Power of the PPV: WWE Survived 2020 by Delivering in the Biggest Moments

WWE exited 2020 the way it essentially started it: back against the wall, exceeding expectations at pay-per-view events. Not that WWE has a hard time putting on quality pay-per-views during a normal year. But 2020 was anything but, thanks to the lack of fans packing arenas for those shows. It was apparent early on that the lack of organic noise and reactions sucked the life out of shows. 

But WWE improvised and came up with some classic, unforgettable moments on the fly. 

And TLC: Tables, Ladders & Chairs on December 20 served as the best, final example. The last pay-per-view event of 2020 for the company had plenty of memorable moments. It wrapped up loose ends like The Miz's Money in the Bank briefcase, crowned new tag team champs and even featured the return of Charlotte Flair. 

Then there was the main event. 

To close the show, Randy Orton took on Bray Wyatt's The Fiend in a Firefly Inferno match where the winner would be crowned by setting their opponent on fire. In the process, Orton basically killed off The Fiend character for good, should WWE want to go that route. 

WWE could have rested on its laurels, had a traditional match and called it a year. The show isn't even necessarily an "A" pay-per-view these days. Instead, utilizing the leeway of not having to worry about the safety of fans in attendance, the match featured poles of fire all around the barricaded areas and around the ring itself. Several spots featured running lines of flame across the floor or otherwise before Orton eventually torched Wyatt to win the match. 

That has been a good summation of the year as a whole for WWE amid the unique challenges it has presented. Sure, the biggest-name pay-per-views were amazing. The Royal Rumble featured the big Drew McIntyre push and some amazing Keith Lee moments, among others. WrestleMania 36 had a cinematic-match classic between AJ Styles and The Undertaker. McIntyre and Orton put on a classic at SummerSlam. 

But it's the lesser pay-per-views like TLC where WWE really flexed some creativity and classic moments, too. Money in the Bank's main event was a fun romp of pre-taped goodness, even if the long-term story for Otis got botched. Backlash featured the surprisingly good Edge-Orton feud. The Horror Show at Extreme Rules had the Wyatt swamp fight. Payback started to embrace the Roman Reigns-Paul Heyman partnership after finally letting the former go heel. Clash of Champions took it a step further as Reigns dismantled family member Jey Uso. 

And that's just cherry-picking prominent outcomes from some of the lesser events of the year. It just goes to show how well WWE improvised, hence the reliance on pre-taped matches, creativity and leaning into new ideas like McIntyre and a heel Reigns while largely missing the usual consistent flow of part-timers like Brock Lesnar. 

The development this year has shown that the improvement of WWE programming has plenty of layers, of course. One is simple—the company should listen to fans more often. Reigns would have been a heel long ago if the company had done that, for starters. 

Two, it should embrace more of the next generation of wrestlers and stop seemingly being afraid to crown new "main guys" of the future. And three, embracing the creative side with cinematic matches could still provide an avenue for making older stars like Undertaker look amazing. Had the company figured this out sooner, fans probably could have had an Undertaker-Sting encounter. Instead, the latter is now in AEW. 

This loops to a critical point: Fans have to hope WWE can take the lessons learned this year and apply them to normal years. There's room to ride this momentum because fans in attendance at stadiums around the world will embrace the developments. And truthfully, it's an evolution WWE needed after the arrival of legitimate competition. 

Maybe that's getting ahead of things. But for now, WWE deserves a tip of the hat for adjusting on the fly and delivering some unforgettable classics through sheer ingenuity and proper usage of talent. Not that fans had any doubt the company could do such things—but it was nice to see it happen when everyone seemed to need it most.