5 mistakes WWE has made thus far in 2019

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2019 is halfway through. It's been a typical year for WWE thus far up till this point in time, with WWE hitting the jackpot at one moment and then leaving fans disheartened at another.

Thus far, WWE has had 6 pay-per-view events (excluding The Shield's Final Chapter in April), all of which were dual-branded and most of them were longer than 4 hours. Raw, SmackDown Live and NXT take place weekly on a regular basis, but many fans have lost interest in these weekly shows and most tune in for pay-per-views only.

2019 has seen the rise of under-dogs and crowd favorites like Kofi Kingston and Becky Lynch, but it has seen the downfall of talented individuals like Braun Strowman and Sasha Banks.

The WWE roster is filled with a myriad of skilled and passionate wrestlers who are eager to grab the spotlight yet WWE continues to rely on veterans and legends who are way past their prime and have no business competing in a WWE ring.

These are just a few of the things that fans have noticed this year, this article looks at more of what WWE has done wrong this year as opposed to good. With that said, let's take a look at 5 mistakes WWE has made in 2019 thus far.

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#5 Booking Baron Corbin vs Kurt Angle at WrestleMania

Baron Corbin defeat Kurt Angle at WrestleMania

A month prior to WrestleMania, WWE Hall of Famer Kurt Angle officially announced that he would retire and ride off to the sunset at WrestleMania 35. Next week, Angle announced his arch-rival at the time, Baron Corbin, as his opponent for his Farewell match. Fans were irate when this match was announced and they blamed Corbin for it. Many thought he was too inexperienced and unskilled to battle a legend like Kurt Angle in his final match for the WWE

What was even more frustrating was the fact that Kurt Angle didn't want to face Corbin himself and on top of that, Angle got to choose his opponents in his Farewell Tour in the weeks leading up to WrestleMania. Angle faced off against the likes of Chad Gable, Apollo Crews, Samoa Joe and AJ Styles in his Farewell Tour.

Fans were hoping that WWE would replace Corbin at the last minute with someone like John Cena. However, much to their chagrin, WWE actually went with the match. Corbin pinned Angle to retire one of the all-time greats, but the fans were dejected and disgusted, to say the least.

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#4 Bringing up NXT's top stars in February

Aleister Black was called up to the main roster in February

In February, WWE announced on an episode of Raw that four of NXT's biggest stars were being called up to the main roster. This list included the likes of Johnny Gargano, Tomasso Ciampa, Aleister Black, and Ricochet. Bringing up these talented stars garnered a mixed response from the WWE Universe.

Firstly, WWE had already brought up EC3, Heavy Machinery, and Lacey Evans a few months ago and all of them were treading water and hadn't been given a fair opportunity to introduce themselves to the WWE Universe. Fans were skeptical that the four aforementioned NXT call-ups might suffer the same fate, which would surely draw their ire.

Secondly, calling up NXT's elite stars tremendously hurt the NXT brand. Black, Ricochet, Ciampa and Gargano carried NXT throughout the summer and calling them up so abruptly made the NXT roster extremely thin. Unfortunately, Ciampa went down with injury and WWE had to change its plans, which is why Johnny Gargano was sent back to NXT. Black and Ricochet, however, stayed on the main roster.

#3 The main event of WrestleMania 35

Becky Lynch walked out of WrestleMania 35 as the winner

At WrestleMania 35, the women main-evented the PPV for the first time in WWE history, but the fans were left with a sour taste at the end of it all. There were a couple of reasons attributing to this, but the main reason was WWE's questionable and odd booking.

Firstly, Charlotte Flair shouldn't have been in the match and the main event should have been a one-on-one contest between two of the most influential and wildly popular women in sports-entertainment, Becky Lynch and Ronda Rousey. Charlotte's inclusion took the spotlight away from these women and her inclusion into the match made no sense, yet WWE still put the Queen in one of the most monumental main-events in WWE history.

Secondly, fans were aware that Rousey was going to leave after the event, so that took much of the unexpected appeal the match should have had. On top of that, Charlotte's inclusion seemed to indicate that she might walk away as the victor, which would have inevitably evoked great anger from the WWE Universe. WWE also buried SmackDown's women division when Charlotte defeated the reigning champion, Asuka, two weeks prior to WrestleMania. The women from SmackDown Live were relegated to a pointless and meaningless battle royal on the pre-show.

Lastly, the sudden ending to the match baffled the fans as Becky pinned Rousey to win the titles. Many fans thought the ending was botched and it was later revealed that the referee was fined for botching the finish.

#2 The Undertaker vs Goldberg goes on last at WWE Super Showdown

Ten years too late!

Last week, two of wrestling's greatest gladiators went at it. The legendary Undertaker took on the Hall of Famer Goldberg for the first time ever. Both of these icons had been cornerstones of their respective companies and this match could have been a huge money-maker for the WWE. However, there was one thing erroneous about the whole match, it took ten years too late.

The legends had a combined age of 106 and were way past their prime. They could barely move around the ring, yet they were competing in the main event of a pay-per-view in front of a sold-out crowd in Saudi Arabia. It was deeply saddening to see these two men lock horns, they botched moves and everything went downhill as Goldberg hit the ring-post and bled profusely. Fans were concerned about their health. Taker almost broke Goldberg's neck with a botched Tombstone Piledriver whereas Goldberg's wicked Jackhammer could have snapped the Deadman's neck.

Undertaker and Goldberg was an utter disaster, The management of WWE must prioritize the health of these legends and ought to let them retire in peace as they just can't compete at the level fans expect them too.

#1 The Wild Card Rule

Roman Reigns appears on both Raw and SmackDown Live under the Wild Card Rule

This year's Superstar Shakeup was nothing short of a mess. It lasted for 2 weeks with numerous stars switching brands weekly. Andrade was moved to Raw, only to be drafted back to SmackDown Live the next week, Aleister Black was drafted to Raw and then immediately sent to SmackDown Live. Fans had lost track of which superstar was on what one brand, but that didn't matter as Vince McMahon introduced the Wild Card Rule two weeks later.

After Kofi Kingston, Daniel Bryan and Roman Reigns (who were exclusive to SmackDown Live) appeared on the May 6th edition of Raw, Vince introduced the Wild Card rule that allowed 4 stars to appear on their rival brand each week. The Wild Card Rule made the brand-split pointless. Roman Reigns and Drew Mcintyre appear regularly on both shows, so do R-Truth and countless other stars.

The Wild Card Rule is pointless and unnecessary. There is no such thing as brand supremacy anymore and the brand-split is essentially over, the Wild Card Rule is full proof of the brand split's failure and inevitable demise.