12 Ups And 16 Downs For WWE In 2021

2. Poor Storytelling

While we could go on and on about idiotic angles that went nowhere and did nothing to help wrestlers, it would be far easier to just lump everything in one entry near the top of the list.

Point blank: WWE sucks at storytelling.

They create these childish, nonsensical angles, then have poor follow-through on them. They job out a wrestler for weeks on end, then suddenly give them a fluke roll-up win to put them “in the title hunt.” They have “championship contender’s matches” that aren’t for a “title shot” but to “make a statement to put them in the conversation for a possible future championship opportunity.” Rather than building to a big match, we get endless rematches.

Think about Liv Morgan, who lost match after match until she won one match and became #1 contender. Or how Shotzi & Nox won three championship contender’s matches against the WWE Women’s Tag Team Champions and never got a title match. Or Ricochet battling RETRIBUTION endlessly with it leading nowhere.

WWE has one of the most talented rosters ever, so things going poorly on TV is not a result of poorly trained wrestlers. It’s a combination of poor writing, poorly constructed television, and poor execution. And with genuine competition, it’s tougher to excuse or give leeway to WWE any longer.