. Up to that point, it was an amazing story. I won't say it helped create a boom period (The boom period never existed.)

Thing is though.. it did. They were selling out all over the place. They were raking in the money. Business was booming.

The problem now is that they're still operating in the same way like they're untouchable. 

[Lorne Malvo]

Okay, I'm cheating here by mentioning an entire storyline rather than one angle. But I'm going with John Cena turns heel because it should've been the biggest WWE story (and telling stories is what they do, damn it!) of the past 20 years and absolutely every bit I saw of it was complete dogshit;

- the opening turn which saw Cena adopting Dennis Reynolds facial expression (thanks @Frankie Crisp!) 

- Travis Scott being involved for no reason at all

- awful 'you people' promos 

- wasting some of his last matches ever on the likes of R-Truth and Jey Uso

- the CM Punk eats shit in Saudi tour 

- he turns face again in a Smackdown promo which had no build-up or logic to it at all

Christ, WWE is shit.

[RedTwoster]

14 hours ago, Lorne Malvo said:

wasting some of his last matches ever on the likes of R-Truth and Jey Uso

I don’t think he wrestled Jey Uso in that run, unless you’re counting the Rumble match?

14 hours ago, Lorne Malvo said:

he turns face again in a Smackdown promo which had no build-up or logic to it at all

This still baffles me. Obviously they were bringing Lesnar back so wanted him to wrestle as a babyface, but they took one of the worst possible routes to get there when there were clear alternatives. I still think Cena had a great heel run in him, but as you highlighted, they made the worst possible decision every step of the way

…I do think the R-Truth match was a fun idea, though. I’m not gonna knock them for that one.

[Lorne Malvo]

35 minutes ago, RedTwoster said:

I don’t think he wrestled Jey Uso in that run, unless you’re counting the Rumble match?

 

It was a tag team match - they did Cena & Logan Paul vs Rhodes & Uso as one of Cena's last PPV matches. Another baffling choice.

[RedTwoster]

1 hour ago, Lorne Malvo said:

It was a tag team match - they did Cena & Logan Paul vs Rhodes & Uso as one of Cena's last PPV matches. Another baffling choice.

I guess I understand it, Jey Uso was pretty popular at that point and they were trying their hardest to make him work. There were definitely matches I’d have preferred to see Cena have, but from the perspective of their general audience this was probably something they were well up for.

On the whole though, I totally agree that they utterly arsed up his final run. It should have been so much more, and it really was an example of snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. 

[BomberPat]

On 4/5/2026 at 7:27 PM, Merzbow said:

Cody "White Saviour" Rhodes preaching about race to a black man who'd consistantly been calling out racism within the business and more. The absolute worst jingoistic storyline I can remember, and they're always fucking awful.

Cody's been on record saying he regrets pretty much everything about it though.

 

Maybe the worst part of this was Cody bringing his kid into it, talking about how America was the land of opportunity and the only place that his mixed race kid could possibly find success and acceptance - when his opponent was mixed race and not American. 

[CL Punk]

The Final Boss was shit.

Between this, Black Adam and his attempted DCU Coup, it really soured me on Dwayne.

Edited April 7 by CL Punk

[TheScarlettChad]

41 minutes ago, CL Punk said:

The Final Boss was shit.

Between this, Black Adam and his attempted DCU Coup, it really soured me on Dwayne.

I wouldn't say it was shit. We got that brilliant Cody beat down in the rain. Worth it for that alone. 

[Kamran]

The Nightmare Collective had it's moments...

 

 

 

[DavidB6937]

1 hour ago, CL Punk said:

The Final Boss was shit.

Between this, Black Adam and his attempted DCU Coup, it really soured me on Dwayne.

The Final Boss was some of his best work in years.

[Merzbow]

Ended like shit but yeah, nearly everything Final Boss-wise until that was great, especially for The Rock who I'd hated ever since first return against Cena.

[air_raid]

The Final Boss was excellent from the presser where Dwayne just took the backlash and leaned into it in the most unexpected way, through bringing back the Hollywood Rock theme and getting some superb tron intros, through a great match at Mania before half time and setting the table for a match with Cody.

That the follow up has been mishandled or completely aborted one way or the other doesn’t detract from a few great months telly.

[RedTwoster]

This was more an accidental fail as I’m pretty sure it was supposed to look much better than this, but AEW’s ‘exploding ring’ still amuses me:

 

[LaGoosh]

Not sure I'd count that as a bad angle. It's a botch. If it had worked it would have been great!