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WWE is all about Sports Entertainment. To grow in a business, you have to take risks and sometimes, they don't pay off. A lot of risks taken by the WWE have been in the form of booking decisions. Making Jinder Mahal the champion, burying Cesaro publicly and booking Wyatt to lose again and again are some of the head-scratching ones.
Vince McMahon has been known for making questionable decisions that sometimes don't go down very well with the WWE Universe. In recent years, the chairman and his creative team have made few blunders along the way. A lot of these booking decisions can only be explained when we establish the mindset that Vince McMahon is set in his ways. Only that has the potential to explain why Vince continues to push Roman Reigns even when some other Superstars are much more popular with the WWE Universe.
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A few of the decisions are depressing when we look at the logical reasons behind them. Randy Orton won the Royal Rumble in 2017 because he was popular with the casual fan-base and John Cena buried the Nexus as he sold tons of merchandise.
While WWE can be excused for making some of these decisions, some mistakes are just too big to be rectified. Even when they can earn tons of money.
Today we look back at the worst booking decisions of recent times which has left the WWE still feeling the repercussions.
# 10 Seth Rollins’ Championship Reign
It’s surprising how WWE couldn’t capitalize properly on the greatest Money in The Bank cash-in. Seth Rollins captured the WWE Championship at WrestleMania 31 but his championship reign was severely underwhelming. His first title defence came against Randy Orton in a steel cage in which the RKO was banned. Another example of irrational gimmick matches?
Rollins couldn’t retain the title cleanly even after that. He constantly used the help of external sources, namely Joey Mercury and Jamie Nobel, to retain the Championship. He defeated John Cena at SummerSlam for the WWE and United States Championship just because of Jon Stewart's interference.
He disqualified himself against Ambrose at Money in The Bank, The Undertaker interfered in his match against Brock Lesnar and Kane interfered in his title defence match at Payback. His only clean PPV win came against the Demon Kane at Hell in a Cell following which he had to relinquish the title due to injury.
He was constantly belittled by his opponents and his dirty finishes further undermined his title reign. It was perhaps a blessing in disguise when he injured his knee forcing him to forfeit the title thus ending his feeble reign as champ.
#9 Triple H beating Sting at WrestleMaina 31
Sting arriving in the WWE was something that the fans had dreamed about since the dissolution of WCW. But it was not until Survivor Series 2014 that their dream was fulfilled.
In the main event of the evening, Team Cena took on Team Authority in a traditional 5-on-5 Survivor Series match. When Dolph Ziggler and Seth Rollins were remaining in the match, Triple H decided to interfere. As he proceeded to beat up Ziggler, Sting arrived. Sting debuted to interfere in the main event and hitting Hunter with a Scorpion Death Drop. He then lay Ziggler on top of Rollins for him to score the pin and end the Authority's control on Monday Night Raw.
Soon, a match between Sting and Triple H was announced. Over a good build-up, he faced Triple H at WrestleMania 31 which saw interferences by DX and nWo. WWE brought back the nostalgia with a recreation of Monday Night Wars.
It was logical that Sting should prevail as it was his much-anticipated debut match. But on this night, Triple H’s ego ran wild as he pinned Sting. Triple H always takes the pin against rising superstars but he hates to do that with his peers. Given that Sting retired after losing yet another match against Rollins, this certainly ruined his limited WWE career.
#8 Charlotte Flair breaking Asuka's Streak At Wrestlemania 34
On 28th January 2018, Asuka won the first-ever Women's Royal Rumble. Although her win was a bit overshadowed by Ronda Rousey's arrival on the main roster, it was a big deal. On the SmackDown brand's pay-per-view Fastlane, Asuka finally chose her opponent at Wrestlemania 34 i.e. Charlotte Flair.
Although the buildup to the match wasn't great, it was one of the biggest draws on the card.
Since her NXT debut, Asuka was yet to be defeated. So, when Charlotte stepped into the ring to defend her SmackDown Women's Championship, all the odds were in the favour of Asuka. It would have been a logical decision too, as it was too early to break her winning streak. But, in a surprising booking decision, WWE made Asuka tap out to Charlotte's figure-8 submission move, thus ending her streak.
Up to that point, Asuka's character was largely dominated by her undefeated streak. Thus, the sudden lack of it took away all the momentum that Asuka had built-up since arriving on the main roster. It can be argued that a broken streak leaves her open to better rivalries, but WWE has yet to utilize on them.
Since then, Asuka has lost a tag team match and a title bout against Carmella and has barely appeared on weekly shows. It is now clearly evident that breaking her streak was a bad booking decision.
Rumours are floating around that Charlotte broke Asuka's streak to set up Wrestlemania 35's main event against Ronda Rousey. But was it worth breaking Asuka's streak?
#7 Jason Jordan as Kurt Angle's son
Jason Jordan being declared as the son of Kurt Angle was such a bad gimmick that the former couldn't even try to salvage it. Jason Jordan is a good in-ring worker but that wasn't enough to earn him the support of the crowd.
In the Superstar Shakeup, Jason Jordan was drafted to Raw and Chad Gable was drafted to SmackDown, thus effectively breaking up American Alpha. Jordan spent some time trying to learn the ropes from more experienced superstars. Then, suddenly on the July 17, 2017, edition of Monday Night Raw, he was revealed to be Kurt Angle's kayfabe son in arguably one of the worst booking decisions of this decade.
Jason came off as a 'whiny son' and it was clearly evident that he was not going to be over the crowd with is the current gimmick. The audience turned on him faster than he could blink his eye. He could have performed well on the mic but the 'unexpected' reactions of the crowd pulled out the rug from under him.
#6 CM Punk’s Booking
There is no doubt that Punk should have been in the main event of WrestleMania 29 instead of another ‘Once in a Lifetime’ Rock vs John Cena match. He was a red-hot commodity at the peak of his career. But, backstage politics prevented it from being so. Then, Punk was stuck in limbo in back to back meaningless storylines which ultimately led to his departure from the company.
Vince McMahon never understood why people liked Punk. As Vince is set in his ways, this resulted in a certain lack in Punk's push as compared to other top guys. He was forced to put over superstars like Roman Reigns. Makes you wonder how long the Reigns experiment has been going on, huh?
There was no way Vince McMahon could have forced Punk to stay after Wrestlemania 29 and when he lost the Royal Rumble, he angrily left. The afterburns of delivering his termination notice on his wedding day just destroyed his chances of returning to the company.
#5 Jinder Mahal's title win and subsequent reign
In 2017, WWE looked to expand it's dominion in India as it was a huge market. They figured that if they could push an Indian Superstar to the top, he would garner some home-crowd loyalty. Then, some idiot decided they should push Jinder Mahal (who is not even Indian).
When he debuted in 2011, Mahal served as a crony to The Great Khali. Soon, he split from him and started his career as a jobber. He was a part of the disastrous group that was the 3MB and was soon released. But as soon as he got jacked up, he was re-hired and was given a WWE Championship title bout. At Backlash 2017, Mahal faced Orton for the championship and surprisingly won. Then, he began his cataclysmic title run.
Mahal was undoubtedly green in the ring and on the microphone. He was pushed to the main event scene even when it was evident that he wasn't ready for the top spot. His title reign was so bad that WWE's ratings fell to an all-time low, thus proving his title win to be one of the biggest booking mistakes.
#4 Brock Lesnar's Universal Championship Reign
At Wrestlemania 33, Brock Lesnar defeated Goldberg to win the WWE Universal Championship. Since then, things have spiralled downward for the 'Beast Incarnate'.
Raw has received a lot of criticism for its main event picture. As compared to SmackDown Live, Raw hasn't had a truly reigning, defending, undisputed champion. Lesnar has only defended his title 10 times in his 450+ days title run. He only appears in short bursts and then disappears for long periods of time.
Raw has a lot of great potential talent, but the fact that Vince McMahon treats Lesnar like a huge crowd draw has resulted in the decline of the careers of a large number of Superstars. It seems that the only person that Lesnar seems inclined to drop the championship is Roman Reigns. Reigns is in no way better than Lesnar, but at least we will get to see the Universal Championship every week.
The fact that Lesnar was allowed to wrestle even when he failed his UFC Drug test sent out a bad rep to the rest of the locker room. Add in the fact that he is currently the highest paid wrestler on the roster, it seriously undermines the rest of the talent. It is high time that Lesnar bid adieu to the company.
#3 Cena defeating Bray Wyatt and Rusev
Before Roman Reigns was burying superstars every day, that ‘privilege’ belonged to John Cena, the man who single-handedly buried The Nexus and then Bray Wyatt and after that Rusev.
Before WrestleMania 30, Wyatt was on the roll of his life as 'The Eater of The Worlds' and was considered a perfect replacement for The Undertaker. But, this was before he ran into Super Cena. Wyatt faced him Cena buried him at WrestleMania 30 and handed him his first main event loss.
On the following PPV, Extreme Rules, Wyatt won his lone victory against Cena, and even that came after repeated interference from The Wyatt Family. Then at Payback, John Cena literally buried Bray Wyatt in audio equipment in a Last Man Standing match. Following that devastating loss, Wyatt never recovered and soon lost his flair.
Cena feuded with Rusev a year later at Wrestlemania 31 for the United States Championship. Rusev was on an undefeated streak and was yet to be pinned. This was, in essence, the same story-line: Super Cena defeating his foes against all odds. As predicted, Rusev lost the match and never regained the same momentum.
#2 The Nexus
When the Nexus debuted on ‘Viewer’s Choice’ episode of Raw, they definitely did leave their mark. They attacked Cena, Punk, Jerry Lawler, ripped apart the ring and also beat down the WWE personnel around the ring. Over the weeks, they increasingly starting giving the vibes of nWo as they attacked whenever their demands were not met.
That all changed when they lost at Summerslam to a team of John Cena, Jericho, Edge, R-Truth, John Morrison and a returning Bryan. They lost a lot of momentum and credibility and after a forgettable Tag Team Championship run, they soon disappeared and split into two groups: The New Nexus and The Corre, neither of which achieved anything significant in their WWE run.
It is worth noting that nobody from the original Nexus is in the company right now except Heath Slater, who is a jobber and David Otunga, who only does commentary.
Had WWE treated this group a letter better and booked them along the lines that WCW booked nWo, they could have left a mark and could perhaps have succeeded in their singles career.
#1 Roman Reigns' booking
Although this is more of an ongoing mistake, it all began before Wrestlemania 31, i.e. more than 3 years ago. The biggest mistake that the WWE made with his booking was that he was pushed to the moon immediately before he was even ready for it. Some of his promos from the beginning of his push are evident of this fact.
By the time he started improving, it was already too late. The fans turned on him. Post WrestleMania 32, WWE did everything in their power to get him over with the fans, even going to the extent of paying some fans to chant his name and even arranging the Shield’s reunion.
Recently though, he has been a victim of inconsistent booking. After building up his rivalry against Lesnar for almost a year, he lost at Mania 34 and then again at The Greatest Royal Rumble. As WWE is forcibly dragging on his rivalry against Brock Lesnar, it seems that the Universal Championship is reserved for only these two guys. Also, since Lesnar is a no-show at weekly shows and B-grade PPVs, it has degraded the title's privilege to newLY found lows.
The fans are tired of him to such an extent that they are starting to leave the building when his match is on. His booking has undoubtedly been one of the biggest mistakes of the WWE.
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