One of the biggest detriments to WWE and hugest slaps to the fans faces this year was putting the WWE World Heavyweight Championship on Brock Lesnar at SummerSlam 2014 and then having him defend it exactly once since then. Throughout the latter half of 2013 and up through WrestleMania XXX, the major storyline was the Authority desperately trying to maintain control of the WWE Championship (which was later merged with the World Heavyweight Championship) through Randy Orton. The Viper battled Daniel Bryan, the Authoritys main foil, over the title several times, culminating in Bryans victory at Mania. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4999EtJTnww But after Lesnar won the title at SummerSlam and defended it at Night of Champions in September, the championship has become an afterthought. Sure, it was a huge moment when Lesnar captured the belt, but whatever mystique was built up with Lesnar destroying John Cena for the title has dissipated without a main prize to fight over for four months. Like it or not, wrestling fans instinctively gravitate toward world title matches. They are the draw in a lot of cases, and not having such a match especially after being conditioned due to Orton/Bryan that the world title is highly coveted hurt the overall product this year.
Scott is a former journalist and longtime wrestling fan who was smart enough to abandon WCW during the Monday Night Wars the same time as the Radicalz. He fondly remembers watching WrestleMania III, IV, V and VI and Saturday Night's Main Event, came back to wrestling during the Attitude Era, and has been a consumer of sports entertainment since then. He's written for WhatCulture for more than a decade, establishing the Ups and Downs articles for WWE Raw and WWE PPVs/PLEs and composing pieces on a variety of topics.
