Sports fans love to compare different athletes from different eras, even though much of it is subjective. The era of Wilt Chamberlain was very different from Michael Jordan’s era. Wayne Gretzky’s numbers are far more impressive than Sidney Crosby’s, but what could Crosby have done in the high-scoring NHL of the 1980s? And with soccer/football, you have different leagues around the world, in addition to different eras, that make it impossible to conclusively say Pele was better than Maradona, or vice versa, or maybe Messi or Ronaldo should get the accolade as “best ever”. It’s a subjective decision, and we all know that. But at least there are objective numbers involved.

With pro wrestling however, there is very little objective data. How does one decide who is the best wrestler of a year? Should they be graded on how many tickets they sell, or how many stars Wrestling Observer writer Dave Meltzer gives their matches? But more importantly, how do we rate the worst wrestler? Because, let’s be honest, that’s way more fun. This list looked at a number of metrics. It’s not simply who has the worst reputation as an in-ring worker. If so, Hulk Hogan could have won every year, but it would be snarky to award wrestling’s biggest mainstream star the “worst wrestler” tag. At least, it would be to do so every year. Instead, this list looks at in-ring incompetence, damage done to business, and inability to fulfill key roles as the main pillars of what makes “the worst wrestler” for every year from 1980 to the present.

38 1980 - Verne Gagne

via pinterest.com

We begin with a hot take! For modern day fans who are unfamiliar with the name “Verne Gagne”, he was one of the top wrestlers from the late 1950’s through to the ‘70’s, every bit the equal of Lou Thesz and Pat O’Connor. Which is to say, he was a very good old school technical wrestler. He held a World Title for more days in his life than any other wrestler (depending on which titles and reigns you count.) He was also the owner and booker of the American Wrestling Association (AWA), the major territory in the mid-west. However, Gagne was not always the best booker.

And by 1980, at age 54, he was no longer a great wrestler. Yet he still put the AWA title on himself...and then he retired as champion! It was conceitedness and lack of self-awareness such as this, as well as refusing to put the title on his promotion’s biggest draw a few years later --Hulk Hogan-- because he wasn’t a technical wrestler, that helped lead to the downfall of the AWA. And it made Gagne the worst wrestler of 1980.

37 1981 - Tommy Rich

Tommy Rich with title belt.

Tommy Rich was a decent worker, so it seems a bit harsh to name him the worst wrestler of 1981. But he’s on this list because he was nowhere near appropriate for the role that was foisted upon him - National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) Champion. Tommy Rich was a pretty big star in the NWA’s Georgia territory, Georgia Championship Wrestling (GCW), and he ended up with the NWA title largely because of backstage politics. Harley Race, the man whom Rich beat --and then lost the title to four days later-- has stated that the title switch has part of a power struggle involving GCW promoter Jim Barnett. Rich was a fine performer, but he was not championship caliber.

He remained a star in Georgia, but after GCW shut down in 1984, Rich was largely seen as a joke; the plucky underdog who once, bafflingly, was the NWA Champion. His reign was symptomatic of the type of the political problems of the NWA that were not present in the Vince McMahon-run WWE.

36 1982 - Superstar Billy Graham

via WrestlingClassics.com

While Vince and the WWE had some advantages over the NWA, in-ring work was definitely not one of them. This was the year that Vince McMahon Jr. bought the company from his father, Vince Sr. And Jr. endeavored to change the WWE from a Northeast based territory to a national promotion, focusing not on wrestling but larger-than-life, cartoonish characters. One of the more colorful characters of Vince Sr.’s time was Superstar Billy Graham, whose flashy talk and steroid fueled body (he has admitted to it) influenced everybody from Dusty Rhodes, to Hulk Hogan, to Jesse Ventura, to Chael Sonnen. But he left in 1978 after Vince Sr. took the title off him and put it on Bob Backlund, to whom he had promised the belt a year earlier.

But 1982 saw Graham’s return to the WWE. Maybe he was bitter. Maybe he was just older. Maybe he got some bad advice, but the Billy Graham that came back was a far cry from 1977-78 version. While never a great worker, Graham’s character now sucked, too. He shaved his head (okay, he was balding), and adopted a bizarre karate gimmick, despite having no martial arts training. It was bad. Really bad.

35 1983 - Ivan Putski

Ivan Putski

A famous rival of Billy Graham’s was Ivan Putski. Nicknamed “the Polish Hammer”, Putski was also a strongman and bodybuilder. And he had the classic physique of a man who was not adverse to enhancing his body by artificial methods. And, like most muscle guys, Putski’s work rate left much to be desired. And by 1983, the 42-year old Putski, while still maintaining big arms and pectorals, was decidedly less concerned with his abdomen. The paunchy Polish strongman was incredibly limited in the ring and, and while still carrying a certain charisma, it was clear to everybody that he could not hang with the new wrestlers Vince Jr. was importing for his national assault. Putski was just too immobile to do much of anything by this point.

34 1984 - The Fabulous Moolah

via WWE.com

A similarly elder statesperson in the WWE locker room at the beginning of Vince’s national expansion was the Fabulous Moolah. Except Moolah stuck around. Moolah’s feud with Wendi Richter was arguably the key feud that launched the “rock and wrestling connection”. The feud involved Captain Lou Albano and superstar singer Cyndi Lauper and the two main evented The Brawl to End it All live on MTV, in which Richter took the title from Moolah. The key thing to note here is that Moolah was 61 at the time; 61! She began wrestling in 1949!

The reason she was there was because Vince Jr. wanted to start a women’s decision and Moolah owned the rights to an old women’s belt. So Vince bought it from her and promoted her as a 28-year champion. It is most peculiar that a 61-year old woman helped the WWE brand themselves as hip and young. But Moolah was neither hip, nor young, nor a good wrestler.

33 1985 - Uncle Elmer

via wwe.com

Uncle Elmer is probably best remembered for getting legitimately married to Joyce Stazko on the second episode of Saturday Night’s Main Event. Elmer was part of the Hillbillies stable centered around Hillbilly Jim and was a focused upon character throughout 1985. This despite the fact that he wasn’t a good actor and an even worse wrestler. Elmer was billed at 6 ft 10 and 420 lbs, and even though those were pro wrestling numbers, he was still a really big guy. What’s more, he turned 47 in 1985. Quite why Vince decided to make this guy a key character on his television is a mystery. Perhaps Vince just needed somebody who was willing to get married on live television and was willing to let Roddy Piper insult him during said wedding.

32 1986 - Adrian Adonis

via imageevent.com

Elmer’s opponent at WrestleMania 2 was Adrian Adonis. Adonis had been wrestling for 12 years by this point but was only 32 years old. For most of his career, he was a competent wrestler, but by ‘86 he had completely let his body go. To be fair to Adonis, he kind of made it work for him. When he first came to WWE in the early 1980s, he was still in decent shape and won the tag titles with Dick Murdoch as the North-South connection, But he gradually stopped working out, seemingly, and as he became fat, he adopted a fay, effeminate, self-obsessed gimmick. The gimmick got over, but the problem was, he would eventually have to wrestle. His striking and cardio were both awful. If you haven’t seen it, you can imagine the quality of his match with Elmer. Not good.

It should be mentioned that Adonis had some health issues by this point and would die two years later, after his release from WWE in an unrelated vehicular collision in Newfoundland.

31 1987 - Ron Garvin

via tumblr.com

The past several years have been dominated by horrible WWE wrestlers because, as mentioned earlier, the WWE was less focused on in-ring work than other promotions. What’s often forgotten is that during the mid-1980s Jim Crockett Promotions’ (JCP) mid-Atlantic NWA territory was an equal rival to the WWE. But that all started to fall apart in 1987. Dusty Rhodes’s style of booking (ie: the ‘Dusty Finish’ and bloody matches) was starting to wear thin with fans and network executives alike. They also held Starrcade ‘87 in Chicago instead of the traditional Greensboro and the Greensboro fans never forgave them.

But perhaps the biggest misstep of all was putting the NWA title on ‘Rugged’ Ronnie Garvin. Dusty wanted Flair to win the NWA title at Starrcade, despite Flair already being the champ. But no marquee wrestlers were willing to have a two-month run as champ. So the title was put on 42-year old Ron Garvin. Garvin was OK in the ring, but because he became symbolic for JCP’s demise, he gets the worst wrestler of ‘87 nod.

30 1988 - The Ultimate Warrior

via wwe.com

The Ultimate Warrior was one of the most popular WWE characters of the late 1980's and early 1990's. He was a main eventer and a made a lot of money. He was also a terrible wrestler. He would get slightly better than he was in 1988, mind you...but not much better. ‘88 was the Warrior’s first full year in the WWE and it also marked his first championship: he won the Intercontinental Title from the Honky Tonk Man in a matter of seconds at SummerSlam 1988. Why was it a squash match? To emphasize Warrior’s amazing strength? Not so much. The truth is, the Honky Tonk Man didn’t trust Warrior and didn’t want to work a prolonged match with him for fear of getting hurt. And Vince put a title on this guy!

The most athletic thing Warrior would do was run to the ring, after which he was “blown up” (out of breath) for the whole match. He was also a headache to deal with, as we’ll see later.

29 1989 - André the Giant

via si.com

André the Giant was a tough call. On the one hand, he could have been the worst wrestler for multiple years. On the other hand, it wasn’t really his fault. His acromegaly had really caught up with him and by his 40’s he had become too big to wrestle or even live comfortably. Yet he continued to wrestle. Whether he did this out of loyalty to Vince or just because wrestling was all he knew is unclear. Though in 1991 & ‘92 he wrestled almost exclusively for All Japan Pro Wrestling and his WWE schedule was reduced in 1990. So 1989 seems appropriate.

André’s feud with Hogan was over by now and pretty much all he did was stand on the apron while Haku worked their tag matches as the Colossal Connection. André was just too immobile to do anything beyond a headbutt and it was mostly just sad to watch. He would die just a few short years later.

28 1990 - Sid Vicious

via wwe.com

André was a giant in his 40s and had decades of bumps wearing him down. What was Sid’s excuse? Sid Vicious was never a good wrestler, though he would go on to have good matches in his career, mostly with Shawn Michaels and Bret Hart (the ‘Kevin Nash Special’). But if you thought Sid was bad in the mid-to-late 90’s, watch some of his early work. You can’t imagine how slow and immobile he was. It honestly looked like your TV was stuck on slow motion, but it only affected Sid. It says a lot about Sid that during his time in The Skyscrapers, Dan Spivey had to be the workhorse. Worst of all, WCW was building around Sid. They saw Sid, Sting, and Lex Luger as their go to guys for the coming decade. Well, I guess Sting worked OK, right?

Any thoughts of making Sid a top guy should have been abandoned after his Clash of the Champions match in November of 1990 against the Nightstalker (Bryan Clark), truly one of the worst professional wrestling matches of all time.

27 1991 - Junkyard Dog

via wwe.com

Like Sid, Junkyard Dog always got over with his charisma. While Sid’s charisma was more physical, JYD was an extremely likable and charming man. But he was never a good wrestler. And by 1991, he was coasting. JYD was a rare black top babyface in the Mid-South promotion in the early 1980s before moving to the WWE. While very popular in the WWE, JYD was always firmly behind Hulk Hogan, and sometimes others, in the babyface rankings. He is also believed to have got into some bad habits with regards to substance abuse. His physique deteriorated and after he left for WCW, he really began to phone it in. By 1991, JYD was just an out of shape old timer resting on his laurels and taking up screen time from younger, hungrier wrestlers.

26 1992 - The Ultimate Warrior

via ABC News

We discussed Warrior’s in-ring limitations in 1988. Since then, he managed to have good matches with Rick Rude, Randy Savage, and, surprisingly, Hulk Hogan. Warrior left the WWE after a disagreement with Vince McMahon over his SummerSlam ‘91 pay. Vince brought him back at WrestleMania VIII. What followed was a bizarre feud with Papa Shango and some awful matches with Sid. Warrior would leave the company that very autumn. He was fired for using steroids, on which the WWE was cracking down due to an investigation and upcoming legal battle.

Warrior’s dismissal jeopardized the primary promoted match for Survivor Series with Mr. Perfect being drafted in his place to team with Savage against Ric Flair and Razor Ramon. He was only there for seven months, but Warrior’s in-ring ineptitude and backstage problems make him the worst wrestler of ‘92.

25 1993 - Giant González

via WWE.com

An honorable mention goes to Fred Ottman’s Shockmaster character in WCW, but while that character (and debut) were notoriously awful, Ottman himself could at least, you know, move. Which is more than I can say for Giant González, for whom even the basic daily activities of life seemed a struggle, let alone professional wrestling. The former El Gigante debuted at Royal Rumble ‘93 and eliminated the Undertaker. He would go on to lose to Undertaker by disqualification at WrestleMania IX (Taker’s only DQ win in The Streak) in an abysmal match, before having another stinker with him at SummerSlam.

González only ever got into wrestling because, despite his massive height, he couldn’t hack it for the Atlanta Hawks in the NBA, so Hawks owner Ted Turner offered him a job in one of his other company’s: WCW. But by ‘93, González was in the WWE and arguably had a bigger spotlight on him than ever. But his immobility, his ridiculously basic move-set, and his ludicrous muscled body suit (replete with hairy shoulders) just made a mockery of the whole business. He would retire from wrestling soon after and move back to Argentina.

24 1994 - Brother Bruti

via imageevent.com

How has Ed Leslie avoided this list up until now? Pretty much every job he ever had in pro wrestling was because he was Hulk Hogan’s buddy. So when Hogan joined WCW, he brought over Leslie along with a cadre of his other buddy’s (Honky Tonk Man, Gene Okerlund, Jimmy Hart). The former Brutus Beefcake was rechristened “Brother Bruti” and kind of just stood around most of the year, which is just as well because he couldn’t really do much else. This was until he turned on Hogan, for basically no reason, and the two good buds got to main event Starrcade together; in theory, WCW’s biggest annual pay per view. The match was awful and was largely just a backdrop for a Hogan-Vader angle.

23 1995 - The Renegade

via youtube.com

The Ultimate Warrior has already appeared on this list twice. So now I’d like you to imagine a poor man’s Warrior. What you get, is The Renegade. Leading up to Uncensored ‘95, Hulk Hogan and WCW were promoting “the Ultimate surprise” and showed the silhouette of a muscular man with tassels on his arms, trying to trick their audience into thinking that Warrior was coming. Instead it was a very green and very limited Rick Wilson as the Renegade. He went on a bit of a run and even won the Television Championship, but it quickly became apparent that he had neither the talent nor charisma for a main event push. Worse still, once WCW brass finally realized how dumb a gimmick this was, they lost interest in the Renegade. Wilson would hang around in the background of WCW for a few years before being released. He sadly killed himself in 1999.

22 1996 - Ahmed Johnson

via imageevent.com

This was a hotly contested year. We again had The Ultimate Warrior come back to the WWE for a brief failed run before no-showing events. And in WCW we had a 49-year old Giant Haystacks pathetically masquerading as Loch Ness. But we’ve seen Warrior already and Haystacks would be diagnosed with cancer that year, so let's have some compassion. But not for Ahmed Johnson. Most of the wrestlers on this list have been sloppy, old, or miscast. But Johnson was downright dangerous. And unlike a lot of these guys, he was not out of shape. Ahmed’s collection of bulging muscles was rivaled only by his collection of knee pads strewn about his massive legs. Vince must have loved his body, though, and gave Johnson the Intercontinental title, making him the first ever black IC champion. (In 1996. Yay wrestling.)

And what finisher did they give this dangerously powerful and uncoordinated man? The Pearl River Plunge (a sitout double underhook powerbomb). Not a good idea! In addition to not being able to work, Johnson couldn’t talk either. And I don’t mean he couldn’t cut promos, he literally couldn’t talk. It was as though he always had marbles in his mouth.

21 1997 - Hulk Hogan

via tqn.com

Finally, the Hulkster makes it! Hogan has always been a bad wrestler, but he also had almost always been good for business. This was changing in 1995, so by ‘96 Hogan cleverly jumped on the nWo angle and turned himself heel. It worked great and did amazing business for WCW. That continued through 1997, WCW’s best year, financially. But it was also the beginning of the end. The nWo angle managed to stay hot through ‘97 despite retreading some awful Hogan-Piper matches. But a big part of this was ‘the Crow’ Sting, lurking in the rafters waiting to get his revenge on ‘Hollywood’ Hogan and the nWo.

That time came at Starrcade ‘97, WCW’s most anticipated Pay-Per-View (PPV) ever. And what happened? A garbage finish. Hogan pinned Sting with a fast count from Nick Patrick which wasn’t a fast count at all and then Bret Hart, fresh off the Montreal Screwjob, appeared and restarted the match, somehow, leading to Sting winning but the whole thing was a dusty finish. In 1997, Hogan’s politicking did some serious, and ultimately irreparable, damage to WCW.

20 1998 - Lex Luger

via pinterest.com

After the finish of Starrcade ‘97, it became clear to fans over the next year that they could watch old guys in WCW cling on to their top spots with bad booking, or they could watch new, younger stars in the WWE. WCW still did good business, mind you, and did still have cool wrestlers. Kevin Nash and Konan made the nWo Wolfpac seem cool. Lex Luger...did not. Luger has already been a runner up for most of the ‘90s on this list, but he finally made the top spot. As a steroid using bodybuilder, Luger was, as one might expect, never a good worker. Limited mobility and stamina kept him from having good matches for most of his career. And his exaggerated selling didn’t help matters. But seeing Luger trying to be a cool, hip dude in the Wolfpac was just too much. He was also struggling with substance abuse issues at this point and this did his work no favors.

19 1999 - Kevin Nash

via pinterest.com

While ‘Big Sexy’ did seem cool for most of the ‘90’s, by 1999, the bloom was off the rose. He began the year as WCW Champion (having just ended Goldberg’s streak via taser) but lost the title to Hogan on January 4 in the infamous “Fingerpoke of Doom” match. The match belittled the title and is widely seen as the point of no return for WCW. They were doomed after this. Oh, and Nash is the one who planned that spot, as he was the booker for WCW at the time.

With a billed height of 6’10, it would be unreasonable to expect Nash to have been a great worker. But he could have tried a little harder. He was slow, limited, and seemingly lazy. And this was also the year that he squashed Rey Mysterio and took his mask. Not only was Nash bad in ring, he did major damage to WCW outside of it.