WWE's Biggest Booking DISASTER Every Year (1986-2026)
5. Liv Morgan’s Botched Babyface Push (2022)
These days, Liv Morgan is roundly regarded as one of the women's division's mainline stars. She's effectively become the leading light of Judgment Day, and she's more likely to receive monster reactions in front of crowds than not. Things were a tad different back in 2022.
Morgan won Money In The Bank then cashed in the same night to win the old SmackDown Women's prize. Following that, Ronda Rousey claimed Liv would get her brains bashed in if the pair met one-on-one, but a controversial finish during their SummerSlam match kept the title on Morgan.
What happened next was a sobering moment for everybody.
Y'see, Liv had escaped by the skin of her teeth vs. Ronda. Instead of acknowledging that, Morgan weirdly tried to paint herself as a glorious hero who'd stormed to victory over an MMA star like it was nothing. Fans...did not meet that halfway or buy it, and Liv's face told the full story during an errant in-ring interview on SmackDown.
The people had spoken. They didn't see the champ as someone to rally behind long-term, because WWE's characterisation had been so wonky. Morgan using a baseball bat didn't help either.
She wasn't the first worker to fail in such a spot by any means, or to flounder when trying to connect to the core audience. Not even close. Something had to give though, which is why Liv dropped the title back to Ronda at Extreme Rules in October.
Her attempted ascent up the ladder had been a miserable failure, not to mention a reminder of how finely balanced an art the organic wrestling babyface is.