5 changes in WWE that didn't go well

Professional wrestling is a unique entity. It's not quite a sport and it's not quite entertainment. With that in mind, it means that contrary to popular belief the industry attracts a wide array of fans.

That means a couple of things for WWE. Firstly, Vince McMahon and co. have to try and make their programming somewhat of a variety show. Even more importantly though, it means that their product constantly has to change and evolve.

Throughout its existence, WWE has undergone more changes than you can ever imagine. Existing through different eras as well as creating some of their own, it's what keeps them relevant all these years later. Some of the changes made have been less than favourable though.

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#5 The 40-man Royal Rumble

Alberto Del Rio winning the 2011 Royal Rumble

The Royal Rumble match is possibly the most anticipated bout of the entire calendar year of the WWE. It has been a staple of WWE since 1988 - 30 men competing in an over the top rope competition for a shot at the WWE Championship at WrestleMania.

In 2011 Alberto Del Rio won that honour and it really shot his WWE career into the stratosphere. There was something different about the Royal Rumble that Del Rio won: it had 40 competitors rather than the normal 30.

It was constantly branded as the biggest Rumble ever, because physically it was, but there's a reason it returned to the normal 30 in 2012 and has remained the same ever since. 30 Superstars is the perfect number and a 40 man Rumble proved to simply be too big.

#2 205 Live

TJ Perkins doing battle with Rich Swann

Last year, WWE staged the first of what is turning out to be many groundbreaking tournaments. The Cruiserweight Classic featured 32 of the greatest wrestlers under 205 pounds and the whole thing was an unmitigated success.

With the popularity of the tournament and its competitors, WWE obviously wanted to try and cash in on that. They signed a fair few of the cruiserweights who had competed in the 'classic' and launched the Tuesday night show 205 Live.

Around one year on and things don't look good for the purple brand. WWE are trying desperately to get people interested by adding the likes of Enzo Amore to its roster but it seems that some of the bigger Superstars don't want to stick around if they're only ever going to be a cruiserweight.

#3 Calling women divas

Nikki Bella with the Divas' Championship

It has never been better to be a female wrestler in WWE than it is right now. From headlining pay-per-views, to the Mae Young Classic, and everything in between, the Women's Revolution has been an unmitigated success.

Many forget that there were a lot of women who laid the groundwork for today though, with the likes of Lita and Trish Stratus playing a vital part in the growth of the women's division. They were the women who tried to further the female side of the business long before today's women did so.

Following on from the careers of Trish and Lita, WWE took a massive step back. They renamed the Women's Title the Divas' Championship, and although women's wrestling wasn't viewed as highly as it could have been at the time, this really didn't help and set the division back again.

#2 The Invasion

Stephanie and Shane McMahon

One of the landmark moments in WWE's history was when Vince McMahon managed to buy his competition, WCW. For years the two companies battled for ratings supremacy during the Monday Night War, and in March of 2001, WCW officially lost that war.

One of the things that meant was an influx of WCW Superstars into WWE. Fans were excited to see the likes of Sting and Goldberg finally come to WWE, plus the return of wrestlers like Hulk Hogan and Kevin Nash.

That isn't how it went. WWE ran an invasion angle but because of the above stars' guaranteed contracts, none of them came until after the invasion was over. It ran for a number of months but was never what fans had envisioned it would be.

#1 WWE's ECW Reboot

Rob Van Dam and Paul Heyman

WCW weren't the only brand to 'invade' WWE during the aforementioned invasion. Vince McMahon also acquired ECW and they too merged with the pro wrestling juggernaut, bringing some of their own stars along with them.

Years after the invasion had come to an end, WWE had the novel idea of bringing back ECW. At its height in the 1990s, it was a groundbreaking wrestling company and one that revolutionised the business.

ECW became WWE's third brand, and it did not go well. Trying to capture what made ECW great during its heydey proved more difficult than WWE had initially thought and the watered down version of the hardcore brand was a pretty big failure.