History YMMV / WWE

** So the Judgment Day's whole shtick is they are wrestlers banded together who feel they were misused and want to reach their full potential. So who do they recruit as a new member? T-BAR, a big guy who is nonetheless athletic but can also fly and is currently directionless? Omos, a 7-foot tall giant who could tear through their opponents like nothing? Nope, they pick ''Dominik Mysterio'' cause reasons.

* EndingFatgiue: A frequent complaint about ''Wrestling/WWERaw'' after the show was permanently extended to three hours was that it was too long for a weekly wrestling TV show. Ever since the third hour was added, ''Raw'' has slowly been declining in ratings thanks to the overexposure of the stale, mediocre writing the company has been churning out ever since the start of the PG era. Note that this opinion is not exclusively the fans'; several officials have openly agreed that ''Raw'' is too long (most noticeably Wrestling/TripleH), but because USA is paying so much for ''Raw'' to have a third hour, it's not financially viable for the company to get rid of it.

* TakeThatScrappy: The widely-hated 24/7 Championship met an undignified end on the November 7th edition of ''Raw'', where it was unsuccessfully dumped into a trash can by Nikki Cross and left on the concrete floor. Two days later, the official WWE website confirmed the title's retirement with little fanfare.

** Prior to the Women's Evolution, it was very common for numerous WWE pay-per-views to not have a women's match (WrestleMania 29 was one example where a mixed eight-person tag team match was cut for time) but now that gender equality is in full swing, it is now common for WWE pay-per-views to have two or more women's matches (with huge storyline buildup) these days in an attempt to please the PR and fans.

** It was also very common for some episodes of RAW, SmackDown, NXT and the PPVs to not have any women's matches or segments but the Women's Evolution as well as the rise of feminism and gender equality prompted the WWE to increase its focus on the women's division. These days, an episode of RAW, SmackDown, NXT or a PPV without a women's match would get plenty of negative fan and PR backlash today.

** Prior to 2016, WWE's female talents were called "Divas." The term was criticized by fans and wrestlers alike as the term was viewed as sexist and carried a negative connotation.[[note]]WWE appeared to try to tie it with the glamour associated with ''operatic'' divas, but most fans would reply that the term entered popular lexicon as a shorthand for a catty, demanding, and overall obnoxious and unpleasant woman.[[/note]] In the wake of the Women's Evolution, the term was eventually done away with, and now both male and female talents are refered to as "Superstars".

* SoOkayItsAverage: The main criticism towards WWE is not that it's really bad, it's just very... bland and samey. Most notably, the main event scene was virtually unchanged from 2006-2010, and the lack of building up new stars came back to bite them in the ass when all of sudden major players such as Wrestling/ShawnMichaels, Wrestling/{{Batista}}, and Wrestling/ChrisJericho (albeit temporarily in Jericho's case) left the company, and Wrestling/TheUndertaker and HHH have to work reduced schedules either due to wear and tear or increased work backstage. As a result, WWE has been scrambling in order to find other vets to place up at the top of the heap with John Cena, Wrestling/RandyOrton, and Wrestling/{{Edge|Wrestler}}, with Wrestling/{{Rey Mysterio|Jr}}, Wrestling/TheBigShow and Wrestling/{{Kane}} sitting on the fence between main event and upper midcard, and Wrestling/{{Sheamus}} being poised for a breakthrough; even then, Edge was forced to retire in 2011, Rey Mysterio is becoming increasingly injury prone, Big Show and Kane are nearing the end of their careers, and Sheamus is in limbo, leaving the only viable main eventers as John Cena and Randy Orton, with the only genuine main event talents established since 2011 being CM Punk and Daniel Bryan, the former who was already a multiple time world champion in WWE before then and the latter whose popularity exploded only after losing the world title, with various rising superstars such as Dolph Ziggler, The Miz, and Alberto Del Rio, and a few oldies like Christian and Mark Henry, being raised to the main event and dropped back down the card shortly afterwards. And then you have WWE's reliance on part-timers like The Rock, Brock Lesnar, and the aforementioned Triple H and Undertaker. All of this could be alleviated if WWE made room for the midcard talent. Essentially, it comes down to a combination of corporate unease (casual fans love familiar faces, so why fix it if it ain't broke?) and Vince [=McMahon's=] tendency to favor company men over newer acquisitions from rival promotions like ECW in the 90's and TNA and Ring of Honor in the modern times.

* DorkAge:
** The [[Wrestling/WWENewGenerationEra New Generation Era]] (1993-1997). 1995 was the worst fiscal year in WWE history. To paint a picture, the Wrestling/MondayNightWars still didn't happen just yet. Wrestling/{{WCW}} was little better than the WWF in '95: they had just signed Wrestling/HulkHogan and Wrestling/RandySavage, but they were just playing the same characters they played during the WWF's [[Wrestling/WWEGoldenAgeEra Golden Age]] in the '80s, which was already seen as played-out at the time. Wrestling/KevinNash a.k.a. Diesel was champ during an especially directionless time. This was the year people remember for the hokey, uncool gimmicks (albeit those began in '93), the insufferable [[http://wrestlecrap.com/inductions/wwf-mania-episode-1-an-hour-straight-of-todd-pettengill-thatll-be-good-right/ Todd Pettengill]], Mabel winning the King of the Ring tournament (becoming "King Mabel") and being pushed as a world title contender, and ''Raw'' being held in high school gyms. And, of course, Diesel's World Title reign.
** The post-Ruthless Aggression PG-era qualifies to most older fans. And even in that era, there was a noticeable period of low quality on RAW known as the "Celebrity Guest Host" era, circa late 2009 to early 2010. USA Network mandated there would be more celebrity involvement, so WWE started bringing in celebrities who functioned as weekly General Managers. Something that most fans came to hate, as many of these celebrities hogged screentime for terrible segments (usually involving Wrestling/ChavoGuerreroJr's feud with Wrestling/{{Hornswoggle}} where the latter won every match they had), didn't even look like they ''liked'' wrestling, and were often using their spot to shill whatever project they had going at the time. The only exceptions to this were those guest hosts who were (former) wrestlers (most memorably, Wrestling/BretHart in his first WWE appearance since 1997). Thankfully, the gimmick ended some time after ''Wrestling/WrestleMania'' 26, with the guest hosts being stripped of booking power and becoming regular old celebrity guests.
** Wrestling/MichaelCole also became a poster boy for another Dork Age in WWE's history, the year 2011. Wrestling/TheMiz was an unpopular world champion. There was an abortion of a feud between Wrestling/JerryLawler and Cole; it contributed to sinking ''[=WrestleMania=] XXVII'', which was already overloaded with [[StuntCasting guest spots]], GimmickMatches and low-quality wrestling. Wrestling/TheNexus had devolved into "The Corre" which was embarrassingly bad. Wrestling/{{Edge|Wrestler}}'s career came to an abrupt close, and the anonymous Raw GM ("MAY I HAVE YOUR ATTENTION PLEASE...") angle was at its pinnacle: A MysteriousEmployer would send emails containing all the matches and stipulations during the show, and Cole would read them out. Summing up how nonsensical the anonymous Raw GM was, at one point, Edge began to destroy the laptop and it cried out for mercy--as though [[ReachingBetweenTheLines the broken laptop was transmitting the sensation of pain]] to the anonymous Raw GM. The anonymous Raw GM would end up becoming the WWE equivalent of WCW's Black Scorpion: The company booked themselves into a corner and they couldn't think of an outcome which would live up to expectations, so they would later reveal that it was Hornswoggle around a year after the anonymous Raw GM's run had ended.[[note]]According to a former WWE writer, WWE had no plans regarding an identity for the anonymous Raw GM before it was initially fizzled out. When they thought about a one-off return to the character, Hornswoggle was suggested by a writer during a creative team meeting as a joke, playing off the poor reception to an earlier storyline where Hornswoggle had been revealed to be Mr. [=McMahon's=] illegitimate child.[[/note]] It was so bad that Vince personally apologized to Lawler for involving him in the feud with Cole, and it sort of [[DeadHorseTrope killed the idea of commentary]] for many. No wonder why the Summer of [[Wrestling/CMPunk Punk]] caught on as it did. ''[=WrestleCrap=]'' "awarded" their [[http://wrestlecrap.com/inductions/all-things-michael-cole-the-2011-gooker-award-winner/ 2011 Gooker]] to Cole's interminable heel run.

** Wrestling/MichaelCole also became a poster boy for another Dork Age in WWE's history, the year 2011. Wrestling/TheMiz was an unpopular world champion. There was an abortion of a feud between Wrestling/JerryLawler and Cole; it contributed to sinking ''[=WrestleMania=] XXVII'', which was already overloaded with [[StuntCasting guest spots]], GimmickMatches and low-quality wrestling. Wrestling/TheNexus had devolved into "The Corre" which was embarrassingly bad. Wrestling/{{Edge}}'s career came to an abrupt close, and the anonymous Raw GM ("MAY I HAVE YOUR ATTENTION PLEASE...") angle was at its pinnacle: A MysteriousEmployer would send emails containing all the matches and stipulations during the show, and Cole would read them out. Summing up how nonsensical the anonymous Raw GM was, at one point, Edge began to destroy the laptop and it cried out for mercy--as though [[ReachingBetweenTheLines the broken laptop was transmitting the sensation of pain]] to the anonymous Raw GM. The anonymous Raw GM would end up becoming the WWE equivalent of WCW's Black Scorpion: The company booked themselves into a corner and they couldn't think of an outcome which would live up to expectations, so they would later reveal that it was Hornswoggle around a year after the anonymous Raw GM's run had ended.[[note]]According to a former WWE writer, WWE had no plans regarding an identity for the anonymous Raw GM before it was initially fizzled out. When they thought about a one-off return to the character, Hornswoggle was suggested by a writer during a creative team meeting as a joke, playing off the poor reception to an earlier storyline where Hornswoggle had been revealed to be Mr. [=McMahon's=] illegitimate child.[[/note]] It was so bad that Vince personally apologized to Lawler for involving him in the feud with Cole, and it sort of [[DeadHorseTrope killed the idea of commentary]] for many. No wonder why the Summer of [[Wrestling/CMPunk Punk]] caught on as it did. ''[=WrestleCrap=]'' "awarded" their [[http://wrestlecrap.com/inductions/all-things-michael-cole-the-2011-gooker-award-winner/ 2011 Gooker]] to Cole's interminable heel run.

** The same thing happened to Wrestling/{{Edge}} during a triple threat match against Jericho and Batista during his face run after his neck injury. WWE wised up and made Edge the brilliant heel that would wreck shop in WWE for years. Toward the [[RealLifeWritesThePlot end of his career]], he also became an example of a longtime heel who ran its course and began cashing in his fans' built up commitment to him by turning face, done over the years by several wrestlers who were in the company long enough to do it.

* RetroactiveRecognition: The many background extras and [[{{Jobber}} Jobbers]] that appear on WWE television are typically pulled from the ranks of local wrestling schools and indie circuits. It's therefore not uncommon for future wrestling stars, whether in WWE or elsewhere, to have one of their first major television appearances to be in the background of a random WWE segment from years prior.

** Any heel worth their salt these days. Wrestling/{{Edge}}. Chris Jericho... no matter what Wrestling/CMPunk does, he'll always have ''somebody'' cheering. In fact, some of things he does is likely to make them cheer even MORE. [[Wrestling/KevinSteen Kevin Owens]] draws such reactions as well.

* SoOkayItsAverage: The main criticism towards WWE is not that it's really bad, it's just very... bland and samey. Most notably, the main event scene was virtually unchanged from 2006-2010, and the lack of building up new stars came back to bite them in the ass when all of sudden major players such as Wrestling/ShawnMichaels, Wrestling/{{Batista}}, and Wrestling/ChrisJericho (albeit temporarily in Jericho's case) left the company, and Wrestling/TheUndertaker and HHH have to work reduced schedules either due to wear and tear or increased work backstage. As a result, WWE has been scrambling in order to find other vets to place up at the top of the heap with John Cena, Wrestling/RandyOrton, and Wrestling/{{Edge}}, with Wrestling/{{Rey Mysterio|Jr}}, Wrestling/TheBigShow and Wrestling/{{Kane}} sitting on the fence between main event and upper midcard, and Wrestling/{{Sheamus}} being poised for a breakthrough; even then, Edge was forced to retire in 2011, Rey Mysterio is becoming increasingly injury prone, Big Show and Kane are nearing the end of their careers, and Sheamus is in limbo, leaving the only viable main eventers as John Cena and Randy Orton, with the only genuine main event talents established since 2011 being CM Punk and Daniel Bryan, the former who was already a multiple time world champion in WWE before then and the latter whose popularity exploded only after losing the world title, with various rising superstars such as Dolph Ziggler, The Miz, and Alberto Del Rio, and a few oldies like Christian and Mark Henry, being raised to the main event and dropped back down the card shortly afterwards. And then you have WWE's reliance on part-timers like The Rock, Brock Lesnar, and the aforementioned Triple H and Undertaker. All of this could be alleviated if WWE made room for the midcard talent. Essentially, it comes down to a combination of corporate unease (casual fans love familiar faces, so why fix it if it ain't broke?) and Vince [=McMahon's=] tendency to favor company men over newer acquisitions from rival promotions like ECW in the 90's and TNA and Ring of Honor in the modern times.

** The Wrestling/MattHardy[=/=]Wrestling/{{Lita}}[=/=]Wrestling/{{Edge}} LoveTriangle. WWE took a real story and turned it into a big storyline when, after initially firing Matt due to what they deemed unprofessional conduct on social media after he discovered the affair, they resigned him and had him attack Edge at ringside from the crowd, yelling that fans could watch him at Wrestling/RingOfHonor and so forth, confusing the fans and making them wonder if the whole thing was a work or a shoot. This made Matt became perhaps the most-over wrestler in all of wrestling at the time...and then Wrestling/VinceMcMahon embraced him on-screen, killing his outsider status, and Matt cut a morbid promo about how he hoped Lita and Edge would die in a car accident. Weeks later, Edge cut a scathing response where he took Matt's car crash comment and used it against him, which some say buried Matt, as in the face of the morbid comment, Edge came off as [[VillainHasAPoint someone who did have a valid point]].

** During the Wrestling/MondayNightWars, the WWF was referred to as "Up North" or "The Promotion Up North" due to being based in Stamford, Connecticut which was north of its southern rival WCW (based in Atlanta and thus nicknamed "Down South").

* ArchivePanic: ''Wrestling/WWERaw'' has over 1200 episodes, ''Wrestling/WWESmackDown'' over 1000 episodes, ''Superstars'' over 380 episodes, ''Wrestling/{{WWE NXT}}'' over 340 episodes, and ''Main Event'' over 200 episode. And that's just the current programming. They have a ton of older shows, as well. At the time of launch, every pay-per-view up 'til the end of 2013 and the entire Wrestling/{{WCW}} and Wrestling/{{ECW}} PPV libraries were available to view on the WWE Network, along the previous two years' episodes (plus a few classics) from ''Raw'' and ''[=SmackDown=]''. Three months later, several years' worth of classic ''Raw'' episodes had been added, with the recent ones being added a month after airin; the newest [=PPVs=] air live on the Network and are immediately archived. They're gradually uploading the out-of-print documentaries and DVD releases, and Network-exclusive original content has begun airing. Thankfully, each show is bookmarked in case you want to watch a specific match or segment again, so you can search by the name of the wrestler involved.[[note]]Except for Wrestling/ChrisBenoit: although his matches and segments remain on the Network, none of them are bookmarked and the search engine brings up no results for his name.[[/note]]

** The post-Ruthless Aggression PG-era qualifies to most older fans. And even in that era, there was a noticeable period of low quality known as the "Celebrity Guest Host" era, circa late 2009 to early 2010. USA Network mandated there would be more celebrity involvement, so WWE started bringing in celebrities who functioned as weekly General Managers. Something that most fans came to hate, as many of these celebrities hogged screentime for terrible segments (usually involving Wrestling/ChavoGuerreroJr's feud with Wrestling/{{Hornswoggle}} where the latter won every match they had), didn't even look like they ''liked'' wrestling, and were often using their spot to shill whatever project they had going at the time. The only exceptions to this were those guest hosts who were (former) wrestlers (most memorably, Wrestling/BretHart in his first WWE appearance since 1997). Thankfully, the gimmick ended some time after ''Wrestling/WrestleMania'' 26, with the guest hosts being stripped of booking power and becoming regular old celebrity guests.

* ForcedMeme: A common criticism of WWE's branding is that they would take a phrase and make it passé by pushing it to the point of driving it to the ground, usually by the commentators, although a common culprit of this is Wrestling/MichaelCole; just him saying "Wrestling/{{Cesaro}} Section" turned it into a meaningless buzzword, and he made "Suplex City" sound uncool by repeating it multiple times in every segment Lesnar is in. It's not exclusive to Cole though: there's Stephanie's "Divas Revolution", and even [[Wrestling/DwayneJohnson The Rock]] (one of the wrestlers famous for getting a silly catchphrase over) shouting "WHAT A WRESTLEMANIA MOMENT!" every ten seconds at the ''[='=]Mania'' he hosted, among others.

* UnintentionallySympathetic:
** My goodness, how many heels have ended up this way in 21st century WWE? Just to cite one example: Wrestling/CMPunk, as WWE Champion, despite engaging in lively multi-match rivalries against Wrestling/ChrisJericho and [[Wrestling/BryanDanielson Daniel Bryan]], never main evented a pay-per-view in 2012. Cena, instead, has main evented '''every''' pay-per-view in 2012. At first this was justified, because Wrestling/{{Kane}} was preaching ThePowerOfHate and seriously testing Cena's character heading into the match against [[Wrestling/DwayneJohnson The Rock]] at ''Wrestling/WrestleMania'', then it was about said match with the Rock, then Wrestling/BrockLesnar had just come back. But the pattern still continued after that…despite Cena facing Wrestling/JohnLaurinaitis, an authority figure with a largely unremarkable wrestling career that ended in 2000, and Wrestling/BigShow, who Cena beat a hundred times since 2004. Even a Money in the Bank ladder match became the main event of a show on the grounds of Cena being involved for the first time and thus declaring it a "historic announcement" -- despite the fact that several other talents were competing in their first Money in the Bank match in the other such battle from that same night and no special attention was ever paid to this. Finally, on ''Raw 1000'', Punk's WWE Championship title defense is finally the main event. But not only is this solely because Cena cashed in MITB to become his first challenger, but that same night The Rock, a part-timer mostly working in Hollywood these days, came out in the middle of the ring and told him he had a WWE title shot booked months in advance at the Royal Rumble. Yet according to Wrestling/JerryLawler, portrayed as a representative of the pulse of the WWE Universe, Punk attacking The Rock and demanding what many fans felt is his due respect for his work as WWE Champion means he's turned on everyone.
** Abraham Washington, while managing his tag team the Prime Time Players, once made a joke alluding to rape allegations against NBA star Kobe Bryant in 2003 over sexual relations in a Colorado hotel. Despite the arena crowd not being very offended, despite Big Show already making a joke about the same situation on the pre-taped show Smackdown without it being edited out, WWE immediately apologized on-air for his comments, and his future in WWE was left in question. After continuing to be employed by the company, even long enough to help the Wrestling/PrimeTimePlayers become #1 contenders, he was suddenly fired eleven days later due to a tweet of support to Linda [=McMahon=]'s Senate campaign apparently being against WWE rules. This decision has been largely panned as hypocritical and backwards, resulting in the heel AW becoming more over as a baby face outside of WWE than he ever was a heel in WWE.

* ForcedMeme: Fans have gotten silly things over on their own, wrestlers have gotten silly things over on their own, managers, commentators also did so, but the minute Wrestling/MichaelCole says anything, it becomes passé. "Hey, everybody is Wrestling/{{Fandango}}ing! Do the Fandango!" Just him saying "Wrestling/{{Cesaro}} Section" turned it into a meaningless buzzword. He made "Suplex City" sound uncool by repeating it multiple times in every segment Lesnar is in. It's not exclusive to Cole: there's Stephanie's "Divas Revolution", and even [[Wrestling/DwayneJohnson The Rock]] (one of the wrestlers famous for getting a silly catchphrase over) shouting "WHAT A WRESTLEMANIA MOMENT!" every ten seconds at the ''[='=]Mania'' he hosted, among others.

* UnintentionallySympathetic

** Abraham Washington, while managing his tag team the Prime Time Players, once made a joke alluding to rape allegations against NBA star Kobe Bryant in 2003 over sexual relations in a Colorado hotel. Despite the arena crowd not being very offended, despite The Big Show already making a joke about the same situation on the pretaped show Smackdown without it being edited out, WWE immediately apologized on-air for his comments, and his future in WWE was left in question. After continuing to be employed by the company, even long enough to help the Wrestling/PrimeTimePlayers become #1 contenders, he was suddenly fired eleven days later due to a tweet of support to Linda [=McMahon=]'s Senate campaign apparently being against WWE rules. This decision has been largely panned as hypocritical and backwards, resulting in the heel AW becoming more over as a baby face outside of WWE than he ever was a heel in WWE.

** Speaking of the WWE Women's Division, WWE's female talents were often sexualized during the Attitude Era, the Ruthless Aggression Era and to a lesser extent, the PG Era as they would often compete in match types such as bra-and-panties matches, pillow fights, bikini contests, pudding matches, costume matches and other objectifying matches. But the [=#MeToo=] Movement has put an end to these match types as the women are treated the same as the men by competing in Royal Rumble matches, Hell in a Cell matches, Money in the Bank ladder matches, TLC matches, Elimination Chamber matches and Extreme Rules matches.
** When the Wrestling/RoyalRumble and the Wrestling/MoneyInTheBank PPVs debuted in 1988 and 2010 respectively, only men got to compete in those matches (though the Royal Rumble match did feature the likes of Wrestling/Chyna and Wrestling/Beth Phoenix). However, the Women's Evolution has resulted in the WWE treating the men and women as equals, the Royal Rumble having only one men's Royal Rumble match and Money in the Bank having either one or two men's Money in the Bank ladder matches with no women's Money in the Bank ladder match is frowned upon these days.
** Prior to 2016, WWE's female talents were called "Divas." The term was criticized by fans and wrestlers alike as the term was viewed as sexist and carried a negative connotation. The term was eventually done away with now that both male and female talents are treated as equals.

** The post-Ruthless Aggression PG-era qualifies to most older fans.

** Guys like Wrestling/DustyRhodes, Wrestling/RickySteamboat, Wrestling/{{Kamala}}, Wrestling/ShaneDouglas, Wrestling/{{Vader}}, Wrestling/TooColdScorpio, Wrestling/ThePublicEnemyWrestler, Wrestling/DrDeathSteveWilliams, Wrestling/{{Taz|z}}, Wrestling/{{Raven}}, Wrestling/DiamondDallasPage, Wrestling/UltimoDragon, Wrestling/LowKi, Wrestling/{{Mistico}} and a slew of others who had great careers before going to WWE and weren't made to look anywhere near as good inside of it, and often they were [[TakeThat actively made to look downright bad]]. On the whole, it seems like Vince and the WWF/E were always very good at taking guys who'd been underappreciated/underused elsewhere and turning them into superstars, but not quite as good at taking guys who'd made their names and been successful elsewhere and using them well. Sometimes, this is because of other factors (Taz's neck problems, Shane Douglas' attitude problems) that the WWE can't really help. Sometimes, it's simply because there's just too many damn wrestlers in the company to push people that deserve it (the period after the fall of WCW saw many former talent get crowded out of the spotlight.) Sometimes WWE was obviously trying but just did not know how to bring out the best in a guy (Kamala, Místico) Other times (Ricky Steamboat, Dusty Rhodes), there's really just no excuse.

** Guys like Wrestling/DustyRhodes, Wrestling/RickySteamboat, Wrestling/{{Kamala}}, Wrestling/ShaneDouglas, Wrestling/{{Vader}}, Wrestling/TooColdScorpio, Wrestling/ThePublicEnemyWrestling, Wrestling/DrDeathSteveWilliams, Wrestling/{{Taz|z}}, Wrestling/{{Raven}}, Wrestling/DiamondDallasPage, Wrestling/UltimoDragon, Wrestling/LowKi, Wrestling/{{Mistico}} and a slew of others who had great careers before going to WWE and weren't made to look anywhere near as good inside of it, and often they were [[TakeThat actively made to look downright bad]]. On the whole, it seems like Vince and the WWF/E were always very good at taking guys who'd been underappreciated/underused elsewhere and turning them into superstars, but not quite as good at taking guys who'd made their names and been successful elsewhere and using them well. Sometimes, this is because of other factors (Taz's neck problems, Shane Douglas' attitude problems) that the WWE can't really help. Sometimes, it's simply because there's just too many damn wrestlers in the company to push people that deserve it (the period after the fall of WCW saw many former talent get crowded out of the spotlight.) Sometimes WWE was obviously trying but just did not know how to bring out the best in a guy (Kamala, Místico) Other times (Ricky Steamboat, Dusty Rhodes), there's really just no excuse.

* DarknessInducedAudienceApathy:
** 2015, while initially showing promise around the time Wrestling/SethRollins became champion, eventually caused this as Rollins' title reign caused him to be booked incredibly weak, even for your standard DirtyCoward SmugSnake champion. WWE's constant need to protect their chosen golden boys at the expense of burying {{Ensemble Darkhorse}}s, and refusal to do anything new or spontaneous in spite of the fans making their opinions very vocal has caused many to become rather jaded and bitter with the product and the direction of the company as long as Wrestling/VinceMcMahon continues to be at the helm. Some have become so cynical that they admit they continue watching so they can see how the company screws up the booking come ''Wrestling/WrestleMania'' time. A good indication of this is how dead the crowds have gotten on ''Raw''. Even Chicago, a city whose crowd skews toward the smarkier portion of the fan base, was dead. To say nothing of the falling ratings, which have reached lows not seen since before the Wrestling/AttitudeEra. The company was successful in completely beating their fans into submission, and now they don't care about ''anything'' -- even the most popular wrestlers barely get half-decent pops. WWE is now in [[AuthorsSavingThrow panic mode]] in trying to fix the problem that they caused, but what they don't seem to get is that they're doing everything ''except'' the one solution that would work: giving the fans what they want and pushing wrestlers they actually like.
** An indication of how bad the fans had this was shown when [[Wrestling/JonMoxley Dean Ambrose]] finally won the WWE Championship in 2016, breaking the chain of heel and/or disliked champions that held it ever since Wrestling/DanielBryan was forced to vacate it due to injury in 2014. While the fans were ''very'' happy that he won it (absolutely ecstatic, to be exact), the company had beaten them down so much that many were convinced he was a transitional champion and that Wrestling/SethRollins or Roman Reigns would win it back soon. A part of that was due to Ambrose's own booking, where he had come frustratingly close to winning the title many times -- so many times that many thought that they would never pull the trigger on him. It wasn't until Ambrose pinned both men clean in the space of a week to retain the championship that the fans realized that Ambrose had become a permanent main eventer, and that they were getting a long reign with the first true {{Face}} champion since Daniel Bryan.

### The night Charlotte faced Nikki Bella for the Divas title on ''Raw'' over two months later, literally a week before Nikki would break the record, Steph came out as a babyface authority figure, recognizing Charlotte's victory, upholding the integrity of the rules, and stripping away the heels' biggest advatage. Then 15 minutes later she is telling the Wrestling/BigShow to go out and injure Sting in her role in Wrestling/TheAuthority, which didn't make any sense. It was painfully obvious that she wanted to insert herself into the Divas Revolution, even though her role for all intents and purposes indicated that she should be giving the Divas something to revolt ''against''.

* ArchivePanic: ''Wrestling/WWERaw'' has over 1200 episodes, ''Wrestling/WWESmackDown'' over 1000 episodes, ''Superstars'' over 380 episodes, ''Wrestling/{{WWE NXT}}'' over 340 episodes, and ''Main Event'' over 200 episode. And that's just the current programming. They have a ton of older shows, as well. At the time of launch, every pay-per-view up 'til the end of 2013 and the entire Wrestling/{{WCW}} and Wrestling/{{ECW}} PPV libraries were available to view on the WWE Network, along the previous two years' episodes (plus a few classics) from ''Raw'' and ''[=SmackDown=]''. Three months later, several years' worth of classic ''Raw'' episodes had been added, with the recent ones being added a month after airin; the newesr [=PPVs=] air live on the Network and are immediately archived. They're gradually uploading the out-of-print documentaries and DVD releases, and Network-exclusive original content has begun airing. Thankfully, each show is bookmarked in case you want to watch a specific match or segment again, so you can search by the name of the wrestler involved.[[note]]Except for Wrestling/ChrisBenoit: although his matches and segments remain on the Network, none of them are bookmarked and the search engine brings up no results for his name.[[/note]]

* ShockingSwerve: Even without {{Trope Namer|s}} Wrestling/VinceRusso in the booking, WWE still has these infamous moments, like Wrestling/{{Rey Mysterio|Jr}} revealing that Wrestling/{{Kane}} was the one who put Wrestling/TheUndertaker in vegetative state instead of one of the many heels in the roster.

** Speaking of the WWE Women's Division, WWE's female talents were often sexualized during the Attitude Era, the Ruthless Aggression Era and to a lesser extent, the PG Era as they would often compete in match types such as bra-and-panties matches, pillow fights, bikini contests, pudding matches, costume matches and other objectifying matches. But the #MeToo Movement has put an end to these match types as the women are treated the same as the men by competing in Royal Rumble matches, Hell in a Cell matches, Money in the Bank ladder matches, TLC matches, Elimination Chamber matches and Extreme Rules matches.

** Prior to the Women's Evolution, it was very common for numerous WWE pay-per-views to not have a women's match (WrestleMania 29 was not example where a mixed eight-person tag team match was cut for time) but now that gender equality is in full swing, it is now common for WWE pay-per-views to have two or more women's matches (with huge storyline buildup) these days in an attempt to please the PR and fans.