The Undisputed ERA and WWE and AEW Stars off to Rough Starts in 2020

By the time February comes, New Year's resolutions often start to fade. Instead of getting closer to their goals, many people find themselves worse off than they were heading into the year.

That even applies to the Superstars of WWE and AEW, as some have had a bumpy road so far in 2020.

January presented plenty of opportunities for everyone to make names for themselves on TV: TakeOver: Blackpool II, Bash at the Beach, Worlds Collide and Royal Rumble, to name a few.

But while some rose to the challenge and won gold like Adam Page and Kenny Omega, or earned themselves title shots like Drew McIntyre and Charlotte Flair, others haven't been as lucky.

Whether it be down to injuries, losses, being forgotten about entirely or any other issues, here are more than a dozen wrestlers who have had it rough so far in 2020.

Arguably the most popular and talented faction in all of WWE, The Undisputed ERA has four amazing performers who can do no wrong in the eyes of fans, but they have had plenty slip-ups so far this year.

In 2019, there was a prophecy that this group would hold all the titles. By the end of the year, the stable had all the gold and numerous year-end awards.

The past two weeks have been horrible, though.

Bobby Fish and Kyle O'Reilly lost in the semi-finals of the Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic. That same night, Roderick Strong dropped the North American Championship to Keith Lee.

The Undisputed ERA would collectively go on to lose the main event of Worlds Collide: NXT vs. NXT UK to Imperium even though Alexander Wolfe was injured early in the match. The handicap and odds in their favor still wasn't enough to overcome WALTER's crew.

Most recently, Adam Cole was powerbombed through a table by Tommaso Ciampa, whom he will face for the NXT Championship at TakeOver: Portland on February 16.

Don't let their sharp monikers fool you. The Butcher and The Blade may seem like they could cut through the roster with ease, but as hired guns, these goons are actually splitting the difference.

With a 2-2 record in total and 1-1 in 2020, this stable doesn't even seem as great of an investment from MJF as Wardlow, who has yet to wrestle.

They did beat Diamond Dallas Page, Dustin Rhodes and QT Marshall alongside MJF, but it was his win, and they followed it with a loss this week against The Young Bucks.

Although not as embarrassing as The Dark Order and The Nightmare Collective, which have had more than their fair share of issues, this group still doesn't look as intimidating as it's supposed to.

If 2020 is going to be a good year for this trio, they need to win more matches and stop being beaten down in brawl segments or filming cringey vignettes in a meat locker.

From a glass-half-full perspective, Chelsea Green has had a fantastic month or so. She's now finally being used on television, competed in a Royal Rumble and looks to be on her way to making waves.

However, on paper, she's struggling.

Natalya beat Green on the January 6 edition of Main Event—a show few know exist and even fewer actually bother to watch.

Green then had the shortest time out of all competitors in the 2020 Royal Rumble match, lasting only 12 seconds. For context, the next worst showing was Sarah Logan, who still more than doubled Green's time with 28 seconds.

This past episode of NXT, Green also managed to lose to Kayden Carter, who hasn't won a match on television since the first and second rounds of the Mae Young Classic in August 2018.

Green will turn things around, but if this goes on too much longer, she'll have a much bigger ditch to have to crawl out of.

As one of AEW's resident jobbers, it should come to no surprise Brandon Cutler hasn't had a good start to 2020.

Even alongside Sonny Kiss, who has a better overall record, with two wins from last year, Cutler still hasn't managed to be victorious a single time.

This month, both on Dark, Cutler lost to Darby Allin and then The Dark Order alongside Kiss, with no signs that things are turning around.

At this point, Cutler may want to think about joining The Dark Order. Misery loves company.

Green and Logan had the two worst times in the Women's Royal Rumble, but Tamina wasn't far off. Within 39 seconds, she made her return after months of inactivity to a silent crowd, got in some awkward kicks and was tossed out.

For the men's match, the shortest-time distinction went to Erick Rowan, who only lasted a mere eight seconds before Brock Lesnar sent him over the top rope.

Other Superstars who failed to even last until the next entrant in the Royal Rumble were John Morrison (00:09), Cesaro (00:18), Shinsuke Nakamura (00:20), MVP (00:24)—who also lost on Raw to Rey Mysterio—The Miz (00:30), Shelton Benjamin (00:37), Robert Roode (00:41), Matt Riddle (00:41), Big E (00:53) and Elias (1:00).

Of course, this doesn't even factor in the Superstars who were even less fortune, as plenty were ruled not important enough to bother putting in the match at all.

The IIconics were the only women on the main roster not injured or otherwise occupied who weren't put in the Royal Rumble.

Apollo Crews, The B-Team, Eric Young, Heath Slater, No Way Jose and many other male talents also haven't had much to do as of late and sadly couldn't even find their way into being sacrificial lambs for Lesnar.

In 2019, Shawn Spears left WWE, casting aside his Tye Dillinger name in the hopes to be more with AEW. For a bit, it seemed that would be the case, as his feud with Cody was a featured story.

Everything went downhill after that, though, and 2020 has been arguably the worst stretch of his career yet.

At least in the fall, he scored some victories against Cutler, Michael Nakazawa and Joey Janela. Lately, he's been failing hard in the tag team division.

Spears has had three matches—all on Dark rather than Dynamite—where he lost alongside Preston Vance, Peter Avalon and Colin Delaney.

It will be tough, if not impossible, for him to escape the reputation of being anything more than just a good hand if he stays so low on the totem pole.

The O.C. may be the original, official and only club that matters, but in 2020, they're also a bunch of losers.

The only time any of them have won anything this year was January 6 when AJ Styles beat Akira Tozawa. He fell short in all seven of his other matches on TV and house shows, but at least that one win is more than can be said for Karl Anderson and Luke Gallows.

This past week, The Phenomenal One also suffered a separated shoulder during the Royal Rumble and will be out of commission for several weeks, possibly missing WrestleMania.

The Good Brothers followed that disappointment with one of their own, losing to Drew McIntyre in a handicap match on Raw.

It seems this club needs to have a group meeting and a pep talk to get back on track.

To start this year, Trent Seven was in a feud with Eddie Dennis that left much to the imagination. He also lost their match at TakeOver: Blackpool II, which did him no favors.

Seven followed that with a fantastic match at Worlds Collide against #DIY, but it was ultimately another loss as Johnny Gargano and Tommaso Ciampa took down Moustache Mountain.

This week, he was shown being attacked by Finn Balor to set up yet another loss on NXT.

Granted, Seven will get his chance at a comeback in his Steel Corners Match next week on NXT UK, but these losses are par for the course for The Don.

While the love story featuring Rusev, Lana, Liv Morgan and Bobby Lashley may do decent ratings and YouTube clicks, many in the WWE Universe cannot stand this storyline, and nobody has come out of this worse than Rusev.

At least Morgan beat Lana on the last episode of Raw. Rusev, on the other hand, has only lost all of his matches.

He and Lashley were also taken out of the Royal Rumble in a particularly disappointing way, as they supposedly had a brawl earlier in the day and were thrown out of the arena. None of this was shown—just expressed through the commentary team.

If nothing positive happens soon for The Bulgarian Brute, it's doubtful he'll have a good Road to WrestleMania and onward, too.

While SoCal Uncensored lost the tag titles and The Dark Order is far from the most over act in the company, they've still had victories, while four of the most distinguished tag teams in AEW have yet to win once.

Best Friends, The Hybrid 2, The Lucha Brothers and Private Party have all come up short in every single match, be it as a tag team or singles competition. Rey Fenix has the worst run so far, thanks to a loss to Joey Janela on Dark.

At one point in 2019, all of these teams had more momentum and were higher on the rankings before having their spots usurped by Page and Omega.

It's still early in the year, but they're still having a rough time while The Jurassic Express and The Inner Circle aren't, and even The Gunn Club has a victory.

Anthony Mango is the owner of the wrestling website Smark Out Moment and the host of the podcast show Smack Talk on YouTube, iTunes and Stitcher. You can follow him on Facebook and elsewhere for more.