Most Irritating Person Award: Stephanie McMahon
Runners-Up: Enzo Amore, The Golden Truth, the WWE Creative team, Mick Foley, Byron Saxton
Stephanie McMahon’s character is the most irritating presence in wrestling today. Every week she makes an appearance and talks down to her own roster and drones on in corporate speak.
An authority figure shouldn’t be this important on a wrestling show, but unfortunately, Stephanie has used her status to make many segments solely about her, much to the detriment of the program. On the day she finally gets her comeuppance (if that day ever comes), RAW will probably get its best rating ever, just from the sheer joy people will have at seeing the irritating Stephanie McMahon get what she deserves.
Speaking of irritating, Enzo Amore’s promos and booking have started to lose their appeal for many people. He’s not coming across as entertaining in the same way he did earlier this year, and his overall actions make him out to be like one of those small dogs: insecure about his stature so he makes a lot of noise to compensate for it.
The WWE creative team deserves a major mention for this award for their collective failure this year. RAW’s continued decline can be traced to the creative team’s tendency to over-script the performers and a general lack of knowledge about the unique qualities of wrestling.
Since WWE likes to hire Hollywood writers that know little to nothing about wrestling, those writers write what they know, which obviously isn’t wrestling, leading to a very dismal product.
Mick Foley gets nominated for becoming one of the least-effective on-screen authority figures in recent memory. He’s no longer the Hardcore Legend that fears nothing and talks in cryptic promos as Mankind did. He’s more like an awkward, overprotective dad trying to be cool with an audience he doesn’t understand.
If anything, the way he’s presented on ‘Holy Foley’ has come to life on RAW as well.
Finally, while most of the commentators deserve a nomination for lack of enthusiasm (Michael Cole especially, for infamously reading his reaction to Shane falling of the Cell from a script), the worst commentator this year was undoubtedly Byron Saxton.
He hasn’t contributed much to the shows, talks in a monotone voice that doesn’t give off any hint of passion or excitement, and has been the butt of more jokes than even Michael Cole.
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