25 Worst Wrestling Moments Of 2025

6. Brock Lesnar's Return

The Rock WWE WrestleMania 42 Announcement
WWE

Like everything in the Vince McMahon/WWE sex trafficking lawsuit, the reality of everything going on behind the scenes with Brock Lesnar's return is far worse than anything as trivial as some bad wrestling or nonsensical booking. So in the interest of keeping this list strictly about things that happened on screen, let's instead focus on useless 'The Beast' has appeared since his bewildering SummerSlam return.

Surprises draw pops, especially ones as unexpected as Brock's comeback with the lawsuit still ongoing, so the noise greeting his return was less shocking that many might have considered. The true extent of how phoned-in it all was revealed itself during an abysmal face-to-face with Cena's new-old best friend R-Truth on the September 12th edition of SmackDown. Forgetting/fluffing their lines, the two attempted some risible WWE comedy, Lesnar battered him, split his trousers and laughed off the whole mess. 

It sucked. Both performers looked terrible. Cena's inconsistency didn't inspire confidence, but a total lack of stakes and effort from all invovled was foreboding in the extreme. This, effectively, was the only in-arena sales pitch for Cena/Lesnar one last time at WrestlePalooza.

What could possibly go wrong?

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