7 Ways WWE Get Their Best Characters All Wrong

7. Branding, Branding, Branding

If it feels like everything WWE do these days is designed to sell t-shirts and drive Network subscriptions above all else, it's because it is, with the company freely admitting it during quarterly earnings calls.

This approach has left countless characters feeling empty. Seth Rollins is an affable personality and a tremendous wrestler, but he, like many of his peers, is a victim of over-the-top branding. What does "BURN IT DOWN!" even mean? How many times do we need to hear the commentators blurt out "Mr. Monster In The Bank" every Monday night? Can Sasha Banks please, just once, walk out without Michael Cole screaming "it's Boss time"?!

These aren't human beings, but walking advertisement boards. That's why Braun Strowman's every second sentence relates him being a monster or his opponents "getting these hands." That's why Dean Ambrose walked out with the latest in a long line of terrible t-shirt designs when he returned at Raw. That's why Cole, a tremendous announcer when Vince McMahon isn't screaming through his earpiece, speaks almost exclusively in taglines.

Sadly, the exorbitant amount of money this cynical practice generates means it's never going away.