10 Major Lessons WWE Must Learn From 2017
2. Make It Mean Something
Bray Wyatt is a serial loser and is thus received as a serial loser by the fanbase. This is a profoundly simple connection to make, but it's one lost within an overarching company mentality of lazy luxury and inattentiveness.
Wyatt exists to lose to babyfaces, but is such a loser that those babyfaces become losers via association. Seth Rollins was never flatter than he was in late spring, when paired with Wyatt in an average programme. Wyatt actually won that programme, not that it mattered: nobody bought him as a threat, because he was already dead. What's more, there was no consequence whatsoever for Rollins. This didn't spark a confidence crisis; he simply rejoined forces with Dean Ambrose and walked into RAW Tag Team Championship contention. Wyatt then lost, comprehensively, his series with Finn Bálor - who fared far worse than Rollins in his immediate aftermath. No direction, no ranking system, no meaning. No genuine investment. No point.
There's no pretence that Wyatt even cares about winning, anyway; he did not demand a rematch for the WWE Heavyweight Title he lost at WrestleMania. His character has as much purpose as victories.
This malaise is all-encompassing. Wins are traded arbitrarily between whomever happens to be feuding at the time. Somebody wins in the end. They probably lose the next go-round.
There is little differentiation within the massive roster between Roman Reigns and Curt Hawkins - and so many of them could be far more over than they are.