10 Biggest WWE Creative Mistakes Of 2018 (So Far)
Burials, blunders, and Bobby Lashley.
With their impossibly deep talent pool, incomparable reach, and record-breaking revenue figures, WWE have all the resources required to deliver a cutting edge wrestling product, but constantly let their fans down on the creative side.
At no point in history have the company gotten so little from so much. While their balance sheet is as impressive as their market share is indomitable, their mainline product is a bastion of inconsistency, with Raw, SmackDown, and pay-per-views regularly falling short of expectations. The "profit over art" approach is hard to fault from a business perspective, and it'll never change as long as their financials are soaring, but it makes for some grim viewing.
2018 has been a middling year. The company have given us plenty to enjoy (an awesome Royal Rumble, NXT's continued excellence, Ronda Rousey's perfect rookie year), but every storytelling high is tempered by a handful of lows. The problem has been particularly prevalent since WrestleMania 34, and with WWE calmly coasting towards their annual summer slump, creative will drop dozens of new duds over the coming months.
The current main roster product is leagues below what it should be, and the blunders within are to blame...
10. Ineffective Debuts
The way WWE debut new main roster stars has been flawed for a while, but particularly noticeable in the wake of the 2018 Superstar Stake-Up.
The Authors Of Pain were forgotten about almost as soon as they arrived on Raw. Disappearing on 30 April, they didn't reappear until 25 Jun, and are now seemingly set to enter a feud with perma-jobbers Titus Worldwide. The reason for their sabbatical? WWE had originally planned on booking a tag team Money In The Bank ladder match, and had nothing for Akam and Rezar when the idea was scrapped.
Sanity met a similar fate on SmackDown. Their debut was promised for weeks at a time, but they didn't show up until mid-June. Andrade 'Cien' Almas' case is the most damning of all, though. A ready-made top-tier star, he's lucky to make TV most weeks, and when he does, he's usually butting heads with the lowly Sin Cara. He's currently on the verge of going the way of Tye Dillinger, and it's all because WWE are sitting on their hands.
WWE are too gun-shy, and their inability to get behind these wrestlers has killed their call-up momentum, leaving them facing an uphill battle to get over.