WWE has long been the juggernaut of skilled wrestling, with the track record of big events, like recording-breaking gates at WrestleManias and SummerSlams, excellent, five star matches, Hall of Fame talents, and unforgettable moments to prove it. The corporate has made huge moves on the business side of things, most recently moving its flagship show “WWE Raw” to Netflix in a historic effort and before that, merging with UFC to create TKO Group Holdings. Sometimes it looks as if WWE has never been off its game, but that couldn’t be farther from the reality.
It hasn’t at all times been just major business deals and giant WrestleMania stages for WWE. From scandals, to lawsuits, to talent even jumping to the competition that the corporate won’t even admit exists, there have been quite just a few misses in WWE, especially in recent memory. WWE has almost fumbled the bag in relation to various elements of its storylines, like attempting to alter up the WrestleMania 40 important event to the outrage of fans, to the booking of the legendary John Cena.
There are many mistakes that WWE would love fans to forget ever happened. Things like airing specials during tragedies before they’d details, to ending probably the most historic streak in wrestling history, to a more easy fact of not pushing fan-favorites, WWE has had loads of swings and misses in its history.
Hooked on Nostalgia
WWE has seen some excellent eras of wrestling throughout its history, from the beloved Attitude Era, to the beginnings of Rock ‘N’ Wrestling, to the Ruthless Aggression Era, to what is thought now because the Netflix Era under the leadership of Paul “Triple H” Levesque. It is the seemingly never-ending callbacks to those previous eras, especially that of the Attitude Era, which might be mistakes WWE continues to make again and again. It’s often like WWE, and its fans, are hooked on nostalgia, and there are examples of that running rampant throughout the corporate in its recent history.
One in all the largest examples of the “nostalgia addiction” is WWE’s shows in Saudi Arabia. WWE brings in old-school, veteran talents, lots of whom allegedly receive big paydays for the events. This led to one in all WWE’s biggest mistakes in relation to matches in recent memory, Shawn Michaels and Triple H versus The Undertaker and Kane, a bout that even Michaels and Undertaker regret having, as each men were well past their prime and delivered a sub-par match. Michaels said he regretted coming out of retirement for the match.
An excellent more moderen example is Goldberg teasing one final match. Back in November 2024, Goldberg announced he could be having a retirement match a month after going face-to-face with GUNTHER on the Bad Blood premium live event from his home state of Georgia. As of this writing, there are not any concrete plans yet for the Hall of Famer’s final match, nevertheless it’s one more example of WWE making the error of dipping into the nostalgia well.
Attempt WrestleMania 40 Important Event Change
One in all WWE’s biggest mistakes in recent memory was attempting to change up the important event of WrestleMania 40 after fan-favorite Cody Rhodes had won the Royal Rumble for the second yr in a row. Following a segment where Rhodes, seemingly uncomfortable, but fighting through it, gave up on difficult Roman Reigns on “The Grandest Stage of Them All” and as an alternative brought out Reigns’ cousin, Dwayne “The Rock Johnson,” fans revolted each online and in the group of live WWE shows. Even other wrestlers, each babyfaces and heels, inside the company took to social media to get behind Rhodes. In a short time “We Want Cody” was a worldwide trend and WWE needed to do their best to walk back what they’d mistakenly began.
At a media event in Las Vegas ahead of WrestleMania, The Rock and Rhodes got into an angle of their very own that may culminate in a WrestleMania night one important event tag team match involving Reigns and Seth Rollins. The Rock would get the pin on Rhodes to establish the night two angle of a Bloodline Rules match, but Rhodes finished his story and won the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship from Reigns to finish WrestleMania weekend.
As an alternative of letting news across the mistake calm down after the “WWE Raw” after WrestleMania where The Rock told Rhodes their story was just starting, WWE ended their potential story on the “Raw” Netflix debut. Rock politely acknowledged Rhodes in the group through the episode, and so they shared a drink backstage while The Rock was survive his Instagram page. Fans were once more confused, and the glaring mistakes at WrestleMania 40 was highlighted once more.
Sudden Change to PG Era
One in all the largest mistakes that WWE has ever made, within the eyes of the fans, a minimum of, is the change to the “PG Era” of television following the corporate’s beloved Attitude Era. WWE had been slowly transitioning to more family-friendly content, however the move was accelerated following the Benoit murder-suicide in 2007. WWE needed to appeal to sponsors, so the corporate began to transition away from TV-14 content. WWE announced the move to a PG rating on July 22, 2008, though it took just a few years for fans to actually change into outraged over the shortage of Attitude Era-esque storylines. Despite WWE’s business revenue increasing, nearly tripling attributable to various corporate partnerships, it also occurred during a time of decreased rankings.
WWE considers the PG Era to have lasted through 2014 into what the corporate calls “The Reality Era,” however the content of its programming stays rated PG-TV. The discourse surrounding a possible change back to TV-14 has been around for years now, starting in 2022 when it was rumored “WWE Raw” would change into more edgy on the behest of the USA Network. Rumors over the red brand’s rating began to swirl again before its January 2025 move to Netflix, when a TV-14 rating for the show was used as a placeholder, but “Raw” continues to be branded as PG on the streaming service. Rumors of “WWE NXT” changing to TV-14 for its debut on The CW were also circulated back in October 2024, but in addition proved to be false.
The Invasion
The Invasion was one in all WWE’s most egregious mistakes, because it was presupposed to be an enormous overarching angle after the autumn of WCW to WWE within the rankings, nevertheless it was nothing like anyone inside the company, or any fan watching, had envisioned. The Invasion is perhaps the only biggest missed opportunity for WWE ever, as no latest stars were made and WWE waited too long to begin the angle after Shane McMahon “bought” WCW. The ultimate “Nitro” and Shane’s “purchase” occurred on March 26, 2001, and the Invasion didn’t occur until that summer. It was a slightly slow rollout, with lesser-tier WCW guys attacking smaller level WWE stars.
WCW’s important stars, like Hulk Hogan, Sting, and Goldberg didn’t take part in the angle, like fans desired to see, and got here into the corporate much later. The WCW stars who did make the immediate jump were turned heel to make the fans turn against them. The complete Invasion focused around Vince McMahon’s ego and the storyline rivalry inside the family.
WWE also made the error of getting the flawed guys deflect to “The Alliance,” or Team WCW/ECW, like “Stone Cold” Steve Austin. Austin’s deflection made no sense, as he was best known for being a WWE guy. Austin hated Vince in the corporate’s hottest storyline, but he had been fired from WCW years prior, so the choice was quite illogical. There have been so elements that were mishandled inside what had the potential to be the largest story in wrestling history that it is going to go down as one in all WWE’s biggest mistakes.
Not Pushing Fan Favorites
All WWE fans want their favorite star pushed to the moon, and naturally, it’s unattainable for the corporate to place everyone in a good spot, but sometimes, the large fan support behind one star is simply too much to disregard. But, oftentimes, WWE does just that, and it’s an enormous mistake. The largest example of that’s Daniel Bryan and the “Yes!” movement. Fans of Bryan’s began the movement in 2014 once they became frustrated that their favorite star wasn’t getting the opportunities they felt he deserved. The movement caught steam after the Royal Rumble, which was won by a returning Batista and Bryan wasn’t even within the match. Fans would get on their feet and pump their fingers within the air, screaming “Yes!” in support each time Bryan took to the ring. He would go on to get various opportunities in WWE, but some fans felt prefer it was never enough for “The American Dragon.”
One other named fan movement was “Kofi Mania,” where the WWE audience were clamoring for Latest Day member Kofi Kingston to get his shot at gold. Kingston received many opportunities, including one within the Elimination Chamber, to get his shot at WrestleMania, but he kept coming up short. His last opportunity granted to him from Vince McMahon didn’t involve Kingston within the ring, but slightly his teammates Xavier Woods and Big E winning a gauntlet match to secure Kingston a title shot at WrestleMania 35. There, Kingston got his big victory over Bryan. He held the title for 180 days, but lost the title to Brock Lesnar in only eight seconds during “WWE SmackDown’s” debut on Fox, leaving fans seething.
AEW Deflections
Those inside WWE hate to even acknowledge that All Elite Wrestling exists as competition, so when stars decide to go to the brand new company slightly than proceed in WWE, it could possibly be viewed internally, in addition to to tribalist WWE fans, as an enormous mistake. There are talents WWE have not utilized who are actually doing big things in AEW and Ring of Honor, including Ricochet, the Hurt Syndicate, and Athena. When MVP, Shelton Benjamin, and Bobby Lashley went to AEW, they actually brought some latest eyes to AEW with the fans who follow them. It’s normal when fans feel like WWE is not using their favorites, they hope they can get out of their contracts and deflect to AEW.
One in all the largest misses WWE had when it got here to released stars was Cody Rhodes, who literally went out and helped construct the competition from the bottom up. While Rhodes after all famously ended up back in WWE, if there was no Stardust, AEW may not exist, or a minimum of, not be as successful without the assistance of Rhodes.
Failed NXT Call Ups
For each Tiffany Stratton and Roxanne Perez called up from “WWE NXT” to the important roster, there’s someone like Carmelo Hayes who is not being utilized to his full potential. It is a mistake that WWE is thought to make after fans fall in love with and consistently root for these stars in “NXT,” lots of whom, like Hayes, have held the brand’s top gold, only to flounder on “Raw” or “SmackDown.”
It could possibly be worse, nevertheless, as there are stars who get called up only to rarely be used on the important roster before their release. Blair Davenport is a recent example. Davenport was big name in “NXT,” only to have had a handful of matches after moving up before her release in February. While others, like Karrion Kross and Scarlett, can try to work their way into more interesting stories, there are others who WWE doesn’t appear to know what to do with, who find yourself sitting in catering slightly than wowing fans on the Performance Center.
Constant Rematches
One in all WWE’s biggest issues throughout the years that it’s tried to rectify multiple times across different regimes is seemingly constant rematches, all while the rosters on each brands are huge with loads of opportunities for brand new matchups. The corporate attempted to repair this back in 2018 once they were adamant that the fans were now “The Authority” and would help the corporate make decisions after years of Stephanie McMahon and Triple H leading things in storyline. They said that the automated rematch clause would now not be used when a champion lost the title, but, as we have seen through the years since, that does not appear to be the case anymore.
Constant rematches, or matches only barely different with a distinct member of a faction facing a babyface, are still extremely common in modern-day WWE. It feels as if Shinsuke Nakamura and LA Knight have been feuding over the US Champion on “WWE SmackDown” for months – because they’ve. Also on the blue brand, Carmelo Hayes and Andrade had a series of matches, a better of seven, to get to the identical championship after each had already challenge for it. Damian Priest versus Finn Balor, or a mixture of Balor, JD McDonagh, Carlito, and Dominik Mysterio, dominated “WWE Raw” for months, as well before Priest finally switched brands. Constant rematches, even when each competitors make for excellent dance partners, are redundant and a mistake that WWE is thought to make often.
Super Cena’s Booking
John Cena was the highest star and important character in WWE for a very long time, and since of that (also due partially to his marketability to children, the audience WWE was going after through the turn of the PG Era,) he was booked strong. So strong, in actual fact, the joke amongst fans was that he was like Super-Man, thus resulting in his online nickname of “Super Cena.” The “Super Cena” era began around 2005, after Cena had dropped his edgier “Dr. of Thuganomics” gimmick, and lasted until around 2014. During this time period, Cena would rarely lose a match, especially big matches, and if he did, he’d get his win back sooner slightly than later.
One of the vital egregious examples of Cena’s “super power” of being unable to a lose a match was when he defeated the complete Nexus stable at SummerSlam in 2010. Cena led a team of stars, including Chris Jericho, Edge, and Daniel Bryan, in a match against the Nexus. Cena led his team to victory, after every other star on Team WWE had been eliminated, by pinning the remaining Nexus members all on his own after being spiked with a DDT by Wade Barrett on the ground. Shortly after, Cena faced the team in a six-on-one handicapped match, and defeated them handily once more.
Despite many fans hating the “Super Cena” gimmick a lot following the demise of the Nexus, especially, many are calling for Cena to stack up victories during his retirement tour in 2025. The “Leader of the Cenation” lost his first match back, the Royal Rumble, and fans are hoping he’ll have the ability to battle back and secure his record-breaking seventeenth world championship.
On-Air During Tragedy
Within the Vince McMahon years of WWE, the corporate very much acted on a mindset of “The Show Must Go On,” but that has led to mistakes through the years which have gotten the corporate into trouble. Probably the most glaring example of this error is the very fact WWE aired a tribute show in memory of Chris Benoit on June 25, 2007, rather than “WWE Raw” that night, without knowing the main points behind the deaths of Benoit, his wife, and his young son. The episode featured stars and friends of Benoit sharing their stories concerning the man, just for the main points of the murder-suicide to emerge in the next days. WWE would in a short time distance themself from Benoit, removing all references of him from their website, and going so far as to remove mentions of him from archival footage.
Fans would think WWE would have learned its lesson, as just two years prior, the corporate got here under fire for airing a controversial angle on the day of the London bombings. WWE taped an angle in July 2005 that saw Muhammad Hassan, an Arab-American character upset about his treatment within the country following 9/11, send his masked minions to attack The Undertaker within the ring and choke him with piano wire in a perceived terrorist angle. The show aired on July 7, the identical day because the bombings, and WWE’s mistake caught the eye of major news outlets. The bombings happened that morning, but WWE made the choice to air the taped episode in its entirety. The angle eventually led to Hassan’s firing, despite the error, and his character overall, not being his fault.
End of the Streak
One of the vital shocking decisions by WWE was the selection to finish The Undertaker’s legendary win streak at WrestleMania in 2014. Brock Lesnar defeated “The Dead Man” at WrestleMania 30, snapping Undertaker’s win streak at 21 to the shock and horror of fans in attendance. The choice now’s questionable attributable to Lesnar being named within the civil lawsuit accusing Vince McMahon of sex trafficking and abuse, but before even that, Undertaker himself questioned the choice of Lesnar being the one to finish The Streak.
In 2023, Undertaker said in an interview he wished Roman Reigns would have been the one to interrupt the streak, as he thought Lesnar “didn’t need the rub.” Reigns defeated “The Dead Man” at WrestleMania 33 in a No Holds Barred Match. Reigns, in his pre-Tribal Chief era, was the one other man besides Lesnar to defeat Undertaker on “The Grandest Stage of Them All.” The next yr, Undertaker said that the late Bray Wyatt must have broken his WrestleMania streak if it wasn’t Reigns.
The Undertaker has admitted he doesn’t remember Lesnar defeating him at WrestleMania 30, making the error on WWE’s part much more glaring. He explained on an episode of his podcast that his last memory from the day is talking to his wife earlier within the afternoon and things pick back up when he was taken to the hospital following the match. He was diagnosed with a concussion, but would return to the ring a yr later after recovering.
