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#3 Strowman being held back
Braun Strowman's career in WWE has been an impressive one, but when you analyze Strowman’s statistics for 2018, he is actually WWE’s biggest superstar that is also their biggest loser in big matches, as he has lost more big matches in his career which has really dented his credibility. Strowman came to prominence in 2017, and while he was white hot WWE kept feeding him to bigger stars on the Raw roster, and the main superstar that did damage to Strowman's credibility was Brock Lesnar.
Lesnar vs Strowman is a tale that has been told far too many times, as Strowman faced Lesnar at Summerslam 2017, No Mercy 2017, the Royal Rumble 2018 and even the Crown Jewel event which finally damaged Braun's career, as he was squashed by Lesnar without any hesitations from WWE.
WWE didn't care about whether fans will see the big man as a lesser force in the company or whether his popularity would take a huge hit, and now that Braun has one more chance to pick up his credibility and first Wolrd Title against Lesnar again at the Royal Rumble 2019, that is only possible if he can beat Baron Corbin at the TLC 2018 event, which seems unlikely at this point.
Whether or not Strowman becomes Wolrd Champion in the future, the fact will remain, Strowman isn’t the same badass we knew in 2017 and going into 2019 he is lesser of a monster and more of a pet project that WWE didn't fully utilize.
#4 The mishandling of Raw
There is no sugar coating it, Raw has been absolutely atrocious in 2018, as WWE has mismanaged very single aspect of the red brand to such an extent no narrative can fully thrive on the show.
From a poor main event scene to a tag team division that is basically non-existent, the writers of Raw have done no favours to the company with the awful decisions they made on every episode on Raw.
And while Raw's problems have crippled the brand, it has also affected the entire company as well, due to the fact that Raw is WWE's 'flagship' show. And whether or not Smackdown Live is ten times better, WWE still consider Raw the 'A show' in the company, so Raw is basically WWE's breeding ground for success.
With the responsibility of being known as the 'A show' in WWE, the top main eventers, the highly prioritized champions, the marquee main events match all come from Raw, which is the reason why most of WWE's pay-per-views have been unwatchable this year.
But the truth is that all of that could have been avoided if WWE just sat back and analyzed why their product was slowly declining during the middle of the year. WWE let themselves make some shocking decisions this year, which has stifled its own flagship product, which went on to indirectly made their pay-per-views bad.
#5 Shocking heel turns
The heel turn is one of the most convenient solutions that could be afforded to a writer of a wrestling show, as they can use it to revitalise a superstar's stagnant career, change the landscape of an entire product, or as a surprise no one saw coming to cap off a thrilling story.
This year WWE used the heel turn one too many times, as almost every underperforming star was turned heel, and while those heel turns were a bit surprising, there were a few heel turns that truly shocked fans this year.
The Undertaker turning heel on DX was an odd surprise, Charlotte Flair turning heel on Ronda Rousey was unexpected, Daniel Bryan low blowing AJ Styles was truly out of nowhere, but Dean Ambrose taking out Seth Rollins was possibly the greatest heel turn of the last decade. And the shock value of Ambrose's heel turn was a decision no one expected in the night Roman Reigns made his unfortunate announcement, some felt that it was too soon, while others felt it was the right moment. However you feel about it, no one really expected WWE to take that decision on a night like that.
