2017 Awards: Worst Angle of the Year

As usual, Kurt isn’t an option.

As much as wrestling fans like to talk about great things in wrestling, they seem to love to complain about the bad stuff even more. That’s what we’re looking at today with the worst stories of the year. Some of these will be more focused on the stories themselves but some of them are built around the matches, as you can classify both of them as angles for all intent and purpose.

Let’s get one of the big ones out of the way: Jinder Mahal as WWE Champion. It wasn’t exactly the most pleasing story to most of the fans, the matches weren’t good and the promos were even worse. Mahal shouldn’t have been the World Champion and it kept getting worse the longer it went. This is going to be hard to top but I think there’s something in there.

We’ll stick with Mahal and go with his feud vs. Shinsuke Nakamura. Not only did Mahal beat him twice but there were the terrible promos with Mahal making fun of the way Nakamura looked and laughed, which was a combination of both unfunny and rather racist at times. I have no idea who approved of this stuff but it was really bad, which is as nice as I can be about it.

In the third straight Smackdown story, there’s Shane McMahon. What about Shane? Everything for the most part. He’s around way too often and the idea of forcing him into the face role isn’t working. I have no idea why I’m supposed to cheer for him but WWE seems obsessed with pushing him in that role no matter what. Somehow we might be getting a Daniel Bryan heel turn out of it, because that’s where things need to go. Shane is a horrible character and one of the worst parts of the entire show, which is covering a lot of ground.

We’ll head over to Raw for a change now and a story that made me thankful for the outbreak of a viral disease. For reasons that I don’t want to comprehend, WWE decided that Bray Wyatt should be taken over by his sister, a witch named Sister Abigail, to fight against the Demon version of Finn Balor. As usual, WWE would rather beat you over the head with a concept instead of showing your a little something and letting you figure it out on your own. Thankfully (work with me here), Bray got sick and the story was canceled. It was bad enough while it lasted and I can’t imagine how bad it would have been if it had finished.

I’ll also throw in the American Top Team invasion from TNA.  This was designed to showcase Lashley but wound up showcasing that MMA fighters can beat wrestlers, because that’s the kind of story that every wrestling fan wants to see.  The story went on way too long and wasn’t interesting in the first place, while also bringing in two MMA fighters for cameos at Bound For Glory, where there was no one else who could possibly have used the exposure.

There’s a big one left though and interestingly enough, it also involves Bray Wyatt. This time though it’s the entire Wyatt vs. Randy Orton feud, which not only managed to have horrible matches and segments but also managed to sink Wyatt’s main event career. He won the title, but then lost it in a match involving maggots and worms being projected onto the mat. For some reason someone thought this would be a good idea, and I feel that person should be taken out back and be forced to watch the match until their eyes rot out.