6 Major Booking Mistakes WWE Made At No Mercy
4. Bray Losing... Again
From page one of WWE’s booking manual, Bray Wyatt and Finn Bálor fought in a rubber match after picking up wins over one other on RAW and at SummerSlam respectively.
The match told a good narrative. Wyatt assaulted Bálor from behind early on, throwing him onto the announce table to send the Irishman retreating towards the locker room, only for Bálor to take Wyatt’s bait and return to the ring to collect the brave comeback victory.
On its own, that makes sense. But previous booking meant that Wyatt needed this victory far more than Bálor did. He was made to look strong in defeat, but only wins can repair the damage already done by WWE in constantly booking the 'Eater of Worlds' to lose.
Bálor has the fan support to recover from losses much bigger than this (Daniel Bryan lost clean to Wyatt at the 2014 Royal Rumble and was famously crowned WWE Champion by WrestleMania), but Wyatt is now directionless and his momentum is at an all-time low.
This win could have changed his fortunes. It would have shown him to be cunning; goading Bálor into dropping his demon gimmick and then attacking him as the match started, and also ruthless, to prey on his injured victim. Instead, it showed him up as a fraud, again.