12 Ups And 16 Downs For WWE In 2021

14. Blowing It With Keith Lee

Keith Lee Cedric Alexander
WWE.com

We’ll talk more about WWE releases at large, but we’ve got to acknowledge one of the biggest misfires of 2021, as the mismanagement of Keith Lee is one of the biggest boneheaded moves of the year.

Lee started out the year as a contender for the WWE Championship, but he was unsuccessful and shunted down to the United States Championship picture. Real-life health issues sidelined him until the summer, but when he returned, fans had hope, as he immediately jumped into a match against WWE Champion Bobby Lashley… which he lost… in his home state.

It only got worse from there, as he went 50/50 with Karrion Kross in a go-nowhere mini-rivalry before disappearing for another month-plus. When he resurfaced, it was as Keith “Bearcat” Lee, complete with a new angry demeanor. There was no explanation for the character change – we were just expected to accept it.

Shockingly, “Bearcat” didn’t set the world on fire, but it was genuinely shocking when WWE opted to completely ditch Lee by releasing him in November, discarding one of the most unique and charismatic superstars on their roster.

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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.