10 Wrestlers Who Got Much Worse (But WAY More Over)
It's good to be bad...somehow.
The age of the “banger” is dead.
There are obviously people who are still into really great wrestling matches. The banger can’t not exist, either. Wrestling is what wrestling is about and ideally, the wrestling should be good!
On the June 12 Dynamite, Will Ospreay defeated Fénix. That main event happens five years ago, and people lose their goddamn minds. On June 12, it was just another very good if very familiar match.
The issue is that - and this applies to virtually everything and always has - the banger has been diminished by excess. The Banger Match in 2024 is what the edgy storyline was in 2004, what patriotism was in 1993.
The whole “Who cares about the wrestling matches on a wrestling show?” argument is, on the surface, incredibly stupid. It’s like a football fan not caring about the goals. A great match can never die, but the idea of the match being good as an explicit selling point is dead - or at least massively overdone.
But you know…looking at the following entries on this list…perhaps there’s actually something to it…
10. Jey Uso
Jey Uso very obviously knows his way around a tag team layout. His library of matches peaks to a quite awesome level: Vs. Luke Harper & Erick Rowan (Battleground ‘14), Vs. the New Day (Hell In A Cell ‘17), Vs. Kevin Owens & Sami Zayn (WrestleMania 39).
The execution of those layouts was never immaculate, though. Consider his superkick. Jey leans back to register the dramatic effect but doesn’t put enough behind the actual thrust.
As ‘Main Event’ Jey Uso, he’s yet to work a truly great singles match. His output ranges between mediocre (the vast majority of his TV matches) and awful melodramatic cliché (Tribal Combat and his oxymoron of a methodical spot-fest against brother Jimmy at WrestleMania 40).
There’s just a…nothing quality to his matches. Knowing that the fans will chant “Yeet!” regardless, he dances through his shine and basically works like 1999 Road Dogg.
It doesn’t matter. He’s more over than ever, and it’s not just the catchphrase. He’s a rare cool figure in pro wrestling and WWE did a fantastic job of making him sympathetic through the Bloodline saga.
What gets lost in the Jey Uso Discourse is that the man has worked the WWE “grind” for almost a decade and a half, and is pushing 40. It’s OK for him to be a bit thrashed.