10 Ways WWE Storytelling Has Declined Since 2000
9. Forcing 'Historic Moments'
The average WWE storyline isn’t about working towards a logical, satisfying conclusion these days, but ‘making history’ and ‘creating moments.’ The company are no longer content to let things stand on their own merit. Now, everything is about rewriting the history books, and it has made the WWE storytelling mechanism a juddering, malfunctioning mess.
Hell In A Cell 2016 was the first time two women had ever headlined a WWE pay-per-view, but it felt entirely inconsequential. Goldberg’s Universal Title win fulfilled Bill’s ‘historic’ comeback story, but did nothing to enhance his feud with Brock Lesnar. John Cena’s 16th World Title win happened only to put him on the same level as Ric Flair, and the pointless change kickstarted the WWE Championship’s recent decline in prestige.
The examples are endless. WWE’s annual calendar limps from one ‘historic moment’ to another without rhyme or reason, creating fractured, disjointed narratives that rarely reach satisfactory conclusions. In forcing these situations, WWE have made them as shallow and meaningless as any other aspect of their product. Breaking long-held records no longer feels like an accomplishment, but the norm, and they’ve lost all value as storytelling tools.