One Moment WWE Wants You To Forget From Every Year (1985 to 2026)

3. 2024 - The Biggest Botches From The Biggest Stars In The Biggest Story

WWE Bad Blood 2024 Dominik Mysterio Rhea Ripley Raquel Rodriguez
WWE

By 2024, WWE were a year and change into a business rebirth and undeniable and totally unexpected creative boom. Vince McMahon was gone for real this time, and with Triple H at the wheel, a logical and consistent (and consistently hot) product became the frankly-remarkable norm after two decades of a descent into true slop.

Predictably, it was around this time the company added post-show credits. "Paul Levesque & Lee Fitting" were executive producers of what you'd just seen, and wanted you know about it ever week. God forbid the hundreds of otherwise-unknown hardworking folks it takes to put together one night of red hot Fed, 'The Game' was once again thinking top-down as part of his ongoing strategy to lean into just how much this was a show about wrestling rather than a wrestling show. The next step was WWE Unreal, which bled over into on-screen stories and made angles, including finding drama from botches. Bad Blood's Rhea Ripley/Liv Morgan match would have been perfect fodder for the Netflix project.

The finish called for the returning Raquel Rodriguez to secretly attack 'The Nightmare' to allow Morgan to get yet another victory following her SummerSlam win and Dominik Mysterio's devastating defection. Instead, the run-in happened right in front of the referee, forcing the wrestlers to stumble through a phantom fall as everybody on screen (audience included) looked more confused than locked in to the story. The whole thing got thrown out, with both Morgan's win and Rodriguez return let down by the botch. Messrs Levesque and Fitting get the praise, so they can take the blame for this one too. 

Contributor
Contributor

Michael is a writer, editor, podcaster and presenter for WhatCulture Wrestling, and has been with the organisation for nearly 10 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 65,000,000 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 provided in-person coverage of some of the biggest pay-per-views and Premium Live Events in wrestling history, including WrestleMania, Survivor Series, All In & Double Or Nothing in destinations such as New York, New Jersey, Chicago, 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.