Tough Enough...ugh. Back in 2001, WWE hosted a reality show where aspiring wrestlers (some more than others) auditioned and underwent wrestling training, with the winners receiving developmental contracts in WWE to receive further training and possibly going on to become the next big WWE superstar. None of them did. None of the wrestlers who won their season of Tough Enough became the next major star WWE was looking for, with the winner of Season 5 never even wrestling on the main roster. It's not a good sign when the most successful person from your show is the Miz, who was the runner-up on Season 4. While most of the Tough Enough competitors just kind of existed in WWE, one in particular has become rather infamous in WWE...Jackie Gayda.
Gayda was the co-winner on Season 2 with Linda Miles. After winning, she wrestled in a few matches on the main roster. One of them was a mixed tag match where she teamed with Season 1 runner-up Christopher Nowinski to face the team of Trish Stratus & Bradshaw on the July 8th edition of Monday Night RAW. Gayda botched her way through the match in one of the most infamously bad performances of the 2000s. The match was so bad that, despite being barely three minutes long, snagged the Worst Worked Match of the Year award from the Wrestling Observer in 2002. Despite going on to do other things in WWE like managing Charlie Haas & Rico, she's best known for this match. The match is even straight up referred to as "that Jackie Gayda match" because it's the only thing that was memorable about her WWE career.
This is already bad to start. First, you have Gayda, who had made her wrestling debut literally less than a month earlier. Then you have Stratus, who was still green at this point in her career. Then Nowinski, who was never known for his in-ring work, and Bradshaw, who is definitely not known for his in-ring work. This had the makings of a mess before it even started. Let's get into it.
Nowinski & Bradshaw start off by lining up like they're about to play football, only for Nowinski to immediately tag out when Bradshaw charges. Jackie gets in, forcing Bradshaw to tag in Trish. Trish takes it to Jackie, hitting a hip toss, dropkick, and a clothesline. In one of the messiest botches I've ever seen, Trish hops up on the top rope, teeters for a bit before landing on her feet and pulling Jackie down to the ground, where Jackie starts choking her. I'm assuming Gayda was supposed to do a flapjack into the ropes, but she missed the spot so Trish just kind of did it without her and then improvised. Whatever it was, the crowd caught it immediately and booed loudly. But don't worry, there's more botching to come.
So Jackie starts beating down Trish before tagging out to Nowinski. Trish dodges two elbow drops and tags in Bradshaw. Bradshaw comes in and boots Nowinski before hitting a fallway slam. Nowinski quickly tags out and Jackie hops up on Bradshaw's back. Bradshaw throws her off and tags in Trish, who locks in a headlock while Bradshaw chases Nowinski around ringside. Nowinski hops the barricade and Bradshaw follows, leaving the women alone in the ring. Gayda reverses an Irish whip into the corner and hits a pretty slow clothesline before setting Trish up on the top rope, but Trish knocks her down and hits, without a shred of doubt the WORST Stratusfaction in history, based solely on how Jackie sells the move. Like, you need to prepare for this.
Ready...
...
...
Ready...
...
...
Wow. That has got to be one of the worst botches in wrestling history. I don't think I've ever seen a sell done so poorly in my life. It was so bad that the WWE Network actually puts the timestamp for the end of this match after the move is done and not before like they do for every other match. They Benoit'd the spot. Trish gets the pin and the win, which makes JR say "mercifully, it's over." Jerry Lawler adds that he's seen better catfights. Not even trying to hide how bad this match is.
The Verdict
Man, that was ugly. It might have been short, but that didn't stop Jackie from botching as much as possible. She couldn't do anything right in this match, it was almost painful to watch. It should come as no surprise that she was sent down to Ohio Valley Wrestling after this debacle.
Rankings (Best to Worst)
- Too Much vs Al Snow & Head-King of the Ring 1998
- Vampiro vs Sting-Great American Bash 2000
- T&A vs Head Cheese-WrestleMania 2000
- Triple H vs Sgt. Slaughter-D-Generation X: In Your House
- Konnan vs One Man Gang-SuperBrawl VI
- Ultimate Warrior vs Hercules-WrestleMania IV
- Rick Rude vs Hawk-Clash of the Champions XXV
- Shelton Benjamin vs Viscera-New Year's Revolution 2006
- Steve McMichael vs Reggie White-Slamboree 1997
- The Chamber of Horrors-Halloween Havoc 1991
- The Natural Disasters vs Money Inc.-WrestleMania VIII
- Ivan Koloff vs Paul Jones-Clash of the Champions IV
- ODB, Taylor Wilde, and Roxxi vs The Kongtourage-Genesis 2009
- Ivory vs Tori-SummerSlam 1999
- Nikita Koloff vs Bobby Eaton-Bunkhouse Stampede
- Alex Wright vs Steve McMichael-Halloween Havoc 1997
- Total Divas vs Other Divas-Survivor Series 2013
- The Oddities vs Kaientai-SummerSlam 1998
- Hulk Hogan vs Sid Justice-WrestleMania VIII
- Paul Ellering vs Teddy Long-Capital Combat
- Dusty Rhodes vs Big Boss Man-Saturday Night's Main Event (10/31/1989)
- Tyson Tomko vs Stevie Richards-Unforgiven 2004
- Hollywood Hogan vs The Giant-Hog Wild
- Hollywood Hogan vs The Giant-Souled Out 1997
- Dustin Rhodes & King Kong vs Awesome Kong & The Equalizer-Battlebowl
- Finlay & Little Bastard vs The Boogeyman & Little Boogeyman-No Way Out 2007
- Jake Roberts vs Andre the Giant-WrestleMania V
- Yokozuna vs King Mabel-In Your House 4
- Sting & Hawk vs Meng & Kurasawa-Clash of the Champions XXXI
- Hulk Hogan vs Randy Savage-Uncensored 1998
- Al Snow vs Big Boss Man-Unforgiven 1999
- Mickie James vs Ashley-Royal Rumble 2006
- Christy Hemme vs Big Fat Oily Guy-Against All Odds 2007
- Team WCW vs nWo Wolfpac vs nWo Hollywood-Fall Brawl 1998
- Vampiro vs Oklahoma-Starrcade 1999
- Hulk Hogan vs Andre the Giant-WrestleMania III
- Van Hammer vs Terrance Taylor-Clash of the Champions XVI
- Junkyard Dog vs Moondog Spot-Wrestling Classic
- Hiroshi Wajima vs Tom Magee-All Japan Pro Wrestling 1988
- Jim Duggan vs Big Boss Man-Royal Rumble 1990
- Meng vs Jim Duggan-Uncensored 1995
- Jim Steele vs The Equalizer-SuperBrawl IV
- Edge vs Triple H vs Vladimir Kozlov-Survivor Series 2008
- Kevin Sullivan vs Dave Sullivan-SuperBrawl V
- Steve McMichael vs Brian Adams-Road Wild 1998
- Scott Hall vs Roddy Piper-SuperBrawl IX
- PN News & Bobby Eaton vs Steve Austin & Terrance Taylor-Great American Bash 1991
- Scott Steiner vs Sid Vicious vs Jeff Jarrett vs Road Warrior Animal-Sin
- Hollywood Hogan vs Roddy Piper-SuperBrawl 1997
- Batista vs The Great Khali-SummerSlam 2007
- Sable vs Tori-WrestleMania XV
- Super Invader vs Todd Champion-WrestleWar 1992
- King Kong Bundy & Jim Neidhart vs Yokozuna & Jake Roberts-Heroes of Wrestling
- Sid Vicious vs The Nightstalker-Clash of the Champions XIII
- The 8-Divas Tag Match-Survivor Series 1999
- The Fabulous Freebirds vs The Renegade Warriors-Halloween Havoc 1990
- Rick Rude vs Masahiro Chono-Halloween Havoc 1992
- Mike Awesome vs Vampiro-Halloween Havoc 2000
- Bray Wyatt vs John Cena-Extreme Rules 2014
- Brothers of Destruction vs KroniK-Unforgiven 2001
- Mabel vs The Undertaker-King of the Ring 1995
- Wendi Richter vs The Fabulous Moolah-The Brawl to End it All
- David Flair vs Kimberly Page-Mayhem 1999
- The Truth Commission vs The Disciples of Apocolypse-Survivor Series 1997
- The Bushwhacker vs The Fabulous Rougeaus-WrestleMania V
- The Beverly Brothers vs The Bushwhackers-Royal Rumble 1992
- Teddy Long vs Eric Bischoff-Survivor Series 2005
- Greg Valentine vs George Steele-Heroes of Wrestling
- Abdullah the Butcher vs One Man Gang-Heroes of Wrestling
- Major Gunns vs Miss Hancock-New Blood Rising
- Bradshaw & Trish Stratus vs Christopher Nowinski & Jackie Gayda-RAW (7/8/2002)
- Triple H vs Scott Steiner-Royal Rumble 2003
- Hollywood Hogan vs The Warrior-Halloween Havoc 1998
- Mr. T vs Roddy Piper-WrestleMania 2
- The Royal Family vs Clowns R' Us-Survivor Series 1994
- The Blacktop Bully vs Dustin Rhodes-Uncensored 1995
- Pat Patterson vs Gerald Brisco-King of the Ring 2000
- The Four Doinks vs Team Bigelow-Survivor Series 1993
- Sting vs Jeff Hardy-Victory Road 2011
- Oz vs Tim Parker-SuperBrawl
- Ultimate Warrior vs Andre the Giant-Saturday Night's Main Event (11/25/1989)
- The Doomsday Cage Match-Uncensored 1996
- Kane vs The Undertaker-Judgement Day 1998
- Kaitlyn vs Maxine-NXT (10/19/10)
- Sabu vs The Sandman-November to Remember 1997
- The Bushwhackers vs Iron Sheik & Nikolai Volkoff-Heroes of Wrestling
- James Storm vs Chris Harris-Lockdown 2007
- John Laurinaitis vs John Cena-Over the Limit 2012
- Ultimate Warrior vs Goldust-In Your House 7
- Los Villanos vs Los Psycho Circus-Triplemania XXIII
- Jenna Morasca vs Sharmell-Victory Road 2009
Oh, this can't be that bad.
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