25 Worst Wrestling Moments Of 2025

24. Eddie Kingston's AEW Return

The Rock WWE WrestleMania 42 Announcement
WWE

At AEW All Out 2025, Eddie Kingston returned to the ring after a whopping 17 months away (and even longer gone from All Elite Wrestling itself) in a bad match against Big Bill.

The build had already been pilloried for how frustratingly lowkey it all was, as if the company simply didn't want to understand how much the 'Mad King' meant to the fanbase, how much he was missed, and how valuable he was to a weekly world that was notably lacking several of its top stars. Within weeks of the whiffed uraken that scored him the pay-per-view victory, Kingston was buried in the mere of tag matches with Hook and an LFI feud leading to a payoff (?) match with Sammy Guevara. 

What went wrong at such pace?

The race to put Hook under yet another wing was annoying, as was the choice to so quickly maroon Kingston on the B-Show without so much as one lengthy promo on Dynamite to illustrate just how back he was. Low on this list because of the most generous let-it-play-out attitude and the slim possibility this supremely underwhelming return was agreed upon by Kingston and Tony Khan all along, the normalisation of a top star is indicative of wider problems as much as it is a personal failing of a money-drawing mouth.

Ultimately, Hook's heel turn on Hangman Page at Full Gear at very least folded Kingston into the title picture, but only against Samoa Joe and only at a Winter Is Coming Dynamite TV special. Never say never in wrestling, but as of this writing, a top spot in the aftermath feels unlikely.

Contributor
Contributor

Michael is a writer, editor, podcaster and presenter for WhatCulture Wrestling, and has been with the organisation over 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. Within the podcasting space, he also co-hosts Benno & Hamflett, In Your House! and Podcast Horseman: The BoJack Horseman Podcast. He has been featured as a wrestling analyst for the Tampa Bay Times, Fightful, POST Wrestling, 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