This Is The Most Expensive Mistake WWE Ever Made

AJ Styles Jinder Mahal Clash of Champions
WWE

The dreaded trilogy - and its f*ck finish/f*ck finish/definitive result, but by this point who cares as much formula - had already crept into the narrative long, long ago. Contrast the WWF pay-per-view calendar of 1997, and its pivotal groundwork, with, say the 2010 calendar, and its three consecutive Undertaker Vs. Kane matches. WWE was firmly in uninspiring retread mode: a multiplication of something that was already ancient.

This was a key factor behind the decline of the pay-per-view model that WWE had now abandoned. It was never a platform-specific issue; what WWE did, to its far-reaching detriment, was sell the same old sh*t, just at a significantly lower cost. Everything seemed to go on forever.

AJ Styles Vs. Kevin Owens; AJ Styles Vs. Jinder Mahal; AJ Styles Vs. Shinsuke Nakamura: AJ is highlighted here specifically because this was the new arc of the new WWE Superstar. AJ Styles arrived in WWE in the Network era, is four years deep into his run, and has only worked unique singles PPV matches with six opponents: Jinder Mahal, Shane McMahon, Finn Bálor, Brock Lesnar, Randy Orton and the Undertaker. Shane, Lesnar and 'Taker were part-timers, and Styles was an eleventh hour replacement for Bray Wyatt, against whom Bálor was set to work another pay-per-view sequel. The first Mahal match had already happened on free TV. Styles and Orton were programmed together, with the face and heel alignments reversed, later in the very same calendar year of 2019.

What's worse is that, when those subs started to decline, year on year, WWE, in a bid to artificially flog the Network as a success to subscribers, added two extra hours to virtually every PPV runtime to improve its minutes-streamed metric. WWE has cleared a very low bar of praise in 2020 for finally cutting that practise out. They only did so at the precise moment they knew the game was up.

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Contributor
Contributor

Michael Sidgwick is an editor, writer and podcaster for WhatCulture Wrestling. With over seven years of experience in wrestling analysis, Michael was published in the influential institution that was Power Slam magazine, and specialises in providing insights into All Elite Wrestling - so much so that he wrote a book about the subject. You can order Becoming All Elite: The Rise Of AEW on Amazon. Possessing a deep knowledge also of WWE, WCW, ECW and New Japan Pro Wrestling, Michael’s work has been publicly praised by former AEW World Champions Kenny Omega and MJF, and surefire Undisputed WWE Universal Champion Cody Rhodes. When he isn’t putting your finger on why things are the way they are in the endlessly fascinating world of professional wrestling, Michael wraps his own around a hand grinder to explore the world of specialty coffee. Follow Michael on X (formerly known as Twitter) @MSidgwick for more!