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Worst in the World: THAT Jackie Gayda Match-WWE Monday Night RAW (7/8/2002)

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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...
...
...
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)

  1. Too Much vs Al Snow & Head-King of the Ring 1998
  2. Vampiro vs Sting-Great American Bash 2000
  3. T&A vs Head Cheese-WrestleMania 2000
  4. Triple H vs Sgt. Slaughter-D-Generation X: In Your House
  5. Konnan vs One Man Gang-SuperBrawl VI
  6. Ultimate Warrior vs Hercules-WrestleMania IV
  7. Rick Rude vs Hawk-Clash of the Champions XXV
  8. Shelton Benjamin vs Viscera-New Year's Revolution 2006
  9. Steve McMichael vs Reggie White-Slamboree 1997
  10. The Chamber of Horrors-Halloween Havoc 1991
  11. The Natural Disasters vs Money Inc.-WrestleMania VIII
  12. Ivan Koloff vs Paul Jones-Clash of the Champions IV
  13. ODB, Taylor Wilde, and Roxxi vs The Kongtourage-Genesis 2009
  14. Ivory vs Tori-SummerSlam 1999
  15. Nikita Koloff vs Bobby Eaton-Bunkhouse Stampede
  16. Alex Wright vs Steve McMichael-Halloween Havoc 1997
  17. Total Divas vs Other Divas-Survivor Series 2013
  18. The Oddities vs Kaientai-SummerSlam 1998
  19. Hulk Hogan vs Sid Justice-WrestleMania VIII
  20. Paul Ellering vs Teddy Long-Capital Combat
  21. Dusty Rhodes vs Big Boss Man-Saturday Night's Main Event (10/31/1989)
  22. Tyson Tomko vs Stevie Richards-Unforgiven 2004
  23. Hollywood Hogan vs The Giant-Hog Wild
  24. Hollywood Hogan vs The Giant-Souled Out 1997
  25. Dustin Rhodes & King Kong vs Awesome Kong & The Equalizer-Battlebowl
  26. Finlay & Little Bastard vs The Boogeyman & Little Boogeyman-No Way Out 2007
  27. Jake Roberts vs Andre the Giant-WrestleMania V
  28. Yokozuna vs King Mabel-In Your House 4
  29. Sting & Hawk vs Meng & Kurasawa-Clash of the Champions XXXI
  30. Hulk Hogan vs Randy Savage-Uncensored 1998
  31. Al Snow vs Big Boss Man-Unforgiven 1999
  32. Mickie James vs Ashley-Royal Rumble 2006
  33. Christy Hemme vs Big Fat Oily Guy-Against All Odds 2007
  34. Team WCW vs nWo Wolfpac vs nWo Hollywood-Fall Brawl 1998
  35. Vampiro vs Oklahoma-Starrcade 1999
  36. Hulk Hogan vs Andre the Giant-WrestleMania III
  37. Van Hammer vs Terrance Taylor-Clash of the Champions XVI
  38. Junkyard Dog vs Moondog Spot-Wrestling Classic
  39. Hiroshi Wajima vs Tom Magee-All Japan Pro Wrestling 1988
  40. Jim Duggan vs Big Boss Man-Royal Rumble 1990
  41. Meng vs Jim Duggan-Uncensored 1995
  42. Jim Steele vs The Equalizer-SuperBrawl IV
  43. Edge vs Triple H vs Vladimir Kozlov-Survivor Series 2008
  44. Kevin Sullivan vs Dave Sullivan-SuperBrawl V
  45. Steve McMichael vs Brian Adams-Road Wild 1998
  46. Scott Hall vs Roddy Piper-SuperBrawl IX
  47. PN News & Bobby Eaton vs Steve Austin & Terrance Taylor-Great American Bash 1991
  48. Scott Steiner vs Sid Vicious vs Jeff Jarrett vs Road Warrior Animal-Sin
  49. Hollywood Hogan vs Roddy Piper-SuperBrawl 1997
  50. Batista vs The Great Khali-SummerSlam 2007
  51.  Sable vs Tori-WrestleMania XV
  52. Super Invader vs Todd Champion-WrestleWar 1992
  53. King Kong Bundy & Jim Neidhart vs Yokozuna & Jake Roberts-Heroes of Wrestling
  54. Sid Vicious vs The Nightstalker-Clash of the Champions XIII
  55. The 8-Divas Tag Match-Survivor Series 1999
  56. The Fabulous Freebirds vs The Renegade Warriors-Halloween Havoc 1990
  57. Rick Rude vs Masahiro Chono-Halloween Havoc 1992
  58. Mike Awesome vs Vampiro-Halloween Havoc 2000
  59. Bray Wyatt vs John Cena-Extreme Rules 2014
  60. Brothers of Destruction vs KroniK-Unforgiven 2001
  61. Mabel vs The Undertaker-King of the Ring 1995
  62. Wendi Richter vs The Fabulous Moolah-The Brawl to End it All
  63. David Flair vs Kimberly Page-Mayhem 1999
  64. The Truth Commission vs The Disciples of Apocolypse-Survivor Series 1997
  65. The Bushwhacker vs The Fabulous Rougeaus-WrestleMania V
  66. The Beverly Brothers vs The Bushwhackers-Royal Rumble 1992
  67. Teddy Long vs Eric Bischoff-Survivor Series 2005
  68. Greg Valentine vs George Steele-Heroes of Wrestling
  69. Abdullah the Butcher vs One Man Gang-Heroes of Wrestling
  70. Major Gunns vs Miss Hancock-New Blood Rising
  71. Bradshaw & Trish Stratus vs Christopher Nowinski & Jackie Gayda-RAW (7/8/2002)
  72. Triple H vs Scott Steiner-Royal Rumble 2003
  73. Hollywood Hogan vs The Warrior-Halloween Havoc 1998
  74. Mr. T vs Roddy Piper-WrestleMania 2
  75. The Royal Family vs Clowns R' Us-Survivor Series 1994
  76. The Blacktop Bully vs Dustin Rhodes-Uncensored 1995
  77. Pat Patterson vs Gerald Brisco-King of the Ring 2000
  78. The Four Doinks vs Team Bigelow-Survivor Series 1993
  79. Sting vs Jeff Hardy-Victory Road 2011
  80. Oz vs Tim Parker-SuperBrawl
  81. Ultimate Warrior vs Andre the Giant-Saturday Night's Main Event (11/25/1989)
  82. The Doomsday Cage Match-Uncensored 1996
  83. Kane vs The Undertaker-Judgement Day 1998
  84. Kaitlyn vs Maxine-NXT (10/19/10)
  85. Sabu vs The Sandman-November to Remember 1997
  86. The Bushwhackers vs Iron Sheik & Nikolai Volkoff-Heroes of Wrestling
  87. James Storm vs Chris Harris-Lockdown 2007
  88. John Laurinaitis vs John Cena-Over the Limit 2012
  89. Ultimate Warrior vs Goldust-In Your House 7
  90. Los Villanos vs Los Psycho Circus-Triplemania XXIII
  91. Jenna Morasca vs Sharmell-Victory Road 2009
And up next is...
Oh, this can't be that bad.
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