Creatively there has always been scrutiny on the WWE to deliver on a weekly basis. But, ultimately due to the lack of competition to the company, we have rarely seen the best storylines play out in the way that many of us had hoped. Not only this, but they have continuously dropped the ball on significant occasions that could have been handled much gracefully.
This year has been a real mixed bag for the WWE. For every exciting moment, we have been handed two really underwhelming ones. Here are three of the biggest mistakes that the company have made to severely disappoint fans this year.
Kurt Angle WrestleMania Moment
Many of us would have feared that we had seen the last of Kurt Angle in an in-ring capacity when he returned to weekly television as the Raw General Manager. There have been no other athletes like him throughout the history of professional wrestling, and he is certainly going to enter the Hall of Fame at some point.
However, there was a feeling that the significance of his career was thrown under the carpet this year as he was handed a six-minute farewell match against Baron Corbin in the middle of the card at WrestleMania. For the first time in a long time fans actually demanded John Cena, after all, that would have been the perfect final opponent for Angle. He was a complete afterthought and deserved much better than what he got. Of course, get Corbin over with a big win, but there are many better ways in which that could have been done.
Roman Reigns Mystery
Who tried to murder Roman Reigns by ploughing their car into him? It could have been one of the best stories to end the USA era of Smackdown. Instead, there were creative mistakes galore. First, Reigns bullied Buddy Murphy, which seemed strange, before then believing heel Daniel Bryan had no part to play in it. The biggest mistake here was they had a great chance to turn Samoa Joe and do something productive with him by teaming him with Reigns.
But this whole creative direction was bizarre. In the end, we got a tag match involving Bryan and Reigns against Erick Rowan and Luke Harper at Hell in a Cell. Rowan was ultimately responsible for trying to kill Reigns, but the Big Dog seemingly got over it pretty quickly as a singles match at Clash of Champions, and then the tag match ensured the end of their rivalry.
‘Wild Card’ Rule
Thank goodness of the SmackDown move to Fox. This was easily one of the most damaging creative decisions of the year and ultimately led to so much confusion. There were no rules regarding it, and the rules that they did have constantly changed on a weekly basis. Near the end of this disaster, there would be half of the roster on the opposing show, and no questions were asked.
You know it isn’t the best of ideas when even Kevin Owens cut a promo during an episode of Raw mocking the ‘Wild Card’ rule. It was nothing short of a hopeful quick-fix, and it fell on its backside pretty quickly.
Do you think there are any disappointments left off the list? Let us know in the comments.
