10 Awesome Wrestlers WWE Sacrificed For The Greater Good

Patience isn't a trait typically associated with wrestling fans, particularly the hardcores, who'll take to the internet to fill social media with vitriol and disgust the moment a disagreeable decision goes down on WWE television.

Everyone has done it at one point in their fandom. Everyone. Some groups do it more than others, admittedly, but can you even call yourself a real fan if you didn't get frothy when Batista won the 2014 Royal Rumble or the time Vince McMahon refused to push, say, Cesaro?

Big losses regularly provoke such reactions, and it's easy to get lost in the storm of negativity. Sometimes, though, it pays to stay calm, sit back, and let it all play out. WWE don't always book long-term storylines well, but there are times when they feel a big name must be sacrificed for something bigger, though it isn't always obvious at the time.

Note that the titular "greater good" refers to WWE's perspective. This isn't an attempt at justifying the decisions within. Though a number of them worked, the others failed because not only were they destructive for the losers, but they also failed the produce the intended benefits for everyone else.

Let's kick it off with a recent example...

No recent WWE booking decision has rustled more internet jimmies than the one to put Charlotte Flair over Asuka on SmackDown's most recent episode, ending 'The Empress Of Tomorrow's' SD Women's Title reign at 100 days and, according to her staunchest supporters, burying the fallen Japanese star in the process.

Social media is still raging. Charlotte, the perceived corporate golden girl, had cut an internet favourite off at the knees. Flair will now carry the big blue belt into WrestleMania 35, and Asuka's hopes of making the card now look limited to the women's battle royal, which hasn't even been announced yet. More than that, it was an appropriately grim end to a lacklustre reign: one that should've rebuilt 'The Empress,' particularly after tapping Becky Lynch out at the Royal Rumble, but didn't.

The Greater Good:

This last-minute change was almost certainly done to ensure a picture-perfect closing shot for WWE's Four Horsewomen at WrestleMania, where Flair, Lynch, and Ronda Rousey will contest the main event. Becky shall presumably win the Raw Women's Title in that bout. Earlier, Sasha Banks and Bayley will have retained their Tag Titles, and 'Mania will end with all four in the ring, belts held aloft.