8. The Titles, Especially The Secondary Ones, Have Become Second-Rate Garbage
Here's another side effect of the product becoming TV-oriented in the 90s, as it was discovered that changing a title on TV would pop a rating, and so that's what happened. Every damn week. And then, unsurprisingly, you had a giant load of titles that meant nothing because they changed hands every other week. In the past couple of years there has been a swing in attitude towards keeping belts on the guys longer in order to make the title changes worth more, but then you get an even worse result from that. Now the trend is for the assorted champions (except Randy Orton, who never ever looks bad) to job on TV because the theory is that keeping the title on them keeps them strong and ergo they can lose every match and just keep their spot due to holding a title. But again, that's the problem with the Madlibs booking, because the writing team only has a few cliché scenarios they play out over (These two guys don't like each other but they're forced to team up by the GM! Contract signings galore!) and over (Heel Authority Figures abusing their power! Champions lose a non-title match to set up a PPV title defense where they win! Some jerk wins a battle royale or four-way match to earn a title shot!) and over. Even worse is when you get crazy combinations of bad 50/50 booking and abusing the champions, like Wade Barrett losing the Intercontinental title to the Miz in the pregame show for Wrestlemania in a 3 minute match, and then coming back the next night to win it back for some reason. Who the hell is supposed to get over with THAT booking? Or else you get the really bizarre cases, like Dean Ambrose, the US champion who just never defends the US title because everyone has seemingly forgot he's the champion. There was a period in 2003 (or was it 2004? Who knows.) where the Hurricane and Rosey were tag champions for months and just stopped appearing on TV because there was literally nothing for them to do. Which brings me to my next point...