14 Reasons 2015 Was The Worst Ever Year For WWE Creative

10. No Creative Freedom

To say that no one is over isn't entirely the fault of the talent. Talents are wise to not want to risk their future with the biggest sports-entertainment company in the world. It's well documented how the lack of competition has negatively impacted the business in various ways, but the absence of creative freedom that wrestlers face today might just be the biggest. Without creative freedom, Austin 3:16 nor The Rock would have existed, Shawn Michaels would be a completely different character, and Triple H might've been a career-long mid-carder. As risky as the talents may have appeared in years past, talents today are almost equally submissive and, again, it's hard to blame them. Recently, Brad Maddox took the smallest creative liberty in a non-televised dark match by cutting a promo calling the crowd "cocky pricks" instead of the scripted term "cocky losers". This seemingly innocuous change would hardly be considered a risk by yesteryear's standards, but in 2015, WWE determined that Brad Maddox's actions were a terminable offence and he lost his job. No wonder there's no Stone Cold or D-Generation X telling Vince to suck it. It's one thing to manage talent and to de-escalate any overblown egos, but WWE has petrified the talents to the point of stagnancy. The product is a reflection of the environment the company breeds: creatively stifled.