10 Worst WWE Ladder Matches

Look, a WWE ladder match is a bit like pizza; even when it’s ‘bad’, it’s still pretty damn good. They are typically awesome spectacles that linger long in the memory.

Not every match can be an awesome spectacle, though, and some of them closely resemble a pineapple and mushroom pizza. You’ll just about watch it but there are far better options out there.

These are the 10 Worst WWE ladder matches.

10. Shawn Michaels vs. Triple H - Armageddon 2002

To be fair to Shawn Michaels and Triple H, they had just gone through the first two stages in this Three Stages of Hell Match before they attempted to climb the ladder and retrieve The Heartbreak Kid’s World Heavyweight Championship belt.

Hunter had taken the Street Fight first fall, with Michaels tying things up inside a cage and both men looked the worse for wear after 30-plus minutes of weapons-based combat, especially when Triple H was already working on an injured leg.

Fair play to him for gutting through it and trying to deliver a performance in a pay-per-view main event, but this was a major disappointment and a total waste of the Ladder Match stipulation.

HBK missed a splash off a ladder, while Triple H executed one of the worst Pedigrees of his career as the bout rapidly lost steam.

Given only five minutes to play with, they didn’t have enough time to ramp up the drama and fans only really reacted when Michaels took the big bump off the ladder and through the tables at ringside.

9. Women's Money in the Bank Ladder Match - Money in the Bank 2017

Kicking off the 2017 Money in the Bank pay-per-view was the first-ever women’s iteration of the titular multi-person ladder match.

Much was made of the history-making occasion, with an extensive video package telling us how important this was within the scope of the wider women’s revolution.

Vying for the briefcase and a guaranteed SmackDown Women’s Championship opportunity were Becky Lynch, Charlotte Flair, Natalya, Carmella and Tamina.

Plenty of talent on hand then, but, unfortunately, the match was at times sloppy and nonsensical. There were a couple of cute spots and one or two impressive-looking big moves but, overall, it wasn’t the greatest of introductions for the Women’s Money in the Bank match.

And then there was the finish. The most important part of the match. The bit everyone will remember afterwards.

For this historic match, it was won by a man. And not just any man – a man without a chin to speak of. Yes, James Ellsworth interfered on behalf of Carmella, taking out Lynch and retrieving the contract before passing the briefcase down to his friend for the win.

Awful.

8. Rob Van Dam vs. The Big Show - ECW - October 24, 2006

Rob Van Dam had already beaten The Big Show to earn a shot at Show’s ECW World Heavyweight Title the week before, when Paul Heyman moved the goalposts and ordered RVD to do it all again, only this time in a Ladder Match.

The World’s Largest Athlete was in a bad way physically at the time and it showed here as he lumbered slowly from one spot to the next.

Speaking of which, there were admittedly a couple of novel ones like Show trying to use the ladder to get the contract down pinata style and The Whole F’N Show did his best to move around for two people, but the champ was clearly suffering and this match plodded along with very little drama or intensity.

Also, we're pretty sure Show couldn’t actually climb the ladder due to his size, as he only made one token attempt to do so during the bout’s 10-minute duration.

The finish was a messy one, too, as RVD took Show out of the ring over the top rope with a hurricanrana-like move, yet he was the one who took the brunt of the impact on landing.

7. Dexter Lumis vs. The Miz - Raw - December 19, 2022

The months-long storyline between The Miz and Dexter Lumis came to a conclusion in a winner-take-all ladder match with two bags of money hanging in the balance.

The 2010 Money in the Bank winner does have plenty of ladder match experience, having had compelling ones with Dolph Ziggler and Jerry Lawler (among others) in the past, but that experience wasn’t put to good use here.

The match was methodical and disjointed and featured some pretty weak bumps. The one big spot was Lumis missing a leg drop from a ladder through the announce table, which helped wake up the quiet crowd.

It’s either that or, more likely, the return of Bronson Reed (who cost Lumis the match) that people are going to remember, if anything, from this mediocre outing.

6. Steve Austin vs. Vince McMahon & Shane McMahon - King of the Ring 1999

The 1999 King of the Ring pay-per-view was one of WWE’s worst ever, full of mostly short, bad matches and questionable booking decisions.

The headline attraction wasn’t the King of the Ring tournament final or the WWE Title match between The Rock and The Undertaker, but a Handicap Ladder Match between Steve Austin and McMahons Vince and Shane, with full control of WWE on the line.

Could it save what had been a washout of a show? Well, it was the most entertaining match of the night, but that doesn’t necessarily mean it was any good.

Much of the match revolved around the ways in which Stone Cold could dish out punishment to his enemies, which was entertaining to a point, but the match featured too many flat spots and stuff that plain didn’t work.

The McMahons took their lumps, yes, and it was enjoyable overall, but it’s not a good ladder match or anything.

The finish was groan-inducing, too, as Austin looked to have the match won when some mysterious member of The Corporation fiddled with the wire holding the suspended briefcase, which ultimately allowed Shane to snatch it instead.

5. Triple H vs. Kevin Nash - TLC 2011

A feud that started between Kevin Nash and CM Punk somehow culminated with Big Sexy taking on Triple H in, of all things, a Sledgehammer Ladder Match at TLC 2011.

The object of the match was to climb the ladder and retrieve the sledgehammer, after which you could presumably smash your opponent’s brains in with it.

Nash has gone on record expressing his bewilderment at WWE’s decision to book him and his Kliq buddy in this specific type of match, given their well-documented mobility issues.

Despite the obvious limitations, the two warhorses did work hard and tried to tell a compelling story, mostly using the ladder as an offensive weapon. Kevin Nash was desperately showing his age, though, slowing down the action to a crawl.

They built up to the finish well, with Triple H knocking Nash off a ladder and through a table before hitting a Pedigree and battering him with the hammer for the win, but by that point the match had been going on for 20 minutes which felt about double that.

4. Mankind vs. The Big Boss Man - Raw - November 30, 1998

There had only been a few televised ladder matches in WWE history when Mankind and The Big Boss Man clashed over the Hardcore Championship on the November 30, 1998, episode of Raw.

The bar had been set high thanks to the efforts of Shawn Michaels and Razor Ramon and then The Rock and Triple H. Given this was a thrown-together TV match, it simply couldn’t hope to reach those lofty heights.

About as basic as any ladder match you’re ever likely to see, they clobbered each other with the steel for a few minutes before Mrs Foley’s Baby Boy applied Mr Socko on top of the ladder.

That was the cue for The Corporate Champion in The Rock to hit the ring and turn the tide in favour of his Corporation stablemate.

There really wasn’t much to see with this one.

3. Women's Money in the Bank Ladder Match - Money in the Bank 2021

After over a year of performing behind closed doors due to the coronavirus pandemic save for a reduced-capacity WrestleMania, WWE’s stars finally got the chance to do their thing in front of a full arena once again at Money in the Bank 2021.

Tasked with opening the event and setting the tone were Alexa Bliss, Liv Morgan, Asuka, Natalya, Naomi, Tamina, Zelina Vega and Nikki ASH.

Regrettably, this women’s Money in the Bank Ladder Match was far and away the weakest of the night, not to mention one of the poorest Money in the Bank matches since the women started competing in an MITB Ladder Match in 2017.

This was not a good showcase for the talent in the ring, with a lot of awkward, badly timed or otherwise blown spots. Simply put, it was a car crash, and not in an entertaining way like these things can be.

Plus, you had spooky Alexa Bliss using hypnosis on Zelina, which is the sort of thing to make you question your fandom. Nikki ASH winning was a nice moment but, really, we think a lot of people watching were just glad it was over.

2. Bobby Lashley vs. Elias - TLC 2018 Kickoff Show

If it was up to us, the Ladder Match between Bobby Lashley and Elias from the TLC 2018 kickoff event would have been relegated to a no-show.

Neither man looked especially comfortable in their surroundings as they tried to get to the guitar suspended above the ring.

It also speaks to a match’s importance when the action is muted so Kevin Dunn can play a video package hyping the upcoming AJ Styles vs. Daniel Bryan clash instead.

Not that fans missed much, though things did liven up when The All Mighty launched The Drifter into a ladder with a sweet belly-to-belly suplex.

That was about as lively as things got, as Elias was able to recover, fend off Lio Rush and grab his favourite instrument for the victory, with Lashley immediately getting his heat back by hitting him with it.

All told, this was a very basic and not very heated, affair that did its job as a pre-show attraction and was duly forgotten about by the time TLC 2018 started proper.

1. AJ Styles vs. James Ellsworth - SmackDown - November 22, 2016

The Phenomenal One was WWE Champion here and had already lost to Ellsworth twice previously, with more than a little help from rival Dean Ambrose.

You would think AJ would be due a W, but you would be wrong. Ellsworth was sporting a neck brace and was quickly beaten up by the champ, who placed him under a ladder and began the climb when that wacky Lunatic Fringe entered the equation.

Styles managed to fend him off and take back control, but Ellsworth recovered and pushed him off the ladder, with AJ taking a scary-looking fall over the top rope.

Ellsworth then caught Styles coming back into the ring with a Superkick, with AJ’s foot getting caught in the rope as he fell, as the chinless wonder secured a SmackDown contract.

More of an angle than a match but that doesn’t mean we have to like it.