10 Things That Made Us Embarrassed To Be Wrestling Fans In 2017

During an ill-fated speech during a 2010 Impact Zone press conference, Dixie Carter made the odd assertion that TNA was about to become the promotion that grasped at professional wrestling's long-attached stigma. The left-field remark came as she promoted the company's move to Monday Nights on Spike TV in direct competition with Monday Night Raw.

Roundly trounced on a weekly basis by WWE's flagship, the shambolic decision inflicted yet another deep wound on the company's sagging credibility. Furthermore, the content barely made the best of everything TNA was actually good at. Instead of X Division classics and arguably the best performer in the world AJ Styles finally becoming 'The Man', it was all hokey WWE retreads and a Ric Flair cosplayer not being much of a 'Phenomenal One'.

Red-faces all around, not least from fans who were advised that it would finally be the product to share with non-fan friends and passive observers alike.

Dixie was miles off in her assessment of the type of output TNA could produce, but did show a keen eye for where the future of the wrestling industry lay. The goalposts needed to shift from satiating existing bored WWE fans back to attracting new and diverse audiences. 2017 has shown itself to be a year in which such melanges are commonplace. Fans young and old attend WWE and independent shows en masse, as wrestling continually shifts to a more equitable state.

Watching wrestling is no longer a deep dark secret. Most of the time...

It didn't seem too controversial to anoint Bray Wyatt WWE's worst modern creation shortly after yet another abysmal night on WWE's 'Grandest Stage' earlier this year. 'The Eater Of Worlds' attempted to make Randy Orton an eater of worms (and other insects) when he used his utterly pointless magic powers to summon projections upon the canvas that 'The Viper' probably couldn't see anyway.

A giant bug was an appropriate takeaway visual, considering how Wyatt was squashed like one just minutes later. An offensively pedestrian WWE Title win for 'The Apex Predator' should have a nadir for a character such as Bray, but the defeat instead kicked open unseen trapdoors he subsequently went sailing through.

Their useless 'House Of Horrors' rematch was an insulting mess. Shoddy horror flick action in the pre-tape begat an uninteresting conclusion designed to move Orton onto his WWE Title feud with Jinder Mahal. Bray couldn't even get near the belt in a contractually obligated rematch he actually won.

Unseen amongst the mucky fridge and dirty saucepans in Bray's cucina degli orrori was a pot of spaghetti bolognese he was saving for the next poor soul to share television time with him.

For a man capable of raising house lights and human arms merely with the raising of his own, Finn Bálor as both 'The Demon' and 'The Man' didn't have it in him to carry Wyatt to something good. Bray caught a serious viral infection right before he was to debut his literal manifestation of Sister Abigail to conclude their feud. Sh*tting the bed in private was presumably infinitely preferable to doing it on pay-per-view.