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In 2017 we’ve seen the WWE Network grow. It’s been a unique year for sports entertainment with plenty of highs and lows. But I guess we can all agree, there have been more lows than highs in this calendar year. These lows have been reflected in plummeting TV ratings and awful live event attendances.
As the year comes to an end, it’s time for us to reflectively analyse the WWE programming from the past 12 months. In particular, we’ll look at what storylines gave us the worst moments of WWE programming this year.
Here are the 5 most disappointing storylines from 2017.
#5 Dolph Ziggler vs. Shinsuke Nakamura
For some reason, there’s an official backstage, who believes that a feud with Dolph Ziggler is the best initiation for an NXT call-up. The show-off may be athletically gifted, but the booking he’s given when it pertains to NXT debutants is borderline insufferable.
Even though we’ve been waiting for the debut of the artist known as Shinsuke Nakamura for years, the WWE ensured his first storyline in the big leagues was an uninteresting one.
Dolph Ziggler’s gripe with the new Japanese wrestler was that he felt there was too much hype around him, the hype that the show-off felt he rather deserved. Dolph Ziggler was meant to be the perfect launching pad for Shinsuke Nakamura, instead, he completely nullified the excitement surrounding the artist known as Shinsuke Nakamura.
#4 Alexa Bliss vs. Bayley
A few years ago, Bayley was one of the most popular female wrestlers in the WWE, including the main roster. Her legions of fans online, constantly made their presence known and eventually the WWE called her up to a great reception. She was considered by many to be the female John Cena. However, from one of the most likeable in-ring performers, Bayley’s constantly poor storylines have made her fall out of favour with the WWE Universe.
The nail in the coffin of Bayley was her storyline with RAW Women’s champion Alexa Bliss. Two talented wrestlers were given a shambolic storyline to revive, to which they failed.
The storyline’s highlight or low point, however, was a kendo stick on a pole match at Extreme Rules. On that night, Bayley was victimised and embarrassed as Alexa Bliss shredded all credibility the hugger once had. With that, her stock dwindled and because of this feud, it’ll be a miracle if the WWE ever re-build Bayley to her former levels of popularity.
#3 Baron Corbin loses the MITB briefcase
JBL once tipped Baron Corbin to be a future world champion, how far away from the truth was he? Instead of building upon his momentum from Wrestlemania 32, Baron Corbin has slid down the pecking order. Rumours of an alleged bust-up with John Cena backstage have been cited as the reason for his demise. Regardless of the reason, Baron Corbin was involved in one of the worst storylines of the year.
After the WWE made the correct decision to let Baron Corbin win the money in the bank briefcase, they had him become one of only two men to unsuccessfully cash in the contract. On one random episode of SmackDown, the WWE had Corbin cash in his contract, only for John Cena to distract him and have him lose.
The two would then engage in a forgettable match at Summerslam. Baron Corbin has only recently recovered from the travesty, but fans have never looked at him in the same way since then.
#2 Randy Orton vs. Bray Wyatt
The entire WWE Universe was over joyous when Bray Wyatt won the WWE Championship at the Elimination Chamber. Little did we know that the Era of Wyatt would be short-lived and uninspiring. Randy Orton may be one of the all-time greats, but a lot of his feuds are extremely lacklustre. Initially, Randy’s split from the Wyatt family was interesting, but once he entered a one on one feud with the Wyatt patriarch, things fell flat.
Highlighted perhaps for their awful match at Wrestlemania, Randy Orton vs. Bray Wyatt didn’t live up to the expectations. The two ended their train wreck of a feud in a House of Horrors match at Payback and it was a fittingly shambolic climax to a discombobulated storyline.
#1 Jinder Mahal vs. Shinsuke Nakamura
A feud based on embarrassing pictures and odd facial expressions was never going to reach dizzy heights. Week after week, Jinder Mahal would mock pictures of Shinsuke Nakamura on the big screen, subjecting us to torturous 20-minute long segments. And after a lacklustre build-up, the two had an awful match at Summerslam, that ended in a predictable interference from the Singh Brothers. The two would then have a rematch for the WWE Championship at Hell in a Cell, a rematch that would end in a similar fashion.
Jinder Mahal has been on somewhat of a renaissance this year, propelling himself into the main event. However, many would deem this storyline as his worst on SmackDown programming thus far. If there was ever a storyline, the WWE Universe wanted to forget, it’s this one.
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