Posted on by bdamage1
Brian Damage
Happy Thanksgiving to all our American readers! For everybody else, Happy Thursday! As is the tradition here on the blog, we have our Top Five Wrestling Turkeys for the year. Basically, the very worst in pro wrestling this past year. What bombed, flopped or simply stunk in professional wrestling?
New Japan Losses in 2024
New Japan Pro Wrestling may be the most powerful wrestling promotion in Japan, but no question that 2024 has been a very challenging year for them. The company lost amazing talents such as Will Ospreay, Tama Tonga and their biggest loss…’The Rainmaker’ Kazuchika Okada. He was the equivalent to a John Cena was or Roman Reigns is in WWE. Now if you follow Japanese wrestling history at all, you’ll know that there is a history of organizations that suffer mass talent exoduses. They usually happen to form a new promotion in their native Japan. These talents left not only New Japan, but the entire nation as well.
All three losses of Ospreay, Tonga and Okada are major losses for New Japan, at a time where Japan as a country is suffering economically as well. New Japan’s losses were definitely AEW and WWE’s gains. The jury is still pretty much out on Hiroshi Tanahashi as NJPW president. Can the former Ace of New Japan build new stars and replace all that talent lost? He definitely has his work cut out for him.
AEW Dynamite Airs CM Punk/Jack Perry Skirmish From All In
In what seemingly was a desperate attempt to spike ratings for AEW’s flagship show ‘Dynamite,’ Tony Khan made the ill advised decision to air the backstage fight between former employee CM Punk and Jack Perry. I assume that Khan had hopes that fans would want to tune in in droves to see the released footage and in doing so, make a star out of Jack Perry. The footage itself revealed nothing earth shattering that fans already did not know up to that point.
It also gave Jack Perry a new gimmick and renewed push, but all together none of it would be considered successful. As a matter of fact, it may have done more damage than good for the company. The ratings and attendance for most AEW shows have been subpar at best. It made Khan and AEW look more desperate than anything else and turned many loyal fans off.
Paul Levesque Press Conferences
We may very well be in the Paul Levesque/Triple H era in WWE. An era where we have seen solid TV ratings and record attendance figures. WWE has definitely been a red hot company in the past couple of years since Vince McMahon was removed from power due to an onslaught accusations and scandals. While Vince McMahon is definitely the biggest of turkeys in wrestling for 2024….his son in law hasn’t really done Vince or WWE any favors with his responses to these matters.
Triple H has stumbled and fumbled on his responses to hard questions involving the sex scandals of Vince, racism in WWE…etc. Sure, Triple H gets to sit at the podium and talk about all the records WWE is breaking financially, but ask about Vince McMahon and he seems lost or he wasn’t prepared at all to answer a tough question. Others in the company are asked the same questions like Cody Rhodes and John Cena and they definitely handled the line of questioning so much better. Triple H is the face of this tremendous run WWE is having…but he really needs to answer the tough question a lot better.
Scott D’Amore Gets Fired From TNA
It took seven long years, with him admittedly working 80 plus hours a week, but it was all that hard work and commitment that completely turned around the fate of Impact/TNA wrestling. Sure, D’Amore didn’t work alone and had a team surrounding him that helped rebuild the once dead on arrival wrestling promotion. For the longest time, TNA was a dirty word in wrestling. A place where wrestlers came to try and salvage their careers and eventually get signed by WWE or AEW. The name TNA became so toxic, that they actually renamed themselves Impact Wrestling to distance themselves from TNA. Scott D’Amore and his team went to work and completely changed that.
He worked hard to get wrestlers to want to come to TNA and help rebuild and strengthen themselves. He created working relationships with AAA in Mexico, New Japan, AEW and even WWE. With wrestlers wanting to compete in TNA and fans once again showing up at arenas…Scott D’Amore was fired inexplicably. Apparently over the future direction of the company. While D’Amore holds no real grudges with TNA’s parent company Anthem Sports for letting him go, it still looked very bad for the company as a whole.
Vince McMahon Allegations
The start of 2024 really ignited a firestorm for WWE and their parent company TKO, as McMahon was accused of sex trafficking a young female employee named Janel Grant. McMahon became the stain on what was turning into an exciting new chapter for WWE, with new leadership and many exciting prospects for the future of the company. Nobody really knows as of yet what is 100% true or false at this point in time. What I will say is that Vince does have a very sketchy history with these type of incidents. Either he is directly involved in them, or as in the ring boy scandal…turns his eyes away from it.
As great as a promoter as Vince was, he definitely has been a serious detriment to the business as well. His resignation was actually the best thing that could happen to WWE creatively and business wise. With that said, a dark cloud still looms over WWE because of these scandals.
To Gobble Up More Top Five Wrestling Turkey Submissions…Click Here