10 Things WWE Has Messed Up in 2012 (Already)

Coming out of the TLC pay-per-view in December, I was fairly optimistic about the direction the WWE was headed.

We had a new World Heavyweight Champion in Daniel Bryan, and a new United States Champion in Zack Ryder—not to mention CM Punk still held the WWE Championship.

Also the hype and build-up was continuing for the famous "It Begins" promos that would come to fruition on Jan. 2, and the Royal Rumble PPV was up coming, one of the most exciting all year long.

But somehow, less than a month later things have taken a complete nose dive.

I have hated almost everything that has happened in 2012 so far, and here are the top 10 things I believe have been mishandled in the 10 days of 2012. 

10. Squashing Kofi Kingston

I understand the argument that Daniel Bryan is the WHC and Kofi is just a Tag Champion so the match should have gone Bryan's way.

I have no problem with Bryan winning clean, but come on. 

This match took just a couple minutes and that just isn't right to Kingston. He is a respected superstar that has held numerous belts in his career. Bryan is a one time WHC. 

Athletically this match could have been great as both guys are more than capable of putting on a great match.

Instead? Kingston gets buried and destroyed not to mention his Tag team partner Evan Bourne did not even join him at ringside. 

What a waste. 

9. Getting Drew McIntyre on TV Just to Have Him Lose

Okay this one comes with a little grain of salt. 

On one hand I'm happy the WWE finally decided to get Drew McIntyre on TV again featuring him on two straight episodes on Smackdown.

Also despite the story line I'm not the least bit worried about McIntryre getting released because let's face it, if they were going to release him he wouldn't get on TV in the first place.

But this is the best angle they could come up with?

McIntyre lost twice in a row to Ezekiel Jackson and Santino Marella (seriously) and now is having his job threatened by GM Teddy Long because he is under performing with his lucrative contract.

McIntyre should be taken seriously and getting into a legit feud with a high mid card face such as Sheamus and not bother with this silly story line.

We will see how it ends up but I wish they could have done something better with McIntyre if they are going to put him back on TV.  

8. Where Is Beth Phoenix?

So I like the fact that other Divas are getting TV time...but last time I checked Beth Phoenix was still the Divas Champion...so you should probably build some kind of a feud for her for the up and coming PPV.

Phoenix hasn't been seen on TV this year, which is two raw's and a smackdown.

Instead the WWE has used the divas time to build up a potential Natayla vs. Tamina feud, give the Bella twins an underhanded victory for some reason, and have Eve and AJ become girlfriends to newly crowned champions. 

It looked like Phoenix was going to enter into a title feud with either Eve or Alicia Fox, but that doesn't seem to be happening. If there going to force us to watch Divas matches they can at least put Phoenix in them since she one of the very few tolerable ones. 

7. Santino Pins Jinder Mahal

Okay WWE, so for some reason instead of having the feud naturally develop between Sheamus and Wade Barrett you decided to include mid-carder Jinder Mahal into it on SmackDown.

So how do you develop this feud? Well throw Santino Marella in there of course to make it a tag team match on raw.

So the heels obviously win via dirty tactics to further the feud right?

Wait what...not only did the faces win but SANTINO got the pin?

How am I supposed to take Jinder Mahal seriously if this is how he gets booked. He looks legit on SmackDown and then this on Raw. 

Santino is an absolute joke at this point in his career, he's great for backstage comedy but should never be winning matches against people that are supposed to be built as legit heels.

Including the mid-carders in this feud was odd enough as it was and the finish just further confused me to be honest. 

6. Heel GM John Laurinaitis Keeps Doing Things Faces Do

Is John Laurinaitis supposed to be a heel or not?

I thought for sure he was, yet he shows up every week and does something that makes me wonder.

After costing CM Punk his WWE Championship match against Dolph Ziggler two weeks ago by pulling the rope out on Punk, what does he do this week?

He includes a stipulation that bans Vickie and Jack from ringside in the title match if Punk beats Swagger.

He was doing it because he claims that he wants to show he is fair to all talent. Guess what? Stop trying to be fair to all talent!

You are a heel GM, the best heel GMs (Eric Bischoff) would try and try to screw over the top talent but leave just enough space for the faces to have a chance of winning still.

Big Jonny just goes back and forth between a heel action and a face action and it makes zero sense. 

5. Hornswoggle Beats Heath Slater in an over the Top Rope Challenge

First of all, why does this match even exist?

An over the top rope challenge? There's a reason there isn't any one on one top rope matches. Because it's awkward and boring.

Throw Hornswoggle in there and you already have a nominee for worst match of the year.

The fact that Hornswoggle keeps getting TV time makes me question why I watch wrestling. I understand this is sports entertainment but no one older than eight gets entertained by this guy.

Maybe it was used to set up a Justin Gabriel vs. Heath Slater feud finally (yay?) but they could have gone about that in so many other ways than making Slater look like an absolute joke losing to him.

4. Chris Jericho Comes Back and Says Nothing Twice

Okay maybe this one is supposed to upset me, but Jericho's actions make me more upset at the WWE creative team than Jericho.

After months of cryptic promos Y2J returned on January 2nd which many people online predicted. I was slightly disappointed with his return, not because I wasn't happy to see Jericho but because I wanted to be surprised by the It Begins returner and I wasn't.

Nevertheless having Jericho back on Raw will certainly improve it. But seriously what was that all about?

I get it's a slow burn angle and he is doing it to evoke a reaction from the crowd but after he didn't say anything the first time, I knew he wasn't going to talk next week that's why I fast forwarded through the whole segment just like I'll likely do next week.

Eventually Jericho will do something and it will probably be epic. But when you are reportedly losing ratings, is having Jericho run around the ring giving high fives for ten minutes really the best decision? 

3. Daniel Bryan Turns Heel..I Think

Why WWE.

Please tell me why you felt it was necessary to book Daniel Bryan, the ultimate underdog World Champion as another wimpy heel like we have so many of already in the WWE.

The heel turn almost assuredly means Bryan will lose his world title sooner rather than later. 

While having Bryan pull off an upset victory in a title defense against two giants Mark Henry and The Big Show would have instantly legitimized Bryan's title reign, instead the WWE chose to turn him heel and force a DQ in his match against the Big Show.

I say I think Bryan turned heel because on Raw this week the supposedly heel Bryan didn't do anything heelish at all. 

He beat Kofi Kingston clean, then agreed to face the Big Show again, then shook his hand.

Um, OK then. 

2. Not Putting the WWE Championship Match as the Main Event of Raw

This was just terrible. The WWE who is clearly on edge about its ratings decided that instead of putting the advertised WWE Championship match between CM Punk and Dolph Ziggler as the Main Event, it instead would be a six man tag team match between John Cena, The Big Show and Zack Ryder vs. Kane, Jack Swagger and Mark Henry (it ended up being a handicap match).

Come on seriously? I get that John Cena is supposedly you're biggest draw but this is the WWE Championship were talking about, how can you justify putting it in the middle of the show.

This just makes the title seem unimportant and tells us we as an audience are supposed to care more about the Kane-Cena feud than the WWE Title.

For whatever reason WWE has stopped having CM Punk talk on television which was the best part of Raw to begin with, and now he's not even in the main event.

I had huge hopes for this Punk and Ziggler feud and of no fault of the performers,  I don't even care about it at this point.

1. Re-Debuting Brodus Clay as the Funkasaurus

Cringe worthy is about the only words that can describe what we saw this past week on Raw when Brodus Clay finally re-debuted in the WWE.

Clay was built up for months, and months, hyping his return. His vignettes were totally awesome and showed Clay as a monster heel out to take over Raw.

But Clay never came, ever. Reports had surfaced that Clay was supposed to write John Morrison off TV, but he messed it up by announcing it ahead of time on twitter, so that role was given to The Miz instead.

Finally when Clay did come back on Raw this week, he came back as Brodus Clay, the funkasaurus. A dancing bafoon who had the move set of a monster but the entrance and character of a complete joke.

Clay can never be taken seriously now in the WWE, ever. If this was the first time we saw him and that was what we were expecting? Maybe it could work.

But after hyping Clay up like they did this is one of the biggest letdowns ever in the WWE.

While it's true it's probably Clay's fault for angering Vince McMahon, as a friend of mine put it to me, having Clay come back like this is more of a punishment to the WWE fans than anyone else.