10 WWE Wrestlers Who Went Backwards In 2017

by John Bills

1. Bayley

Bayley happy WWE
WWE

Has anyone had a more miserable year in WWE than Bayley? It has been painful to watch at times. Before she made the jump to the main roster, the former NXT Women’s Champion seemed like a true can’t-miss prospect, but her run on RAW can’t even be described as a ‘miss’. It hasn’t even turned up to shoot.

The writing was on the wall when Bayley achieved her childhood dream and won the RAW Women’s Championship in February. Her character was belittled and destroyed week after week, and The Hugger went from being the most popular woman on the roster to a source of genuine anger from the WWE Universe.

More so than any performer in recent memory, the destruction of Bayley has been distressing to watch for WWE fans. The character was a breath of fresh air in NXT, and she managed to reinvigorate hope in many who love true babyface professional wrestlers. That character is now dead.

Can Bayley recover in 2018? Never say never in professional wrestling, but surface seems impossibly far away for the drowning former women’s champion.

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Contributor
Contributor

Born in the middle of Wales in the middle of the 1980's, John can't quite remember when he started watching wrestling but he has a terrible feeling that Dino Bravo was involved. Now living in Prague, John spends most of his time trying to work out how Tomohiro Ishii still stands upright. His favourite wrestler of all time is Dean Malenko, but really it is Repo Man. He is the author of 'An Illustrated History of Slavic Misery', the best book about the Slavic people that you haven't yet read. You can get that and others from www.poshlostbooks.com.