10 Reasons WWE Was Great In 2016
A year of solid effort from Titan.
2016 has been a strange year in WWE. Think about this: AJ Styles is WWE Champion, Goldberg is back, and the brand split has returned. These occurrences, and an improvement in the in-ring product, have led to a solid resurgence over the past year. 2015 was a sour twelve months from a creative, ratings, and network perspective. Whilst ratings haven't shown any particular upswing in 2016, WWE has nevertheless found a way to make changes for the better this time around.
From a business and creative standpoint, 2016 has been such a breath of fresh air. Vince McMahon seems to be softening his attitude towards many of his previous bugbears of the past, such as superstar names, other promotions mentioned on TV, and pushing former indie stars.
I'm not sure what all is happening behind the scenes, and there are certainly many issues that continue to plague WWE's product today; however, the direction that was taken over the past year has been a solid effort from the pro wrestling titan.
Here are 10 reasons WWE was great in 2016.
10. More Creativity / Character Development
There have been many instances over that last number of years where WWE has gotten lazy in their explanation of characters, their traits, and backstories. In addition, at times, the storylines of WWE have been less than entertaining. The lack of branching, conflict based stories that intertwine superstars and shows providing soap opera entertainment with physical matches to resolve issues are what we want as fans.
Over the course of the year, WWE has shown more discipline in adding layers to their characters and stories. Take AJ Styles for example: he debuts in WWE and is immediately treated as a star (as he should be) and over the course of the first few minutes is praised as having a decorated career elsewhere (which he most certainly does). This is a small gesture and example, but speaks volumes at the changing times of WWE. The announcers immediately got over the fact that AJ was a star by listing his accomplishments prior to WWE, what his style was all about and where he was from. Simple, easy, effective.
A more storyline example (although silly) is Heath Slater's recent SmackDown Live story involving his "wife" Beulah and his "kids". Yes, this is a corny story whereby Heath "lives" in a trailer and has an inordinate amount of children but he has a backstory, a reason to fight, and a character to portray. More of this is quite welcomed WWE, bravo.