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Usually, when a new decade begins, people like to start things off with a BANG. In pro wrestling, however, the current decade started off with a whimper.
Unlike the 2000s, which began on a really high note for WWE, the 2010s began with one of the most forgettable years of all time. While most people remember the generally-terrible year that was 2009, most fans don’t even remember 2010 at all. Very little of note happened, and the biggest and most high-profile occurrences were generally negative.
In WWE – the company that still controlled most of the wrestling in North America – precious little happened thanks to that company’s juggernaut position on top of the industry. Without any major competition – TNA tried and failed hard at restarting the Monday Night Wars with (surprise, surprise) Hulk Hogan as the centerpiece – WWE treated their own product with lackadaisical effort and little creativity.
That led to only a tiny handful of great matches, a lot of average matches, even more subpar matches, and a small handful of truly dreadful matches. It’s this fourth and final category that we’ll be looking at today.
#5 Extreme Rules Tag Team Gauntlet Match
This is not one match but is instead a series of short, illogical matches that all added up to a complete mess that didn’t really entertain as it should’ve.
The first match was ShoMiz facing John Morrison and R-Truth. That match ended in just over three minutes due to a disqualification. On a show called ‘Extreme Rules’ which is booked on the premise that normal rules don’t apply.
The second match goes a measly 2:17, and involves little action or story of any kind, before Big Show decked Miz with his knockout punch finisher. Then, the Hart Dynasty – the only team that wasn’t composed of thrown-together teams – won with the Hart Attack in mere seconds.
What made this so bad was it was just thrown-together nonsense with no story and not enough build to get the fans excited. The Hart Dynasty won, but they didn’t have any odds to overcome, nor could they actually get the fans to rally behind them.
This entire segment looked like it was hastily added at the last possible second and no one had enough time to put together anything coherent. It goes to show just how bad things can be when WWE announces an ‘impromptu match’ without any reason as to why.
#4 The Undertaker vs. Kane – HIAC match – Hell In A Cell 2010
On paper, a HIAC match between The Undertaker and Kane sounds like a great idea. After all, the two of them had a legendary feud that spanned over a decade. However, this was 2010’s Kane and The Undertaker, which means it was an absolutely terrible match instead.
Taker and Kane were both slow and plodding in this match, and that came through in their offense. A lot of the action in between wasn’t as exciting as it could’ve been, partly because both wrestlers were much older.
Both Taker and Kane were at the point where they needed to be wrestling better workers as opposed to each other, and that showed in the relative apathy from the crowd. Sure, they cheered the typical big spots (it’s the Undertaker, after all), but it wasn’t the dramatic, captivating storyline WWE thought it was.
Worse, this match ended with a nonsense finish involving Paul Bearer turning on The Undertaker (shocker), leading to a ‘victory’ for Kane in a feud that no one really cared about. There were much better ways to use Kane and The Undertaker at this point, and they honestly shouldn’t have been stuck in a feud that was nothing more than a poor attempt to revive a story that peaked in popularity over a decade prior.
#3 Team WWE vs. The Nexus - SummerSlam 2010
This is a perfect example of an ‘all-or-nothing’ match. The Nexus NEEDED to win this match. Not only was it the logical conclusion for the storyline at the time, but all of them would become bona fide stars if they scored such an important victory.
Instead, John Cena had the bright idea to perform his trademark ‘superman comeback’, which was horrible in execution. After being DDT’ed onto the concrete floor, Cena completely no-sold the move and eliminated the last two Nexus members left, emerging victorious for his team.
Because apparently, putting a smile on peoples’ faces no matter what is more important than completing the story logically and creating new stars.
In doing this, Cena basically killed the Nexus stars as a collective entity and preserved the status quo on RAW. Years later, Cena would admit to Edge & Jericho that he did, in fact, make the wrong decision, but the damage was done.
In the years that followed, all seven Nexus members disappeared from WWE competition one by one, with only Skip Sheffield ever getting a WWE title shot, and that was after being repackaged into Ryback and completely shedding his Nexus baggage.
Because of its consequences, both short-term and long-term, this match deserves an appearance on this list.
#2 Bret Hart vs. Vince McMahon - WrestleMania XXVI
This was a match that should not have happened. Bret Hart had been retired from in-ring competition for a decade and had suffered a really bad stroke eight years prior. He was not meant to be in the ring at his age and in his condition, even if it was against a non-wrestler like Vince McMahon.
But because of the egos involved, Bret did wrestle, and did so…poorly.
If there was ever a match that needed either seconds (i.e. backups) or better yet, representatives from each side, it was this one. Neither Vince nor Bret needed to actually be in the ring, and both sides could’ve used full-time talent instead of wrestling themselves.
Bret could’ve easily had the Hart Dynasty wrestle in his place while Vince had literally an army of possible wrestlers to team together to face his then-nemesis Bret Hart to curry favor with the boss.
#1 Kaitlyn vs. Maxine – NXT
The following phrase is what Michael Cole (who is the voice of Vincent Kennedy McMahon) thought of this segment: "We've sat through a lot of bad stuff on this show, but this may be the single worst segment of this show that I've ever been a part of."
He then proceeded to take a phone call as this match was happening, because the said phone call was clearly 100 times more exciting than this match.
Then again, what did WWE expect when they put two completely inexperienced rookies together in a match?
Maxine looked completely unprepared to wrestle, and Kaitlyn wrestled in a hoodie. They did very basic moves that were either executed wrongly or were sold poorly. The crowd was not into this match whatsoever. The situation wasn’t helped by either Alicia Fox or Vickie Guerrero, both of whom screamed awful advice at their respective rookies in shrill voices.
Oddly, the only entertaining thing about this entire segment was Michael Cole (now there’s a phrase you never thought you’d see, right?). Cole utterly destroyed this match on commentary, taking digs at the show, the wrestlers, Josh Matthews, and everything and everyone around him. His words and actions spoke a thousand words: he did not care one bit about this match, and neither should you.
It was an utter trainwreck that marked the absolute nadir of NXT. Thankfully, Triple H would take over a few years later and turn NXT into something that was actually watchable.
