The 411 Wrestling Top 5 01.12.11: Week 109 – The Biggest Mistakes of 2010

Hello everyone and welcome to 411 Wrestling’s Top 5 List. What we are going to is take a topic each week and all the writers here on 411 wrestling will have the ability to give us their Top 5 on said topic, plus up to three honorable mentions. Most of our topics will be based on recent events in the Wrestling World, looking at those events that make us think of times past.

THE BIGGEST MISTAKES OF 2010

Come on, that’s too good not to use…

So what did our group of writers select? Let’s find out…

FRANCISCO RAMIREZ
HM: NXT Season 3 – The less said about this POS the better.
HM: CMLL VS. The Indy Invasion Yeah Alebrije a main eventer equals a lot of suck!

5.Charly Manson Jumps Ship, Then Again, Then Again! – Charly Manson, what a year you have had sir! Charly originally jumped ship from AAA in September of 09, due to a rumored dispute of him not wanting to take a loss in a hair match. He joined up with Lucha Libre USA. Charly Manson also made a home in the Perros del Mal independent promotion soon after. He spent most of early 2010 focused in a feud with X-Fly. That is until el Hijo del Perro Aguayo took his promotion to AAA. Charly had a choice to make and in July Charly jumped ship to CMLL. He took part of the Indy Invasion storyline, being one of the better members of the stable. In October Charly Manson received quite a career highlight when he defeated el Negro Casas in a Hair VS. Hair match. All signs pointed to Charly Manson having another hair match against Rey Bucanero, until he jumped back with AAA in December. Charly received quite a push in CMLL, then he up and left, sure he has an established fan base in AAA, but now it’s unknown just how far he might of gotten in CMLL. Now he’s back home in AAA, joining the Bizarros, appropriate word if you had to sum up Charly Manson’s 2010.

4.Lucha Libre USA – At least they tried, Lucha Libre USA isn’t a horrible concept. Bring Lucha Libre to the U.S.A., aim it at core wrestling fans and the Hispanic U.S. community. Showcase a great roster and some high flying action, what can go wrong. Well let’s take a look, first of you partner up with MTV, who obviously know wrestling, just look at how great they did with WSX! Next up, mix in some talent like the former Jesus from the WWE aka Lujo Esquire and Rhaka Kahn, who may be hot, but when you say Lucha I don’t immediately think Rhaka Khan! Not to say some U.S. talent doesn’t help, RJ Brewer had an interesting backstory and gimmick, and Marco Corleone aka Mark Jindrack is already a top lucha draw in Mexico. What you have is a show that get’s cancelled, then suspended, and is now back on. Hopefully they thought the whole process through and get some focus, as of December Lizmark Jr. is the Lucha Libre USA champion, not a bad start, now build a feud out of it!

3.El Hijo Del Santo, Dancer? – Oh man, talk about coming back and biting you in the ass! For those who don’t follow the News and Views from South of the Border, first off shame on you and a stern finger wagging, this story was followed as closely as possible. If we dwell on the backstory for a moment, el Hijo del Santo, Santo Jr. for short, has been blackballed from CMLL, working Indys, and writing a weekly newspaper article denouncing the WWE, CMLL and AAA for destroying the beautiful sport, now keyword SPORT, of Lucha-Libre and pro wrestling. He’s offered a spot in AAA’s version of Wrestle-Mania in one of the main events, now this is in 2009. In 2010 he’s doing much of the same, but then he reveals he has a lawsuit pending with AAA regarding payment for the show. AAA head Marisela Peña reveals the lawsuit isn’t for non-payment, Santo Jr. was part of the cover art for the Triple-Mania dvd, which Santo Jr. now says he was never paid for. Not just that, he’s also suing because of use of wrestling moves he has trademarked, trademarked not as wrestling moves, but as choreographic dance steps, can you say BAM! or “Big Ass Mistake!”. Something that completely goes against everything Santo Jr. is preaching! Santo Jr. being made to look like a hypocrite, not very good for the Santo Legacy!

2.Matt Hardy Does It Again! – You know when Brian Pillman was doing the “Loose Cannon” character, he made that shit work! Matt Hardy, not so much! 2010 was the year of Hardy YouTube videos, Tweets, and Facebook comments. He wanted out of the WWE, got it, now he’s trying to reinvent himself or something, I don’t know I kinda lost interest. God I miss Brian Pillman!

1.TNA and The Saga of Abyss – I’ve always like Abyss, especially when he was the monster Abyss and all he had to do was tear ass and James Mitchell or Prince Nana did the rest. 2010 we saw what I consider the worst TNA storyline. First off, Abyss teamed with Hogan, ok whatever, then he receives Hogan’s Hall of Fame ring and now he’s all super powered and can create green constructs but his weakness is yellow, oh wait that’s Green Lantern! So yeah, the Hall of Fame ring, he feuds over the ring, then he switches, he takes on a 2 by 4, can you say HOOOOOOOOOO! But wait, EV 2.0 is on the way so it has to be an “Extreme” 2 by 4 named Janice! He turns heel and says “they” are coming! This could of been an interesting storyline, Age of the Fall in TNA, James Mitchell bringing in a new evil stable, Hell bringing in Kevin Sullivan and having him manage Abyss while forming a new Dungeon of Doom would have been better than Hogan and Bischoff being “They”. Immortal was formed, mistakes were made, I changed the channel, and a few posts of “you are just a WWE mark”, “you don’t understand the Shakespearian complexity of a TNA storyline”, “Paul Roma rulez” and “you suck” were posted, hell of a year!

Tony Acero
HM: Paul Bearer dummies: This was maybe a bit chuckle worthy the first time, but after that it just got tedious…
HM: Kaval’s Release: True, he asked for it but the reasoning behind the release is somewhat horrid as we got the all too well known “We have nothing for you” excuse that just makes me shake my head. It’s a writer’s job to ‘have something for’ the talent, not the other way around.
HM: TNA’s hiring of Jeff Hardy: TNA knew full well of Jeff Hardy’s…situation yet opted for the quick pop and supposed growth in ratings that he was going to bring as per usual. What they got, however was an uninteresting (in my opinion) Heel Jeff Hardy and all of his problems along with it. While speculation as to how or why Jeff nearly bailed on a match with Morgan points towards drug use and/or exhaustion, I’m here to say I don’t care either way as he shouldn’t have been hired in the first place.

5. Cena vs. Nexus – I dislike Cena. I’m a part of the Internet Wrestling Community so me disliking Cena shouldn’t be too much of a surprise, but I want to try an explain why in a couple of sentences, using the entire Nexus vs. Cena storyline as my defense. Getting destroyed the week after Nexus was all sorts of awesome and a great way to introduce us to the next few months of Nexus takeover, but that’s where it stopped. Cena is well known now as the Superman of WWE, a man who sells through about 90% of the match until the eventual Hulk Up and 5 Moves of Doom. Now Uphoff claims that at TLC is where they ruined the storyline, and I can’t completely disagree but the problems started well before that as Barrett and company were scattershot at best in terms of getting the upperhand. I like to point out the “firing” of John Cena in which he showed up every week thereafter to mess with Nexus. Within the course of a month, a storyline with legs was condensed into 4 weeks of nothing exciting at all. I begged WWE (through yelling at my television) to just take Cena off of television for a week at least! Give the story some impact, let us know that he’s gone! Let the kiddies realize that the big bad Nexus really DID destroy their hero, but nooooo for whatever reason, we saw Cena weekly and in less than a month the storyline was closed when he dropped 15 chairs on a wooden plank that had Wade Barrett all cozy underneath, probably feeling no pain but a reverberating clash of chairs….just sad.

4. SES Is No More – The Straight Edge Society was a pleasant enough stable and CM Punk on the mic was just golden. From the infamous Happy Birthday promo to the constant “Straight Edge means I’m better than you,” The SES was always something I looked forward to seeing on my television screen. Unfortunately for me and many other fans, the stable fell apart very quickly and only CM Punk survived. Some blame goes on Serena as she was reported as not living her gimmick and being somewhat of a party animal. If that’s the case, then perhaps she deserved the release but it still damaged one of my favorite stables. Gallows was released shortly thereafter which was also unfortunate due to his growth as a competitor and his strong ties with the gimmick. What I hated most of all was the unmasking of CM Punk. In something that could have been a long and very compelling and entertaining program with The Big Show, they opted to unmask CM Punk on a throwaway show just before Money in the Bank. This moment was just given away for seemingly no reason and although Show looked like he was enjoying himself, I felt short changed.

3. Tag Team Breakups – The Hart Dynasty, Cryme Tyme, The SES, and to a lesser extent The Dudebusters. All four teams that were broken up in 2010 for various reasons. My disdain isn’t because they broke the teams up exactly but more because of the reasoning behind the break ups. The Hart Dynasty floundered a bit in 2010, even after holding the belts for almost half the year. Then for no discernable reason, the Tyson Kidd turns happens, he gets a bodyguard who after a week is handled quickly by Mark Henry just as Kidd is. DH is chilling over on Superstars and we have a makeshift tag team in Santino and Vlad sucking it up weekly. Cryme Tyme felt the same effects early on in 2010 when-after a loss to R-Truth and Morrison-Shad decided it was “MY TIME!” Well that time didn’t last long as he was released in November after a horrible heel run. JTG is now losing to Tyler Reks on Superstars. Luke Gallows faced a similar fate as Shad when he was released as well shortly after the break up of the SES. Caylen Croft was another in the batch of releases, seeing the Dudebusters fall further into obscurity then ever before. Essentially, WWE continued the trend of just not giving a fuck about tag teams in 2010.

2. NXT SEASON 3 – You know those moments in history where you look back and are able to say “I was there!” Well, NXT Season 3 is one of those moments. I got the gig to write the report, thinking I’d enjoy the show and if it weren’t for a few specific things I might have (I’m really not that tough to please). This show was bad and rather than try and make it better or perhaps take it more seriously, WWE decided to allow it to be cannon fodder for horrible jokes and nothing but shit talking about the female wrestlers in the ring. If we ever wondered whether or not WWE took Women’s Wrestling seriously, take any ONE of the episodes produced during Season 3 and watch it. You’ll get your answer. From the horrible contests to some of the sloppiest ring work ever this show was all but doomed. However, the mistakes lie more so on one man….

1. Michael Cole – This is by far the BIGGEST Mistake I can see that WWE made. Giving Michael Cole, the dweeb, the twerp, the man that was picked on endlessly in backstage interviews, the catchphrase machine himself, Michael COLE a freaking voice above most wrestlers has got to be the biggest no return mistake of 2010. As a supporter of The Miz, he’s tolerable and it’s great as it adds hatred towards The Miz, but as a literal asshole putting down each female in WWE NXT and the show on a weekly basis, he pissed me off. Adding him to the SmackDown booth is a completely unnecessary move. Even IF Striker has become the quickest man to turn into a caricature of himself, Cole is not needed. He flip flops between caring about what’s going on in the ring then talking shit about the person in the ring. Heel commentators are great and have a place, but not a Michael Cole who half the time can’t decide whether to turn the heel notch up or the insult meter up. I found myself thinking on numerous occasions “I thought Cole hated that guy” only for him to praise said guy. For example, one week he’s pining over Vickie Guerrero along with Matt Striker, practically drooling over her body. The next week? He insults her to no end. Cole, shut the fuck up!

Michael Ornelas
HM: Davey Richards: PWG Champion: After winning Pro Wrestling Guerrilla’s World Championship from Kenny Omega in a great match, Davey put forth only a few more matches before missing three PWG shows in a row and vacating his championship. I understand that it’s a situation of circumstance, but it’s unfortunate.
HM: Austin Aries and RoH part ways: Austin Aries had one of the most enjoyable heel characters in recent years, but in Ring of Honor’s attempt to freshen things up, they let Aries go. I really hope it’s temporary since he’s one of the most talented men on the Indies these days.
HM: Ring of Honor links up with OVW: Ring of Honor is supposed to be the stage that highlights the top independent workers from all over the country, not an “easy in” for those with connections to Jim Cornette. I’m not buying these guys, and the Bluegrass Brawl was not a very good show.

5. Kenny Omega prefers Japan/Ring of Honor doesn’t utilize Japanese talents – Kenny Omega looked to be a breakout star for Ring of Honor after Epic Encounter III early in the year where he main-evented with Davey Richards in a fantastic match that went about forty minutes. But after that, he spent pretty much the whole year wrestling in Japan (with the exception of a match at DBDVIII against Daniels that was also fantastic). He was also PWG Champion going into 2010, but dropped that because he planned on being in Japan for extended periods of time. I can appreciate his desire to be there since wrestling’s treated a lot more like a sport there, but he’s such a great performer that I just want to see more of him in Ring of Honor. Inversely, RoH barely had any Japanese talents on their shows (which I believe was the void OVW unsuccessfully tried to fill). Dragon Gate USA seems like the only real outlet for seeing Japanese talents in the United States, which is disappointing because KENTA, Morishima, Nakajima, and others have torn it up in Ring of Honor. CHIKARA had a couple Japanese teams in the King of Trios and Akira Tozawa is in PWG, but Japanese involvement on the US Indies last year was disappointingly limited. Hopefully we’ll see more in 2011.

4. Davey doesn’t win Ring of Honor Wold Championship – I’m glad that Roderick Strong is getting a run with the championship because he’s been a very hard worker in RoH for the past five years and has proven himself to be loyal…but he’s no Davey Richards. Aside from some ridiculous superman kick outs that would shame John Cena, Davey is the best in-ring performer on the independent scene today. I honestly believe he should have beaten Tyler at Death Before Dishonor VIII in June, and when he didn’t, I figured he wouldn’t win at Final Battle either because Roderick hadn’t defended his belt but once. Richards is the hottest thing in Ring of Honor and I really hope his next championship match is the one where he wins. They can’t afford to have another top guy branded as a choke artist like the last and current champion.

3. Matt Hardy Version I Don’t Care.0 – My God does Matt Hardy need to just shut up and realize he isn’t as good as his own hype. I used to LOVE the Hardy Boyz growing up (the first wrestling show I ever saw was Wrestlemania X-Seven on Pay-Per-View, and was captivated by the Hardyz during the TLC II), and if you had told me that just a decade later, I’d be adamantly opposed to where their wrestling careers were, I wouldn’t believe you. 2005 saw a period in which Matt Hardy could have been huge and was getting arguably one of the biggest crowd reactions each and every night. But then he floundered and proved himself to be slightly overrated when compared to Edge. But he was still over. He has ridden that momentum for five and a half years now without doing ANYTHING to improve himself. Turning heel and changing from pants to tights just showed him to be fat and unconvincing in cutting bad guy promos. He then went crazy on YouTube (“working us all” in the process), alienating fans (who are all almost exclusively chubby teenage goth chicks nowadays), and begging for his release. After awhile, he finally got it, but at the cost of my (and many others’) respect. And now Tyler Reks is in TNA. I just don’t care. I actually like Tyler much more than Matt Hardy right now.

2. “Creative has nothing for you.” – This is just ridicky-donk to the max. So many talented wrestlers were let go this year, which is nothing new for the WWE, but they chose the wrong ones this year. Shelton Benjamin and Mickie James are both very good at what they do, but Shelton never got the push his talent warranted. Mickie gained a small amount of weight and was no longer the hot young piece of ass she once was, so the WWE let her go. Luke Gallows finally got past his Festus character and was a decent big man in the ring who was let go just because WWE on a whim disbanded the Straight Edge Society. Serena Deeb partied too hard which led to her release, but I feel like it wouldn’t have been an issue if she hadn’t been given that character. Mike Knox was another fully capable big guy in the ring who suffered a similar fate. Paul Burchill never really got off the ground in WWE except for his pirate gimmick, which should have never been scrapped. Jillian Hall, MVP, and Kaval were frustrated with how they were being used, so they asked for their own releases (as did Charlie Haas, if I remember correctly). Kaval was straight-up impatient in my eyes, but with the burial he was receiving week after week on Smackdown, it was hard to hold it against the guy, especially with how well fellow independent wrestling megastar and NXT rookie Daniel Bryan was doing. It’s frustrating watching talent go to waste when they could very well use them to create competitive secondary title/tag team division. On the TNA side of things, their roster is already too big for its own good, but for them to not have anything for Christopher Daniels or Homicide also reeks of “not trying very hard” with their booking.

1. Hogan & Bischoff’s “improvements” to TNA – “We’re not going to be the focus”, “we’re not going to be in front of the camera”, promises of higher ratings and sticking it to the WWE. First of all (and this goes back before Hogoff came in), TNA needs to focus on making themselves a distinct product without saying “WWE won’t do this, so we will” all the time. That just makes them look desperate and like they don’t even consider the fact that there are REASONS WWE won’t do some things (like chair shots to the head). Either way, Hogoff made a bunch of empty promises. All they really accomplished was created a buzz for January 4th, brought in the washed up Scott Hall, Sean Waltman, the Nasty Boys, Ric Flair, and the horrendous Orlando Jordan just because he worked with him in Australia, and got rid of TNA’s six-sided ring which was one of their actually unique features (although I prefer the four-sided one, I supported TNA distinguishing themselves in that manner). Since then, Bischoff is on TV virtually every week as the boss of the company’s biggest faction, their ratings are no higher than before he and Hogan came in (but for awhile they were much lower), their in-ring product is finally getting a focus again (a full year later), and their world champion was a drug addict facing potential jail time very soon. I think Ken Anderson is one of the two good things about TNA right now (the other being Guns vs. Beer Money matches). Samoa Joe has been Samoa Joke, AJ Styles has dropped down from main event status again, Jeff Jarrett is featured prominently IN the ring after having an angle saying he was never going to wrestle regularly again and make things about the younger guys (didn’t someone have to coax him out of retirement this year?), Desmond Wolfe who was one of the hottest prospects to watch coming into the new year after a fantastic debut series with Kurt Angle has been a virtual nobody in TNA despite proving that he can go in the ring and is one of the biggest fan favorites in the company. Bischoff and Hogan have the mindset that “these guys never drew a dime” but aren’t doing anything to help those people gain the name value to draw money. They just rely on guys who supposedly did draw in the past and that’s that. You get the point. There is a LOT that TNA did wrong in 2010, and if they continue to make these kinds of mistakes in 2011, the end may be near.

Chad Nevett

5. The Saga of Matthew Hardy – Was it all a mistake when he accomplished what he wanted and got his release from the WWE? No. But, it wasn’t exactly a smart move either, because it had the secondary result of turning a lot of people against him. When his goal was to get released and do indie work/head to TNA, alienating the fanbase that makes up the vast majority of that audience isn’t a smart move. By the end, he’d gone so far that it wasn’t even a case of people disliking him… we all just didn’t care anymore and wanted nothing to do with him.

4. Tag Team Division? What Tag Team Division? – Almost all tag teams break up. No one expects a team to stay together, but who breaks up a team before they’re over and can sustain singles runs? The WWE in 2010, that’s who! The Hart Dynasty gained the belts and were finally getting over in the wake of Bret Hart’s return to the WWE and, instead of booking them strongly and creating interesting feuds, they squandered the Usos feud with on-again/off-again booking, took the titles off the duo, teased a break-up angle for longer than anyone cared, and, then, finally broke them up. Now look at how popular Tyson Kidd and David Hart Smith are. Other teams like the Dudebusters and Archer & Hawkins didn’t have much time to even get people to learn their names before they were broken up. There was one area that TNA had all over the WWE this year and it was tag team wrestling and, surprisingly, it seemed like the WWE didn’t care. It’s not like any of their most popular wrestlers ever came from tag teams that had the chance to develop and get over the duo!

3. Jack Swagger World Champion Midcard Nobody – I’m a big Jack Swagger fan, so I was very excited to see him win Money in the Bank and then cash it in on Smackdown the following week. The All-American American American American American American American World Heavyweight Champion? Hell yes. Then, he had a fantastic Triple Threat Match against Chris Jericho and Edge where he retained the belt, suggesting maybe he wouldn’t get the standard weak first title reign that the WWE insists on giving guys. But, from there, it was lackluster feuds, dropping the belt, looking like a joke against the Big Show, and languishing in the midcard with feuds against MVP and a failed attempt to win the Intercontinental Championship. It’s almost to remember that he was ever in a world title match let alone the champion.

2. Too Much Talent, Not Enough Ideas – I’m not limiting myself to just the WWE, because TNA was just as guilty of this in 2010. How many talented wrestlers were let go or asked for their releases because nothing was being done with them? More than that, how many went on, after their release, to go elsewhere (Ring of Honor more often than not) and put on fantastic matches? I’m sorry, but if you can’t come up with ideas for Shelton Benjamin, Daniels, Homicide, or MVP, you shouldn’t be in a creative business. This isn’t even taking into consideration the many, many talented guys that are still with the WWE and TNA who barely get used. Seriously, if there’s so much talent that there just isn’t enough time to showcase it all, how is the product from both companies so consistently mediocre?

1. The Hogan/Bischoff Era at TNA – Not everything failed. I want to say that right off the bat. I spent 2010 doing the 4Rs for Impact before switching to the Instant Analysis, and of course I know that some amazing, fantastic things happened in TNA this year. Even within the horrible angles, great matches and great promos happened. But, it was also an incredibly frustrating year in TNA. Something I’ve been thinking about lately is the January 4th episode of Impact’s main event: AJ Styles vs. Kurt Angle for the TNA World Heavyweight Championship. After the match, Hulk Hogan came out and told everyone something that we all knew: these two guys are two of the best wrestlers in the world. Well, what happened from there? AJ turned heel, kept the belt for a few months before losing it on an episode of Impact, ending the year struggling to regain the TV Title, and Angle was out for much of the year, ending the year ‘retired.’ That’s what they did with two guys that they began the year by saying were the best in the world. Is it any wonder that the likes of Samoa Joe, Daniels, and Desmond Wolfe pretty much fell off the map? Add to that awful stories involving Hall of Fame rings, Ric Flair and Hulk Hogan actually wrestling, the Nasty Boys, the Band, at least two nWo retreads, putting the world belt on a man facing drug charges, the decimation of the X-Division, a failed attempt to move Impact to Monday nights, a new wrestling TV show that didn’t actually feature wrestling except for the final minutes of Impact’s main event, Impact continually having it main event finish on another show, and everything involving EV2.0… And, you know what, TNA is exactly where it was at this time last year, except with less enthusiasm, buzz, or expectations. No, not even a few stellar matches by the Motor City Machine Guns and Beer Money can’t make up for that.

Ryan Byers
5. WWE Pisses Away NXT – I remember being very intrigued when I first heard of the concept behind NXT. I thought that it was something that could change up the unfortunately stale format that WWE has fallen into over the course of the past twelve or so years and create at least two or three new stars for the promotion. At the end of season one, Wade Barrett and Bryan Danielson did come away feeling like viable midcard or upper-midcard wrestlers, but the show itself had fallen off a cliff and basically turned into a male version of the Diva Search with Danielson and Barrett surviving in spite of how they were pushed and not because of it. Things got worse and worse with each ensuing season, to the point that I can’t even be bothered to watch whatever version of it is running on the WWE website these days. It could have been something fresh and exciting to help reinvigorate fan interest, but it wound up being a slightly different take on Sunday Night Heat.

4. Matt Hardy is, um, Matt Hardy – I have to admit, I’m not a guy who pays a ton of attention to what wrestlers are doing on Twitter, Facebook, or elsewhere on the internet. As a result, for news of a guy’s exploits on these sites to reach me, it’s got to be something pretty extreme. One thing that I definitely heard about from the blogosphere this year was Matt Hardy, who first made waves by going out of his way to get released from his WWE contract, then starting to pick fights with guys who write for websites like this one, and most recently bitching and moaning about ratings that critics have given to his first TNA match against Rob Van Dam. First of all, no matter how poorly you think you’re treated, I can’t imagine anybody wanting to leave a WWE contract behind to be half as big a star in TNA, but, hey, that’s your own personal business. What really boggles by mind about Hardy’s behavior is that he’s seemingly gone out of his way to make himself seem as obnoxious and emotionally disturbed as possible in front of the internet audience that used to support him more than almost any other group of fans. Why you would want to alienate a loyal fan base like that is completely beyond me, especially when you’re hoping that they’ll follow you to a new, less popular company.

3. Giving up on Pay Per View – I have yet to see anything which indicates that anybody in power within either WWE or TNA have actively made the decision that pay per view is no longer a priority, but, from the way PPVs have been promoted in 2010, it feels more and more like both big companies in the United States have decided to de-emphasize making money with the revenue source that has made Vince McMahon and company the majority of their money since the 1980’s. Maybe it’s just me, but I feel like pay per view could still be viable if they would just put a little bit more time and effort into actually promoting the damn things. It is true that the Ultimate Fighting Championship is the hot thing on PPV these days and has stretched viewers’ dollars thin, with some even arguing that the buyrate for this past year’s Wrestlemania was hurt badly by virtue of the fact that it ran the same weekend as a Georges St. Pierre fight. However, if you plan around that and build up hot angles which actually CULMINATE on pay per view as opposed to simply progressing on pay per view like it’s any other TV show and you could still probably garner a lot more fan interest than what the pay shows had in 2010.

2. Nexus Angle Bungled – I started writing this website’s Instant Analysis of Monday Night Raw right around the same time that Nexus made its debut, so I’ve been writing about this storyline fairly extensively since day one. It’s unquestionable that the first angle involving the group was AWESOME, one of the most memorable in WWE history. There have been flashes of brilliance since then, including Skip Sheffield coming along as a really believable monster heel prior to his injury and the beatdown on the WWE legends. However, the big problem with the Nexus storyline has been that they were made too vulnerable too soon. In their first big pay per view match at Summerslam, they were beaten and they were beaten clean. After that (and even in a few segments beforehand), they were no longer a menacing, intimidating force. They were just a bunch of midcard wrestlers no different than the stable that you would get if you threw together a team of Jack Swagger, Kofi Kingston, John Morrison, Zeke Jackson, Ted DiBiase, Jr., Cody Rhodes, and Jackson Andrews. I know that there are a handful of people out there who are still big fans of the storyline, but the fact of the matter is that it could have been so much more if they would have given the Nexus boys an extended period of time during which they actually got heat on the WWE home unit instead of having the more experienced wrestlers beat them early in the story and thereafter book the two sides fairly evenly.

1. TNA Engages in the “New Monday Night War” – Seriously, what the hell were these people thinking? Yes, it is true that WCW managed to grow by leaps and bounds as a result of going head-to-head with Raw on Monday nights. However, there was a world of difference between where WCW was situated when it launched Nitro and where TNA was situated when it fired its first shot on January 4, 2010. If you look at the television ratings for WCW Saturday Night and WWF Monday Night Raw immediately prior to the start of their “war,” they were roughly equal. The two promotions had two very distinct groups of fans that were equal in size and had a fair amount of pride in their respective styles of professional wrestling, each thinking that the other was inferior. TNA had nothing like that vis-à-vis WWE. Their audience prior to starting their war was less than half of Raw’s, and, though there aren’t any firm numbers to support this, anecdotally speaking it felt like the vast majority of TNA viewers were also WWE viewers in some way, shape, or form. As a result, instead of the two promotions having their own separate foundations to build off of, TNA was trying to build off a group of people who, by and large, were satisfied watching them on Thursday nights but preferred to stick with Raw on Monday. Some may say that hindsight is 20/20, but it’s not as though these were great mysteries prior to January 4. They were readily ascertainable facts that all could’ve been figured out to avoid TNA making the ill-advised move and looking like a extremely second rate promotion as a result.

Nick Bazar
5. Bret Hart vs. Mr. McMahon at Wrestlemania – This match should have never happened, especially at the biggest show of the year. It was a sad thing to watch, and brought down my overall enjoyment of the otherwise good show. People say Ric Flair is tarnishing his legacy by continuing to wrestle, but Bret Hart made him look limber in comparison.

4. AJ Styles Heel Turn – There are certain wrestlers who should never be heel, and AJ Styles is one of them. His smaller size and flashy moves make it so that people want to cheer him. Shawn Michaels, a guy who fits that same description perfectly, was able to be a successful heel because he really was a dick- it came naturally. Every heel promo Styles gave seemed painfully forced. No amount of designer douchebag sunglasses, expensive suits or gorgeous models could make that character any more believable. To make matters worse, he was doing really well for himself as a babyface champion before the turn.

3. World Champion Jack Swagger – I like Jack Swagger and think that he could make for a good heavyweight champion. However, the way they went about doing it was very stupid. Leading up to the MITB match at Wrestlemania, Swagger had barely done anything on TV. He had a few standout performances, but nothing at all relevant in the two months or so before Wrestlemania. Certainly nothing to get the crowd emotionally invested in his character. Then he wins MITB and the World Heavyweight Championship. Just like that. And no one cared. Even worse, he became a monotone robot, as if that is somehow more main-event credible. Had they given him more time to get over with the crowd and make people feel strongly one way or the other about his cash-in (ala The Miz), I believe he would be in a much better position right now.

2. Booking Nexus – I was in attendance the night the NXT guys stormed the ring and destroyed everything in sight. There was a legitimate buzz in the entire arena and I truly felt I had witnessed something big. It was fresh, different and downright cool. In the following weeks, they eliminated the likes of Bret Hart and Vince McMahon and seemed to be a real force within the company. Unfortunately, after Summerslam, it all went downhill. A heel group that initially seemed to have legs, was now being punked out at almost every turn. The credibility they had managed to grow had dwindled down considerably. Then, when it seemed they had found a way to make the angle interesting again with John Cena becoming a part of the group, they messed the execution up royally.

1. Monday Night Impact – I seem to like TNA more than most on this site, but the Monday Night Experiment is an easy #1 on my list. So much so that the choice isn’t even a subjective one- numbers don’t lie. This was a complete and utter failure. It took a long time to get their regular viewers back to Thursday. Still, months and months later, they are just barely back to where they were on an average Thursday night, pre-schedule change.

Michael Uphoff
HM: WWE releases Daniel Bryan – Because of the incident with the choking, WWE released Daniel Bryan in the summer. It wasn’t handled well by the WWE, but they brought him back, and he has done very well, so it is only an honorable mention.
HM: WWE NXT Season Three – This was a pure abomination of television. Sure, we got to see some divas that could go in the ring, but 95% of this show was unredeemable.
HM: TNA turns AJ Styles heel – AJ Styles can be a good heel, sure. I list this because he had so much momentum as a face champion that had won the TNA World Championship and had a few truly great title defenses, and then TNA showed their true colors and ruined it.

5. John Cena gains the upper hand against Nexus – This to me deserves to be mentioned because from a booking standpoint it was very stupid to have John Cena win at TLC. There was so much more they could have done with the feud between Cena and Barrett/Nexus. For instance, you could have had Barrett and/or Nexus cost Cena the Rumble, then cost Cena the WWE Championship in the Elimination Chamber, and have a blowoff match on the grandest stage of them all, WrestleMania. But no, WWE had to send the kids and fat chicks home happy. Now with the addition of Punk as the Higher Power, things are much different and there is potential for 2011. However, it’s really sad what they did when they could have achieved more, and that is why it is the #5 mistake of 2010.

4. WWE releases wrestlers because their creative team “has no plans for them” – I have already spoken in depth on this topic, but this is most definitely one of the Top 5 Mistakes of 2010. How many people were released by the WWE because the creative team had no plans for them? At least half a dozen! This is bullshit! It is the job of the WWE creative team to come up with plans for wrestlers, not the wrestlers themselves. If there are no plans being made, then FIRE THE CREATIVE TEAM. WWE lost MVP, a very good serviceable worker that could excite a crowd very easily. They let Kaval go. They let go a few others that weren’t going to be top-tier guys, but they were released because no plans for them were being made. These were serviceable wrestlers that could work with many people. That’s crap, and an egregious travesty in the wrestling world.

3. WWE feuds Kane with the Undertaker – Let me be perfectly clear on this. This is a mistake because they repeatedly feuded in 2010. I was behind a feud between the two at the beginning; with their abilities, I thought they were capable of putting on good matches. That is how the feud started, with a good match. However, the feud progressed and got exponentially worse as it went on. The big mistake here by the WWE is that they continued to believe that two old men, still capable of putting on good matches, would draw in the main event when they should have pushed younger superstars into the main event picture. Guys like Swagger, Kingston, Ziggler, McIntyre, etc., were not given chances in the main event because of this terrible choice by the WWE, and this is why it is the #3 Mistake of 2010.

2. Matt Hardy – Whatever Hardy did or whatever he said in 2010 was a mistake. The guy clearly didn’t want to be in WWE anymore, but WWE did not want to grant him his release. He then proceeded to resort to becoming a five-year old and complaining on YouTube about not being used properly and how WWE was bad and how unhappy he was. It’s life, asshole! Deal with it! I’m going to let everyone in on a little secret, including Matt: He was never the better brother. Jeff was. He never deserved a world title reign. Some people should be given title reigns in WWE because they have proven they can draw, but Hardy was never a top draw in the WWE. Ever. Jeff was. Matt Hardy is on this list because he is living evidence of how badly a wrestler can go overboard, make himself look like shit, his brother just as bad, and have nothing good come out of it.

1. TNA – Anything that TNA chose to do in 2010 that did not revolve around the Motor City Machine Guns or Mr. Anderson was a mistake. It is no coincidence that TNA had the worst manager of the year, worst women’s wrestler of the year, worst tag team of the year, worst match of the year, and the worst PPV of the year. TNA was legitimately the biggest mistake in 2010 because 99% of its decisions were mistakes. I’m just going to list the ones that I can recall off the top of my head: Kristal and Lashley. The Steel Asylum match. Giving Jeff Hardy, someone who is a criminal and IS GOING TO PRISON the TNA World Championship. Abyss and “The Ring.” Lacey Von Erich. Bringing back the Band, bringing back a four-sided ring and getting rid of the hexagon. Bringing back the NWO in the form of Fourtune/Immortal. Getting rid of Christopher Daniels. TNA Hardcore Justice. Splitting up the Dudleys. Turning AJ Styles heel. If given some time I could definitely come up with more. However, the most egregious mistake by TNA was them bringing in Hogan and Bischoff. These guys made everyone think that they could turn it all around. Hogan and Bischoff don’t know shit. Bischoff took other people’s ideas and passed them off as his own. Hogan is a shadow of his former self. When you get rid of people who are legitimately good wrestlers because you don’t think they can work, you’re a hack. Another mistake by TNA: their booking with Kurt Angle. Where do I even begin? They booked themselves into a corner with their stupidity. I’m sorry if this seems like flagrant hostility. Yes, I am a WWE fan and a TNA hater. However, I recognize that there are things that TNA has done right in 2010, and I am happy that they have managed to build legitimate main eventers in Mr. Anderson and Matt Morgan, and bring back true tag team wrestling with the Motor City Machine Guns and Beer Money, Inc. With all that being said, if you are a TNA fan, you cannot justify anything else that TNA has done. You can’t. If you try, you’re simply delusional from the Kool-Aid that you have been drinking. TNA is legitimately the biggest mistake in 2010 because of all the mistakes they have made as a company. Simple. As. That.