Biggest downgrades ever

[Tennessee Moltisanti]

Mania main event from rhis

 

To this pile of shit

 

[wordsfromlee]

The wrestlers entrance videos.

Used be be cool montages of the wrestlers best moves and moments. Now its just an Adobe After Effects template.

[garynysmon]

Its got to be the dropoff in commentary for me once Bobby Heenan left.

Ted DiBiase was always a great act, but as a colour commentator he didn't have it. 

I always associate late 1993 and 1994 with dreadful commentary from the likes of Stan Lane and Johnny Polo.

[LEGIT]

NWA when it returned was a hugely fun show on YouTube that got me watching wrestling again after years off.

Then COVID hit and it all went absolute shite after that. I know Dave Lagana got accused of all sorts of stuff and in such case deservedly got the sack, but it's a obvious they struggled to replace him, creatively at least. 

Was a shame because initially it was such a fun, easy watch, with a diverse roster of newcomers, characters, legends 

[RIDDUM_N_STYLE]

12 hours ago, Supremo said:

Yeah, Bret’s downgrade happens instantaneously at Summerslam in 1997. He’s already the WCW version of himself by the time he’s pissing about with The Patriot and having a worthless Flag Match on the undercard to Undertaker and Shawn’s Hell in a Cell.

In retrospect, he shouldn’t have ducked when Shawn swung the chair at Summerslam, hitting The Undertaker instead. That’s his Sliding Doors moment. The momentum of the entire business moves to Shawn, Taker and The Fed. He never gets it back.

Looking back at that finish, in hindsight, I’ve long felt that the better finish would have been what they did with Austin, Kane and Taker nearly a year later, have Shawn take both out with the chair and count a double pin meaning Taker stays champion, do the Cell match as Bret/Taker cos of the non finish which Bret wins after the Foundation block Shawn from trying to get in, allowing Owen to sneak out and help Bret then do a triple threat at Survivor Series to get the title of Bret without being pinned

End result - No Kane debut till the Rumble, no Montreal Screwjob

[SuperBacon]

Nah, that Summerslam 97 ending is the best shit ever. The timing of it all is just peak wrestling.

[AshC]

16 minutes ago, RIDDUM_N_STYLE said:

Looking back at that finish, in hindsight, I’ve long felt that the better finish would have been what they did with Austin, Kane and Taker nearly a year later, have Shawn take both out with the chair and count a double pin meaning Taker stays champion, do the Cell match as Bret/Taker cos of the non finish which Bret wins after the Foundation block Shawn from trying to get in, allowing Owen to sneak out and help Bret then do a triple threat at Survivor Series to get the title of Bret without being pinned

End result - No Kane debut till the Rumble, no Montreal Screwjob

Last three words aside, what is this madness? 😂

[RIDDUM_N_STYLE]

1 hour ago, AshC said:

Last three words aside, what is this madness? 😂

Me getting into a WWE Writer’s head in 97 😂

[DavidB6937]

I don't think you're meant to actively downgrade things yourself in the topic..

[sivy]

How about DDP downgrading from Kimberley to stalking the Undertaker Wife. 

Or

How about Jeff Hardy leaving at probably his Peak in 09 in WWE to downgrade and sign with TNA and debut by sitting on a huge red cage.

[Supremo]

9 hours ago, RIDDUM_N_STYLE said:

Looking back at that finish, in hindsight, I’ve long felt that the better finish would have been what they did with Austin, Kane and Taker nearly a year later, have Shawn take both out with the chair and count a double pin meaning Taker stays champion, do the Cell match as Bret/Taker cos of the non finish which Bret wins after the Foundation block Shawn from trying to get in, allowing Owen to sneak out and help Bret then do a triple threat at Survivor Series to get the title of Bret without being pinned

End result - No Kane debut till the Rumble, no Montreal Screwjob

Swap the best finish ever for one of the worst? No thank you. Arguably a bigger downgrade than anything else listed in this thread.

[Lorne Malvo]

The Elimination Chamber going from a cool, vicious-looking gimmick match to an overproduced overdone soft play area.

LOD going from Hawk and Animal, to Animal & Heidenreich. 

NXT going from funny as fuck reality show-bollocks to 'Triple H thinks he's running ROH'*

 

*alright, I'm taking the piss with this one. 

[DavidB6937]

27 minutes ago, Lorne Malvo said:

NXT going from funny as fuck reality show-bollocks to 'Triple H thinks he's running ROH'*

 

*alright, I'm taking the piss with this one. 

You say that, but I'd take a promo about Eli Cottonwood's Moustache over watching Gargano/Ciampa again any day.

[Wretch]

On 5/19/2026 at 4:03 PM, Dai said:

Justin Credable being ECW Champ is about a big a downgrade as you can get too. 

While we're talking 2000 ECW, Steve Corino was a massive downgrade on Jerry Lynn when he won the big one. A shame really, as Corino on the indies between '02-'07 was an absolute blast. Had that Corino been around in 2000, he'd have been the only highlight of their dying days when we had shite like Julio Dinero & The Blue Boy running around. 

Edited May 21 by Wretch

[Supremo]

Back up your save data in the cloud, kids. You never know when it’ll get corrupted and set all you stats back to zero.