WWE: The Five Worst Booking Decisions of 2020

WWE booking decisions frequently frustrate viewers that want to enjoy the content. Looking back at 2020 here are five moments where we were all just left scratching our head.

Like many, WWE experienced plenty of challenges in 2020. The company went from having a packed crowd for the Royal Rumble to taping WrestleMania in the Performance Center without any fans in attendance. WWE was able to adapt to the pandemic in such ways as leveraging cinematic matches like the Boneyard Match between AJ Styles and Brock Lesnar. Still, that didn’t stop the company from making what seemed to be even more bad booking decisions than usual in the last 365 days. These are the five worst booking decisions from 2020 from the biggest promotion in the professional wrestling industry.

Goldberg Defeating “The Fiend” Bray Wyatt to become the Universal Champion

I am mixed about this decision. On one hand, I was happy that Bray Wyatt became the WWE Universal Champion for the first time. On the other hand, his first run with the Universal Championship has not made me excited to see him ever hold a major title again. At WWE Super Showdown, Wyatt defended that title against WWE Hall of Famer, Bill Goldberg.

I was fine with Goldberg winning that championship in 2017. But this time, I did not care. I understand that the planned Goldberg vs. Roman Reigns bout at WrestleMania was expected to be a big draw to casual viewers. However, did Goldberg defeating Bray Wyatt had to come at our expense? This decision did nothing but harmed the momentium of Bray Wyatt. Especially since he was defeated in a short amount of time.

Brock Lesnar Squashing Ricochet

Another atrocious booking decision happened on the very same card. I had no idea what WWE was thinking when this match went the way it did. With the number of matches Brock Lesnar had with smaller guys such as AJ Styles, Daniel Bryan, and Finn Balor, pairing Ricochet against Lesnar should have been great. It did not matter if everyone expected Lesnar to win. All we wanted was a great match. What we got, was a squash match as Ricochet did not get a single touch of offense in at all. It is really bad when the promo before the match is longer than the actual contest. We all felt really bad for Ricochet, and he hasn’t truly recovered to this day.

Otis Becoming Mr. Money in the Bank

When the Money in the Bank ladder match was turned into a cinematic match, I was intrigued. The match was essentally WWE Die Hard edition and there was a ton of fun things going on from the start to the finish. Of all the choices of who would be the men’s WWE Money in the Bank winner, Otis was not on anyone’s choice list. When he won the briefcase, I wanted to have a wait and see approach. Months down the line, it became clear that WWE did not know what to do with Otis as the winner of the ladder match. Anyone else could have benefited from being Mr. Money in the Bank on the Men’s side this year and The Miz is the perfect choice for it since he is a much more believable person to be a top tier champion than Otis would be.

Randy Orton Defeating Drew McIntyre for the WWE Championship

Drew McIntyre won his first WWE Championship at WrestleMania 36. His long-awaited run as a top member of the WWE brand is deserved and everyone was rooting for him. Drew McIntyre also had a good amount of opponents during his first reign. That was, until Randy Orton. Orton and Drew are two of my favorites for over a decade now and their matches have been great. The Hell in a Cell event was the end of Drew McIntyre’s WWE Championship run to only have Randy Orton win it a 14th time. This made me question what was the point of taking the WWE Championship off Drew and putting it back on him the week before Survivor Series? No one gained anything from having the title switch hands for such a brief amount of time.

Charlotte Defeating Rhea Ripley at WrestleMania

When Charlotte won the Women’s Royal Rumble match, nobody expected her to challenge for the NXT Women’s Championship. But the idea of Charlotte going against Rhea Ripley was very interesting. Their match at WrestleMania was really good. It is the result that had me puzzled. Did WWE really need for Charlotte to win the NXT Women’s Championship? Rhea Ripley’s next few months after this has been mediocre to not memorable as her momentium stalled for a long time. There could have been good dream matches for Charlotte as the NXT Women’s Champion, but there was not. Charlotte would have not been down the ladder if Rhea Ripley would have won at WrestleMania.

These are the top moments that stood out to me as the worst booking decisions for 2020 in the WWE. If there are others, feel free to mention in the comments.