10 Things WWE Needs To Stop Doing IMMEDIATELY

5. The Major Lack Of Character Development

Bray Wyatt
WWE.com

Mia Yim and Piper Niven are two extremely capable, talented wrestlers. So, why did the pair's match on this week's Raw play out to utter crickets at Brooklyn's Barclays Center?

Two good workers, getting to showcase their skills in a venue that has often been so rampant for the WWE product over the years? There's no reason to believe that the match itself would end up being a dull, flat affair.

Clearly the fact that Yim and Niven were given less than three minutes to impress is one issue, but more problematic is that audiences haven't been given a reason to care about either individual. What do we know about the Mia Yim character since she's returned to WWE? Okay, she's buddies with AJ Styles and the Good Brothers, and she likes to go by the Michin nickname. Great.

With Piper Niven, she thankfully dropped the Doudrop gimmick when she returned to WWE programming at the Royal Rumble. But what's the kayfabe reason for Piper to revert to her former moniker, and why was now the time to do so? All that we know from WWE TV is that Niven is a heel, and that's about it.

For fans to be invested in a wrestler, they need a reason to care. You look at any even half-over current act, and there's clear cut characteristics on display.

This is far from just a problem with Mia Yim and Piper Niven, for there are numerous members of the Raw and SmackDown rosters who lack any sort of true character definition right now. Until that is rectified, those talents will continue to struggle to connect with audiences.

Senior Writer
Senior Writer

Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main dayjob, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg.