Examining Match Combinations WWE Has Overused in 2014 so Far

The bottom of the card is where WWE has most overused the same, uninspired combinations in the first half of 2014.

Fans have seen Santino Marella vs. Fandango, 3MB vs. Los Matadores and Damien Sandow vs. Sin Cara far too often, especially considering how much these rivalries have lacked stakes, story and excitement. These foes have met several times over, with no classics or elevation of stars to show for it.  

When Milan Kundera wrote, "happiness is the longing for repetition," it was long before WWE pitted Santino and Fandango together ad nauseam. He may have thought differently after seeing that bout play out again and again.  

While the company has been smartly selective about having The Shield and The Wyatt Family battle, the comedy wrestlers and filler Superstars haven't had the luxury of scarcity.

Seemingly unsure of what else to do with folks like Los Matadores and burdened by a lack of options and an absence of creativity, WWE has repeatedly tapped into unappetizing sets of foes. 

Damien Sandow vs. Sin Cara

• Main Event, Jan. 15
• Main Event, Feb. 26
• Raw, March 24
• SmackDown, March 28
• Superstars, May 1

WWE has been less guilty of overusing Sin Cara vs. Sandow than the repeated showdowns between the company's jokesters, but it's a pairing hampered by its uninteresting nature.

Fans would have no problem seeing Cesaro and Daniel Bryan face off this many times, but with this pair of foes, it has been too many trips down the same humdrum path. Try naming a memorable moment from any of the listed bouts.

Other than Scooby Doo standing in Sin Cara's corner, it's hard to think of anything that happened in this series of clashes.

A lack of chemistry between Sandow and Sin Cara is partly to blame, but so is a lack of story. At least with Sandow's recent losses, there has been a narrative surrounding his frustration and perhaps his mental instability seeing how he has taken to dressing up in costumes to fight. Nothing that interesting happened when he took on Sin Cara.

It felt as if WWE officials looked at their watches, saw that they needed four minutes to fill and told Sandow and Sin Cara to head to the ring and do whatever.

Neither man gained any real momentum from these matches. WWE could have instead used this time to push Sandow as a wily villain or else turned Sin Cara into a midcard title contender. After five meetings, both men stood in the same spot as they stood before.

3MB vs. Los Matadores

• Main Event, Jan. 15 (Six-man tag with El Torito)
• Superstars, Jan. 23 (Six-man tag with Sin Cara)
• Superstars, Jan. 30
• Main Event, April 15
• Superstars, April 17
• Raw, April 21 (Six-man tag with El Torito and Hornswoggle)
• SmackDown, May 9 (Six-man tag with El Torito and Hornswoggle)
• Raw, April 28

Going at each other eight times in just five months feels like even more considering how many times they met in 2013. Los Matadores debuted against 3MB last September and kept colliding with them for the rest of the year. The bullfighters have yet to find a new group of enemies, still trading blows with Heath Slater and company some seven months after their first fight.

The above list doesn't even count singles matches like Heath Slater taking on El Torito.

Imagine if Bray Wyatt was still battling Kane. Instead, WWE has had The Eater of Worlds climb up the company food chain, now tangling with a marquee name in John Cena.

Los Matadores' journey hasn't taken them nearly as far. 

WWE forced itself into this corner, though. The silliness of the Los Matadores' gimmick makes them an odd fit for anyone other than the wanna-be rockers. A feud with The Shield or The Wyatt Family would be like sending court jesters to take on knights and dragons.

The result is that the Los Matadores vs. 3MB feud must live on, even if there hasn't been a single great match in the process.

Only when WWE began to focus on El Torito and add Hornswoggle to the mix did things start to get a bit interesting. The WeeLC match at Extreme Rules was by far better than any of the matches listed above.

Los Matadores and 3MB don't have the advantage of the novelty that match had, but their rivalry is also hurt by a lack of reasons to care. Bryan's battles with Randy Orton have been about proving that he belongs in the top tier and getting revenge on a man who stole his title from him. Paige and Alicia Fox's many matches have been about the champion proving that she's no fluke and Fox losing her mind in the process.

Where is that kind of intrigue for these combatants? The bullfighters going up against the faux rock band has just been the same song playing on repeat.

Santino Marella vs. Fandango

• Raw, Feb. 10
• Raw, Feb. 17
• Raw, March 3 (Mixed tag)
• SmackDown, April 7 (Mixed tag)
• SmackDown, April 11
• Raw, April 14
• SmackDown, April 18
• Main Event, May 9 (Mixed tag)

A similar set of issues plagues Fandango. As great as he's been at playing a smug ballroom dancer, the silly nature of the character has forced him to face WWE's resident goofball several times over.

Pitting the same foes against one another on consecutive Raws in February and two SmackDowns in a row the next month would be fine if the matches were entertaining and if this story went somewhere.

While other enemies are escalating their animosity, attacking each other backstage and delivering scathing insults on a live mic, Fandango and Santino are just trading empty wins. It doesn't matter who ends up on top since it doesn't move their story along or make the victor a bigger star.

Switching out Fandango's dance partner from Summer Rae to Layla has been the only shift in the narrative.

Couldn't Fandango be facing a variety of opponents as WWE shows us how the new partners' relationship is progressing, though? While a more diverse set of enemies would be good for Fandango's career, it seems that WWE is hesitant to have him face more serious Superstars consistently.

It makes sense that officials would want the two rodeo clowns to go at it rather than Fandango challenge Sheamus or for Santino to tangle with Bad News Barrett, but the result hasn't been fun.

This feud is meant to be comedy filler, but repeating the same underwhelming joke over and over doesn't make it any funnier.