10 Major Flaws With WWE's Current Booking Methods
5. Giving Huge Matches Away
John Cena vs. Shinsuke Nakamura was a strong match, and one of the best SmackDown main events in recent memory, but it could've been so much more.
This was supposed to be a dream match. Cena and Nakamura had spent their entire careers working on opposite sides of the globe until last year, and having been kept apart for so long, their first collision should've been huge. If they were given 20-25 minutes to do their thing on a pay-per-view, perhaps it would've been, but while clearly very good, their SmackDown bout still felt like a letdown.
Like AJ Styles vs. Randy Orton earlier in the year, Cena vs. Nakamura could easily have occupied a prominent spot on any major PPV, but was given away on free television. It was a huge, huge waste, but the kind of thing that will naturally arise through the company's current episodic TV format.
Regardless, WWE must start doing a better job of saving these matches for the year's biggest shows. Giving them away provides fans with little incentive to subscribe to the Network, and while there's nothing wrong with throwing a major match on Raw or SmackDown every now and then, it happens way too frequently.