1. Talent
There is no one place in which WWE has improved since, well, since before Vince McMahon Senior over the past few years than in the area of genuine wrestling talent! Almost every superstar appearing on WWE TV nowadays can actually go between the ropes. Whether they are technical demons or just understand how to put on entertaining matches, almost the entire roster has the right to lace up their boots. (Great Khali is obviously a massive drag on this) It goes to show how much the product moved on when management were willing to have the best all round performer since Stone Cold Steve Austin; CM Punk, hold their biggest belt for over 400 days. Punk was the epitome of Indy worker; small, wiry, serious technical skill and without the poster boy looks but yet he is now more than likely the second biggest star in the world of professional wrestling. Punk laid the foundation to what we are seeing today; workers who spent close to a decade on the road touring the likes of ROH, CZW, Guerrilla Pro and across seas to Japan and Europe. Just as I have said previously in this article, the difference between the WWE home grown talent and these worldly travellers is immense. They understand wrestling full stop. The WWE products havent a clue what real wrestling is and are imitating it at every corner. The best stars in WWE right now for entertainment value and skill are CM Punk, Daniel Bryan, Dean Ambrose, Seth Rollins and Alberto Del Rio. Each one has toured and it really shows in their ring work. Lets not forget the amount of indy talent that WWE now attains for use in NXT in preparation for the big leagues. It would seem as though WWE know where the true talent is nowadays and it certainly isnt in hiring the youngest, better looking portion of wrestling school graduates. Because of this high degree of talent, I would argue we are getting much better matches one after the other than we ever have before. The 3 hour RAW format is helping that naturally and the only downfall appears to be how creative insist on putting the same match on week in week out. The real noticeable improvement in match quality comes during the monthly Pay Per Views. Sure some of the creative storylines leading to the event are seriously ropey but that doesnt seem to hinder the matches the talent tend to put on when it really matters. I cant think of the last truly bad PPV match and that in itself speaks volumes for the future. Wrestlemania 29 was not, by any stretch of the imagination, a great Mania but that concusses tends to stem from the total lack of surprises or drama that failed to appear. But what did occur where 8 matches that each told a different story and were each as entertaining as the last. Thats more than can be said of certain other past WrestleManias! Sure WWE is still doing quite a few things wrong but the way in which improvements are being made, all the signs point to the big E being a true powerhouse once more come WrestleMania XXX.