10 Absolute WORST Wrestling Moments Of 2023
1. The Continued Death Of The AEW Women's Division (Various)
Not a moment on its own, but the constant shortcut and/or under-thought storylines that dictate the actions and outcomes of AEW's female roster remain a source of some significant frustration on a weekly basis, and resulted in countless moments that revealed the worst of the creative process.
The death of the rankings hurt much of the A-to-B booking patterns that used to underpin everything in the company, but when the belts are virtually the only stories, the lack of direction so often results in dour or dry outcomes. Ruby Soho once got a title shot by doing the "I want the belt" hand motion. Toni Storm got enormously over with her new "Timeless" persona, but rather than take the opportunity to tell two stories, she was rushed back into the title picture just to pad time between pay-per-view. Random four-ways that act as shortcuts for storytelling have been reframed as being part of a "rich history", when in reality there's no bigger tell than powerful people haven't given enough of a toss.
Add to the grim fact that Dynamite failed to break its one-match-per-week streak (as of writing) in 2023 and even the lowest bar yet again wasn't cleared. Asking for any kind of change feels futile, and plenty of viewers seem to have glumly accepted the unchanging reality.