5 mistakes WWE made with SmackDown Live in 2017

#5 The WWE title falls into mid-card obscurity

The modern day Maharaja could've been a fantastic heel

When Dean Ambrose had defeated his Shield brothers and brought the prestigious WWE Title to the blue brand, WWE had convinced many wrestling aficionados that the blue brand would finally take centre stage in the company. However, Ambrose's reign became a somewhat lukewarm run, and creative had rightfully shifted the championship to a fiercely rising AJ Styles.

Styles' WWE Title reign was one of the best championship runs in the entire company, back in 2016. Therefore, when John Cena defeated Styles at Royal Rumble 2017 for the title, most were assured it was in good hands. However, it was all downhill for the WWE title from there on out. Instead of Cena’s title run being a well-drawn out programme, he held his 16th World Title for one month and dropped it to the eccentric Bray Wyatt.

Instead of WWE using the title to finally elevate Wyatt, the former leader of the Wyatt Family was given the same treatment as Cena and lost his first world title in less than two months to Randy Orton in a terrible match at Wrestlemania 33.

After WWE had buried Wyatt yet again, fans hoped Orton’s next challenger would be a deserving up and coming star. Instead, WWE not only shocked the world by having Jinder Mahal become the number one contender but unimaginably becoming the WWE Champion.

That shocking sight was a surprisingly refreshing decision by WWE, but having Mahal go from jobber to World Champion in a month, was the wrong approach WWE took to building up Mahal as a credible threat. In fact, this was a missed opportunity for WWE to create a monster champion heel which the blue brand needed.

Instead, the company had worsened Mahal’s WWE title reign by booking him in repetitive average matches, giving him monotonous promos and not letting his character evolve beyond ‘the hated foreigner’.

All those factors contributed to the WWE title becoming a mid-card programme prop. Therefore, Kevin Owens become synonymous with the main event scene as his feuds with AJ Styles and Shane McMahon headlined many pay-per-views and Smackdown Live episodes. Now that the WWE title is back with Styles, it will begin its resurgence in 2018.