10 Reasons To Be Cheerful About WWE In 2017
A little drop of claret, and anything that rocks.
As hard as it may be to believe whilst trapped in the post-WrestleMania creative cul-de-sac, there's actually a lot to enjoy about WWE at the moment.
True, much of the positivity lies hidden within Raw's clinical presentation and the razor-thin veneer of credibility fostered on SmackDown Live!, but if investigated thoroughly enough, there are crumbs of comfort to be found from the company's seemingly dissonant output.
Those crumbs will not be found in a dirty old kitchen, of course. Stephen King once posited that 'we make up horrors to help us cope with the real ones', which may go some way to explaining what on earth WWE were thinking in presenting the unequivocally awful Bray Wyatt/Randy Orton brawl at Sunday's Payback pay-per-view.
The 'House of Horrors' represented just about everything wrong with the weathered 'Sports Entertainment' aspect of professional wrestling in the modern age and somehow still fell below rock bottom expectations. The removal of Orton's WWE Title from proceedings perhaps foreshadowed the realisation the idea was destined to tank, with yet another Bray Wyatt failure highlighting the company's overarching disarray.
But unlike Bray's dank dining room, glimmers of light still peek in through the WWE's many cracks.
Away from household appliance assaults and Toys R Us hanging displays, there are flashes of hope and moments of inspiration...
10. Braun Strowman
What's not to love about Braun Strowman?
After his unjust omission from the WrestleMania card, the 'Mountain of a Man' shared the stage with Brock Lesnar on night one of his post-'Show of Shows' rehabilitation.
Electing not to fight 'The Beast' on that night, Strowman erased any doubts over his top line contention with a relentless and memorable beatdown of Roman Reigns the following week.
His lengthy assault on 'The Big Dog' (which saw Roman first hurled off a platform whilst strapped to a stretcher, then tipped over alongside the ambulance he was inside of) was week one of a path of rage that ultimately led to a pinfall victory over a still-injured Reigns at the Payback pay-per-view.
A character with clear motivations and a knack for causing entertaining chaos, his follow-up destructions of The Big Show and Kalisto were similarly riotous and adequately established an unstoppable aura around the former Wyatt Family heavyweight.
Proof that WWE can rapidly establish a bonafide headliner in short order with enough effort and a performer's chops to match, the Strowman push has been a resounding success. Less than a year on from his Raw selection in the 2016 Draft, Braun has positioned himself as a legitimate threat to Brock Lesnar's Universal Title, with a match between the two over the summer months appearing the most tantalising new option for 'The Beast'.