2007 has been the ultimate hit-or-miss year for the WWE, excuse the pun.
For all of the five-star action that took place, there have also been some disappointing lows.
On the plus side, for example, John Cena and Shawn Michaels partook in an epic hour-long battle on an episode of "Monday Night Raw." There was also the fatal four-way match between Cena, Shawn Michaels, Edge and Randy Orton—the ending of which was anybody's guess and, as a result, reached the brilliantly unpredictable heights of the then-WWF's peak in 2000.
However, with the highs—and there were many other great matches, good feuds and superb wrestling this year—there are inevitably some lows. And how.
Of course, the WWE has had to deal with the death of surely their best in-ring performer, Chris Benoit, under tragic circumstances. But there were also the deaths of other former WWE superstars, and several long-term injuries—which have forced writers to tear up scripts, storylines, feuds and title reigns almost as soon as they were written.
Incredibly, no fewer than eight former WWE, World Heavyweight and/or ECW Champions (Edge, Undertaker, Booker T, John Cena, Shawn Michaels, Triple H, Bobby Lashley, and Rey Mysterio) have been severely injured at some point during 2007. Add in the passing of Benoit, and that makes nine former World Champions who have been, for one reason or another, unavailable.
Even in the peak years of 1999-2001, WWE would have struggled to deal with this many significant losses, many of which happened at the same time. Back then, though, there weren't three brands—there was just one. Now there is Smackdown, Raw and ECW, and each has been affected by the injury crisis.
The injury problems have had their upsides, however, as the annual draft lottery produced some interesting trades—including Mr. Kennedy to Raw and The Great Khali to Smackdown—to spice things up and keep things fresh.
With three brands, any injury to a main event player for any length of time dramatically impacts what the writers can do with that brand's title picture. If these injuries had occured to midcarders or jobbers, there would have been no problem. But each one is a long-standing main event performer and multi-time champion of one form or another, and any one of them could realistically be in a Wrestlemania main event.
But what of this? Unfortunately, there are not enough quality wrestlers who can step up to the plate if any other important wrestler goes down. More significantly, the timing of the injuries has been absolutely crippling. It has taxed both the WWE creative team's resources and also the patience of the WWE fans and wrestlers.
Yet more important, though, is the damage it did to what was shaping up to be the best year the WWE has had since the Rock/Stone Cold Steve Austin era. This has forced Vince McMahon into lower the tone of the WWE, to the detriment of the fans.
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