The WORST Wrestling Moment Every Year (1989 - 2025)

4. 2022 | Shane McMahon Enters His Final Form

Terri Runnels
WWE.com

Royal Rumble 2022 might not be the very worst major event ever promoted by WWE, but, provided you support the promotion, it was almost certainly the least enjoyable. 

It was a hater’s dream. 

Brock Lesnar was brought back to map his inevitable path to WrestleMania, and another match against Roman Reigns, because until WWE revealed that they had Cody Rhodes and Steve Austin lined up, it felt like they had literally nothing left. Lesnar had to lose the WWE title to Bobby Lashley, before winning it back, in order to win the Rumble and pursue also the Universal title - a direction everybody in the stadium had surmised. Even though his win was tainted, Lashley was booked to celebrate like Santino Marella would have.

The finish to Roman Reigns Vs. Seth Rollins was also unclean, because of course it was. You couldn’t get anything meaningful until WrestleMania, but this show made you dread it. Great. 

The stadium could not guess the theme of virtually any wrestler who entered the Rumble matches, throughout which Vince McMahon seemed to take a perverse pleasure in embarrassing certain wrestlers - even more so than usual. The sight of a teary-eyed Riott Squad reuniting only to get chucked out five seconds later was, at least, morbidly hilarious. 

The worst moment of all belonged to narcissist nepo-fetus Shane McMahon, who, according to reports, booked the Rumble and wished to enter at #1 and be the hardest guy in the match. He wanted to be Ric Flair and Brock Lesnar at the same time, even though Lesnar himself was in the match. 

With no exaggeration, the 2022 Royal Rumble was such a disaster that it warrants a Netflix-style Fyre Fest documentary. The WrestleMania sign caught fire, for f*ck’s sake.

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!