WWE: Why 2011 Was a Bad Year for WWE

In years to come, wrestling fans may look back on 2011 and see it as the year WWE, the once mighty and invincible wrestling giant, started to crumble.

Oh, relax, the company isn't going out of business WCW style anytime soon (the promotion has plenty of money in cash reserves and does still make a decent profit), but certainly the last 12 months have been a deeply concerning time in which onlookers must have wondered whether the WWE owner had lost his mind once and for all.

You see, 2011 was a disastrous year in which WWE rushed manically from one program to another, became obsessed with Twitter to the point that the social media site was even getting pushed before the product, changed the script constantly and generally booked on the fly, cut the legs of various new stars, allowed the obnoxious Michael Cole to ruin Raw's commentary, and squandered the drawing potential of one of the biggest stars in wrestling history, The Rock.

They also brought back the decrepit and achingly boring Kevin Nash. Now that really took the biscuit.

On a serious note, there have been so many mistakes this year, it is difficult to pinpoint what exactly the company's biggest blunder was.

The botching of the CM Punk storyline is the first thing that springs to mind, of course. As most know, Punk's powerful, defiant shoot/work promo on Raw in mid-July and promise to leave the company forever after he won the title at the Money in the Bank pay-per-view sent shock-waves through the wrestling world and got everyone talking.

Of course, cut to a few weeks later and new champ Punk was already back on Raw, embroiled in a messy program with interim champion John Cena. He then lost the belt to Alberto Del Rio at the SummerSlam event, where the dastardly Mexican star cashed in his MITB title shot and took advantage of a tired and worn-out Punk.

Not to mention, the rebellious Punk's original vows to bring about huge changes to the rigid corporate WWE culture were quickly forgotten, with Punk even siding with management over the rest of the roster during October's walkout angle. It seems the only “change” our courageous hero cares about these days is bringing back those old WWE ice cream bars.

While The Rock was used acceptably earlier in the year in the run up to WrestleMania as a foil in the Miz/Cena main event, his return in the autumn as Cena's tag team partner at Survivor Series was badly handled.

The Miz and R-Truth were presented as jokes and were shown to be single-handedly beaten down by Cena on more than one occasion (which raised the question if why he even bothered to bring in The Rock, since he clearly didn't need any help there—hey, maybe Rock should have offered to team with Miz and Truth against Cena instead).

The Survivor Series build was also greatly hindered by The Rock and WWE's obsession with Twitter, with Rock even focusing more on getting certain phrases like “Boots to Asses” trending when he returned than he did trying to get the tag match over or teasing dissension with tag team partner (and future WrestleMania foe) John Cena.

But still, Rock's tremendous promo ability and the fact that this was his first wrestling match since 2004 would surely carry the feud and guarantee an impressive number, right? Eh, no actually. The buy-rate was awful.

The on-screen product continued to fall apart in myriad ways. The once-promising conspiracy storyline, which saw new COO Triple H being sabotaged by some unknown person or persons, was quickly forgotten about after Hunter was relieved of his duties on Raw, and it wouldn't surprise anyone if it was never mentioned again.

Heel tandem “Pun Up Strong” were supposed to be a mission to overhaul the women's division, an idea which has also been dropped.

They haven't succeeded in pushing new guys, either. The next big thing, Alberto Del Rio, flopped as champion (top babyfaces Punk and Cena pointing out how boring he was on television probably didn't help matters), Daniel Bryan has been thrust into the main event scene after months of being treated like a jobber, others like Air Boom have been languishing in the mid-card for ages now.

Will WWE make a commitment to pushing new stars and will things get better? Who knows with this company?

Summarily, 2011 was a year of botched opportunities, shoddy storytelling and borderline incompetence at some points. Wise wrestling fans should be glad it's over and hope the company have learned from their mistakes going into 2012.