Every once in a while, the WWE comes across a specific point in time where certain decisions were made that either greatly improved the business or caused a decline. The Attitude Era would be an example of a great improvement as it led to a boom in professional wrestling and kicked off the legendary Monday Night Wars.
An example of something that led to a decline was the infamous heel turn of Stone Cold Steve Austin, which coincided with the Invasion storyline that was heavily scrutinised and signalled the end of the wrestling boom.
There have been many moments and years like these in the long and storied history of the WWE, but one of the biggest years in recent memory that reflects this ideology was the year 2014.
WWE in 2014 had a lot of things going for it and had the potential to create multiple stars like they had done during previous eras.
The Shield and The Wyatt Family were hot stables, Daniel Bryan finally got his moment, the end of undefeated streak of The Undertaker, and many other moments made it seem like 2014 was going to be a marquee year in the WWE.
Sadly, that’s not what would happen as the WWE would have a lot of issues preventing them from capitalising on these moments. Whether they were contract stipulations, health issues, or just plain old bad booking, the WWE lost out on a lot of good things in 2014 that greatly affect them even today.
So in order to prove this, this article will look at 7 Problems from 2014 that the WWE are still dealing with.
#7 CM Punk Quit
This was one of the earliest hits that the WWE would take as the year progressed, but it was definitely one of the most impactful in the grand scheme of things. Ever since 2011, CM Punk managed to become a huge star in the company and was only second to John Cena.
Also read: WWE News: Jim Ross feels John Cena may never wrestle for the WWE full-time again
Following his 434-day reign as WWE Champion, Punk was kept in the upper mid card, but away from the title picture for the rest of 2013. In 2014, all signs pointed to a headlining match against Triple H at WrestleMania, but Punk would quit the company citing stagnation and injury following the Royal Rumble.
This initially wasn’t as big of a hit because The Shield, The Wyatt Family and Daniel Bryan were all gaining momentum and were in major feuds with the potential to make them into bigger stars, but almost all of them didn’t work out.
And with the brands now split and the star power not as strong, Punk’s presence would greatly help the WWE today.
#6 The Authority Returned
When the WWE initiated the storyline between Daniel Bryan and authority figures Triple H and Stephanie McMahon, most fans were excited to see a call back to the legendary feud between Stone Cold Steve Austin and Vince McMahon.
And for the most part, they did a good enough job as it helped Daniel Bryan to get over with the crowd. When he got hurt, however, their existence didn’t really make the show better but in fact, worse.
Their characters and decisions on TV swayed from heels to faces at the drop of a dime and they took up so much TV time with their long-winded opening promos that fans just wanted to see them gone.
The fans would get their wish after the 2014 Survivor Series match and an epic debut by Sting which brought about The Authority’s end… for a month. Heading into 2015, Rollins orchestrated for John Cena to bring back the faction and they became just as inconsistent and annoying ever since.
Today the last remnants of The Authority are Stephanie McMahon as the Commissioner of Raw, but some of the same problems are still evident through her and don’t seem like they will ever be fixed.
#5 The Wyatt Family lost their credibility
Heading into WrestleMania, The Wyatt Family had a tonne of momentum and were on the cusp of becoming huge stars. With Bray Wyatt defeating Daniel Bryan, and The Wyatt Family defeating the Shield, John Cena was Bray’s next opponent, The Wyatt Family were one major victory at WrestleMania away from superstardom.
Unfortunately, that’s not the decision the WWE would make. Cena instead defeated Bray and cost him a lot of his momentum going forward. His feud with Jericho started off terribly with Bray Wyatt losing again, and after a few months of being off TV, the Wyatt Family disbanded.
And as bad as 2014 was for them as a whole, the next two years would be even worse. In 2015 they lost all their major feuds and in 2016 the best they could hope for was a feud with the WWE’s biggest comedy act; The New Day.
Since the Brand Split, The Wyatt Family has shown signs of returning to prominence, but it’s a shame that winning the two-month-old SmackDown Tag Team Championships was the first accomplishment for this stable.
#4 Dean Ambrose’s decline began
With CM Punk and Daniel Bryan gone, Dean Ambrose was in a great position to become the next big babyface in the WWE. With a crazy gimmick, really good mic skills, and a good in-ring ability to boot, Ambrose was so over that they probably could’ve put the WWE Championship on him with little to no question.
And rather than capitalising on that momentum and protecting him until his eventual WWE title shot, the WWE essentially wasted Ambrose’s potential by killing his credibility and his crazy character. Though the PG rating doesn’t make it easy, Ambrose should’ve been like he was in The Shield; an unpredictable madman.
Instead, they made him into a quirky goofball with a weird obsession of playing with food on television. And if that weren’t enough, the WWE slowly began killing his credibility by having him lose every major feud since his singles career began.
Since 2014, Ambrose has lost to the biggest names the WWE has to offer in Seth Rollins, Brock Lesnar, Triple H, and Roman Reigns. He would win the WWE Championship earlier this year, but it was a short-lived reign that didn’t fix any of the problems WWE created.
The fact that Ambrose went from getting Stone Cold Steve Austin level reactions to the average reactions he gets now is pathetic considering the potential he had.
#3 Roman Reigns was miscast
After the break-up of The Shield, Reigns and Ambrose were the two men who had the momentum as babyfaces while Rollins had the momentum as a heel. Reigns slowly, but surely was gaining the support of the audience by being a badass character whose actions spoke more for him than his words.
If you were to compare him to previous wrestlers in WWE history, Reigns would probably fit the mould of Batista more in the role of a top guy. Sticking to that ideology probably would’ve saved WWE from their own mistakes. Unfortunately, the WWE wanted another John Cena and are still trying to this day, to make Reigns Cena-2.0.
The 2014 Survivor Series match with Ziggler as the sole survivor would’ve more than likely been Reigns’ spot and probably would’ve caused the backlash quicker. But if that wouldn’t have done the job, then the corny promos and the Royal Rumble booking clearly did the trick.
But if that wasn’t enough, he became a three-time world champion in less than a year. He is the current United States Champion, but is still a mainstay in the main event scene to the point where he main events almost as often as the Universal Champion.
The crowd is still hostile whenever Reigns comes out and unless they are willing to book him differently, this trend will continue.
#2 The end of the streak
WrestleMania is without a doubt the biggest wrestling show of the year. Wrestling fans from all over the world come to watch the biggest wrestlers in WWE collide for titles, pride, or whatever the stakes of the given storyline may be.
Of all those reasons fans come to watch, one of the biggest reasons was watching The Undertaker defend his Undefeated Streak time and time again.
It took a while to become a big deal, but his Streak became one of the biggest drawing factors in wrestling as well as one of the guaranteed times fans would get to see The Deadman fight in person as he became a part-time wrestler.
However, with Brock Lesnar ending The Streak, The Undertaker’s matches no longer mean as much. Some of the big matches people were looking forward to seeing like one last match with Kane, John Cena, or others now won’t have the same heat as they would’ve if the Streak were still intact.
Imagine the emotional drain a match could’ve had if The Undertaker announced his plans of retirement and had one more match with The Streak still unblemished. Now all they have to bank on is the potential retirement of The Deadman; something people are asking of him already.
#1 Daniel Bryan’s health
In the summer of 2013, Daniel Bryan was involved in a major angle surrounding the WWE Championship. After beating John Cena clean in the ring at SummerSlam, Randy Orton and Triple H conspired against him to take the title away from him leading to his storyline against The Authority.
Though it took some time and a lot of crowd chants, the WWE put Bryan over huge at WrestleMania in 2014 and were gonna give him a nice run as champion before putting him up against Brock Lesnar.
Unfortunately, the injuries Bryan had sustained over his career, both in and outside of the WWE, caught up to him as he was forced to undergo surgery for nerve damage. In 2015, Bryan would try to make a comeback, but would be injured yet again and was forced to retire in 2016.
He is currently the general manager of SmackDown, but without being able to get in the ring, he’s ultimately just there to evoke a response from the crowd.
Though it’s fortunate that he retired before he sustained serious injuries, the fact remains that Bryan was another big star that the WWE lost and this was another loss the WWE has yet to recover from.
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