18 Ups & 15 Downs For WWE In 2023

4. A Hall-Of-Fame Bad Feud

Trish Stratus Becky Lynch
WWE.com

When fans reflect on the Becky Lynch/Trish Stratus feud, they will inevitably harken back to the excellent steel cage match that ended their rivalry, an over-delivery in every way.

But nearly everything that preceded that excellent match was trash, an awful five-month feud that dragged on and stunk up numerous segments on Raw. “Thank you Trish” didn’t quite resonate as a heel mantra the way fans thought it should, and the feud suffered throughout the summer with terrible patter from the Hall-of-Famer.

The only redeeming part of the program – other than the cage match – was giving Zoey Stark a platform to establish herself on the main roster opposing Lynch a few times. But that doesn’t excuse a disappointing and dismal feud that ate up nearly half the calendar year.

Lynch would recover by getting back to basics and challenging up-and-coming wrestlers, while Stratus disappeared and Stark turned face, but that doesn’t excuse the dire program.

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Scott is a former journalist and longtime wrestling fan who was smart enough to abandon WCW during the Monday Night Wars the same time as the Radicalz. He fondly remembers watching WrestleMania III, IV, V and VI and Saturday Night's Main Event, came back to wrestling during the Attitude Era, and has been a consumer of sports entertainment since then. He's written for WhatCulture for more than a decade, establishing the Ups and Downs articles for WWE Raw and WWE PPVs/PLEs and composing pieces on a variety of topics.