8 Ups & 13 Downs For WWE In 2021
6. The Drastic Decline In The Women's Division
Had this article been written in August instead of December, the feud between Rhea Ripley and Charlotte Flair would have easily, easily made it into this list as an entry unto itself. As the year's moved forward though, it becomes apparent just how symptomatic the angle was of a much bigger problem rather than simply the problem itself.
The most generous assessment is that WWE offers relative parity with their time, some of the time. Raw or SmackDown aren't generally accused of only featuring one match or segment (though that has been the case), but quality is a far bigger problem than quantity. The angles are so awful that it's hard to know if the writing times are spending no time on the characters or more than anybody elses. The heel/babyface dynamics are impossibly fluid, the pushes stop and start with alarming schizophrenia and the scripting and dialogue still absolutely reeks of the blatantly obvious diversity issues in the writers room.
These are dark days, and if there's a light at the end of a tunnel it's a long, long tunnel. And, as if to highlight just how worst meant w o r s t, the absolute dirt f*cking worst was still to come, and from their supposed best...