10 Issues WWE Needs To Address In 2022
2. Old Timers
It’s 2021, and WWE’s policy is still “In case of emergency, get Goldberg”. We’ll caveat from the off by saying the company’s use of Bill has been far better this year than last; his three matches were all reasonable, and at no point did the middle-aged part-timer hold one of the promotion’s top titles.
Still - we shouldn’t still be doing this. The crowd response to Goldberg leading up to his SummerSlam match with Bobby Lashley was not positive, and while the bouts protected him where possible, he’s unmistakably a man in his 50s. And yet, WWE keeps returning to him and the other nostalgia acts.
This was most jarring at WrestleMania 37, where Bayley - arguably the MVP of the pandemic - was relegated to the butt of the joke in favour of the NWO and the Bellas. WWE seems to lack faith in their current stars, and if that’s the case, they need to look inwards - it’s their job to grow and push them, after all.
Most worryingly, the average age of men’s Royal Rumble competitors was 39 this year, with the 47-year-old Edge winning and headlining WrestleMania. That’s no slight on Edge, who’s had a pretty great year, but he’s decidedly not the future of the company. The way things are going, beyond a select few, it’s tough to see who is.