5 Worst Wrestling Matches Of 2014

DISCLAIMER: These are the opinions of the writer and do not reflect those of Sportskeeda

There are many ways a match can go from good to bad and from bad to worse. Sometimes this can be to mismatches in wrestler skill levels or experiences. If you put an experienced wrestler with a novice, you’re likely to get a bad match (which definitely happened at one of WWE’s Big 4 PPVs of 2014). If you have an otherwise good wrestler suffer a serious injury during a match and they try and continue, that match’s quality will surely suffer.

And if you put a pro wrestler in a match with someone that isn’t a trained pro wrestler, you’re going to have a very bad time.

Unfortunately, both WWE and NJPW didn’t learn these lessons, as they made all of these mistakes and then some in 2014. While these companies might’ve learned from these previous mistakes, there’s no denying that these dreadful matches will go down in history as some of the most disappointing and poorly-executed contests of all time.

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#5 Alberto Del Rio vs. Batista – Elimination Chamber 2014

This was another great example of the crowd in attendance completely killing a match. They hated Batista and everything he stood for. They hated his return, his promos, his Royal Rumble win, and the fact that he was getting a WrestleMania main event spot, despite having left WWE and having criticized the company quite a bit after doing so. But WWE appeared to be ignoring them, so those fans trashed this match as much as they could.

While Del Rio and Batista tried to make this into something meaningful, they failed. The crowd did not care one iota about anything Batista did, and poor Del Rio became an afterthought in the fans’ verbal onslaught towards Big Dave.

Del Rio did get a few mild cheers when he was on offense – despite being the heel – but Batista was soundly booed whenever he did anything. Even though it went only seven minutes from bell to bell, it was far below expectations, especially for a wrestler that was being pushed as the expected winner of the main event of WrestleMania XXX.

#4 Kazushi Sakuraba & Yuji Nagata vs. Daniel & Rolles Gracie - NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 8

Non-wrestlers wrestling in a wrestling match is a recipe for failure. The Gracies are the most revered family in Mixed Martial Arts (MMA), so they are obviously not wrestlers. Yet for some reason, they were booked in a wrestling match against a fellow MMA expert (Sakuraba) and NJPW’s resident workhorse-that-will-do-anything-for-the-company, Yuji Nagata.

Because of the athletes’ limitations, this match was almost completely disastrous. Nagata and Sakuraba did try to add some elements of wrestling and ‘worked’ MMA, but neither of the Gracies knew how to do pro wrestling. That’s why a lot of the action felt disjointed and lacking in flow. The ending was mired by nonsense as one of the Gracies choked Nagata by his gi, which led to a DQ finish.

This match reeked of ‘Inokism’ of NJPW’s past, which most people had hoped had died when Inoki was forced out of the company. Sadly, that need for ‘crossover’ matches does appear from time to time, and it is almost always to the detriment of everyone involved.

#3 The Undertaker vs. Brock Lesnar – WrestleMania XXX

In the years that followed after this match happened, WWE have sold Lesnar’s victory over The Undertaker as the most shocking moment in WWE history. It technically still is and probably always will be, because it was something that came so far out of left field that few people actually saw it coming.

But while there has been plenty of discussion on whether this booking decision was good or bad, there is one thing that is constant: the actual wrestling match itself was bad.

A major reason for this was because the Undertaker suffered a major concussion early into the match. Somehow, he managed to regain his composure, but he was noticeably sluggish afterward. His offense didn’t look good in the minutes that followed, and the moves between both of them looked disjointed.

That concussion caused almost everything to fall apart, and it looked like Brock Lesnar had to actually do more than his share of the work because Undertaker was seriously hurt.

While the execution of the ending and post-match moments were done perfectly to underscore the shock of the decision, the actual wrestling contest lacked the excellent structure and dramatic sequences of the Undertaker’s previous seven WrestleMania matches.

While Undertaker’s shocking loss is the main thing most people will remember, one cannot forget that this could’ve been an even bigger moment if the match leading up to that moment was at least on par with his previous contests.

#2 Cameron vs. AJ Lee –Elimination Chamber 2014

This abysmal affair lasted less than nine minutes, and that includes entrances for both wrestlers, a pre-match promo from AJ, and (SPOILER ALERT) the post-DQ sequence.

You see, AJ Lee was a credible wrestler who was stuck working with Cameron, the one half of the Funkadactyls that did not know how to wrestle well.

Cameron’s offence consisted of the simplest moves, which meant AJ couldn’t do very much. But that’s not all: this match featured some of the most bizarre shenanigans ever seen in a Divas match. Tamina Snuka (who was AJ’s bodyguard, for some reason), kicked AJ right in the face, right in front of the referee. This did not result in a disqualification.

Then, Tamina broke up the pin attempt right in front of the referee. This, too, did not result in a disqualification. It took Tamina hitting Cameron with a clothesline for the referee to finally do something (even Michael Cole noticed this, saying “is the official gonna do something? [bell rings] And he finally does”.

This match was all kinds of stupid, with complete and utter nonsense courtesy of Tamina, Cameron and especially the referee. It looked like nobody knew what they were doing in this match, which made it one of the worst contests of the entire year.

#1 John Cena vs. Bray Wyatt – Steel Cage - Extreme Rules

This was a prime example of how one's presentation ruined not just a match, but an entire character

This match is a prime example of WWE no longer knowing how to book heels. It is also proof that their long-term booking plans focus on only one or two people max, even at the expense of bigger, rising stars.

This was built up as a blood feud between Wyatt and Cena, and Wyatt had been taunting Cena for months. Yet as soon as the match starts, the first thing Wyatt does is try and run. Because in WWE, heels can only be heels if they’re cowards.

For the bulk of the match, Wyatt tries to fight Cena, only for Cena to repeat his same old shtick and ‘rise above everything’. He even manages to beat the odds by out-powering both Harper and Rowan, who were fresh and undamaged.

As if that wasn’t enough, Cena was about to win, only to be distracted by a child singing Wyatt’s signature line. That – not Wyatt’s offense or interference from Harper or Rowan, or even getting thrown into a steel cage – was enough for Cena to be stunned long enough to lose to Wyatt.

This is why people hated Cena for the longest time. Sure, the record books will show it as a victory for Wyatt, but it will have an asterisk next to it. Wyatt didn’t defeat Cena, despite being locked in a cage with him and having two even bigger dudes beating him up at times. No, Cena was defeated by a singing child.

It’s the apex of WWE’s ‘nonsensical swerve’ booking and it killed the Wyatt Family as a gimmick.