The past year in WWE will go down in history for many reasons. In particular, 2015 will be remembered as the year that the Money in the Bank briefcase was finally cashed in at WrestleMania when Seth Rollins interrupted Roman Reigns vs Brock Lesnar and walked out of Santa Clara, California with the WWE World Heavyweight Championship for the first time.
This was also the year that Seth Rollins made history by becoming the first ever superstar to hold the WWE World Heavyweight Championship and the United States Championship when he defeated John Cena at last year’s SummerSlam.
The year will also be remembered as the worst year for WWE injuries after many of WWE’s main roster stars spent some time on the sidelines during the duration of the year. It was by far the most injury hit year in WWE history since records began and many will remember it as such.
The following list is compiled of the most awkward moments from WWE TV last year, the moments where the WWE Universe don’t want to watch the carnage on screen, but you can’t tear your eyes away. The moments where you are thankful that it isn’t you on the screen.
20 20. Night of Champions
Nikki Bella was the longest reigning Divas Champion in the title’s history by the time she stepped in the ring with Charlotte at last year’s Night of Champions event, so the Diva had plenty to lose.
That being said, we were already mid way through the Divas Revolution and the match between Charlotte and Nikki was one of the better matches of the year, but WWE missed one factor, storytelling.
Nikki worked on Charlotte’s leg throughout the match to the extent where the former NXT Women’s champion couldn’t walk, so how was she able to lock in the Figure 8?
19 19. The Divas Revolution
Perhaps the most awkward storyline of the year was when WWE decided that they wanted their women’s division to actually become relevant.
Becky Lynch, Charlotte and Sasha Banks were brought up to the main roster to help the women to finally be used in the appropriate way, but even with some of NXT’s best at the helm, the Divas Revolution is still considered a resounding failure.
Maybe now the company will realize that if you want the WWE Universe to be behind the Divas, they just need to be given time to tell a story and invoke an emotion.
18 18. Daniel Bryan Rescinds the Championship...Again
Daniel Bryan finally reached the peak of the mountain at WrestleMania XXX when he finally lifted the WWE World Heavyweight Championship, only to have to drop the Championship due to injury not long after.
Following rehabilitation, WWE once again allowed Daniel to win the Intercontinental Championship at the following WrestleMania. But once again Bryan suffered a shoulder injury and was forced to relinquish the title in what was almost a perfect replay of the actions from the year before.
Bryan is now retied and will probably never make a return to the WWE.
17 17. Erick Rowan or Luke Harper?
Erick Rowan turned on The Wyatt Family at Survivor Series 2014 to join Team Cena when he sided with the face team over his brother Luke Harper. Following a back and forth Rowan then rejoined his brothers and The Wyatt Family unveiled Braun Strowman as the new member.
Later in the year, Rowan was forced out with an injury and so the Wyatt Family was allowed to continue as a trio, but then Luke Harper suffered an injury of his own and Erick Rowan replaced him at a pay-per-view match and WWE never explained why.
16 16. Paige and the Dead Brother
Paige and Charlotte’s feud in late 2015 was feeling a little bland, so WWE decided it would have to become a little more personal.
The former best friends were already considered to have been having a personal feud, but Paige then brought up Charlotte’s dead brother and social media was not happy about the inclusion of Ric Flair’s youngest child.
It succeeded in making Paige a villain and the feud personal, but was it really necessary?
15 15. The Shield Power-bomb
The Shield are still considered one of the most dominant factions of WWE’s PG era and a lot of this is to with their triple power bomb finisher, which definitely fit in well with the style of the trio.
Since Seth Rollins chose The Authority over his brothers in early 2014, Dean Ambrose and Roman Reigns have continued to deliver the power bomb with just the two members, though it hasn't happened often in recent times.
This seems less impactful and it also means that Ambrose almost drops the wrester when trying to lift them onto Reigns shoulders alone, it is no longer needed. Stop it.
14 14. Rusev/Lana/Summer Rae
Rusev went from being completely undefeated on the main roster in 2014 to being stuck in a storyline with Summer Rae and Lana, which turned into a love triangle.
Lana decided to join Dolph Ziggler and Rusev then turned Summer Rae into Lana 2.0 and the two looked like they were about to fight it out in an actual match, which would be Lana’s debut, but Lana was injured.
One of the most awkward moments in this storyline was when Summer Rae and Rusev were giving out presents to each other and Lana interrupted and put Summer Rae’s face into a dead fish.
13 13. AJ Lee Retires Following WrestleMania
One of the main reasons for WWE’s abysmal Divas booking over the past year was the fact that AJ Lee dropped the surprise that she was retiring from the company merely days after WrestleMania 31.
AJ and Paige won their match against The Bella Twins and were about to open up a feud with the Total Divas stars when AJ announced that she was walking away from the company where she found fame.
It is unknown how much her husband CM Punk’s earlier departure from the company influenced this spontaneous decision, but the Divas division suffered for many months because of it.
12 12. Sting and Bo Dallas
WCW Legend Sting made his WWE debut in 2014 and has not had as big an impact as many of the WWE Universe had hoped.
Sting lost the WCW vs WWE match he was originally brought into WWE for against Triple H at WrestleMania 31, but it seems WWE kept him for an extra night in Santa Clara for one more reason.
Sting appeared in a random segment following the Raw after WrestleMania where he was talking about his match with Triple H and was interrupted by Bo Dallas, and in turn Bo received a Scorpion Death Drop for his efforts.
11 11. Kevin Owens Wants Popcorn
Dean Ambrose and Kevin Owens had one of the best feuds of 2015 over the Intercontinental Championship. However, that being said, a lot of their feud felt like it was thrown together.
Ambrose took the IC Title from Owens back at TLC with the match not even needing any final build up, so they just sent Ambrose out with popcorn and soda to throw at Owens.
Owens looked just as shocked as the rest of the audience, while Ambrose just walked away smiling.
10 10. Hulk Hogan is Released
In WWE’s PG era, the company has proved that no one is too big to not follow their rules. Hulk Hogan is one of the biggest examples of this.
There was a sound byte released early last year where Hogan was saying some racist comments and when WWE saw that keeping Hogan on their books would be seen as them excluding some of their demographic, they decided they had to release the former champion.
Hogan was then removed from most of WWE’s promotional material and no WWE superstar is allowed to mention the star on TV now either.
9 9. Elimination Chamber Glass Breaks
Elimination Chamber in 2015 was replaced by Fastlane and instead the pay-per-view made a comeback during the Summer when the first ever Tag Team Elimination Chamber match was placed on the card.
However, this year's edition is also remembered for the time that the glass broke on one of the pods and Mark Henry was forced to enter the match a lot earlier than previously planned and also meant that a lot of the match became impromptu.
8 8. Sami Zayn
Sami Zayn has found international acclaim all over the world even before his time with WWE, but they decided to put him in NXT.
Zayn has also held the NXT Championship in 2015 before he was defeated by Kevin Owens, but that week turned out to be one of the worst moments of Sami’s career.
Sami was brought up to the main roster to face John Cena in a US Open Challenge match when the former masked superstar managed to tear his rotator cuff on his way to the ring. While he did manage to finish the match against Cena, he was on the treatment table for the remainder of the year.
7 7. Roman Reigns Booed After The Royal Rumble
Roman Reigns won the 2015 Royal Rumble, only a year after the WWE Universe actually wanted him to defeat Batista to win the Royal Rumble in 2014.
Roman managed to defy the odds and win the Royal Rumble but the fans didn’t react very well to the win, as the Philadelphia crowd booed Roman out of the building. Even when The Rock came out to help his cousin silence the crowd, they booed The Rock just as much.
6 6. Big Show Face/Heel
Big Show has been considered one of WWE’s biggest legends for most of his career, but recently WWE just can’t decide what to do with the giant.
Most nights, Big Show is a face superstar who decides to turn heel part way through the night only to turn back face at the following TV taping, which is a shocking way to use the former World Champion.
This is widely considered to be giving many fans whiplash and it has meant that Big Show has lost a lot of credibility when it comes to the WWE Universe.
5 5. Roman Reigns Promo
Roman Reigns first came into WWE with lack of mic training. This wasn’t noticeable throughout his time with The Shield because Dean Ambrose and Seth Rollins did a lot of the talking for the group, but since the split Roman has shown his inexperience.
Reigns tries to joke with the WWE Universe but he has forgotten his lines and even stutter and show his nerves when he is attempting to perform in front of a live crowd.
There has been vast improvements shown with Roman’s mic skills over the last few months, but it still seems as though Roman is a level below all other performers.
4 4. Axel’s Royal Rumble
The on-going storyline throughout WWE in 2015 concerning Curtis Axel was that he was still in the WWE Royal Rumble, even months after the pay-per-view had ended.
Axel talked about lasting the longest time in history in the Rumble regardless of the fact that he was never officially in the Royal Rumble match.
Axel made his entrance and was taken out by Erick Rowan, which meant that he was never officially a part of the match. This storyline ran throughout 2015 and into 2016 when Axel was finally eliminated from that Rumble.
3 3. Seth Rollins
Seth Rollins is one of the best promo deliverers in WWE and, if it wasn’t for his injury in late 2015, he would still be at the top of the WWE.
That being said, one of Rollins most awkward moments was when Johnny Manziel was ringside for an episode of Raw and as a way to insult the NFL star he called him “Johnny Idiot Face.” It was pretty just cringe-worthy.
2 2. The Authority and The New Day
The Authority had many of the most awkward and over the top moments in 2015, but it's mostly been a good thing.
One of the most awkward moments came with Triple H and Stephanie McMahon in the ring, as The New Day made their entrance. The tag team champions did their usually hip shaking dance before Triple H and Stephanie joined in with the dance.
It was considered one of the most surreal moments to be a WWE fan, given that The Authority were considered to be heel at the time.
1 1. R-Truth
It seems R-Truth has become WWE’s go to awkward superstar, having been involved in many of WWE’s most awkward situations in 2015.
During the build up to the Intercontinental Championship Ladder Match at WrestleMania 31, R-Truth came out to help and was informed that he wasn’t actually a part of the match.
This continued in 2016 when R-Truth ran out with a ladder during the Royal Rumble and climbed it, only to realize there was no title at the top.