It's fair to say that 2015 hasn't exactly been the most amazing year in the WWE. That's not to say that it has been completely awful because it hasn't. But most people know that there has been backlash all over the place as to the way that WWE as a whole is being run. The main evidence of this is obviously the RAW ratings which are lower than they've ever been. The performance overall this year by the WWE has been largely slacking and there are many reasons why, beginning in january...
The Royal Rumble Match...
Not many people wanted Roman Reigns to win the Royal Rumble so who did the WWE book to win? Roman Reigns of course. Vinnie Mac is determined to make Roman Reigns the "guy". Reigns won the Rumble and was greeted with noticeable boos from the crowd. Even The Rock couldn't salvage the result as the crowd continued to boo. People wanted Daniel Bryan and they got Roman Reigns instead and it made WWE put the brakes on their major push for Reigns.
Over reliance on Brock Lesnar and The Undertaker...
WWE are lacking stars. It's simple as that. Because of this the WWE has had to call on their part timers to try and bear some of the load of 2015. The feud between Brock and 'taker, while it wasn't awful, just felt like a rehashed feud for the sake of distracting from the fact that they don't really have anyone who can match the star status of guys like John Cena. Looking into 2016 with bad injuries to Seth Rollins, Cesaro and Randy Orton it doesn't exactly look to be all sunshines and rainbows in the near future.
King of the Ring...
This was dreadful. in 1996 the KOTR tournament was the beginning of one of the most memorable quotes of all time, "Austin 3:16 says I just whupped yer ass". In 2015 it wasn't even worth watching. Half of it was broadcast on RAW and half was broadcast on the WWE Network. The matches weren't great and there was absolutely no point to the tournament. Winning the tournament has meant nothing to Wade Barrett who continues to wallow in a poor midcard role despite headlining PPV's with John Cena and Randy Orton in the tail end of 2015 and this whole tournament was a complete waste of the audiences time and the competitors time.
The Divas Revolution...
Anyone with any common sense can tell that the WWE has completely messed up the womens situation in 2015. Thanks to continuously strong performances from all the women in NXT the main roster soon took note and a "Divas revolution" began. And then it ended. Almost immediately. 3 teams of 3 meant that people were going to be left out and too many were. The focus has been almost completely on Charlotte, Nikki Bella and Paige. The entirety of Team B.A.D has been ignored. Natalya? ignored. Becky Lynch? ignored. It's been disjointed and ruined any hopes that people had that we could see good womens wrestling on the main roster any time soon.
Sheamus as Mr MITB...
I have nothing against Sheamus winning Money In The Bank. The problem I have is the fact that after he won the WWE didn't invest in him at all. He sat there for months with the briefcase until he was called upon to cash in at Survivor Series. Thanks to the booking he recieved Sheamus just feels like a champion who shouldn't be champion.
The return of Alberto Del Rio...
Del Rio's situation is very similar to Sheamus'. His surprise return at Hell In A Cell resulted in him cleaning beating John Cena, a very rare occurence, for the US championship but since that he's done nothing of note. His storyline with Zeb Colter as part of MexAmerica is rubbish and he's hasn't even defended the US title yet. John Cena has spent the majority of 2015 trying to make the US title mean something and having the strap on Del Rio, while it could be a good thing, has been the wrong move and when Cena returns the best thing to do is give it back to him.
The Intercontinental Title...
While Cena has spent the majority of 2015 elevating the US title in regular open challenges and matches against the likes of Rollins and Owens, the Intercontinental title hasn't really done anything. The idea was to give it to Daniel Bryan at Wrestlemania in order to try and mirror the Cena effect on the US title but Bryan had to vacate due to injuries and since then it's just been played with like a child's toy. In fairness the belt is now on Kevin Owens which makes it a little more prestigious but for the majority of 2015 its meant nothing to anyone.
The WWE World championship tournament...
This is the most irksome of all of the issues for me. While Seth Rollins injury was a terrible thing especially at this time the WWE had a chance to really shake things up with the WWE championship tournament. They had the chance to showcase talent that hadn't really been given a chance before this. Instead from the get-go it was boring and completely predictable that Roman Reigns would win the Title. Roman Reigns vs Cesaro in the quarter finals was a great match but apart from that their wasn't really anything for fans to sink their teeth into. Having Owens and Del Rio in the tournament made the titles they held just seem completely meaningless compared to the WWE championship which was a poor decision. Everyone already knew who was going to win each match which made the tournament pointless and a waste of time.
In short 2015 has been a large disappointment from both the point of view of the fans and from the WWE creative team. Obviously the WWE isn't completely going down the toilet but it's certainly been lacking and the company seriously needs to get their act together in order to seal the sinking ship.
No comments:
Post a Comment