WWE has once again had a breakout year in 2024 under the creative direction of Triple H, continuing the company’s latest boom period. Its critical success was matched by commercial validation, as it landed a major streaming deal with Netflix.
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With WrestleMania season approaching, fans would be right to believe that more of WWE’s best work is just around the corner, if all goes according to plan. As good as things are for WWE right now, history has shown that a promotion’s form can start to decline quite quickly, with some warning signs already emerging in recent months.
There are too many titles in WWE
Women’s Midcard Championships may be a step too far
- WWE recently introduced the United States and Intercontinental titles for the women’s division.
- Having too many championships has caused problems for wrestling promotions in the past
- Recently, AEW has been plagued by a glut of titles, which WWE should be careful of.
Championships are essential in professional wrestling, even in the wacky world of sports entertainment created by WWE. One of the best things Triple H has been able to accomplish as head creative is to restore the respect and luster of the company’s title belts from the midcard to the main event.
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In 2024, WWE struggled to properly promote its Men’s Tag Team Championships, but the rest of the titles on Raw and SmackDown were all well-presented. Introducing midcard women’s titles is a great idea in theory, as the United States and Intercontinental Men’s Championships have been well-booked under Triple H, but they could also be a huge problem.
Title belts are meant to be prestigious, in part because of the difficulty of obtaining them, so having too many of them will dilute the importance of championships at all levels. There is recent precedent for this to happen within AEW, as it has struggled to maintain the same form, having far too many titles from its own company and others to promote.
WWE may be able to get away with its additional women’s titles in its current form, but that means the entire division needs to be heavily booked, not just in the main event. The company also shouldn’t add titles after this, otherwise it would really start to have an adverse effect on the creative balance that has been so strong over the past couple of years.
SmackDown is now three hours long
More TV time for WWE could make the list longer
- It was announced that SmackDown will increase to three hours per week
- Raw is already a three-hour show, while NXT is an additional two hours of weekly WWE television.
- Having an extra hour of television could improve the relatively small roster and Triple H’s quality as a booker.
In the same way that there are too many titles, WWE risks oversaturation by committing to even more television time each week by extending SmackDown to three hours. It’s worth remembering how WWE struggled to promote three hours of Raw for years, until Triple H finally got it right during his tenure as head creative.
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WWE may be able to justify six hours of mainline television each week leading up to WrestleMania season when all the big stars return, and it establishes itself on Netflix, but it may have to deal with longer-term issues. Even if it’s only an extra hour each week, that means Raw and SmackDown have to have stacked rosters to fill the extra time.
The simple solution would be to bring in more talent from NXT to fill the space, but the developing brand also needs to promote two hours of television each week and can’t just abandon all of its top characters. Time will tell if the extra hour of television will disrupt WWE’s main production, as it may be that less is more.
WWE Main Event scene could get complicated
Returning stars could disrupt carefully constructed creative plans
- Major stars such as The Rock and John Cena are expected to return to WWE ahead of WrestleMania season.
- Their presence could disrupt the plans in place for WWE’s current talent at the main event level.
- History has shown that having too many big stars in the mix is never sustainable in the long run.
The plethora of WWE stars surrounding the main event scene is enticing and will surely make for an interesting card at WrestleMania 41. Different eras of the wrestling business have converged with the likes of Cody Rhodes, CM Punk, The Rock and John Cena who all wanted to participate. on the action, but there are only so many seats we can offer people on the “biggest stage of them all”.
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In any boom period in wrestling history, several stars have fought for the top spot, but that can also cause problems when personalities clash and political machinations begin to form. Whether it’s WCW in the late ’90s, or even more recently AEW, having too many stars to appease can cause a creative whirlwind that can derail even the most assertive wrestling bookers.
WWE has been doing well lately thanks to its clear hierarchy of talent, with Cody, Roman Reigns and Punk occupying the “top guys” conversation. It’s unlikely that if The Rock returns for WrestleMania he’ll be as gracious as he was last year in stepping aside for Cody, while stars like Gunther, Damian Priest and Jey Uso have all earned a top spot.
It will be interesting to see how Triple H handles the upheaval, if any, and whether he will be able to maintain the hierarchy that has been essential to his creative success thus far.
AEW could regain its momentum
Any resurgence of the Challenger brand could disrupt WWE
- AEW has struggled to replicate its early successes over the past two years
- Meanwhile, WWE has gone from strength to strength during the same period under Triple H.
- If AEW regains some of its lost momentum, then WWE could lose some of the wrestling conversation
This may seem like a less likely cause for concern than it was a few years ago for WWE, but there’s still a chance that AEW has managed to reclaim the wrestling conversation. Heading into 2022, it looked like AEW was moving closer to WWE with the arrival of stars like CM Punk, Bryan Danielson and Adam Cole, but many factors led to Tony Khan’s company losing a large portion of its initial momentum.
One of the reasons for AEW’s recent struggles has been trying to compete with a white-hot WWE product that was cultivated by Triple H. So, in many ways, WWE remains in control of its success if she continues to produce the same level of content that she has been doing for years now.
If AEW manages to regain some momentum, then naturally some of WWE’s recent dominance will wane, which could cause Triple H to freak out like he did in the waning days of NXT black and gold. The wrestling business can change in a major way or under the influence of a rising star who can reclaim the conversation and propel a promotion to new heights.
