10 Worst WWE Matches Of 2021 (So Far)
Featuring an unfair amount of Damian Priest and arguably not enough Randy Orton...
An upshot of the content production era of WWE is, theoretically, that very little about the in-ring output is actively awful.
There's a lot (a lot) that's unfortunately too formulaic and/or average to enjoy, but the Performance Center's churn in sync with WWE television's own has provided the shows with a raised average across the board. It's a compromise that evidently suits the panicked television executives that can't keep viewers glued in front of anything else, regardless of what kind of viewing experience it makes for the hardest of hardcores still watching.
There's a reason why WWE used to always refer to Randy Orton as the person you'd get if you "built a Sports Entertainer from the ground up", but it's not half as positive as JBL made it sound. Orton went from being injury prone and thrilling to almost always fit and bang average. Smartly shifting his style for longevity, 'The Apex Predator' figured out how to make money out of this racket forever and never looked back. His colleagues loved the easy night's work too, giving him something of a wrestler's wrestler reputation as a result.
Good for them. But as punters, we've suffered more because of all those chinlocks than his laundry list of opponents. His work and career sums up WWE's proliferation of "solid" or "decent" or "there were no botches" matches more than most.
That he still features here speaks to the company's failings more than his own...
10. Asuka Vs. Alexa Bliss (Monday Night Raw, January 18th)
Two and a half decent minutes of back-and-forth were sacrificed in order to get over the confusing and frustratingly unfinished Alexa Bliss gimmick in a contest even worse than their second a week later.
When Bliss brought down the lights and switched her colour scheme from pink to black, Asuka had to sell sheer, scarcely-believable terror despite the fact that the referee wasn't remotely rattled and the commentators switched only switched from a yell to an ASMR whisper to call it.
A tonal mess, Bliss suddenly had enough magic powers to completely no-sell kicks and a spinning back fist from the 'Empress Of Tomorrow', begging the question why she wouldn't just do this from the off. In the aftermath, she switched back to her supposedly normal side, only to mouth "Let Me In" as Bray Wyatt's voice played over the PA and Raw went off the air.
That's right - this was the evening's main event too. That status alone damned it long before the contradictory messaging and spooky bullsh*t ate itself.
And it only got worse from there...