10 Biggest Promises WWE Broke In 2021

WWE smashed a ton of promises throughout 2021 - these are the biggest ones!

WWE WrestleMania Crown Jewel Vince McMahon
WWE

WWE's word should be taken with ye olde pinch of salt.

The company produces a lot of content every single week, and there's no real off-season - the WWE machine is non-stop, so it makes sense that they'd fail to deliver on promises occasionally. Yeah, maybe toss "occasionally" on the scrap heap, because Vince McMahon's crew shattered on-screen vows loads throughout 2021.

They did so with typical McMahon gusto, to be fair. Backstage reports from all and sundry, including the likes of Dave Meltzer and Wade Keller, seemed to suggest that promotional plans changed daily. Sometimes, WWE's arrangements changed by the hour. That's maybe fine when it comes to incidental booking, match finishes or title wins, but perhaps not when things have already been explicitly explained on television to fans watching at home.

Then, such broken promises also threaten to break trust in the brand and the people penning content for it.

Sadly, this is something Vince's league does with a quite reckless abandon. Whims are one thing (this is McMahon's business, after all), but the constant goalpost-shifting does nothing for those who, y'know, are actually paying attention.

10. The Old "30 Days" Rule

WWE WrestleMania Crown Jewel Vince McMahon
WWE.com

Late-2020 was a hot period for the often-ignored Intercontinental Title.

AJ Styles, Sami Zayn and Jeff Hardy all had great matches. Then, Big E won the strap, and it seemed like WWE would strap a rocket to the New Day man's shoulders and make him a credible champ. Then, Apollo Crews bagged it and things fell of a cliff. That has continued since Shinsuke Nakamura took it from Crews.

Throughout this game of title belt pass the parcel, one thing remained consistent: WWE booked regular IC Title matches. That was partly to fill TV time and partly because the company has always told fans that champs must defend at least once per 30-day period of face being stripped of their prize.

So much for that, eh?

Naka has defended the IC Title exactly once since winning it on 13 August - he beat ex-champion Crews on the 24 September SmackDown. The bloody thing is barely even mentioned at all when Shinsuke is on tellyboxes now. He could've been stripped almost three times over.

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Lifelong wrestling, video game, music and sports obsessive who has been writing about his passions since childhood. Jamie started writing for WhatCulture in 2013, and has contributed thousands of articles and YouTube videos since then. He cut his teeth penning published pieces for top UK and European wrestling read Fighting Spirit Magazine (FSM), and also has extensive experience working within the wrestling biz as a manager and commentator for promotions like ICW on WWE Network and WCPW/Defiant since 2010. Further, Jamie also hosted the old Ministry Of Slam podcast, and has interviewed everyone from Steve Austin and Shawn Michaels to Bret Hart and Trish Stratus.