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2017 was a pretty decent year for WWE. Kurt Angle came back, "Broken" Matt Hardy (erm..."Woken" Matt Hardy) finally debuted on WWE television, Superstars like AJ Styles consistently put on barn-burner matches, promos continued to blur the lines between kayfabe and reality (looking at you, Miz), John Cena helped new stars find their way into the limelight, and women's wrestling has reached an echelon not seen in generations.
But, as we all know, you can't get everything right.
For all the good things WWE did this year, there was a lot that went wrong. Whether that was through poor execution on WWE's part or due to outside circumstances beyond creative's control, there were plenty of things that could've gone much better than they did.
In this list, I'm going to look at seven things from this year that did not go as well as WWE wanted them to.
#7 Brock Lesnar vs. Braun Strowman
Braun Strowman is one of the biggest stars on the RAW roster, both in terms of star power and stature. He's been heavily protected since his debut, often no-selling devastating manoeuvres and getting up quickly after finishing moves. In kayfabe, Strowman was probably the most worthy contender for Brock Lesnar's Universal Championship.
So why, then, did they book him to lose to ONE F5?
I understand that they want to put over Brock Lesnar as an unstoppable monster, and they're obviously putting the F5 over so that they can have Roman Reigns kick out of it at WrestleMania 34. But who thought it was a good idea to take an apparent "Monster Among Men" and have him look like such a scrub?
This is a guy who brushes off chair shots like they're water off a duck's back. This is a guy who gets right up after Roman Reigns spears him through a barricade. And he can't handle one slam? Does it only take nine minutes for one person to defeat him?
I know what the end-goal is here, and I don't care. This booking decision should never have been made. I don't know how anyone could've seen this as a good thing.
#6 The Cruiserweight Division
205 Live started off decently in late 2016. They had a worthy, marketable champion in TJ Perkins, a compelling heel in The Brian Kendrick, and were building up Rich Swann as a plucky babyface title contender. Some of the storytelling left a lot to be desired, but they had the entire year to fix that. Surely they would fix it, right?
They didn't.
WWE dropped the ball big time with 205 Live, so much so that barely anyone watches it anymore. While they did build up Neville incredibly well in early 2017, they did not give anyone else any sort of personality, giving fans little to no reason to care about the product. Yes, there were some pretty good matches to watch, but good matches aren't enough - storytelling is a HUGE part of making wrestling compelling. If there's no story, why should I care?
Among some of the stupid things they did with the division are - giving Akira Tozawa the title for only six days just because, barely using Gran Metalik even though he's one of the most talented guys on the roster, turning Jack Gallagher heel, and turning inaugural champion TJ Perkins into a glorified jobber... but all of those things pale in comparison to giving the title to Enzo Amore.
Sure, he's a great talker, but he just flat out can't wrestle. For a brand that prides itself on the quality of its wrestling, their champion sure does not reflect that notion.
I don't want to admit this, but I think that the damage that WWE wrought on its Cruiserweight Division is irreparable.
#5 House of Horrors
Granted, WWE did a lot of things wrong with Bray Wyatt this year, but I digress...
Let's talk about what happened before this abomination of a match for a second - despite a nicely executed slow burn, Wyatt and Orton put on an absolute stinker at WrestleMania 33. On that night, it became evident that Wyatt was merely a placeholder champion for Orton's eventual title win. So, he invoked his rematch clause at Payback in a new type of match - a House of Horrors match.
As they were building towards the match, Wyatt was inexplicably traded to RAW, making his rematch with Orton a non-title match. We're off to a bad start, and it only gets worse.
The match essentially ended up being yet another shameless ripoff of TNA's "Final Deletion" match from last year. The crowd didn't care, the fans watching at home didn't care, it was just a flat-out mess. As if it wasn't already bad enough, the stipulations of the match mandated that a wrestler could only win the match in the ring.
Which begs a few questions - what's the point of fighting in the House of Horrors at all if you're just going to end up going in the ring to fight? Also, if this is supposed to be a mysterious "House of Horrors," why is it apparently so close to an arena in San Jose?
The match was brought to a merciful end when Jinder Mahal and the Singh Brothers interfered on Wyatt's behalf and helped secure a victory for the Eater of Worlds. So not only was it made a non-title match for no reason, not only was it a TNA ripoff, not only was it absolutely moronic to make it so the match could only end in the ring...but Wyatt couldn't even beat Orton clean.
I really can't say more than this.
#4 The Shield reunion
To be fair, this one was not WWE's fault in any way.
Watching Dean Ambrose and Seth Rollins finally reunite with one another after a week-long build was super satisfying. Still, fans were curious to see if Roman Reigns would also join his former Shield brethren and dominate the roster once again.
About two months after Ambrose and Rollins finally fist-bumped (yes, this was what they actually build towards), WWE finally gave us our wish - The Shield was back, and they were scheduled to face The Miz and The Bar at the TLC pay-per-view.
Unfortunately for us, it would not come to be.
Shortly after The Shield's reunion, Roman Reigns went down with a case of viral meningitis, which put him on the shelves for about a month. When he did eventually come back, they wrestled a dream match with The New Day at Survivor Series, which saw them get the win in a terrific bout.
Reigns became the new Intercontinental Champion by defeating The Miz, so Rollins and Ambrose swore that they would regain the Tag Team Championships so The Shield could hold all the gold once again.
Once again, it would not come to be.
Before he and Rollins could get their hands on Sheamus & Cesaro in a rematch, Dean Ambrose suffered a triceps tendon injury, which apparently will keep him out of action for up to nine months. Ouch.
It's very unfortunate that The Shield's comeback was so plagued by injury, as they could have gone on such a tear together.
#3 Jason Jordan: Kurt Angle's son
I'm going to put this in plain, simple words - kayfabe father-and-son angles don't work. If the fans know that a wrestler isn't really another wrestler's son, they're going to eat the storyline alive. It happened with Vince McMahon and Hornswoggle in 2008, and it happened again this year with Kurt Angle and Jason Jordan.
This past summer, Angle came to the ring and revealed that Jason Jordan was his "biological son". Fans immediately buried it; they initially responded with apathy, which eventually turned to disdain. Still, WWE stuck to their idea and continued to market Jordan as a babyface.
I know that Jason Jordan is a good wrestler. I know that Kurt Angle is also a good wrestler. But is that seriously the only reason why someone at creative penned this not-very convincing storyline?
If they just HAD to link these two together somehow, they should've had Angle draft Jordan to RAW and take him in as his protégé. Instead, they shot themselves in the foot, and the storyline continues to bore fans. Though, to their credit, it seems like they're starting to steer into the heat a little more lately, so hopefully that becomes something.
Whatever their thought process was, whether it was thinking that Jordan would get over because of his association with Angle, or because they thought that it would put over Jordan's wrestling ability, this angle did not go nearly as well as WWE hoped.
#2 Roman Reigns (still)
Let me explain - Roman Reigns is currently the biggest star on the full-time roster. I also know that he's a much better in-ring competitor than people give him credit for. But if he's supposed to be the company's "hero," why is he still met with more heat than cheers? Wasn't he supposed to be exactly what we've been asking for for years - a replacement for John Cena?
See, WWE desperately wants Reigns to be seen as this unstoppable, superhero-like character. To their credit, they've done a pretty good job making him look unstoppable, anyway. However, they're missing the mark on the "hero" part...
The story arc of "powerful babyface who takes on all comers and overcomes all odds" is now painfully hackneyed. They did it with Hulk Hogan, they did it with The Ultimate Warrior, they did it with John Cena, and now they're doing it with Roman Reigns. The guy rarely loses clean. On the rare occasion when he does lose, it's usually not in singles matches and it's pretty much always due to shenanigans. Why would anyone want to watch a match if they already know the outcome?
On top of this, he keeps beating IWC favourites, like The Miz and Braun Strowman. In fact, he was the first person to defeat Strowman. But the worst of the worst? They gave him a victory over The Undertaker at WrestleMania. That's right - Roman Reigns has a victory over The Undertaker at WrestleMania, an honour that they could not bestow upon Shawn Michaels, Triple H, Ric Flair, and so many other legends of the industry.
I know why they did it (to build to Lesnar/Reigns at WrestleMania 34), but how did anyone in creative think that this would put Reigns over as a babyface? It may have put him over as a threat, but if they want Reigns to be a "hero," they can't have him beating one of the world's most respected and beloved wrestlers.
I'm not putting Reigns here because I believe he's undeserving of his place on the top of the card - I'm putting him here because WWE is trying to make him the top babyface in the company, and it is not going as well as they'd like.
#1 Jinder Mahal's title reign
Let's start this one off with some good things - first off, kudos to Jinder Mahal for his remarkable physical transformation. He was "somehow" able to go from a somewhat doughy, average looking wrestler to an absolutely jacked paragon of physical fitness in the course of a few months. And good for him for shooting up the card the way he did. He went from a jobber in 3MB, to a jobber not in 3MB, to winning the WWE Championship.
Unfortunately, the latter is also the biggest problem with Jinder Mahal.
In order to make someone seem deserving of a title opportunity, you have to spend some time building them up. You have to have them rack up a few key victories over the course of a few months, and then *maybe* they can be considered a credible challenger to the company's top prize. This was not how they carried out Mahal's push.
When it was rumoured that WWE wanted to expand the Indian market, Mahal was almost immediately shoehorned into the limelight in April, despite having jobbed to Mojo Rawley and Rob Gronkowski at WrestleMania just weeks before.
When he surprised the world and became #1 Contender to Randy Orton's WWE Championship, the fans were not wowed (which was clearly WWE's intention) - they laughed. They knew for certain Mahal was just a placeholder opponent for Orton before building towards something bigger.
But it wasn't. He won. Jinder Mahal, a man who once lost to El Torito, won the WWE Championship.
As if it was stupid enough to put the title on a guy without building him up first, Mahal would go on to cut the same promo week after week after week about how the fans are ignorant or whatever. He would also wrestle the same match time after time after time - a slow, plodding affair reminiscent of an old-school foreign heel.
No disrespect to the pioneers of wrestling, but that style simply does not work in 2017. Despite this, they still routinely put him over guys like Randy Orton and Shinsuke Nakamura (I am still bitter about the latter).
Not only did Mahal's victory/reign do little for the Indian market (even when they brought back Indian-hero The Great Khali back one night to help him), but it somehow made SmackDown boring. Imagine that - a show that features some of the world's most talented and entertaining acts...was boring.
Thankfully, his snooze-fest of a reign ended at the hands (or, in this case, forearms) of the much more deserving AJ Styles, bringing prestige back to a Championship that had been tarnished and devalued for 170 insufferable days.
In short, WWE wanted so much to come from Jinder Mahal's title reign...yet none of it did. I don't believe they'll be putting the title back on him anytime soon. At least I hope.
