10 Major Lessons WWE Must Learn From 2017

The Universe isn't expanding; it's shrinking.

Vince McMahon
WWE.com

It's difficult to feign hysteria in the face of WWE's creative malaise - or even gauge how bad things could possibly get before WWE even remotely approaches anything resembling danger.

WWE's global reach is colossal. International TV deals; operating income; Network subscriptions; house show business; "digital engagement": virtually every component of the company's business either increased or, in some cases, broke records in the third quarter of 2017. The company is in rude financial health. While what they do is often incomprehensible, it clearly works.

But those who despaired at what was, at its worst, an abysmal year for WWE can maybe - optimistically - take solace in the fact that 2017 saw an emergence of unprecedented support for a rising independent scene.

There is a creaking paradigm shift in motion. The failure of WWE's pre-NXT developmental system forced the company to recognise that ROH, PWG et al. were the real proving grounds. But in reluctantly embracing the likes of Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn, they had to abandon the distinction between their guys and dreaded "Indy guys" - and we may have reached the inevitable point at which the audience no longer sees the distinction, either.

There are more Bullet Club t-shirts at RAW than Roman Reigns merchandise - and if nothing else, WWE surely cannot abide even a cosmetic loss to such a minor league enemy...

10. Lose Your Arrogance

Pete Dunne
WWE.com

Jinder Mahal represented peak market dominance in 2017.

A foreign menace with a bodybuilding physique and plodding ring style, he, not Randy Orton, was Vince McMahon's idealised sports entertainer built from the ground up. In no other era but the Network age could Vince McMahon get away with pushing a performer as alienating as Mahal - but without PPV metrics prohibiting the push, he thought he could.

Mercifully, it was an abject failure.

SmackDown attendances shrunk. Though house show attendances remained consistent, perhaps stagnant is the correct word: they are nothing to brag about. The inflated circuit accounts for the revenue, as opposed to show quality or star power. Mahal bored the vast majority of fans and critics into submission through wrestling turgid matches devoid of atmosphere, and the underwhelming fan reaction to his retconned match with Brock Lesnar at Survivor Series finally removed the Modern Day Maharaja from his throne - in parallel, perhaps, with the treacle-slow tickets sales for WWE's reduced India tour.

Mahal contaminated SmackDown with tedium this year - an indirect symbol, if not a cause, of the emergence of the independent scene - and such intemperance is something even WWE's undiscerning, loyalist core demographic could not stand for.

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Michael Sidgwick is an editor, writer and podcaster for WhatCulture Wrestling. With over seven years of experience in wrestling analysis, Michael was published in the influential institution that was Power Slam magazine, and specialises in providing insights into All Elite Wrestling - so much so that he wrote a book about the subject. You can order Becoming All Elite: The Rise Of AEW on Amazon. Possessing a deep knowledge also of WWE, WCW, ECW and New Japan Pro Wrestling, Michael’s work has been publicly praised by former AEW World Champions Kenny Omega and MJF, and surefire Undisputed WWE Universal Champion Cody Rhodes. When he isn’t putting your finger on why things are the way they are in the endlessly fascinating world of professional wrestling, Michael wraps his own around a hand grinder to explore the world of specialty coffee. Follow Michael on X (formerly known as Twitter) @MSidgwick for more!