The long tenure of WWE as the biggest promotion has led to many negative moments to cause a solid percentage of fans to tune out. Most long-time fans have had some breaks since the promotion is clearly not perfect to always offer guaranteed entertainment.
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Booking mistakes and philosophy changes have caused enough resentment and detest to make fans stop watching the WWE product. Many fans will return if the product is hot or something important happens, but they risk losing some forever. Each of these moments saw WWE forcing some fans to turn away from the product for good in disgust.
Invasion Dream Storyline Failing
WWE Fumbled Biggest Angle Ever
- Invasion Storyline Had Fans Excited For WCW Involvement
- WWE Missed Out On Adding Many Of WCW’s Biggest Names
- Become Convoluted Storyline No Longer About WCW’s Invasion
Most fans would have named WWE vs WCW having a dream feud as the biggest possible storyline in wrestling history before it happened. The dream scenario should have been fool proof since audiences cared about seeing new WCW talents feuding with WWE once the company was sold.
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WWE’s Invasion: 6 WCW Wrestlers Who Got Booked Poorly (& 4 Who Were Booked Well)
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Vince McMahon rushed the angle before he could sign the top WCW talent still locked into contracts they wanted paid off. ECW joined WCW to add some excitement, but the booking was horrendous. WWE names jumped ship to lead the Invasion as a failed angle that upset former WCW fans into quitting.
Razor Ramon And Diesel Bait & Switch
Lying To Your Audience Is Never A Good Thing
- WWE Suffered From Scott Hall & Kevin Nash Joining WCW
- Teasing Razor Ramon & Diesel’s Returns Made Fans Expect Them
- New Names Playing Gimmicks Caused Fans To Be Livid At Lies
The New World Order storyline in WCW became the hottest thing thanks to Scott Hall and Kevin Nash leaving WWE to start the hostile takeover. WWE fell far behind WCW once Hulk Hogan turned heel to join the other two as the third mystery man.
One of the responses to losing viewers featured Jim Ross claiming Razor Ramon and Diesel were coming back. Fans expecting Hall and Nash to return felt betrayed when it was just unknown names playing the same gimmicks. WWE insulting the fans’ intelligence lost some viewers for good.
Goldberg’s Second Universal Reign
WWE Burying The Fiend Upset Fans
- Goldberg Received Push Squashing The Fiend For Universal Title
- Vince Felt Goldberg Vs Roman Was Worth Ending Bray’s Reign
- Roman Backing Out Of WM Made Goldberg’s Title Reign Pointless
Goldberg had the strangest WWE story of Vince McMahon using him poorly in his prime and then booking him like a top attraction a decade later for a comeback. The first return story of Goldberg worked as fans cared about his feud with Brock Lesnar to warrant a title reign.
However, WWE got a bit too cute going back to the same story for Goldberg to end Bray Wyatt’s Universal Championship to harm The Fiend’s attraction appeal. Goldberg won the title to drop it to Roman Reigns, but the pandemic changed plans to have him drop it to Braun Strowman instead in a lackluster move.
JBL Ending Eddie Guerrero’s Reign
Many Fans Felt JBL Ruined Smackdown
- Eddie’s Title Win Provided Feel Good Moment For Fans
- JBL Randomly Became Main Eventer After Decade In Mid-Card
- Controversial Title Change Upset Fans With JBL’s Long Reign
The 2000s brand split made many diehard fans prefer Smackdown over the Raw brand. Smackdown became the brand of the great in-ring workers like Eddie Guerrero, Kurt Angle, Rey Mysterio, and others having classic matches. Guerrero getting to the top of the company by winning the WWE Championship felt like an emotional moment for the fans.
WWE having JBL get a random push out of nowhere to end Eddie’s reign upset many viewers. The combination of a decade-long mid-carder winning the top prize and his lackluster long reign caused fan backlash, especially for defeating Guerrero.
Steve Austin Walking Out Of WWE
Top Star Leaving Never Helps Business
- Austin Developed Frustration From Months Of Bad Booking
- WWE Randomly Told Austin To Put Over Brock On Free TV
- Austin Felt This Was Final Straw To Warrant Leaving WWE
The story surrounding Steve Austin’s 2002 walkout leaving WWE gets talked about a lot, but some things get lost in translation. Austin was having by far his worst overall year since becoming a top star in terrible storylines almost the entire year leading up to this.
The final straw was WWE asking him to randomly put over Brock Lesnar on free television without advertising the match. Austin walked out in anger that day and didn’t return until the following year. WWE ran hit segments of other talents burying Stone Cold, but that just upset his fans more.
CM Punk Walking Out Of WWE
This Walkout Hurt WWE Even More
- Punk Expressed Frustration With WWE Fans
- Royal Rumble 2014 Made Punk Leave Company
- Fans Chanting For Punk Showed Loyalty To Him
CM Punk was nowhere near the top star status of Steve Austin during his time leaving WWE, but it came when WWE was in a weaker position than Austin’s. Fans started to lose faith in WWE over poor booking decisions and Vince McMahon being complacent creatively.
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Punk felt like one of the few positives of that time span since he was a self-made fan favorite with an organic following for calling out WWE in past promos. The disgust of Punk with the company while leaving led to fans chanting for him and many giving up on WWE out of loyalty to him.
John Cena Squashing Nexus’ Momentum
WWE Ruined Hot Angle With A Cena Victory
- Nexus Became Hot Act Drawing Comparisons To NWO
- SummerSlam 2010 Victory Could Have Made Them Bigger
- Losing To Cena Caused Nexus To Lose All Momentum
Time has forgotten just how hot the Nexus angle was for the group taking over with an epic debut and getting booked strong for months. SummerSlam 2010 featured an exciting main event of John Cena leading a group of legendary WWE names against Nexus.
The elimination match rules saw everyone getting pinned until Cena had a disadvantage of facing Wade Barrett and Justin Gabriel at the end. Cena overcoming the odds to defeat Nexus made them look weak and saw the group losing its relevance and viewers once captivated by that angle.
Jinder Mahal Winning WWE Title
Most Random Title Push Ever Upset Fans
- Vince Was Impressed With Jinder’s Physique To Inspire Push
- Fans Were Shocked At Mahal Randomly Winning WWE Title
- Hated Title Reign Caused Fans To Quit Watching Smackdown
Fans can enjoy an unexpected name winning the world title if they have some momentum behind them. Vince McMahon went a bit too far by having Jinder Mahal get a one-month push that culminated with him defeating Randy Orton to become WWE Champion.
Mahal held the title for about half a year, despite fans having minimal interest for most of it. Shinsuke Nakamura getting buried by losing multiple matches to Jinder made his reign even worse as one of the most disappointing WWE Champions ever.
Anonymous GM Having No Reveal
Storylines Without An Ending Are The Worst
- Anonymous General Manager Created Big Mystery For Months
- Fans Invested Time Expecting A Big Name Revealed In Role
- WWE Dropped Storyline With No Payoff Due To No Strong Options
The easiest way to upset wrestling fans is to make them invest in a long-term storyline without providing any payoff whatsoever. WWE did that with the infamous angle of having an anonymous Raw General Manager running the show for quite some time.
The only way this angle could be viewed as a success would be to have an effective reveal after fans wondered who it could be for so long. WWE felt they didn’t have a strong name for the role, so they just ended the angle without a reveal to make fans livid.
ECW Brand Relaunch Failure
Made Old School ECW Fans Quit WWE
- ECW Novelty Projects Made Huge Money For WWE
- Fans Had Expectations After One Night Stand PPVs
- McMahon Tarnishing ECW Legacy Made Fans Give Up
Vince McMahon found success with the ECW brand having strong DVD sales for a documentary and many PPV buys for a reunion show at One Night Stand 2005. This sparked McMahon to bring back ECW for good as a third WWE having its own weekly television product.
Unfortunately, WWE couldn’t even let ECW be its own brand on a much smaller scale and McMahon constantly made changes to strip away its identity. ECW fans sold on their beloved promotion continuing felt betrayed and gave up on WWE as a whole.