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It seems like a long time now when the McMahons themselves came out and admitted that they had actually messed up. The product in the last few months had not been good. After repeated weeks of the "lowest ever" Raw and SmackDown ratings, WWE finally realized that they needed to make the necessary changes as they were losing out on viewership big time.
Promises were made about big changes taking place in the coming weeks, opportunities given and what not. But as we stare down the road to WrestleMania and look back at the past and the current state, what we see is that even though there have been some welcome changes in WWE, in essence, it's still the same.
#1 Braun Strowman and Baron Corbin fought yet again at Elimination Chamber
One of the biggest problems that the WWE product was plagued with was the prevalent repetitive booking which killed the interest of the fans. Watching two big guys go at it again and again just makes it tough for the audience to keep up unless there are some stakes involved.
Despite that two of the more prominent wrestlers of the current roster fought against each other in a match which was not only inconsequential but also just lacked the perfect storyline behind doing something like that.
To make things worse, the duo of Braun Strowman and Baron Corbin faced each other again at the very next edition of Raw in an inconsequential tables match. It just seemed that the duo was put together to eat up the extra airtime, something which was always an issue in the past, as well as the audience, had to sit through too many fillers which killed their interest in the product.
#2 The absence of Brock Lesnar
Brock Lesnar is the most dominant man in professional wrestling. He has been the champion since time immemorial and he has defeated anyone and everyone who has crossed his path. He is arguably the biggest star in the company. But at the same time, Lesnar hardly shows up. He's hardly visible. And because of that, the Universal Championship Belt which is supposed to be the biggest prize in WWE is off the show.
WWE had a great opportunity to put the belt on Braun Strowman at Royal Rumble and take a completely different direction with Drew McIntyre winning the Rumble and challenging Braun. But what we've now got is Brock still as the champion while Seth who is supposed to be in the biggest match of his life, left to squash Shelton Benjamin as Brock can't take time out to even appear on the shows. Doesn't it all sound too 2018?
#3 Mishandled Talent
What is the one thing that frustrates a fan the most? Watching their favorite wrestler not getting the push that they rightfully deserve. WWE was guilty of being hung-up on the chosen few while there were many crowd favorites who performed their hearts out but could never really make it to the big leagues. Finn Balor, Shinsuke Nakamura, Bobby Roode to name a few were all stuck in the mid-card.
The current situation? Many of the new NXT call-ups who were hyped to be a big deal were not even allowed to make an impact. Just look at EC3, he has featured in just 2 matches and is nowhere to be seen. It's almost weird to see and understand what happened with Kevin Owens. In just two weeks his return has hit a dead end.
Nakamura's underwhelming US Championship reign is over and now he makes occasional appearances with Rusev. These guys are so talented and loved so much by the fans, all they need is the opportunity or a decent run.
#4 The Unequivocal focus on the Women's Triple Threat match
This year will be the first time WrestleMania will feature women wrestlers closing out the show and for all intents and purposes, WWE has put all its energy in making it a success. The hype train behind this match is on another level and for sure it is going to be a success.
But then you have to ask, what about the other matches? What about the Universal Championship whose Champion hardly features on TV? What about the WWE Championship? What about the SmackDown Women's Championship?
This was the same thing WWE used to do earlier where Roman Reigns vs Brock Lesnar would get promoted to the moon and back while the rest of the card just didn't get the same coverage. The result? Viewers would have to sit through the whole show and wait for the bits they're interested in which sometimes would put them off completely and in general drops the overall quality by a few notches.
