10 Mistakes WWE Never Recovered From

WWE’s decision to become a PG product wasn’t entirely bad. After all, the litany of long-term injuries and problems suffered by wrestlers from yesteryear speak for themselves. Chair shots to the head have never been a good idea, and employee wellness should always be at the forefront of a company’s mind. On the surface, WWE’s desire to move away from violence in favour of more refined and compelling storytelling made a lot of sense.

Of course, this company couldn’t tell a refined and compelling story if its life depended on it, but that isn’t the point.

For better or for worse, the move to a PG product has turned swathes of fans off. After all, this is professional wrestling, and for every fan who loves it as an art form and a sport there are a bunch who are in it for the violence. Turning PG compromised WWE’s ability to tell its own stories, it defanged almost all of its gimmick matches and severely compromised the level to which feuds could build. Not every feud needs to end in blood, but, you know, blood feuds probably should.

WWE could have made this change without explicitly announcing it, but by doing so the company backed itself into a creative corner that it simply doesn’t have the ability to find its way out of. It turned fans off for good.