50 Worst Wrestling Moments Of The 2020s (So Far)

26. An Eye For An Eye

WWE’s pandemic output was so wretched that it could justifiably account for 100% of this list. You have only been spared because you don’t deserve to relive it all.

WWE realised that Apollo Crews going 27 minutes with Aleister Black in an empty gym wasn’t going to capture an audience for very long - unless that audience was Gabe Sapolsky - and so the promotion quickly pivoted into a heightened cinematic realm.

As part of this presentational strategy, Seth Rollins fought Rey Mysterio in an ‘Eye For An Eye’ match at the Horror Show At Extreme Rules. The objective - which came about after Seth had pierced Rey’s eye on the corner of the ring steps - was for one competitor to extract the other’s eyeball. What followed was the most pointless 18 minute work rate shoot-out ever. Why wrestle a match with back-and-forth high spots, when you were better off taking a spoon into a fist fight?

At the finish, Seth again used the dulled corner of the ring steps, and was this time successful in taking Rey’s eye out. As a white sphere half-painted pink was spotted in Rey’s hand, an observant Samoa Joe on commentary said “It’s out”.

WWE could not even be terrible correctly; wouldn’t this have smushed Rey’s eye further into the socket?

Rey’s eye was quickly put back in. This rendered already unsafe and ill-advised pandemic wrestling a waste of time, but also, why quibble? None of this “counted”, come on. It would have been daft to sell this sort of thing for years afterwards, wouldn’t it Malakai Black?