10 Biggest WWE Creative Mistakes Of 2018

5. Constable Corbin

Sasha Banks Bayley
WWE.com

Where Mr. McMahon once concocted hugely intricate schemes to fool Steve Austin, who responded by beating the sh*t out of him, RAW's new resident authority figure, Baron Corbin, just applies rest hold after rest hold after rest hold after rest hold after rest hold after rest hold to Finn Bálor, who responds by...

...carrying out Corbin's orders, and politely asking The Shield to not do bad things with weapons, weapons with, incidentally, the dangerous bits removed.

This ongoing nightmare - not strictly true, since nightmares actually elicit an emotion - is WWE's contempt for its audience, manifested. Really, Corbin does nothing beyond dare its audience to stop watching. Here we have a truly loathsome figure, all withering words and motherf*cking rest holds, that we hate to hate. Corbin is not remotely entertaining, or engaging, and in his "Constable" role, he dominates almost an entire third of every interminable three-hour episode of RAW. We should rechristen 'X-Pac heat' 'Corbin heat'. Anything less is an insult. Corbin's presence renders RAW such a painful experience.

It is such derivative, unimaginative, diminishing TV. McMahon was funny, clever, credible. Corbin is a character, and a sh*tty one, who witlessly buries everybody and just changes the rules mid-match, filling gaping plot holes with pure despair. Why doesn't he put himself in a Universal Title match every week?

More pertinently: Why doesn't he just f*ck off?

Contributor
Contributor

Michael Sidgwick is an editor, writer and podcaster for WhatCulture Wrestling. With over seven years of experience in wrestling analysis, Michael was published in the influential institution that was Power Slam magazine, and specialises in providing insights into All Elite Wrestling - so much so that he wrote a book about the subject. You can order Becoming All Elite: The Rise Of AEW on Amazon. Possessing a deep knowledge also of WWE, WCW, ECW and New Japan Pro Wrestling, Michael’s work has been publicly praised by former AEW World Champions Kenny Omega and MJF, and current Undisputed WWE Champion Cody Rhodes. When he isn’t putting your finger on why things are the way they are in the endlessly fascinating world of professional wrestling, Michael wraps his own around a hand grinder to explore the world of specialty coffee. Follow Michael on X (formerly known as Twitter) @MSidgwick for more!