9 Wrestlers Who Had Their WORST Match EVER This Year

by Michael Sidgwick

1. CLAUDIO CASTAGNOLI Vs. Jeff Jarrett (AEW Dynamite, January 29)

Jeff Jarrett Claudio Castgnoli
AEW

You can deduce what Tony Khan was thinking here.

He wanted to establish battle-worn Jeff Jarrett as a sentimental fan favourite, using the pathos of his struggle-afflicted life to heat up MJF. The idea of MJF breaking Jarrett’s promise to win the big one wasn’t bad. MJF needed something big to get him back to where he was. The issue is that AEW fans seemed to prefer Jarrett as a gleefully unfair midcard clown. Quietly brilliant as a babyface in 2024, he still wasn’t received as a Dustin Rhodes type.

His match with Claudio Castagnoli followed his inexplicably misogynistic retorts to MJF in their fateful, rotten face-to-face. He was doomed after that.

The dissonance between Jarrett’s heart-on-sleeve babyface spots and the apathy of the crowd was torturous. The fans didn’t care about Jeff at all, and he was performing like they were living and dying with him. Jarrett’s hand vibrated when he asked for their help when trapped in a sleeper. The director must have a cruel sense of humour; they cut to a wide shot of the crowd, and, no exaggeration, about five people in the front row gently slapped the barricade. Everybody else wondered why Jeff Jarrett had promised to become AEW champion.

Jarrett’s punches still looked the business, but under these hostile conditions, his classic style scanned as parody. This was a brutal misjudgement. Mox had to interfere - to help Claudio Castagnoli beat Jeff Jarrett - and Claudio looked scared after hitting the Neutraliser. That won’t be enough to put this guy and his undying spirit away. He had to hit it a second time.

A match that portrayed Jeff Jarrett like he was Bruno Sammartino in MSG, when he was received like Eric Escobar, this was all kinds of bleak.

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Contributor
Contributor

Michael Sidgwick is an editor, writer and podcaster for WhatCulture Wrestling. With over seven years of experience in wrestling analysis, Michael was published in the influential institution that was Power Slam magazine, and specialises in providing insights into All Elite Wrestling - so much so that he wrote a book about the subject. You can order Becoming All Elite: The Rise Of AEW on Amazon. Possessing a deep knowledge also of WWE, WCW, ECW and New Japan Pro Wrestling, Michael’s work has been publicly praised by former AEW World Champions Kenny Omega and MJF, and current Undisputed WWE Champion Cody Rhodes. When he isn’t putting your finger on why things are the way they are in the endlessly fascinating world of professional wrestling, Michael wraps his own around a hand grinder to explore the world of specialty coffee. Follow Michael on X (formerly known as Twitter) @MSidgwick for more!