10 Biggest WWE Creative Mistakes Of 2016
3. The Rock Vs. Erick Rowan
The Rock’s WrestleMania 32 appearance played to two of modern day WWE’s biggest clichés: using part-timers to bury full-time roster members, and cramming their biggest cards with overlong filler.
As the biggest natural celebrity that wrestling has ever created, The Rock had to be involved at ‘Mania. His presence all but guarantees a few thousand ticket sales, but while he continues bringing money into the company even in semi-retirement, his appearances are often to the detriment of another worker.
It was The Wyatt Family’s turn this time around, and specifically Erick Rowan. After a pitifully small scale flamethrower-wielding entrance, Rocky took the best part of 15 minutes to announce the night’s record-breaking attendance before he was eventually interrupted by the Wyatts. The Rock, of course, ran the Wyatts into the ground on the microphone, then eventually challenged one of them to a match. Rowan accepted, and he was promptly squashed in six seconds.
Erick Rowan’s never going to be a huge WWE singles star, but that’s beside the point. The company took whatever heat he had left and fed it to The Rock, who’ll never have to worry about the repercussions. Rocky gained absolutely nothing from the segment, while the Wyatts went home looking like a toothless gang of swamp geeks. Nice work, WWE.