18 Ups & 15 Downs For WWE In 2023

9. Damage CTRL’s Wasted Year

Damage CTRL should have been a dominant stable in the women’s division throughout the entire year, but as the group reached its first anniversary at SummerSlam, it was readily apparent that the trio was nothing short of a massive disappointment.

Bayley, Iyo Sky and Dakota Kai should have been celebrated heels that wreaked havoc on the roster as the only full-time women’s stable, but they were regularly routed by loose groupings of other women, rarely looking like the force fans envisioned when they debuted.

It wasn’t until Crown Jewel that the group’s fortunes finally improved, but for more than 10 months of the year, Damage CTRL was a massive letdown, and a late resurgence shouldn’t absolve all of the failings.

Scott Carlson

Contributor

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.

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