10 Most Unthinkable WWE Changes In The Last 5 Years

WWE have gone through a number of major shifts in tone, presentation, and content over the past few years. It started when the Attitude Era drifted towards Ruthless Aggression at the turn of the century, but the most noticeable shift came with the switch to a PG rating in July 2008.

While WWE’s product had grown increasingly family friendly in the years leading up to it, the switch effectively wiped away all remnants of Attitude’s crudeness and vulgarity. Wrestling is now cleaner, safer, and more sanitised than ever before, but the evolution didn’t stop in 2008, and WWE have continued to change ever since.

2011 was a particularly notable year for WWE programming in that it brought one of the most talked-about angles in the sport’s recent history: the Summer of Punk. In CM Punk, WWE’s fanbase had a relatable avatar who mirrored their own complaints about the product, and while the angle ended in disappointment, it pushed several longstanding gripes to the forefront.

WWE’s flaws had never been so apparent, and the company has changed immensely in the five years since that fateful “pipe bomb". While some things (the McMahon family’s never-ending push, for example) remain the same, the WWE of 2016 is unrecognisable to its 2011 equivalent in a number of ways. Whether good or bad, wrestling has changed immensely since the day Punk pulled the curtain back.

Here are the 10 most unthinkable WWE changes in the last five years.

Five years ago, The Miz, Alex Riley, and Christian comprised the heel side of WWE’s absurdly thin main event scene. R-Truth competed against John Cena for the WWE Championship at Capitol Punishment, and elsewhere, the likes of Ezekiel Jackson, Wade Barrett, and Cody Rhodes were contesting the Intercontinental Championship.

None of WWE’s current main eventers were active on the main roster, and current world champions Kevin Owens and AJ Styles hadn’t even been signed yet. This time period has seen Brock Lesnar’s return, the rise and fall of Daniel Bryan and the Yes Movement, The Shield’s dominance and subsequent dissolution, Edge’s retirement, and a whole lot more.

WWE have always been plagued by high roster turnover, but they’ve taken it to new extremes in the past five years. Of the 132 workers they used on Raw, SmackDown, and FCW in 2011, only 32 are active performers in 2016: a figure that includes part-timers (The Undertaker), guys who’ve come and gone (Curt Hawkins, Jinder Mahal), and those who’ve largely transitioned to non-wrestling roles (Triple H, Maryse).

The company’s roster composition has never been so turbulent, and today’s roster is almost unrecognisable from 2011’s. While the company still struggles with building legitimate main eventers, they can’t be criticised for roster staleness any more. For better or worse, the past five years have seen WWE undergo a heavy duty roster facelift, and with NXT stars Shinsuke Nakamura, Samoa Joe, and Asuka knocking on the door, it looks set to continue.