10 Major Challenges Facing WWE In 2021

7. Maintaining Pay-Per-View Standards

AJ Styles Jeff Hardy Sami Zayn
WWE.com

WWE have gotten away with all sorts of mad b*llocks on pay-per-view this year, but only because a lot of the shows have been earnestly great.

There were some unforgivable turkeys in amongst them, but for every Horror Show At Extreme Rules, there's been three Sunday supercards that have been succinct success stories. Though not exactly a formula, it shouldn't be a surprise. The shows are wrestling-heavy, and thus suited to this roster of amazing wrestlers being fed shoddy creative to be stretched over hours of moribund television trapped in its tropes.

Can this carry on much longer? Tables, Ladders and Chairs was a perfect example of them pushing their luck - two awesome TLC bouts and a couple of quality title matches on the undercard were nearly undone by Randy Orton burning a man alive. This is all sort of/kind of moot when crowds come back, but in the meantime how can WWE find novelty in the second successive empty venue WrestleMania or a ThunderDome Royal Rumble?

When much of WWE feels valueless, the Network continues to justify its price tag. They need to preserve that for as long as possible.

In this post: 
Roman Reigns
 
Posted On: 
Contributor
Contributor

Michael is a writer, editor, podcaster and presenter for WhatCulture Wrestling, and has been with the organisation over 8 years. He primarily produces written, audio and video content on WWE and AEW, but also provides knowledge and insights on all aspects of the wrestling industry thanks to a passion for it dating back over 35 years. As one third of "The Dadley Boyz" Michael has contributed to the huge rise in popularity of the WhatCulture Wrestling Podcast and its accompanying YouTube channel, earning it top spot in the UK's wrestling podcast charts with well over 62,000,000 total downloads. Within the podcasting space, he also co-hosts Benno & Hamflett, In Your House! and Podcast Horseman: The BoJack Horseman Podcast. He has been featured as a wrestling analyst for the Tampa Bay Times, Fightful, POST Wrestling, GRAPPL, GCP, Poisonrana and Sports Guys Talking Wrestling, and has covered milestone events in New York, Dallas, Las Vegas, Philadelphia, London and Cardiff. Michael's background in media stretches beyond wrestling coverage, with a degree in Journalism from the University Of Sunderland (2:1) and a series of published articles in sports, music and culture magazines The Crack, A Love Supreme and Pilot. When not offering his voice up for daily wrestling podcasts, he can be found losing it singing far too loud watching his favourite bands play live. Follow him on X/Twitter - @MichaelHamflett