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WWE has kept the wheel spinning in a rather crazy year. We've seen multiple changes happen this year and things that we've never missed before.
This is essentially the pandemic era for WWE and in retrospect, it'll be looked upon as a vital one for the company. However, there were decisions by WWE, backstage, and creatively, that could have been done differently.
Here are six important things WWE should have done differently as we reach the halfway point of 2020.
#6. The Paul Heyman WWE creative conflict situation
When Paul Heyman (and for a short time, Eric Bischoff on SmackDown) was hired as the Executive Director of WWE RAW, the idea behind it was for them to reduce Vince McMahon's overall WWE workload from a creative standpoint, allowing him to put more time into XFL.
It appeared to be a great decision and from July 2019, the direction of RAW began to change, with a lot more emphasis put on younger Superstars and current talent rather than the constant push of part-timers.
Things were changing for the better as well, but there's no denying that there were times when RAW had a string of bad episodes. Once COVID-19 was declared a pandemic, McMahon was forced to shut XFL again (despite starting quite well), and that put his focus back into creative for WWE.
In mid-June, it was announced that Paul Heyman was relieved of his duties as RAW Executive director and Bruce Prichard was declared as the creative head for both WWE RAW and SmackDown.
According to Sportskeeda's own Tom Colohue, Vince McMahon and Paul Heyman didn't see "eye-to-eye":
Vince McMahon has been unhappy with Paul Heyman for a while. There were a few different things at play; for example, they weren't particularly happy about Heyman's use of AJ Styles. They didn't have particular faith in some of the people Heyman wanted to push. There are question marks about names such as Liv Morgan and Apollo Crews, and of course, a Liv Morgan vignette was pulled at the last minute. This week Liv Morgan wrestled in a match that lasted about two minutes, and you know, it was strange in that regard.
It seemed like the entire situation was handled the wrong way. Paul Heyman should have been given more time to build his creative vision for Monday Night RAW. Such things take years, but it seems like ego and disagreements came in the way of that.
#5. The mass releases
April 15th, 2020, will go down as one of the darkest days in WWE over the past decade or so. WWE announced a set of Superstars that they released and the list kept increasing. This included backstage producers, on-screen Superstars, and several backstage staff whose names fans don't know.
If we include the jobs lost in the office as well, the list likely comes up to the hundreds. There were a lot of reports at the time, but WWE got a lot of flak for releasing employees during a pandemic.
The reality is that this situation hasn't just been in WWE - but all over the world in virtually every department. However, the way WWE handled it didn't seem right and it could be seen in the reactions of WWE Superstars on social media.
There have been reports, however, that WWE handed releases mostly to Superstars who had previously requested them anyway, such as Deonna Purrazzo from NXT, The Revival (a few days earlier), and more.
There were many tricky situations but we can only hope that those released will be able to find employment in the future. It seemed like the wrong time for WWE to make that move, especially the way they did it and the fact that they're reportedly making record profits anyway this year.
#4. Handling Bobby Lashley better from the start
We're happy to see that Bobby Lashley seems to be on track in 2020 again. Ditching his storyline marriage to Lana and pairing with MVP (who was also "released" as a producer and became an on-screen talent) was the best thing that could have happened to him.
According to Tom Colohue, WWE is desperate to book a dream match between Brock Lesnar and Bobby Lashley for SummerSlam 2020, but given his spot right now, there's a chance that the dream match may not happen again.
It's the perfect time to pull the trigger on the dream match and Bobby Lashley deserves it since he admitted that the reason he returned in 2018 was for a dream clash against Brock Lesnar.
He's one of many cases that prove that despite years of inconsistent booking, recovery and regaining of momentum is possible at any point if done right. If WWE decided to put the same effort into Lashley from the start of the year, he would be in a prime spot and WWE would have had another top main eventer ready by now.
#3. A consistently weak tag team division
The Revival's release by WWE was a big blow to the tag team division, but a big boost for the duo, who now compete by the name FTR in AEW. Their arrival in AEW always seemed inevitable and they're going to be a perfect fit.
In an interview on Talk Is Jericho, Cash Wheeler admitted that the Tag Team Championships don't mean anything (H/T WrestleTalk):
Cash: “Things were going decent for us, they’re going well all things considered, but we’re not happy. The tag titles don’t mean anything”.
Cash: ‘I would rather lose to the tag champs for the rest of my career than hold them, because it’s just going to be seen as a failed championship run”.
They're right in thinking so and it shows on TV just how little effort WWE puts into its Tag Team division. While SmackDown has stronger teams, a lack of creative direction is seen and on RAW, it's far worse.
WWE should have mapped out a clear direction for the Tag Team division, especially on RAW, that would also see the entry of new teams to add fresh faces.
#2. Testing of talent
An uncomfortable topic, this unfortunate but recent development with cases in WWE is something that many people saw coming. When you look at the first sport that's returned since the pandemic, it was MMA, with UFC taking all sorts of measures to ensure that COVID-19 didn't spread.
While they had some hiccups, the testing got better along the way and their general approach has been carefully looked upon by other sports leagues waiting to make a return. In Football/Soccer, domestic leagues are taking various measures and doing multiple rounds of testing to players and staff to weed out the COVID-19 positive cases.
WWE didn't start testing until it was recently discovered that a developmental talent tested positive. Triple H had stated at first that the reason WWE didn't do any testing was that they weren't sure of the testing methods, but the WWE doctors were working closely with CDC and the government.
Renee Young is now the biggest name in WWE so far who has tested positive for COVID-19. She put out a tweet, saying:
Her husband Jon Moxley informed AEW that he had secondhand exposure and is expected to be in quarantine now:
WWE was far too late in testing their staff and talent and the fallout of this is yet to be seen, but we don't expect it to be good.
#1. No top heels for the WWE RAW Women's division
WWE didn't have any time to prepare for the post-Becky Lynch era of the RAW Women's division. While they can't be blamed per se since they likely wouldn't have known until later on, there's now one major problem - there's no top heel in the RAW Women's division.
That role was expected to go to Shayna Baszler after she moved from NXT to RAW and had the most dominant performance in Elimination Chamber history - eliminating every single competitor present inside the structure.
It seemed like she was poised to dethrone Becky Lynch at WrestleMania 36, but the WWE RAW Women's Champion at the time would retain and complete a full calendar year as Champion. She skipped the Money in the Bank PPV and one night after, revealed her pregnancy.
Asuka is now the face of the RAW Women's division, but a major revamp is required. With reports that Vince McMahon isn't sold on Shayna Baszler, Charlotte Flair's status as a tweener, and Nia Jax not being able to step up to the role, it could be a tough year creatively.
WWE should have established a top heel, preferably Shayna Baszler, by now.
