5 Great Wrestlers Who Had A Bad Year
When you are about to watch a match from the likes of Shawn Michaels, Bret Hart, Kurt Angle and AJ Styles, you know you are in for what will likely be a showstopping affair.
Some wrestlers can do just no wrong in the squared circle. But not everyone. Almost any superstar can have an off night, an off week, an off month, or in the case of this list, an off year. And I'm not referring to mid-card performers or lesser known stars, sometimes the biggest and best in WWE can have a string of bad performances. Whether it be nagging injuries holding them back, or not connecting with the right opponent, some of the best of all time can have a bad match, or two... three, four and maybe more.
All of this and more, effected these superstars. Although having been great before and after, these big names each had at least one year of their professional careers where they just seriously lacked in great performances in the ring.
#5 Scott Steiner - 2003
With brother Rick, Scott Steiner is one of the greatest tag team wrestlers of all time. The Steiner Brothers dominated tag team wrestling in WWE, WCW and elsewhere throughout the 90's.
The Steiner's broke up in early 1998 when Scott turned on his brother and joined the NWO. Scott easily became the 'Shawn Michaels' while Rick was the Marty Janetty. Scott shined in singles competition, winning several Championships, including the WCW World Championship in October 2000, until the last ever episode of Nitro in 2001.
Scott took a break from wrestling to deal with some injuries, and after longtime speculation, he finally returned to WWE in late 2002. Scott was given a main event push immediately, as he feuded with Triple H for the World Championship. Before his return match at the 2003 Royal Rumble with The Game, Scott had only wrestled a handful of matches on the independent scene, and was dealing with minor injuries, so it was going to be interesting to see how the match with Triple H would go, and as it turned out, very bad.
Scott and Triple H had arguably the worst match of the year at the Royal Rumble, but WWE didn't give up on their new top dollar performer just yet. Scott's main event push continued for another month, ending with an equally awful rematch with Triple H at No Way Out. Scott spent the remainder of the year teaming and feuding with Test, with few decent matches.
Scott was released by WWE in 2004 after they decided they had no use for him in the ring. Scott managed to bounce back, of sorts, in TNA Impact Wrestling in 2006. During his 6+ years with the company, he has had several highly entertaining matches.