10 Times WWE Insulted Wrestling Fans’ Intelligence During The 2010s

WWE often booked matches and storylines during the 2010s that confused everyone and insulted the fans' intelligence.

The 2010s may have been the most transformative decade for WWE given how many wild changes happened. WWE started off with the PG Era and slowly moved into the Reality Era. Names like John Cena, Randy Orton, CM Punk and The Shield led the way for the new age of wrestling coming in the ring and via storytelling.

RELATED: 10 Best WWE PPV Posters From The 2010s

Everyone remembers the huge moments like Punk's pipe bomb promo, Brock Lesnar ending The Undertaker's undefeated streak or The Shield breaking up. However, there have been negative moments of the viewers not getting treated with respect. WWE had the following moments that insulted the audience's intelligence throughout the 2010s decade.

WWE showed no shame when doing literally everything possible to get Roman Reigns cheered after winning the 2015 Royal Rumble. The match itself was a disaster with many great things sacrificed in favor of making Roman look strong.

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However, it was the finish of the match with The Rock making a shocking return to help his relative Roman against Kane and Big Show. WWE expected fans to change their tune and cheer Roman, but everyone still booed his win despite loving Rock.

WWE booked matches with legendary names in their Saudi Arabia shows for huge money with little pride in the ring. Shawn Michaels came out of retirement to team with Triple H against The Undertaker and Kane in an all-time bad match at Crown Jewel 2018.

All four wrestlers looked horribly out of it and added a dark mark on their legacies. It was even worse when WWE hyped up a video package for the match on the following Raw to pretend it was a classic. The Undertaker's documentary later confirmed all four participants hated it and he couldn't retire after that performance.

The women's revolution in WWE started in 2015 when Sasha Banks, Charlotte Flair and Becky Lynch were all called up from NXT. Each woman eventually helped lead massive change with must-watch matches, but they had a tough start due to poor booking.

WWE decided to have faction warfare with random trios placed together without introducing them as individuals. Sasha formed chemistry with Naomi and Tamina in Team BAD, but Paige, Charlotte and Becky forming PCB took away from all three. The foolish idea dumbed things down as if fans couldn't remember three new talents and had to see everyone in teams.

The mystique behind Bray Wyatt has always been fascinating, but many mistakes from WWE led to disappointment. Fans spent years speculating about the potential of a Sister Abigail character after Bray referenced the importance of her in the Wyatt Family's motive.

WWE never had real plans to introduce a new character and went the worst-case scenario. Wyatt introduced Sister Abigail as an alter ego of himself for a match against Finn Balor's Demon King persona. An illness removed Bray from this advertised match, and WWE never referenced Sister Abigail again after negative fan reaction.

Wrestling is a bit inspired from soap opera storytelling in its score, but a promotion going too far is risking alienating the audience. Lana returning from an absence to reveal she had left Rusev for a new relationship with Bobby Lashley.

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Train wreck segments of the love triangle saw the show turning into a low rent Jerry Springer show over a wrestling program. Liv Morgan joined the angle as Lana's ex-lover for the company to get more attention. All four wrestlers ended up worse for the storyline that benefited no one.

The Rock vs John Cena was a true dream match that fans wanted to see for years. WrestleMania 28 set a PPV buy rate record for WWE that has still not been topped today. Part of the appeal for the match was WWE using the term "once in a lifetime" to make sure fans knew this was their only chance to see it.

However, Vince McMahon booked the same exact match one year later with a weaker story hoping the WWE Championship being involved would be enough to erase logic. The bold-faced lie turned some fans away from wanting such a high-profile rematch.

WWE has never respected the history of WCW, but they threw logic out of the window at WrestleMania 31. Triple H defeating Sting in Sting's first-ever WWE match was bad enough. However, WWE decided to get wild with the story being told in the match.

D-Generation X helping Triple H made sense, but it was followed by the New World Order saving Sting. WCW fans will remember that Sting was the biggest rival of the nWo. Vince McMahon didn't care to add any rational beyond wanting to set up various WWE vs WCW scenarios to have WWE win one more time.

Mexican wrestling legend Mistico signed with WWE as one of Triple H's first influenced additions. There was huge hype for Mistico playing the new luchador character Sin Cara. Hyped up vignettes and online reports suggested that WWE was hoping to have Sin Cara replace Rey Mysterio in the future.

A lack of time in developmental made it hard for Mistico to wrestle the WWE style leading to botches. WWE eventually replaced Mistico with Hunico to play the character after an odd Sin Cara vs Fake Sin Cara feud and multiple injuries. Fans being expected to not pretend it wasn't a different wrestler overtaking the role was a bold move.

WWE was not keen on making Daniel Bryan a true top main event star despite the fan base treating him as such. One of the tactics to manipulate the audience featured Big Show getting slotted into the top face role vs Randy Orton and The Authority.

Big Show even started doing the Yes chant when WWE wanted to shift it from a Bryan thing to something that any face could do. Fans didn't take the bait and started rallying even more behind Bryan to "hijack the show" due to things like this.

Charlotte Flair and Natalya had strong chemistry as opponents, but WWE liked to utilize their family history as part of their feuds. Their biggest main roster match featured Ric Flair in Charlotte's corner and Bret Hart in Natalya's corner to add more star power.

Unfortunately, WWE went with the cheapest finish possible with Charlotte winning when the referee rang the bell early for another recreation of the Montreal Screwjob. The reason fans cared about the Montreal Screwjob was because it was a real. Any attempts to copy that in work form is truly expecting the audience to be idiotic.

Joey is a writer with a decade of experience writing about sports, entertainment, and pop culture. Pro wrestling is his strongest passion with a lifetime fandom and countless live shows attended.