Which superstar or diva had the most disappointing year in 2015?

[Reflection]

2015 was a memorable year for many superstars and divas. Seth Rollins won the WWE World Heavyweight Championship at the main event of Wrestlemania, and had a great run with the title; Nikki Bella became the longest-reigning Divas Champion; Charlotte was the chosen one from the Divas Revolution; John Cena was the frontman in the U.S. Title open challenges, which gave us some exciting debuts and returns. Speaking of debuts, what an impressive "rookie" year it was for Kevin Owens! Finally, The New Day was the surprise success of the year, and is at the top of the tag team division right now.

However, for some other superstars, 2015 was a year that ranged from forgettable to disappointing, even disastrous...
Just when it seemed like Daniel Bryan's unlucky year was behind him, his body gave up on him again... only this time, we didn't know if we would see him wrestle again. As a matter of fact, we still don't know if we will ever see him wrestling in a WWE ring again. Bryan won the Intercontinental Championship on the same night as John Cena won the United States Championship. Who knows, Daniel Bryan might have also had an awesome title reign like Cena?

Rusev started the year strong, as the reigning United States champion, eliminated 6 guys from the Royal Rumble match, and a successful title defence against John Cena at Fast Lane. But things went downhill for him post-Wrestlemania; especially with the awful love triangle quadrilateral angle taking a lot of his tough Bulgarian Brute/Super Athlete persona away. Now, he is the third-most important guy in the League of Nations.

Naomi was an interesting character for many, prior to her heel turn, and was seen as one of the best athletes in the divas division. Somewhere, something went really wrong in midst of the "Divas Revolution" storyline, she dropped to the same level as Tamina, and is now just an irritating character that talks... stuff, and causes distractions during Sasha Banks' matches.

Damien Mizdow or Macho Mandow, if you will... This guy was awesome. Never failed at a promo, never failed in one of his impersonations, or any of his other skits. He was a solid entertainer. It's unlikely that he would be placed much higher than he was, when the whole Hulk Hogan situation put an end to the Mega Powers 2.0, but at least he was on TV. Shame to see a talented performer like him fade into obscurity.

The Ascension was a dominant tag team in NXT and carried their act to the main roster as well... Unfortunately, they did not seem too imposing in the bigger world, in front of bigger people, and it was only a matter of time before they were relegated to working dark matches before PPVs.

Bad News Barrett: Winning the King of the Ring tournament and changing his gimmick, didn't do him much favours as he first lost to Neville, then feuded with "King What's Up" in a typical WWE comedy angle, teamed with Stardust and lost against Neville and Stephen Amell, and was the first one eliminated from the traditional Survivor Series match. The King is a lowly-ranked member of a stable these days.

Dolph Ziggler had a very uninspiring year. He was mostly part of 6-way matches and the like. He couldn't do much at the Royal Rumble match despite being entry #30, lost at Fastlane, lost at WM31, kissed Sheamus' arse at Extreme Rules, lost at Payback, lost at Elimination Chamber, lost at Money in the Bank, didn't appear at Battleground, and was then part of that awkward angle with Rusev, Lana and Summer Rae, and finally lost against Tyler Breeze at Survivor Series.

Roman Reigns: Yes, he did finally win the World Championship. But this was also a year when the WWE kept pushing him as the top star on the roster, the next John Cena, but this move was continually opposed and Roman Reigns' superman persona was rejected by a huge proportion of fans across many cities. Dean Ambrose often a louder and positive reaction than Reigns does. Many still doubt that Reigns has what it takes to be the man for the next decade. When Seth Rollins comes back, and if Daniel Bryan does too, has Reigns acquired enough skill or fans' backing to outshine them? What if Cena decides to get back to the World title scene? What about Brock Lesnar?

So, according to you, which WWE superstar or diva had the most disappointing year?

 

[J.J.]

Out of that list I cannot say I agree with Roman Reigns having a disappointing year. He started out the year being boo'd out the building for winning the RR. Was still booked to go over in feuds. Got over with the crowd at TLC and won the title finally. Nobody else on the roster has achieved the success he has kayfabe this year apart from Seth Rollins.

Diva: Tamina. She has been nothing short of disappointing since debuting with The Usos several years ago . Even as an 'enforcer' in Team Bad she's still squashed by the other Divas. If not for her last name I felt she would've been gone a long time ago.

Superstar: Daniel Bryan. Another uninspiring year for him as he has found himself on the outside looking in for the second year in a row. Very unfortunate for him - I feel as time goes by he loses his solidified main event appeal. Hard for the company to get behind a guy whose prone to injury.

Honorable Mention: Hulk Hogan. Despite not being an active competitor at this point in his professional career, I cannot exclude him. While I doubt he'll permenantely be off WWE programming; It's unfortunate for him that he was released from his Legends Contract, definitely a blow to his reputation. Hasn't been a good year.

 

[Bischoff's Knob Slobberer]

I would say Kevin Owens. The guy just jobbed to Neville. His career is ruined in the WWE.

 

[J.J.]

I would say Kevin Owens. The guy just jobbed to Neville. His career is ruined in the WWE.

I don't look at him losing to Neville as jobbing. Neville has pretty much held his own this year so it's not like he was losing to a Zack Ryder or Heath Slater. He's bitter, losing the Slanmy award and his Intercontinental title. I imagine he's about to go on a run now.

 

[Navi]

The WWE as a collective group has a disappointing year.

It started at the Rumble when Reigns and the Rock got boo'd out of the building, peaked at Mania, and has steadily been going downhill since then. RAW ratings hit lows not seen in over a decade, ticket sales lagged, and they keep giving away the Network for free.

The WWE had just a terrible year for injuires, one of the worst I've ever seen. You had one half of the Tag Team champs The Uso's go down for most of the year, Daniel Bryan has been out since last May, Rollins, Cesaro, Orton, Nikki Bella and Rusev. Tyson Kidd and Sting may never wrestle again, and maybe add Bryan to that list as well.

Most of the injuries were serious enough to warrant the talent being out for months, not weeks. It threw all sorts of story lines into chaos and some of them never recovered. Then you had the Hulk Hogan disaster, which took him out of the WWE.

There were a lot of high spots, Rollins cash in at Mania, the emergence of New Day to list a couple. But overall looking back it wasn't a stellar year for the WWE, hopefully next year will be better.

 

[Greg4WWE]

At least Ziggler won the feud with Rusev. Not saying much and he seemed to win the feud with Breeze as well winning 2 in a row on Raw and Smackdown. So while it sucks for him overall, I don't think he had a horrible year.

Damien Sandow (sp?) comes to mind. He was hot after his exit from Miz. Why not just keep him in that character as just a wrestler that was over with the fans? Why do the Macho Man stuff? It was just stupid. They had a guy that was totally over and ruined him as always.

 

[Mustang Sally]

Wade Barrett: Which is worse, to work in WWE purgatory, sitting in the back and waiting a chance while Creative does nothing to advance your career......or having management do everything they can to put you over....with multiple gimmicks and achievements.....only to find the performer failing to gain ground?

The latter example is Wade Barrett, the carrier of Bad News, the King of the Ring, the leader of Nexus and Corre, the Fight Club member......and everything else they could possibly think of to get poor Barrett to feature attraction status.

With his injuries and seeming lack of star power, Wade just can't seem to get it done. The League of Nations might be the gimmick that saves his job, although placing him in a group doesn't seem to be what was sought for Wade. Still, 2015 was a bust, given the hopes many of us had for Barrett....as was 2014.

Natalya: Is she barely around because she's tending to her husband.....or is the problem that WWE Creative regards her as a member of the old guard of WWE wrestlers and can't find a reasonable way to get her into the current mix?

Nattie was doing fine as a cheerleader for Tyson & Cesaro.....and even got to participate in a few matches, but I thought 2015 would be the year she got to break into the new order of divas. Didn't happen.

 

[Navi]

Do you mean Reigns peaked at 'Mania or the E as a whole?

The company as a whole. We've seen the result of their unwillingness to elevate new talent, when a lot of top names went down with injury. Now they are struggling. This year should teach them a valuable lesson. I have no doubt they will recover and be better than ever, but 2015 was not their best year as a company.

 

[Stone Cold Tea]

The company as a whole. We've seen the result of their unwillingness to elevate new talent, when a lot of top names went down with injury. Now they are struggling. This year should teach them a valuable lesson. I have no doubt they will recover and be better than ever, but 2015 was not their best year as a company.

Ohhh I thought you meant Reigns. Yeah this year sucked but there has been some unfortunate injuries.

 

[The Samoan Heritage]

I seen Rusev and didn't have to go any further.
The guy was a rookie and was making anyone he went up against relevant with his anti-american gimmick. He made Jack Swagger a big deal again. He made Big E feel important, after E had been floundering with nothing to do for a while. He even beat World champions in Ziggler, Swagger, Henry, and Show. (He even beat John Cena something that hadn't happen since Bryan beat Cena 2 years ago) Rusev was getting over so well I was actually begging to see Rusev vs Ryback at WM because I thought it would have a big fight feel. Instead I got the beginning of Rusev's fall. Rusev lost to Cena at WM and then again at ER. He quickly became not even a second thought once Lana popularity took off. Wwe decided to turn Lana face and Rusev went down hill FAST after being involved in a forced(and painful to watch) love square(?) for most of the year. Now's he's in a foreign group and the least important one of all. (Sheamus was World champ, Del Rio is U.s champ, Barrett is KOTR and what is Rusev?). Rusev has went from being compared to being this generation's Brock Lesnar to doing nothing.

Women: I would have to go with Naomi. The year started with Naomi, Paige, and Nikki as the main divas of the division. Nikki and Paige stayed in the divas spotlight even during the "divas revolution" while Naomi got lost in the shuffle. Naomi went from being a main character with support to being the support for a rookie(Sasha's better than Naomi but its still her first year).

 

[Noshowers]

A couple wrestlers come to mind for different reasons.

Most people have basically discounted these guys altogether, but I definitely miss the Miz and Sandow. Sure they feature him every so often in a Miz TV now, but even discounting his past accolades (headlining Wrestlemania and defeating John Cena there no less) he and Mizdow were in arguably the most entertaining act during their tag team run. Miz really elevated Sandow again to a point where he was way over and should have been pushed....only to have him again just be forgotten again as well. Maybe it wasn't part of the plan, maybe WWE doesn't like they got over on their own, maybe WWE doesn't think they could use a heel who defeated John fricken Cena for the World title when all their A listers were injured or otherwise not available...

Roman Reigns was a big disappointment for me for most of the year, and while at TLC they finally threw their hands up and told Roman to go punch people instead of talk, overall the WWE had to sacrifice a lot in terms of other talent and ratings to finally get him here (which still isn't as over as Mizdow, Ambrose, Ziggler, Owens, Cesaro, etc).

As a side note here, I really think Miz could have helped Roman get over. Miz is so perfect at getting under the crowds skin and is a great cowardly character, why not have him annoy Reigns for a month or two leading up to an eventual match where he finally gets his hands on him? Didn't have to be for the title, maybe just a vendetta. Who knows.

As for tor the women, I have been very unimpressed and disappointed with Paige. She turns from face to heel more then the Big Show and while i watch every match of hers with an open mind, I have been underwhelmed. I so want to like her and see her as the "cool" badass diva, but this year it hasn't been there for her.

 

[J.J.]

Sandow again to a point where he was way over and should have been pushed....only to have him again just be forgotten again as well.

Come on man, you know that Mizdow character had a limited life behind it. Once he was taken away The Miz and the whole Mega Powers act failed, what else could they do with him? Losing in that Andre the Giant battle Royal hurt him too. Last I saw him on TV he was back to his original gimmick. The comedy role doesn't typically see a rewarding push behind it. However, it worked for Santino though. For the record I'm a fan of Damien Sandow's work such a wasted talent.

 

[Jeff Deliverer of Mail]

I'll go with....The Wyatt Family.

WWE Creative seems to be uncertain what to do with all involved with the family. You have a stable of monstrous wrestlers who are on the edge of stardom.....then you wait for a big angle with The Wyatt's....then you wait longer....repeat often.

Bray and families biggest feud last year was - Consuming - The Undertaker and Kane to reunite The Brothers of Destruction. A feud lost cleanly and swiftly. A pretty quick loss and forgotten about.

The Family has huge potential but hardly ever tapped.

Bray Wyatt - The leader of The Wyatt's, The Eater of World's , The New Face of Fear....the loser of important feuds. Bray is excellent on the mic and when he has a tough opponent he can be excellent in the ring as well. His feud with Roman was his big one last year and he lost that one. Currently in family wide tag teams on a collision course with....who the heck knows ? Not the best year for a major heel. His reunion with his Wyatt brothers should have had more epic moments by now.

Luke Harper - Possibly the most talented wrestler on the team, including Bray Wyatt. He struck out on his own though and couldn't catch any steam as a single performer so he went back to the family. Luke Harper can have awesome matches if WWE were to give him proper ring time. Not the most noticeable year for Luke.

Eric Rowen - Eric has the size, but he's pretty much a dud in the ring and on the mic. There for his imposing look mostly. He'd be better off as an outside enforcer.

Braun Stroman - This guy is huge , but WWE hasn't given him a proper challenge yet. It will be interesting to see what he can do on a big stage with a powerful opponent.

On the whole. A pretty crappy year for The Wyatt Family, they could be so much more if written properly.

 

[Jack-Hammer]

Daniel Bryan - The past couple of years have been downright tragic for Bryan and even though some don't like it, same as with any other wrestler, it's difficult to deny the very real possibility that his injuries have derailed what could have been the most stellar career since the rise of John Cena. In terms of popularity and fan interest, nobody on the roster could touch Bryan as he got about as close to being universally over as it's possible to be. Even if he gets cleared to return, WWE is going to be understandably cautious about pushing him; from what I understand, his neck isn't the issue as it's the concussion issue that has people worried. He suffered his first concussion, at least that I'm aware of, during the steel cage match he had with Bray Wyatt against the Usos where Bryan ultimately turned on Wyatt that led to an epic crowd response. He suffered another one during the European tour earlier this year, though its severity is the subject of debate as Bryan has been cleared medically by other doctors while WWE's medical director, Joseph Maroon, hasn't signed off on it. Personally, I'm not sure if it's because Bryan's concussion was serious or if Maroon is concerned over negative press surrounding the "Concussion" movie starring Will Smith; Maroon is alleged to be among the various conspirators that tried to downplay the severity and frequency of traumatic brain injuries in pro football in the mid 2000s. Other stars have had injuries this year but for Bryan's career to be derailed the way its been when it looks like he was genuinely being positioned as one of THE top guys and while his popularity was nothing short of astonishing is a friggin' tragedy.

Natalya - I was torn between going with Natalya and Tamina, but I ultimately went with Natalya because she's by far and away the more talented woman. Natalya has been in WWE for years and we've seen women's wrestling actually start mattering in WWE over the last 6 months or so; we may disagree on the semantics but it can't be argued that women are given significant time to wrestle, storylines and characters. Natalya has always been great inside the ring and has had a decent personality, so it just seems a shame that she's spent almost the entire year not participating due to her hubby being injured or to just not being used. Tamina strikes me as more of an example of nepotism as I just don't think she'd have been on the roster if it wasn't for the fact that she's the Rock's cousin and the Rock always seems to have her back.

 

[J.J.]

Natalya - I was torn between going with Natalya and Tamina, but I ultimately went with Natalya because she's by far and away the more talented woman. Natalya has been in WWE for years and we've seen women's wrestling actually start mattering in WWE over the last 6 months or so; we may disagree on the semantics but it can't be argued that women are given significant time to wrestle, storylines and characters. Natalya has always been great inside the ring and has had a decent personality, so it just seems a shame that she's spent almost the entire year not participating due to her hubby being injured or to just not being used. Tamina strikes me as more of an example of nepotism as I just don't think she'd have been on the roster if it wasn't for the fact that she's the Rock's cousin and the Rock always seems to have her back.

Tamina and The Rock are not cousins(Jimmy Snuka confirmed not being related to that family at a convention some years back but considers them close)Natalya and Tamina don't have that Diva look about them, despite being attractive women. I don't see it changing in any way going forward, if anything Natalya got it worse than Tamina for not being apart of recent success of the Divas division.

 

[Softcore Holly]

Outside of Reigns that's one pretty sad group. I guess I'll start my way up and work my way to the "winner".

1. Reigns - he won the RR, main evented WM, came out on top of every feud he had this year, won the WWE title twice and has plenty of momentum going in to 2016. I'm sorry but there's no way he should be among these group of people.

2. Rusev - He has taken a downturn since his lousy feud with Ziggler but he just went over Ryback and being in a staple where he can keep looking dominate is hardly a bad way to end the year. Also he got to marry Lana so I don't think you'll hear him complaining about this year.

3. Ziggler - He's been pretty much trending water for most of the year. So he may be going nowhere slowly but least he's not going down.

4. Naomi - Considering that she was simply "Jimmy Uso's wife" for a while she's actually in a better place than she was at the start of the year. Yes she's not likely to be Diva's champ anytime soon but at least she's more relevant as part of a Team BAD.

5. Barrett - He got to be KOTR but that was just a nice reminder from WWE on how worthless that is. He went on to lose to just about everyone he faced after getting the crown, I think beating R-Truth at a Pre-show might've been his "crowning" achievement......man that was depressing to write. On the plus side his latest injury isn't as serious as everyone feared(not that adding another injury to the list is going to do him any favors) and he's part of a new top stable so at least he's not sinking anymore.

6. The Ascension - I can't remember the last time anyone has fallen as fast as they have. They came in, did the whole beat up some jobbers thing, got their ass kicked by the NAO on Raw and then just sunk to the bottom. There was slight hope that teaming up with Stardust would do something for them but as we know it didn't. The only plus side for them is they still appear on TV regularly which is more than we can say about our "winner"

7. Damien Sandow - Simply put he hasn't been on TV for most of the year despite being 100% healthy/not suspended or anything like that, and outside of getting fired it really doesn't get any more disappointing than that. Especially since the year started off relatively well for him.

 

[MartialHorror]

2015 was a memorable year for many superstars and divas. Seth Rollins won the WWE World Heavyweight Championship at the main event of Wrestlemania, and had a great run with the title; Nikki Bella became the longest-reigning Divas Champion; Charlotte was the chosen one from the Divas Revolution; John Cena was the frontman in the U.S. Title open challenges, which gave us some exciting debuts and returns. Speaking of debuts, what an impressive "rookie" year it was for Kevin Owens! Finally, The New Day was the surprise success of the year, and is at the top of the tag team division right now.

However, for some other superstars, 2015 was a year that ranged from forgettable to disappointing, even disastrous...
Just when it seemed like Daniel Bryan's unlucky year was behind him, his body gave up on him again... only this time, we didn't know if we would see him wrestle again. As a matter of fact, we still don't know if we will ever see him wrestling in a WWE ring again. Bryan won the Intercontinental Championship on the same night as John Cena won the United States Championship. Who knows, Daniel Bryan might have also had an awesome title reign like Cena?

Rusev started the year strong, as the reigning United States champion, eliminated 6 guys from the Royal Rumble match, and a successful title defence against John Cena at Fast Lane. But things went downhill for him post-Wrestlemania; especially with the awful love triangle quadrilateral angle taking a lot of his tough Bulgarian Brute/Super Athlete persona away. Now, he is the third-most important guy in the League of Nations.

Naomi was an interesting character for many, prior to her heel turn, and was seen as one of the best athletes in the divas division. Somewhere, something went really wrong in midst of the "Divas Revolution" storyline, she dropped to the same level as Tamina, and is now just an irritating character that talks... stuff, and causes distractions during Sasha Banks' matches.

Damien Mizdow or Macho Mandow, if you will... This guy was awesome. Never failed at a promo, never failed in one of his impersonations, or any of his other skits. He was a solid entertainer. It's unlikely that he would be placed much higher than he was, when the whole Hulk Hogan situation put an end to the Mega Powers 2.0, but at least he was on TV. Shame to see a talented performer like him fade into obscurity.

The Ascension was a dominant tag team in NXT and carried their act to the main roster as well... Unfortunately, they did not seem too imposing in the bigger world, in front of bigger people, and it was only a matter of time before they were relegated to working dark matches before PPVs.

Bad News Barrett: Winning the King of the Ring tournament and changing his gimmick, didn't do him much favours as he first lost to Neville, then feuded with "King What's Up" in a typical WWE comedy angle, teamed with Stardust and lost against Neville and Stephen Amell, and was the first one eliminated from the traditional Survivor Series match. The King is a lowly-ranked member of a stable these days.

Dolph Ziggler had a very uninspiring year. He was mostly part of 6-way matches and the like. He couldn't do much at the Royal Rumble match despite being entry #30, lost at Fastlane, lost at WM31, kissed Sheamus' arse at Extreme Rules, lost at Payback, lost at Elimination Chamber, lost at Money in the Bank, didn't appear at Battleground, and was then part of that awkward angle with Rusev, Lana and Summer Rae, and finally lost against Tyler Breeze at Survivor Series.

Roman Reigns: Yes, he did finally win the World Championship. But this was also a year when the WWE kept pushing him as the top star on the roster, the next John Cena, but this move was continually opposed and Roman Reigns' superman persona was rejected by a huge proportion of fans across many cities. Dean Ambrose often a louder and positive reaction than Reigns does. Many still doubt that Reigns has what it takes to be the man for the next decade. When Seth Rollins comes back, and if Daniel Bryan does too, has Reigns acquired enough skill or fans' backing to outshine them? What if Cena decides to get back to the World title scene? What about Brock Lesnar?

So, according to you, which WWE superstar or diva had the most disappointing year?

I agree with this entire post with the exception of Reigns, who while he struggled, had one of the more compelling long running feuds (with Wyatt), finally had a good match with Big Show and had a cathartic victory. It wasn't smooth sailing, but at least WWE didn't bury him.

Naomi was finally getting interesting before being demoted into irrelevancy and I'm still not entirely sure what happened with Mizdow. Dolph Ziggler has looked miserable for the past few months, as if he knows WWE will never give him what he and his fans want.

 

[kadroan]

Dolph Ziggler. Late 2014 he brought back credibility to the IC title, got a huge win over Team Authority at Survivor Series and a huge win against Luke Harper at TLC. You would think the momentum would carry over to 2015 where he could finally reappear in the main event picture as a top face or atleast be the face of the IC title like how Cena was for the US title. Neither one of those happened. No signature wins in 2015 and right now he doesn't have a picture.

Naomi would be my pick for the Diva. People thought Cameron was holding her back and she just needed a chance to shine. I thought she'd be like the female Kofi Kingston but she could never win the big one. They turned her heel. I thought for sure she was going to win the Divas title from Nikki after taking out Paige but it just seems as if she was a placeholder while Paige was gone filming a movie. Now she's in the shadow of Sasha Banks.

 

[MartialHorror]

I disagree about Ziggler bringing credibility to the IC Title, because what happened? He played hot potato using the belt with the Miz and Harper, while also defending against the Miz and losing to Barrett. What happened to any of these guys? The Miz barely wrestles anymore and wins even less. Cesaro and Harper became jobbers and Barrett's fall was so intense that he wasn't even the focal point of his eventually IC Title loss...and he became a jobber too (although somehow, he was a jobber as champ). Of course, Ziggler himself was used as talent enhancement. I don't get how he helped the title, as nobody involved with the title has gone anywhere but down.

(Admittedly, this is a booking problem and WWE ruined Ziggler's momentum. But unfortunately, booking is a lot of what determines whose reign was memorable and impressive. Many great performers have been ruined from it).

Even though I've never been Zigglers biggest fan, part of me feels like he should've been the one to dethrone Cena for the U.S Championship. That belt DOES have credibility and could've potentially led to a resurgence. I also feel like del Rio would've gotten stronger heat if he was the one to dethrone Ziggler, who possibly would've done his own version of the U.S Open Challenge.

 

[OYDK]

I'm surprised more people haven't mentioned Wade Barrett.

Barrett started out 2014 by returning and consecutively defeating Rey Mysterio, Dolph Ziggler, Sheamus, RVD, and Big E, and becoming IC champion for the 4th time in what would be (in my opinion) his best run to date. I don't know if people remember just how over the Bad News Barrett gimmick was last year, but he was getting some of the best reactions on the entire roster. He was also heavily favored to win MITB last year before he got injured. He'd round out the year by returning and winning his 5th IC title. Once 2015 rolled around, the jobbing started. He would lose non-title matches to everybody in that Mania 31 ladder match, lose the title to Bryan at Mania, and than enter into a pre-show feud with Neville, where he would lose some more. His accomplishments this year include losing to R-Truth on pre-shows, losing to Neville and Amell at SS, being the first person eliminated in the EC and Survior Series matches, etc. Sure he won the KOTR, but that was a joke if there ever was one.

Also, Natalya.

I'm not going to get too into this, but you'd think the most talented wrestler in the women's division would be utilized in the "Diva's WRESTLING Revolution", instead of sitting on her ass at home. But nope.