MR. TITO: Online Wrestling Marks Forget How Bad the Late 2010s Were for WWE
Has the Wrestlemania 41 hype season been perfect? Nope, but the WWE took corrective measures at Elimination Chamber 2025 in Toronto when they had John Cena turn heel. Now, we have a STRONG main event between the babyface Cody Rhodes against the Rock-led heel John Cena. For many Wrestlemanias in the past, you just need to get the MAIN EVENT correct and the rest literally falls into place.
Right now, the WWE is in a unique position where part-timers such as The Rock and Roman Reigns can hold a creative gun to Triple H’s temple and cause plans to change, on the fly, based on their availability. Roman Reigns seriously look time-off last year from Wrestlemania 40 in early April through SummerSlam 2024 during late August. The Rock disappears for an even longer period of time. Then, he returns ones, disappears for another period of time, only to provide a confusing appearance at the first RAW on Netflix.
All things considered with the availabilities of the WWE’s top stars, they are doing OK. Attendance is still strong, RAW is doing well on Netflix as a top ranked show there, and Smackdown is consistently pulling in 1.5 million viewers or more on a shrinking Cable/Satellite platform on a Friday night. Merchandise sales are THROUGH THE ROOF right now.
“But but but but Wrestlemania 41 build-up has been terrible”.
Sure, I can agree to an extent, but the entire show was predicated on the availability of the Rock. New film opportunities arose, so plans were then changed to focus on John Cena’s last year and chasing that 17th title. There were some indications of Roman Reigns vs. CM Punk, but something went off the rails for that and eventually Seth Rollins was added (maybe holding back Punk vs. Roman for later?). Too many unexpected variables have happened with your top stars, and on top of that, Jey Uso’s merchandise sales have been white hot and WWE felt like rewarding him for that.
However, I’ve seen MUCH WORSE from Wrestlemania hype and Wrestlemania itself.
Do you not remember the 2010s, especially the LATE 2010s?
For all of you bashing Triple H right now, why don’t you go binge watch RAW, Smackdown, and the Premium Live Events (PLE) from 2015 through early 2020. Then get back with me if you really think that Wrestlemania 41’s build up has been “so bad”.
Let’s review the main events of Wrestlemania 31 through 35, shall we?
Wrestlemania 31 (2015) – Roman Reigns vs. Brock Lesnar (Seth Rollins MITB cash-in)
Wrestlemania 32 (2016) – Roman Reigns vs. Triple H
Wrestlemania 33 (2017) – Roman Reigns vs. The Undertaker
Wrestlemania 34 (2018) – Roman Reigns vs. Brock Lesnar
Wrestlemania 35 (2019) – Ronda Rousey vs. Becky Lynch vs. Charlotte Flair
Are we just going to willingly sweep Roman Reigns’s AWFUL babyface run of 2014 through early 2020 underneath the carpet? Seriously? Y’all don’t remember THAT version of Roman where he (a) lacked in-ring experience, (b) cut horribly scripted promos, (c) wore a stupid looking bullet-proof vest, and (d) had the worst ring-music ever with the edited Shield theme? Suffering Succotash, did you forget how BAD this era was?
RAW had just over 4 million viewers during early 2015. By 2019, consistently below 2 million. Merchandise sales completely tanked, and John Cena remained the #1 seller of merchandise through 2019 despite no longer wrestling there full-time since 2015. Attendance began to BOMB, as more tarps were used to cover up much of the arena and RAW/Smackdown’s camera-side had empty seats around it like AEW does now. Then, you have the curious case of Wrestlemania 33 which had to bring back Shane McMahon to wrestle Undertaker because of terrible ticket sales of a 3rd straight year of Roman Reigns in the main event.
Yes, Roman has righted his ship and is a bigtime superstar now. But he SUCKED during the late 2010s and made for some LAME Wrestlemanias. Wrestlemania used to be something you’d look forward to, but during the late 2010s, they were dreadful with his overpushed carcass being portrayed as the knock-off version of John Cena. It was HILARIOUS when John Cena SMOKED Roman Reigns during their feud, teaching how to cut promos like a man instead of a scripted fool.
This is why Paul Heyman deserves the praise… He FIXED Roman Reigns, teaching how to cut promos and helping to agent his matches to rely on psychology instead of hardcore rules or trademark spots. Heyman saved his career and made him relevant as a heel.
Other crap from the 2010s, let’s review, shall we?
Brock Lesnar was pushed too strong and then when anyone beat defeated him, such as Roman Reigns and Seth Rollins, it didn’t matter. You just knew that Lesnar could murder both guys in a real-life fight, so it was a waste of time to have him wrestle guys without the strong offense or credibility to defeat him.
Seth Rollins was a struggle during the mid-to-late 2010s… I’m happy with his improvements lately, but his character after the 2015 heel turn was LAME. Remember how he stopped doing the Curb Stomp and began using the Pedigree as a flunky of Triple H and Stephanie’s Authority? Then, you had that TERRIBLE feud with Corporate Kane, GOOD LORD.
Rest his soul and I’m incredibly sorry to his family for his passing, but Bray Wyatt stuff during the late 2010s kept getting weirder and weirder. Remember that AWFUL feud between Bray and Orton during 2017? Just awful, with the weird brawls in random locations and the stuff that would appear in the ring with WWE’s digital effects. And then, slowly but surely, we got the Fiend during this era. That’s right, let’s make a no-selling wrestler with a mask on… They made him champion and switched him to Smackdown on FOX, almost instantly killing their viewership numbers during 2019.
Jinder Mahal anyone? Anyone? Between his push and Bray Wyatt vs. Orton on Smackdown during 2017, it makes me BARF that Road Dogg is getting anywhere near a Creative Team. Mahal was a jobber on RAW for many months with a massive losing streak, but then when he joins Smackdown, he’s rushed to become the #1 contender and wins the World Title. Not only that, he has a long reign with the title and was actually poised to wrestle Brock Lesnar during the Fall of 2017 until wiser heads prevailed and put AJ Styles in his place instead.
These two points about Bray vs. Orton and Jinder Mahal make me PUKE because the Smackdown brand extension during 2016 actually made an efficient roster with Cena vs. AJ Styles vs. Dean Ambrose (Jon Moxley now), the Miz and Dolph Ziggler finally getting over, and the Women’s division making stars out of new faces (Becky, Carmella, and Alexa). Their ratings, despite having to go back-to-back following RAW on USA Network during Tuesdays, did well and occasionally beat RAW. But then they sabotaged this brand to the CRAP that you saw during 2017 and then the post-Wrestlemania “superstar shake-up” ruined everything by moving Miz and Alexa to RAW with Miz returning back to the midcard idiot that he’d remain for years.
While I’m on that kick of the women’s division… Dominant Charlotte Flair much? Much of her title reigns were the WWE trying other female wrestlers and then immediately getting cold feet by switching the belt back to Charlotte. Happened multiple times to Sasha Banks, for example. And then Ronda Rousey arrived and she was pushed to the moon.
It was like WWE had Lesnar/Roman and Rousey/Charlotte… One former UFC star and one overpushed wrestler, while everybody else were just warm bodies for them to defeat.
Tag division continued to decline…
Cruiserweight division was started, nobody cared… Remember that Cruiserweight exclusive show? Total garbage.
Mind you, the WWE of the late 2010s was the same who let CM Punk walk out of the WWE during January 2014 and the same one who tried to bury Daniel Bryan through early 2014.
And would you like to trade the Triple H of the 2010s with the one currently in charge? You forget that besides the Women’s Division, he really didn’t recruit and mold main event wrestlers. His best claim to fame has been signing Kevin Owens and Finn Balor, the latter of which I’d argue didn’t deserve to be World Champion. Owens has been good and dependable, but his refusal to change his “YMCA basketball player” look as limited where he could go. Gunther has proved to be a good wrestler, but part of the reason why fans are bummed about Gunther vs. Jey Uso isn’t necessarily for Jey Uso but that Gunther is a weak World Champion for him to defeat.
Triple H oversaw Talent from mid-2012 through early 2020. The early 2020 was a demotion, as John Laurinaitis reclaimed his Talent Relations job from 2012 after legal issues as it as been later revealed. Again, where are the male big main eventers? Wrestlemania 40 has Cody (Laurinaitis signing) vs. John Cena (Ross signing) and Roman Reigns (Laurinaitis signing) vs. Seth Rollins (Laurinaitis signing) vs. Seth Rollins (Laurinaitis signing) as this year’s 2 main events. Nobody from Triple H’s Talent Relations run has become a top main eventer that HHH signed and molded during his NXT tenure.
Triple H was EVP of Creative from late 2013 through the Fall of 2019. How did viewership go with him in charge again? RAW over 4 million viewers, LESS than 2 million viewers by the end of his tenure. He’d look even more FOOLISH if Nick Khan wasn’t hired to get the WWE on-track financially and “Khan” the Cable/Satellite companies into more money. WWE was willing to give Eric Bischoff and Paul Heyman another chance as “Executive Directors” (later Bruce Prichard) before keeping Triple H in charge of this creative sinking ship.
So, for all of you HATERS of the WWE’s creative and talent choices of 2025… Do you really want to return to the WWE of the 2010s?
An inexperienced and scripted babyface of Roman Reigns?
Overpushed Brock Lesnar that made nobody look credible inside the ring?
Vince McMahon’s ignorant brand of humor?
Terrible tag team division, even worse than it is now?
Overpushes of Charlotte Flair and Ronda Rousey? Quite the miracle that Becky Lynch got over…
If you want to keep being BABIES about things right now, then invent Time Travel to go back to when wrestling SUCKED during the late 2010s. After all, the “All In” Pay Per View was created during 2018 solely for the fact that fans were begging for an alternative and the same goes for All Elite Wrestling (AEW) being invented during 2019. Those two things likely don’t happen if WWE was actually good during the 2010s. Remember, WWE wanted Cody Rhodes to remain as “Stardust” permanently through 2016. Cody had heat with Triple H because HHH wouldn’t let him break that gimmick. WWE with better creative could have changed his gimmick back to Cody and he could have stayed in the promotion longer.
Again, if you don’t like what Triple H is doing right now, then turn on AEW Dynamite on TBS to see someone getting nails driven into their back. Enjoy that stupidity.
Otherwise, log into your Peacock and watch how “great” the mid-to-late 2010s WWE really was.
Sorry, but I’m not going back and I’m going to enjoy Wrestlemania 41. Could it be better? Sure, but other Wrestlemanias of the past could have been much better, too, especially that garbage peddled during the 2010s when they tried to make an unready Roman Reigns into a babyface star. Hence why they turned him HEEL during August 2020 because they failed for YEARS with his creative.
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