10 Saving Graces Of WWE Programming In 2017
Who knows how much worse WWE TV would have been in 2017 without these ten stars.
All in all, WWE TV wasn't exactly stellar in 2017, but it was far from the most abysmal year in recent memory, largely thanks to a select few superstars from SmackDown Live and Raw. The return of the Brand Split in 2016 allowed several stars to receive more airtime as well as opportunities to break out, and 2017 was no different in that respect.
The two brands weren't always entertaining (especially during the dark days of Jinder Mahal's WWE Championship reign on SmackDown), but each episode of Raw and SmackDown featured at least a handful of highlights that made them worth watching. Whether their matches were exceptional or their promos stood out above the rest, they left viewers satisfied and happy they tuned in instead of regretting their decision to sit through a three-hour Raw or two-hour SmackDown.
They didn't have to be champions, but when they were, they carried their respective brand with their excellent work ethic and tendency to turn anything they were involved in to gold.
In so many words, they were the saving graces of WWE TV last year. Without these ten stars, 2017 would remembered as a much worse year for the company ... assuming it would be remembered at all.
10. Alexa Bliss
Alexa Bliss' in-ring abilities remain questionable, especially considering how mediocre her matches with Bayley, Becky Lynch, and Mickie James were in 2017, but there's no denying that she carried the women's division on Raw and SmackDown Live during her time on both brands.
Once she left SmackDown for Raw in April as part of the Superstar Shake-up, the blue brand's women's division was never same, and instead devolved to holding multi-woman matches on every one of their pay-per-views for many months. On Raw, Alexa wasted no time in taking the brand's top strap from Bayley and beating everyone who stepped up to challenge her.
Save for the extremely brief eight-day reign of Sasha Banks in late August, Bliss has held gold for almost the entirety of her Raw run, and currently, there's no end in sight.
Say what you will about Bliss being overexposed on the flagship show, but she is easily the best talker of all the women on Raw right now. Imagine how much more uneventful women's wrestling would have been in WWE without her last year.