Wrestling's biggest winners and losers of 2024: Vince McMahon's vile demise reshapes the entire business

It's often argued whether or not wins and losses matter in professional wrestling. Regardless of where one falls in that debate, a lot more goes into a career than pinfalls or submissions. So as 2024 passes into the rear-view, let's look back at the wildest momentum shifts and hand out some awards — or participation trophies in some cases — for the biggest winners and losers of the wrestling year.

Biggest losers

Austin Theory

Austin Theory was one of the biggest promotional casualties of Vince McMahon's scandalous WWE exit.

The former U.S. Champion appeared to be one of McMahon's favorite new up-and-comers over recent years, resulting in his title reign. It was a push many found undeserved, highlighted by moments of Theory working alongside WWE royalty like "Stone Cold" Steve Austin and John Cena — the latter of whom he defeated at WrestleMania.

In 2024, Theory maintained some success with a tag team title reign alongside Grayson Waller in A-Town Down Under, however they've primarily been a comedy duo and Theory has received nowhere near the love he did upon his arrival to the main roster. He's still a young talent at 27, and with some more character development he can become something he was once ascending toward. It just wasn't in 2024.

Vince McMahon

Speaking of McMahon, it's only gone from bad to worse for the former chairman of WWE.

McMahon is a disgraced entity in professional wrestling after originally stepping down from his puppeteering perch in 2022. The original hush money, nondisclosure allegations were damning enough, but in 2024 significantly more smoke was added to that fire with a deluge of sexual assault and sex trafficking allegations that effectively further removed McMahon from the fold after the 79-year-old former executive tried to slither his way back in through the overarching TKO ownership.

Netflix — WWE's new home for "Monday Night Raw" on Jan. 6 — released a docuseries titled Mr. McMahon, chronicling the life and events in question of McMahon. But the thought of seeing McMahon ever appear on another WWE program feels like a stretch. Even if all his allegations are somehow cleared, the damage has been done.

Chris Jericho

For the most part, I still love some "Y2J." I know Jericho doesn't use that nickname anymore, but it will always be my go-to for him.

Unfortunately, the biggest problem at this point in Jericho's career is that he's featured far too frequently and it's led to go-away heat. Wrestling fans en masse have not been pleased with the direction he's taken in 2024, winning ROH gold specifically, and just how much he's seemingly being forced onto our screens.

At some point, you have to listen to the crowd. Less would be much more for Jericho. Please Tony, turn him into a legacy-type figure who appears in big, surprise moments and let's all move on.

Adam Cole

Adam Cole missed most of 2024 with an injury, so by default, it's a little unfair to include him here, but that's all about timing.

All the momentum of Cole's excellent MJF storyline was completely killed when he couldn't continue at its big turn and apex moment. MJF went on to do great things in the meantime, and they've picked back up where they left off now that Cole is healthy.

Well, sort of.

There are some wrinkles to the feud that haven't worked. For starters, they're now in opposite roles with MJF in the heel role to Cole's face. Overall, it's just been prolonged so long and pieced back together almost just because. An easy way to circle back would've been with a title involved — that was the whole genesis of their friendship and its messy dissolution, after all.

It's been a missed boat for Cole.

Pete Dunne

If you follow our "WWE Raw" coverage here at Uncrowned, you'll know I'm so incredibly upset with what's happened to Pete Dunne.

His is a case similar to Theory and the ripple effects left from McMahon's bone-headed bookings to make himself laugh. As McMahon often did, he'd bring wrestlers to the company or promote them from NXT and change their whole identity. Stunningly, Dunne's transformation into Butch was a massive failure.

His work alongside Sheamus was promising, but Dunne is still best as a standalone force. He's been attempting to recover ever since but doesn't appear to nearing an escape route. The fans are in on the now self-aware gimmick and storyline of him denying to R-Truth that he's Butch — leading fans to continue calling him Butch. Talk about a brilliant way to squander one of the best wrestlers on the roster.

It's disappointing to see Triple H take this path with Dunne, who was one of his greatest accomplishments at NXT. Dunne is capable of having some of the best matches imaginable with anyone. Yet he's busy losing to R-Truth — a comedy wrestler — after fan distractions.

Biggest winners

Seth Rollins

There have been several versions of Seth Rollins, but we might have seen the best in 2024.

Rollins entered the year with some unknowns and fear of missing out on the big WrestleMania XL festivities. The then-World Heavyweight Champion sustained an MCL injury ahead of "The Show of Shows," keeping him on ice until he was finally cleared to compete in his tag team match alongside Cody Rhodes vs. The Rock and Roman Reigns. Although Rollins lost that match along with his title defense against Drew McIntyre the night after, he played a big role in the end of Rhodes' saga with the Bloodline story. In a vacuum, the matches were pretty solid too — Rollins vs. McIntyre, in particular.

But for the rest of 2024? Rollins' more goofy and real-life flamboyant troll-type character hit a serious arc with his path back to CM Punk. As a lone wolf trying to work his way back to gold — after removing the Punk stain from his sight — Rollins has been a character with justification behind his reasoning.

His in-ring work is consistent as always, but Rollins' promo and character work have made him feel relatively bulletproof. I was cautious we'd ever be able to say that after his 2019 title reign. The less we talk about that, the better.

Will Ospreay

The no-brainer of all no-brainers, right?

We've seen great years across wrestling history. In 2024 though, Will Ospreay carried the torch to personify modern-day wrestling's foray into the future by putting on several all-time instant classic matches — and arguably the greatest match of all time. Yeah, let's keep our round of applause for that Bryan Danielson showcase going as long as possible.

Ospreay has always been a phenomenal wrestler, but it's safe to say the man has perfected perfection. The Brit has mastered every aspect of athleticism required to do anything within a wrestling ring. To say that about a guy who is still just 31 is absurd.

From bangers with Danielson, MJF, Kazuchika Okada, Darby Allin, Swerve Strickland, Konosuke Takeshita and the rest of the 2024 lot, bad matches simply don't exist for the "Aerial Assassin." And AEW is still only scratching the surface with its two-time International Champion.

Ospreay is horrifically talented and he could sit among the very best to ever do it by the time he's done.

Toni Storm

There may not have been a character as fun as Toni Storm in 2024.

Unlike Ospreay, the "Timeless" one wasn't out there putting on five-star classics week in and week out. Outside of the ring, however Storm's promos and mic time were all must-see.

The now-former AEW Women's World Champion developed arguably the year's best storyline with Mariah May, which helped boost the latter's status to achieve her status as Uncrowned's Breakthrough Wrestler of the Year. Overall, Storm embodied kayfabe to a degree rarely seen this decade and showed why it's so incredibly effective when done right.

Storm managed to be essentially a comedy act that was taken seriously as a competent and solid champion. To close out 2024, she's reverted to the "Rockstar" persona she was in previously and appears to have forgotten her whole AEW career. It's "Broken" Matt Hardy all over again and she's absolutely killing it.

Swerve Strickland

Whose house?!

Swerve Strickland is a star and it was only a matter of time before he was a high-profile impact performer in a major company. Unfortunately for WWE, its loss was AEW's gain as Strickland rose to world championship status in 2024 and delivered brilliantly.

The Washington native has been one of the most menacingly raw characters in the business with a thrilling competitive side in the ring. Over in MMA, we love "kill or be killed" fighters — Strickland brings that mentality to his wrestling. Just ask his bitter rival "Hangman" Adam Page.

Strickland delivered classics with Danielson and Ospreay in 2024 and defended his title a handful of times. Heel or face, Strickland has reached that territory with his fans where he'll be cheered regardless of his actions. 2024 was the tip of the iceberg for the continually rising career of Strickland.

Cody Rhodes

I know we called Will Ospreay the no-brainer of all no-brainers, but Cody Rhodes was an obvious must-have attachment on this list.

He finished his story! The year started with a perfect snapshot for Rhodes, who finally toppled the long-reigning Undisputed WWE Champion Roman Reigns in one of the greatest rivalry-conclusion matches in recent memory. Rhodes' crowning accomplishment couldn't have felt more like a WrestleMania moment, and the company highlighted it as much as it could, as seen in the image above.

Rhodes has been a perpetually intriguing wrestler since he fully evolved into his "American Nightmare" gimmick away from WWE. 2024 saw him become the new face of the company — if he wasn't already. Rhodes is this era's version of John Cena or any other big-name megastar face champion. The only difference is that he's arguably a better wrestler than any of those who played the part before him.

There's an aura around Rhodes and it's taken years to reach, but he's as good as ever.