13 Ups And 23 Downs For WWE In 2020

Creatively bankrupt year has many failings. Tribal Chief, McIntyre rise above.

The Fiend Randy Orton
WWE.com

As we say goodbye to an awful year that needs to be thrown onto the ash-heap of history, we need to take stock of where things stand in the world of WWE.

Yes, 2020 was a dumpster fire for a year, but the global pandemic doesn’t excuse what was a creatively bankrupt year for the largest wrestling company in the world. This might have been the most profitable year in the company’s history, but 2020 also was a horrible year for WWE. That’s not some purely editorial comment. Look at the record-low ratings and universal criticisms lodged against the product. It’s not just one person’s viewpoint.

In this year’s wrap-up column, we tried to keep the negatives geared toward items that were solely within WWE’s control. You won’t see criticisms about the empty arena shows or changing WrestleMania card due to the virus. (However, you might see some praise for how the company successfully navigated aspects of the pandemic.)

When you get down to it, 2020 was a really bad year for WWE: wrestlers’ pushes were wasted or abandoned, storylines stalled for months or were completely nonsensical, gimmick matches were undermined, concepts were poorly thought-out (if at all), and WWE did nothing of significance to arrest the falling ratings.

It makes you wonder how this is the global leader of professional wrestling. Regardless, let’s take a look at the good and the bad in WWE in 2020.

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 fortunately became a fan in time for WrestleMania III and came back as a fan after a long high school hiatus before WM XIV. Monday nights in the Carlson household are reserved for viewing Raw -- for better or worse.