The Best and Worst of Wrestling in 2017

Worst Wrestler: Enzo Amore

Enzo has done very little to endear himself with the fans this past year

2016 Winner: Dana Brooke

2017 Runners-Up: Jinder Mahal, Baron Corbin

On the opposite end of the spectrum, we have the award for the most disappointing wrestler of the year. While a lot of wrestlers, especially in WWE, leave a lot to be desired in terms of their actual in-ring abilities, none have been as disappointing as Enzo Amore.

Nowhere is there more evidence of this than in his No Mercy match with Neville, in which he won the Cruiserweight Championship after using only two moves, one of which was a low blow.

It was clear that the pairing of Enzo & Cass was done to conceal each man’s respective weaknesses; but with their team split and Cass sidelined with an injury, Enzo’s lack of in-ring skill has come to the forefront, and has only proven without controversy that as an actual grappler, he fails to live up to the standard set by his fellow cruiserweights.

Jinder Mahal was a wrestler that WWE tried to push as a true main-eventer, but his push fell flat. Despite having the look and physique, Mahal failed in terms of actual match quality. Despite working with a seasoned veteran in Randy Orton, Mahal’s weaknesses were exposed time and again.

Even technical workhorse and legitimate badass Shinsuke Nakamura couldn’t get a good match out of Mahal without there needing to be shenanigans and gimmicks involved in the match finishes. It took AJ Styles to get Mahal to finally perform at an acceptable level, and wouldn’t you know it, it was the match that saw Styles beat Mahal and regain the WWE Championship.

In hindsight, that was actually the best match of Mahal’s career, but it wasn’t even the best AJ Styles match for that given month.

Baron Corbin was another wrestler that failed to show his chops in the ring this year. Granted, a big part of that was due to how he was being punished through his booking. That said, Corbin failed to have a match in 2017 that stood out in a positive way.

He had arguably the worst match of Shinsuke Nakamura’s career at Battleground 2017, and was defeated easily by John Cena at SummerSlam. Since then, Corbin hasn’t done anything exceptional, which only further proves how disappointing he has been as a wrestler this year.