10 Wrestling Matches That Pissed You Off Straight Away

There are no second chances to make a first impression and these wrestlers found out the hard way.

Britt Baker Big Swole
AEW

There's an absolute doozy of a wrestling show sat in WWE's Peacock archives that probably doesn't get much love due to the presence one of the combatants in the evening's main event.

Fully Loaded 2000 closes with a Rock/Chris Benoit WWE Championship clash that's absolutely electric if you're able to cope with rewatching 'The Rabid Wolverine', but - and your writer counts himself amongst this group - if Benoit's matches are typically just too much to work through, simply hit stop after the incredible semi-main pitting Triple H against Chris Jericho and you'll still have a fantastic time.

At the turn of the new millennium, Vince McMahon had proudly assembled his most diverse and dynamic roster ever, found the perfect sweet spot between Crash TV and in-ring excellence and was somehow posting record figures across the board while one of his biggest money-makers ever was forced out injured for almost all of it.

The card is joyous, with the aforementioned Jericho/Hunter skirmish toasting a brilliant night for the talented and motivated roster. All apart from 7:34 in the middle where The Undertaker takes Kurt Angle's rapidly rising star and nearly completely extinguishes in a needlessly protracted and selfish squash, but then the 'American Bad A*s' often leaned in a little too literally on all three descriptors in that nickname.

Infuriating to this day it is, and you can tell where it's going almost immediately. As you could with...

10. Bianca Belair Vs Becky Lynch (WWE SummerSlam 2021)

Britt Baker Big Swole
WWE.com

Slightly less of a frown-inducing encounter when viewed through the prism of Becky Lynch's subsequent full heel turn, 'The Man's SummerSlam 2021 return was nonetheless a little devastating.

Part of this match came to represent all that's fundamentally broken about WWE's presentation in its current form. The choice to turn Lynch was an odd one in general, not least because the product was crying out for genuinely beloved stars that could still go full time. Lynch remained one of the last available, but the booking served to sap the joy out of it almost immediately.

WWE is also not the organisation that works out ways for nobody to get hurt. Belair looked a fool in defeat, even if the shock-and-awe defence might have been the planned rationale. Nodding along with the whole thing only to be cruelly schooled by the returning star did much to undo the aura she'd grafted hard to establish since defeating Sasha Banks at WrestleMania.

Vince McMahon seems obsessed with making moments, and this was one of those. But when these are the only memorable elements of your product, nobody recalls the fix-it jobs performed after things get broken.

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Michael is a writer, editor, podcaster and presenter for WhatCulture Wrestling, and has been with the organisation nearly 8 years. He primarily produces written, audio and video content on WWE and AEW, but also provides knowledge and insights on all aspects of the wrestling industry thanks to a passion for it dating back over 35 years. As one third of "The Dadley Boyz" Michael has contributed to the huge rise in popularity of the WhatCulture Wrestling Podcast and its accompanying YouTube channel, earning it top spot in the UK's wrestling podcast charts with well over 62,000,000 total downloads. He has been featured as a wrestling analyst for the Tampa Bay Times, GRAPPL, GCP, Poisonrana and Sports Guys Talking Wrestling, and has covered milestone events in New York, Dallas, Las Vegas, Philadelphia, London and Cardiff. Michael's background in media stretches beyond wrestling coverage, with a degree in Journalism from the University Of Sunderland (2:1) and a series of published articles in sports, music and culture magazines The Crack, A Love Supreme and Pilot. When not offering his voice up for daily wrestling podcasts, he can be found losing it singing far too loud watching his favourite bands play live. Follow him on X/Twitter - @MichaelHamflett