The Top 5 Best and Worst Things in Wrestling in 2024
The Worst
Dishonorable Mention: CM Punk’s AEW exit: So, this one seemed really bad at the time, and was a huge scandal. Yet, it didn’t make the list for a simple reason: You could have seen this coming from a mile away. It was sadly only a matter of time before Punk, who was never really at home in AEW, had another incident. It did come sooner than expected this time. It simply wasn’t meant to be, and while it was a black eye for the company, I actually consider the Brawl Out fiasco to be worse and more embarrassing. Punk returning to WWE and cutting half-hearted, cookie-cutter promos has been painful to watch, though, and I felt Punk deserved a mention.-Justin Bailey
5. The passing of Jay Briscoe and Bray Wyatt: Losing members of the wrestling family is sadly nothing new. But to lose two active wrestlers still in their prime in the same year is a hard pill to swallow. Jay Briscoe tragically passed away due to a car crash on January 17th and left a massive hole in the heart of so many of us but if anything positive were to come from it, it would be his brother Mark's unshakable positive outlook about life after Jay's passing and his belief that Jay is in a better place looking down on all of us. We truly do not deserve a man as pure as Mark Briscoe in the professional wrestling world.
On August 24th, Bray Wyatt passed away due to a heart attack brought on due to long lasting effects of COVID. Bray will easily be remembered as one of the biggest "What Ifs" in wrestling history. Bray was a talented worker in the ring and a brilliantly charismatic and well spoken man on the microphone. Unfortunately the booking and angles never really clicked for Bray for a long time and I feel like he never got to truly be the top guy he should have been. Both men's passings were sad for leaving so much more for them to do undone but the saddest part was leaving their families and loved ones behind. RIP to both men who we will never forget.-Alex Kalil
5. AEW’s Booking: In its early years, AEW’s booking was rock-solid and a masterclass in long form storytelling. That quality seemingly fell off a cliff at some point in 2023. The largest storyline of the year, MJF and Adam Cole, was wildly botched to the point of being embarrassing. The women’s division felt like an afterthought and featured the very poor Outcasts storyline. Several talents were mired in the midcard, moving from feud to feud without much direction. There were certainly bright spots, and it is still the best promotion out there for a quality wrestling product, but this is a company that must find its identity again in 2024. Tony Khan had a strong vision for the first couple years, he needs to create a new vision for the future.-Justin Bailey
4. Impact's crowd: Overall this year was a pretty good one for Impact. They got some big names to come in and boost their ratings. They had good PPVs and weekly TV and ended the year on a high note and even announced they will be returning to the TNA name. The biggest thing that held back my overall enjoyment of Impact though: their terrible crowds. I don't know if it was bad audio or what but it seemed like every show had dead crowds with little reaction. Even matches that were great seemed to do little to get a reaction from the crowds and really hurt my enjoyment of the match's presentation. I felt like it lessened as the year drew to a close but still a shame that Impact's big year was held back by the people paying to see the show.-Alex Kalil
4. The slow, painful decline of NJPW: The far off future could well be bright again, but NJPW’s unprecedented reign of brilliance from 2012 until the pandemic has given way to a sort of death by 1000 cuts. They’ve lost world-class talents in recent years like Jay White, Will Ospreay, and now Okada, and they don’t have wrestlers who are ready to fill the void yet. The lone true superstar remaining is Tetsuya Naito. All-time great Tanahashi remains but, his time in the sun is over. Attempts to make a main event talent out of SANADA failed to get over in 2023. There is a plethora of young talent starting to rise, but they are years away from being fully ready. The product is stale, the wrestling quality (while still high) has dipped, and the buzz and momentum is all but gone. Hopefully they can weather a few rough years while the next generation finds its footing.-Justin Bailey
3. ROH's lack of identity: While ROH continues to deliver nicely on PPV, the elephant in the room can no longer be ignored: ROH's TV and product itself is overall weak in 2023. The roster is a mix of dark match people and AEW guys that are filtered in just to be there. ROH under Tony Khan needs an identity. Is it going to be its own promotion with its guys or is it going to be a development branch for AEW guys to get some experience before moving up? I feel like ROH might be better served to give the book to someone like Daniels or Jerry Lynn, someone who was a part of ROH and let Tony Khan focus on AEW. Also stop taping ROH after Dynamite and Collision. Give ROH its own mass tapings like TNA and ROH did in the past.-Alex Kalil
3. The state of women’s wrestling: Women’s wrestling took a baffling step back in 2023, seemingly without good reason. AEW’s women’s division was shockingly poorly booked and generally an afterthought. A combination of misused talent, bad booking decisions, an unfortunate injury and departures left us with not much to get excited about. Even in WWE, which boasts an incredible array of genuine stars such as Rhea Ripley, Bianca Belair, Becky Lynch, Asuka, Charlotte Flair (who is now injured) etc, failed to properly feature these talents and put them in positions to succeed. There is no reason we can’t have exciting main event storylines and make these women centerpieces of the product. There is plenty of exceptional talent, the powers that be need to give them opportunities to shine.-Justin Bailey
2. Cody loses at Wrestlemania: Yep! This still pisses me off. The build-up to Roman vs. Cody at Wrestlemania was perfect. The board was set for an all time great moment of Cody winning... and then he lost. This single loss hurt what could have been an easy follow up for WWE. The Bloodline falling apart right from under Roman would have felt way more natural with him losing his championship and Cody taking on all comers including a pissed off and motivated Lesanr would have made so much more sense with Lesnar chasing the belt that Cody would now hold. Adding fuel to the fire was Roman's schedule that left him off several major shows or more insulting in tag matches not even defending the World Title. And here we are now in the build up to the 2024 Wrestlemania with Cody still needing to win but now we have CM Punk and even The Rock knocking on the door needing the spotlight. It's a mess. This could easily be one of the biggest WWE booking mistakes ever.-Alex Kalil
2. Those we lost: Ugh, what a year for tragedy. We shockingly lost two brilliant wrestlers way before their time, Bray Wyatt and Jay Briscoe, at only 36 and 38 years of age, respectively. Both had so many years left to give in the business. We also lost one of the most beloved legends ever in Terry Funk, along with the legendary Superstar Billy Graham and Iron Sheik. Lest we forget Lanny Poffo, Bushwhacker Butch, and Jerry Jarrett. It’s always sad to lose great performers from the wrestling world, but this year seemed particularly brutal in that regard.-Justin Bailey
1. CM Drama: Yep, this again. I won't spend much time on this because we all know the issues and luckily as time goes on everyone seems to be moving away from this drama. CM Punk made his return to AEW and before long issues returned that were still there from last time. This time it took away from AEW's biggest show to date and led to his firing. Naturally blame was thrown at everyone and everything. At the end of the day, this was a needless and stupid thing that luckily looks to be over and done with. Punk is back in WWE and AEW is returning to the style most wanted from them at the start. We all won. Eventually.-Alex Kalil
1. Vince McMahon makes out like a bandit: This one tops the list of the absolute wildest things I’ve witnessed in the wrestling landscape. Vince McMahon strong armed his way back into his company with almost no resistance, oversaw the extremely lucrative sale of the company, made obscene amounts of money and maintains a position of power as Executive Chairman of TKO. WWE’s success skyrocketed in 2023, and Vince has gone from retiring in shame amidst scandal to being back in power while WWE is thriving. He has truly had his cake and eaten it too. This deal benefited Vince more than anyone else. It has been unprecedented, it has been insane, and it has been truly disgusting to witness.-Justin Bailey
The Best
5. Kaito Kiyomiya kicks Kazuchika Okada in the face: On January 21st in a seemingly unimportant tag match on night two of NJPW's Wrestling Kingdom show, Kaito Kiyomiya, the Ace of Pro Wrestling NOAH, tried to break up a hold Kazuchika Okada had on Yoshiki Inamura. Okada seemed bored at Kaito's attempts to break up the hold so Kaito decided to make Okada notice him: he kicked Okada square in the face. And something in the rather calm demeanor of the Rainmaker snapped. Okada attacked Kaito with vicious and savage strikes, threw him to the outside and ignored the referee's instructions as well as his partner, Togi Makabe's attempts to calm him. Okada wanted Kaito's head! The match was called off but still the two Aces of their companies wanted to fight. This one kick would unleash a violent and pissed off Okada on all the younger generation of Japanese wrestlers. Okada would make sure they all knew where their place was: under his boots. The Ace of Japan was born here.-Alex Kalil
5. Christian Cage, Father of the Year: Christian has been by far my favorite wrestling personality of the year in terms of character work and performance, and has been unquestionably the creative high mark for AEW and wrestling in general in 2023. While fellow Canadian legend Chris Jericho consistently gets credit for reinventing himself, Christian has done the same. Everywhere he has been, every character he has portrayed, he’s been entertaining. His turn as “The Patriach”, collecting children (and Nick Wayne’s mother) has been brilliant and an absolute joy to watch.-Justin Bailey
4. New generation of wrestlers: A cliched pick I know but still, this feels like a year where it really feels earned. In WWE, Carmelo Hayes took up the role as top NXT star and had a great run on top while Dominik Mysterio came into their gimmick and played it perfectly. In AEW, Skye Blue, Julia Hart, Wheeler Yuta, Daniel Garcia all stepped up. And in Japan, we saw a huge changing of the guards. Dragon Gate introduced the Reiwa Six, the six men who will lead Dragon gate into the future: Madoka Kikuta, Shun Skywalker, Yuki Yoshioka, Ben-K, Kota Minoura, and Strong Machine J. NJPW started to push a new set of Musketeers with Shota Umino, Ren Narita and Yota Tsuji with Yuya Uemura joining soon after with some nice buzz. The future of wrestling looks very bright with these talented men and women ready to step up.-Alex Kalil
4. The Talented Mr. Ospreay: Will Ospreay had nothing but bangers in 2023, seemingly wrestling everyone he faced to a classic. The man is simply nothing less than a generational talent, and a marvel to watch. I don’t have much to say except, if he’s on the card, you know you’re in for something special. He even had an amazing match with late-career Jericho, and a couple 5-star outings against up-and-comers Tsuji and Umino. He could (well, definitely should) go down as one of the greatest ever if he is able to continue at such a high level.-Justin Bailey
3. WWE and AEW's PPV hot streak: This year had some of the best PPVs from almost every company. WWE and AEW I feel like had especially great years with both giving us some of the year's best shows. Both nights of Wrestlemania felt worthy of the name. Backlash and Money in the Bank showed that WWE's international shows are quickly becoming must watch shows. All In and All Out on back to back weekends was a big risk but bigger reward, while Forbidden Door and WrestleDream gave us fantastic PPVs with some big dream matches on the card. If you spent money on PPVs this year, chances are you got your money's worth.-Alex Kalil
3. WWE is…good?: WWE made a massive improvement with their product in 2023, and had one of their best years since the Attitude Era. Every Premium Live Event was at least decent (more on that later), and most of them were quite good. Even Crown Jewel, which won my worst show of the year, was still a fine show. With the very notable exception of the booking of Roman Reigns and his title reign (and beating Cody, which led to almost all of their booking problems in 2023), the product was quite well-booked overall. The star power is at a high level and the in-ring performances are at their highest level in recent memory. After years of a lazy, stale product that could be brutal to watch, in 2023 I consistently enjoyed WWE’s offerings.-Justin Bailey
2. The AEW Continental Classic: I love wrestling tournaments, especially one that can deliver tournament long stories and angles. Enter the inaugural Continental Classic from AEW! Not only did it deliver some of the best matches in the last 2 months of 2023 but the angles and storylines weaved into every match of the tournament were brilliant! The post match promos posted online were a weekly highlight and showed how great these wrestlers can be when they speak from the heart. Seeing Kingston win the whole tournament after being one loss away from losing everything was so great and felt truly like the crowning moment of Kingston's career. The expectations for next year's tournament are very high but I have a feeling that AEW can do it again.-Alex Kalil
2. The year of no bad shows?: Name a truly bad major PPV or PLE in 2023. I can’t. AEW, WWE, New Japan and yes, Impact, all put together decent to good shows consistently in 2023. This is actually unprecedented. In a year when many companies are transitioning or a bit down, this is an incredible achievement.-Justin Bailey
1. New leadership in wrestling: 2023 started with the unwelcomed return of Vince to the WWE however, it didn't take long for Vince to sail off with his billions in hand after the sale of WWE and leave Triple H in charge of the WWE fully. And things are looking up. While I still refuse to watch WWE TV live, most people seem to be enjoying it better. PPVs are better across the board and the small little things that were annoying and worthy of eye rolls are being slowly rolled back or removed. The WWE under Triple H actually looks to be going in the right direction and making bank while doing it. Meanwhile, with Punk leaving AEW, Bryan Danielson stepped up to almost be Tony Khan's right hand man and helped with some of the booking and storylines. You can see a lot of Danielson's fingerprints especially on Collision and in the Continental Classic and this looks to be a great working relationship going forward. And lastly was NJPW announcing the promotion of former Ace of the company, Hiroshi Tanahashi into the role of president. While it is too early to see any changes yet, this is a smart move with how beloved Tanahashi is fans and the roster especially with how disliked the last president was. Go President Ace! All this to say, going into 2024 we have some great leadership in the 3 biggest and best companies in the world that will hopefully lead us to a great year.-Alex Kalil
1. The future is uncertain, but exciting: If you could only qualify 2023 in one phrase, it would be sea change. Seismic shifts happened within the wrestling landscape. 2024 is set to be another year of uncertainty, but also one of opportunity. Will AEW get its creative groove back? Will WWE stay red hot? Will New Japan find its new stars? Will the indy scene rebound? There were signs of all of these things in 2023. Wrestling will never be the same after 2023, but there is a possibility it can become better.-Justin Bailey
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