12 Ups And 16 Downs For WWE In 2021

Poor angles, releases galore, Tribal Chief, RK-Bro, Doudrop and babyface Brock... oh my!

John Cena Roman Reigns
WWE.com

It’s a Christmas miracle! After scouring previous columns from the past 365 days, we’ve been able to uncover more than 10 positive things to say about WWE in 2021!

Of course, we also found about 100 dismal things to opine. But realizing that no one would have the patience to read (and this author certainly wouldn’t have the nerve to write) a list like this, we’ve boiled things down to a list of high-spots and lowlights for the year.

Make no mistake: 2021 was an absolutely horrible year for WWE, for creative ideas, good storytelling, building new stars, winning over new fans, rewarding fans who stuck with the company through the pandemic, and for being a good employer that respects and treats its employees (sorry, independent contractors) well.

It’s hard to believe a year that gave us Bad Bunny’s performance and Bianca Belair’s magical moment at WrestleMania 37, a genuinely solid Money in the Bank PPV, and the most entertaining Brock Lesnar and Roman Reigns we’ve seen in years, also gave us Alexa Bliss’ spooky sideshow, Goldberg threatening murder, wacky tag partners who can’t co-exist out the ying-yang and dozens of released wrestlers while WWE posted record revenues.

If you genuinely enjoyed the product WWE put out this year, then good for you. But the company longed for fans to return, then gave them no reason to stick around when they did. So that alone rates 2021 a dismal failure.

Let’s get to it…

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Contributor
Contributor

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.