10 Things WWE Wants You To Forget About 2017
1. The Failure Of Localisation
This is key. This was WWE's major strategic experiment of 2017 - and it absolutely failed to a gigantic extent.
There was no appetite for a United Kingdom-exclusive show following the United Kingdom Championship tournament, irrespective of how good it was. The malaise spewed forth by 205 Live reduced the hunger for more content. We were full. Consequently, the two men who wrestled the best match in all of WWE in 2017 - Tyler Bate and Pete Dunne - end the year in a weird stasis. There can be no sadder nor more accurate metaphor for WWE's laziness, greediness and wastefulness. Ironic, given we're meant to be the sloths willing to accept "just about everything" the machine throws at our braying maws.
Jinder Mahal's failure was far more pronounced and profound. WWE alienated all but the contrarians and the apologists with this experiment, the plug from which was pulled in a romantic sonnet of poetic justice. They even alienated the demographic to which it was targeted. So catastrophic was the failure of the initiative that the next drive will surely be anticipated with pure, nihilistic dread. Put simply, WWE was exposed as a greedy beast arrogant to the origin of its sustenance.
If WWE pushes a performer from or descended from any emerging, untapped market, fans will revolt en masse. The ghost of Jinder is that haunting - which might explain WWE's rapid and humiliating attempt to exorcise him from existence.