- 8 months ago
2025 has been a complicated year for WWE - and the bloom is coming off Triple H's rose. The WhatCulture team explain the big lessons WWE and TKO must learn heading into 2026.
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00:00Ah, 2025. It's been a year for WWE, hasn't it? But the story, the story coming out of 2025 when it comes to this company, it's the heel turn, isn't it?
00:12The John Cena heel turn and the lessons that must be learned from that heel turn because what should have been one of the most exciting, compelling developments, maybe of the last 10 years, it just, what was it?
00:26It became a waste of time. It was limp. It was lazy. And the key thing for me, the prevailing thought that I have coming out of it now, because we are near enough, well, we're past the heel turn, but we're nearly at the end of the retirement tour at time of recording, is this entire thing could have still been amazing had there just been an actual plan.
00:46And it feels like the angle itself was done to shock and really well-crafted in its own right, but from that moment on, they were perhaps relying on people that aren't that reliable, looking at you, Travis Scott, looking at you, Dwayne The Rock Johnson,
01:00to be key factors of the Cena character, let's say, for those months leading up to WrestleMania, maybe the months after it.
01:09But that didn't prove to be the case. They weren't there, and it was left to Cena and Cody to really carry that whole feud, the whole angle, whatever it was, in the weeks that followed.
01:18And they couldn't. They suffered. It was clear that there wasn't really a direction. It was just, here, we're going to do a shocking thing that you've always wanted, and then we're just going to kind of make it up as we go along from there on out.
01:30And, well, the proof was in the pudding. The results were not great. We had that terrible WrestleMania match. We had the R-Truth stuff. The Randy Orton stuff was okay.
01:38But throughout all of this, it was clear that Cena wasn't really that motivated by it all, really, or at least he didn't have very clear motivations for what he was doing.
01:48He didn't believe in that character. You could tell it was just an exercise in, can I be a heel? And that's what it felt like. It felt like an exercise.
01:55It didn't feel like a person who was fully believing in the material that they were being given.
01:59And it just created this really dull product at times to watch whenever Cena was on screen, which is a bit shocking.
02:07If you would have said a couple of years ago, we're finally going to get a heel Cena, and it was just there. It was just bland.
02:12It was very... It felt impulsive. It felt like week to week they were just making stuff up and seeing what stuck.
02:18And for what is his last ever year in wrestling, in WWE, it feels like a bit of a waste of time, really.
02:25I think the lesson going forward, the key thing that we've taken away from all this, is that when it comes to these retirement tours,
02:32or just the handling of these big moments going forward, it can't just be for the moment.
02:38And there was a couple of years there when Triple H took over, where it seemed like you'd have these things, these catalysts for change, huge change in WWE creatively.
02:47And then there'd be a plan further down the line.
02:49This is going to happen, that's one event, and then a couple of months down the line, we're leading to this.
02:52And we can improvise a little bit in between, but we need to hit these key events.
02:56It feels like that's been lost a little bit, specifically with this big story, this big John Cena story.
03:01So I think going forward, with the likes of AJ Styles, with the likes of maybe people like Rey Mysterio, Chris Jericho, if he ends up back in WWE,
03:08or just any of these big stories, these big moments, like the Bron Breaker thing right now that's just happened.
03:13That's a big event, but there has to be something now down the line where it's like, right, we're going to crown Bron Breaker as World Heavyweight Champion at some point.
03:19That's where we get into, that is the long game.
03:22We can kind of make our way up as we go along, but we need that plan to be in place.
03:26We can't just do things and go, eh, we'll make it up as we go from here on out, because we've proven here that that just does not work.
03:32People get bored, people get frustrated by it, like, if you're not interested, we're not interested.
03:36That was the key feeling, and it was a shame.
03:38It felt like we were very much back in the Vince McMahon era of WWE, where stuff just happened, and it was like, eh, and you forgot week to week,
03:45and the continuity wasn't really there, and we're more intelligent.
03:49We're more cultured as a fan base nowadays, and we just won't take that, really.
03:53We'll just reject it, we'll hijack the show, all that kind of stuff.
03:57So, a big lesson that must be learned.
04:00We thought it had been learned already, but it needs to be relearned.
04:02Coming into 2026, have a plan, stick to the plan, and deliver.
04:08Deliver after the big moments.
04:09Don't just do a big moment for the sake of social media and then not do anything else after it,
04:13because, I don't know, we don't like this stuff.
04:15I don't like this stuff, in particular, and, yeah, it upset me, so learn the lesson, WWE.
04:21I think everyone universally wants WWE to have its redemption in 2026,
04:26when it returns to Las Vegas for WrestleMania.
04:28Everyone thinks that, right?
04:30And I think the part of that is you have to learn from this year that the build to WrestleMania is crucial,
04:36arguably to shape your whole year.
04:37This ill will towards WWE is kind of centred about how people felt about what happened at WrestleMania.
04:43Now, this isn't me saying that Charlotte Flair or Jey Uso shouldn't win the Rumbles or anything like that.
04:48I've got no issue with that.
04:49Having said that, Sami Zayn should win the Rumble and CM Punk should win the Chamber.
04:52But we're not talking about that right now.
04:54What I'm talking about is having an idea from January or from the moment that you decide so-and-so is going to be fighting for,
05:01whether it be a title match or a grudge feud or whatever, and plotting that out to WrestleMania.
05:05So many of these things felt like something happened, and then they went, and then it's WrestleMania.
05:11And people go like, right, we've got six weeks of telly.
05:14What are we going to do in the interim?
05:16Like, don't get me wrong, some things kind of came off all right on the night.
05:19A lot of people told me triple threats were bad.
05:20And yet, across WrestleMania weekend, we had three of the best triple threats of the year.
05:23But we're not going to need to talk about that.
05:25What we're here to talk about is what on earth they were doing with that whole Io, Rhea, Bianca story.
05:30Because it was a sensational women's match on the night.
05:34But even beforehand, even I could book it better.
05:38All you needed to do was have Io say, sod it.
05:41I'm hardcore.
05:42I'll take both of you, right?
05:44But she was sort of pushed to, literally pushed to the side.
05:47And then they just went, uh, triple threat or whatever.
05:49The triple threat with Punk getting his WrestleMania main event was just kind of, yeah, he's got it.
05:54Like, there was no real story or struggle aside from just Paul Heyman, you know, being a punk guy all of a sudden.
06:03And I think, you know, we all enjoyed what happened with Charlotte and Tiffany.
06:07But maybe, if you're going to have that match, think, how are we going to plot it out?
06:11And what are they going to say to each other on the road to WrestleMania?
06:15Look, I think next year's WrestleMania is huge because it's the last WrestleMania in the U.S. for a while.
06:20And I think with them returning to Las Vegas, thanks guys, it is a chance for a bit of redemption.
06:26But they have to get it right from the get-go.
06:29I'd say from, maybe not start of January, but the bare minimum, from the Royal Rumble onwards, know what you're going to do.
06:36So if I was going to give one lesson to WWE from the 2025 list of booking mistakes, like I know,
06:44not every match needs to end in a distraction or have interference or there be some kind of confusion.
06:49It is a technique we can use.
06:50There's nothing wrong with wrestling tropes.
06:52You can lean into wrestling tropes.
06:53But there was a period, sort of July, August, September, June-ish time.
06:57Every single match, every single match, somebody came out.
07:00Every main event, we just had the same tag team main event for like 72 years.
07:04Distraction, distraction, distraction.
07:05And it would have been fine if we'd reserved it for The Vision, who were trying to get themselves over as heels.
07:09But babyfaces were doing it, and they'd do it on SmackDown, they'd do it down in NXT.
07:12If you watch everything like I do, because I'm a geek, it just was so frustrating.
07:16It'd be like watching a television show, and every single thing ends with the same guy dying.
07:21Not even a different character dying, so Bill gets shot, episode one.
07:24Bill gets shot, episode two.
07:25Bill gets shot, episode three.
07:26How do they keep coming back to life?
07:28Why aren't peripheral characters doing anything about this?
07:30And what the flub is up with Bill, man?
07:32How does he manage to keep coming back onto this earth?
07:36So it's not the end of the world, because I think we expect it.
07:39And towards the end of the year, WW is far more balanced with it.
07:41But it's like anything, if I give you a hug on a Monday, and I don't give you another hug until a Friday,
07:45you're going to appreciate way more.
07:46If I'm just hugging you all the time, I'm like, all right, I get it, man.
07:49You know, there's enough with the hug.
07:50So less distractions.
07:52I guess let's be more creative with finishes.
07:53We did see some great ones.
07:55Ironically, a lot in the women's tag team division.
07:57It doesn't get featured enough either.
08:00But sometimes people can lose as well.
08:01Maybe that's something else I would say.
08:03Losing isn't a death knell.
08:04Losing doesn't mean you're buried.
08:05Give somebody a promo.
08:06Give somebody a story.
08:07I don't think people should have losing streaks unless it's really going to work.
08:11But somebody can come out and say, I'm sad.
08:12I lost.
08:13What do I do?
08:14I'm completely, you know, directionless now.
08:17That's a story.
08:18And if it gets people to connect with that person, they can be sympathetic or maybe even
08:21empathetic towards them, then it's going to work and it doesn't matter.
08:24Now, of course, if you're trying to build someone, they have to win, because they still
08:27just have a sports-like presentation.
08:29But not everyone needs to come out and say, oh, well, I got dicked over.
08:32Because if everyone gets dicked over, nobody gets dicked over, and we don't need people
08:35getting dicked over.
08:36I don't even know what I'm saying now.
08:37But yes, if we could do less than that in 2026, this bald guy would really appreciate
08:41it.
08:41At the same time, I understand you don't have to book things for me, because I'm not
08:44insane.
08:46I think they need to realize that storylines should drive Unreal and not the other way
08:52around.
08:52I'm somebody that likes the existence of WWE Unreal and shows like it.
08:56The 24 specials that used to air on the network, the 365 profile pieces on Superstars, where
09:02it's as much about what's happening in the background of a scene as what you're watching in the
09:04foreground.
09:05But nonetheless, I think we're in this post-KFV era where those two things are fine to comfortably
09:10coexist.
09:11But the unrealification of the on-screen product to the point where, as you were watching season
09:16one, you could see decisions being taken on air that were there to drive season two, made
09:21it even more difficult to drop in to the fiction.
09:24I'm somebody that wants to drop in to WWE in this era.
09:29I would happily surrender to the fiction if it's entertaining, if it's fun.
09:34And yet, with the examples such as the Seth Rollins' worked injury, as we were watching
09:39it, it felt like it was a plot for Unreal season two.
09:43The infamous now Becky Lynch video backstage, where she was laughing at the camera.
09:48And you could see them all doing the high fives and stuff.
09:50You know a version of that scene is going to make its way into season two of Unreal.
09:54And it's changed my brain chemistry for the second half of 2025.
09:58It's made me look at things that are happening on air and wonder just how Triple H is going
10:01to call himself a genius on Netflix Unreal season two.
10:05This sort of stuff, as we head into 2026, could have legitimate ramifications into the build
10:10to WrestleMania, you know, they have turned John Cena heel based on some fairly reliable
10:15reporting that The Rock wanted Cody Rhodes and didn't get his way.
10:18So John Cena, the ever-the-good soldier, became the compromise.
10:21And that's one of the many reasons why the follow-up was terrible.
10:24And then you would think, based on Unreal, that it was some Ocean's Eleven heist moment to
10:30get Big Match John to go bad.
10:32Like, no, just because The Rock didn't get his way.
10:34But they can't say that, Unreal.
10:35It's got to be framed in another way.
10:37And it just feels as though, like, because, especially now, if, like, WWE want to keep
10:41Netflix as sweet as possible, and based on some numbers we read, there's very good motivation
10:45to do that, they will market and promote Unreal as, like, where the real action goes down.
10:51No, there are 52 roars a year where the real action needs to go down.
10:55And then tell that on Unreal.
10:57I hated this idea that at some point across the year, like, Sidgwick will talk on this very
11:01video about WWE Arrogance, and I think that bled through Unreal as well.
11:04Now, every single talking head, like, at no point said, you know what, we didn't quite
11:08nail that storyline.
11:09It was like, no, that was genius.
11:11That was brilliant.
11:11You know, you had the dual double act of Michael Hayes and God working on the finish to the
11:17WrestleMania Night One triple threat.
11:18Everybody just did a brilliant bang-up job, and nothing went wrong.
11:22Travis Scott was, like, congratulated backstage.
11:25Nothing we're seeing on Unreal is actually real.
11:27So, for God's sake, at least, don't, like, have it infect the product as well.
11:30I love it.
11:30I want the show to exist, but I would rather it follow the storylines rather than the
11:34storylines follow it.
11:37You're going to price people out with these price hikes, man, these ticket hikes.
11:40You're going to run your core audience off.
11:42You're going to run families off.
11:43You're going to run people who build their entire year around their WrestleMania vacations.
11:49You're going to price people out who, a lot of house shows come into town.
11:52I'd love to take my whole family.
11:54Cool, it's £700.
11:55You're going to run off your core wrestling audience, and you're going to be left with
12:00a bunch of people who do not give a damn about anything you're doing creatively.
12:04Now, I caveat this a little bit, right?
12:06Because so far, we have seen no decrease in demand from these WWE ticket hikes, right?
12:10People go online and complain about them, and then they still buy them anyway.
12:13And then it comes to the show, and Triple H or Stephanie McMahon comes out and goes,
12:17we have sold 20 million ticket sales for this event.
12:22And people sit there and go, yeah, thanks for ripping me off, TKO.
12:25This is awesome.
12:26I paid £5,000 to sit on the roof.
12:30But you're going to get to a breaking point eventually, right?
12:34You are going to get to a point where people say, no, that's enough.
12:37Because tickets for a WWE show are now a luxury item.
12:41This is a problem that we have seen in concerts as well, and like, you know, Taylor Swift, $400,
12:47whatever, whatever, but nowhere near to this extreme.
12:51And it has more than doubled.
12:52We ran this story on the news just a few weeks ago.
12:56Thanks to some good work from Brandon Furst, and ticket prices in WWE have more than doubled
13:00since TKO took over.
13:01It's only going to keep getting worse, but they're going to hit a breaking point at some point.
13:05They're going to reach a thing where there's no more money to squeeze out of these poor people.
13:09One of, and I say poor as in sympathetic, not having no money, although if you go to lots
13:15of WWE shows, you will also have no money.
13:19It's a real shame that that's how this has panned out, but it's how WWE has presented itself
13:26since TKO took over.
13:27It has become even more corporatized than it was before.
13:31The company is now run by absolute sharks, people who see a big green number and nothing
13:37else.
13:37They don't care about coming to your town and pleasing the fans.
13:42Maybe the wrestlers do.
13:43Maybe the wrestlers do.
13:45But the guy who's got his big spreadsheet at the end of the year where he releases all
13:48your favorite wrestlers because, oh, they were earning $5,000 too much, even for John
13:53from Ohio just spent $5,000 to sit in a bin.
13:57They don't care, ultimately, at the end of this.
13:59The only way they will care is when tickets still start dwindling and the number starts
14:02going down.
14:03And I think 2026 might be the year that bubble finally bursts.
14:07Don't get cocky.
14:09Like, do not get cocky.
14:10That has been the theme of this year.
14:12And the tone for this year was set on January 5th.
14:15Was that the Netflix or January 6th?
14:17Sixth, yeah.
14:17January 6th, 2025, the Raw and Netflix debut was the most kind of revolting, off-putting,
14:26tell-don't-show-how-big-we-are event.
14:28It was a masturbatory, awful nightmare in terms of this company.
14:34Like, The Rock, Dwayne Johnson, and for the apparent auteurs over at WWE, they did,
14:41effectively, a curtain call thanking everyone for coming and how great was the show at the
14:47beginning.
14:48They got it in the complete wrong order.
14:51And that set the tone for what I think has been the definitive theme trend of the year
14:56in which they just seem to get high off their own supply, putting themselves over and just
15:03making harebrained decisions that seem based on the idea of, like, oh, we're really working
15:09the fans with this, or we're really telling bold, shocking, great stories because we are
15:14on fire and red hot without any real plan to execute it properly.
15:20The John Cena heel turn just felt like something to do to shock people and into thinking that
15:27they are this bold storytelling machine.
15:30Well, the wires have fallen out because the follow-up was putrid.
15:32The R-Truth fiasco, where he was the central story, the headline, coming out of Money in
15:41the Bank, and within two months, he was putting his phone in a toaster.
15:46How's that funny?
15:47I don't understand.
15:49In addition to that, you have the Seth Rollins knee injury, where, like, literally John Pollock
15:57within minutes said, oh, yeah, yeah, it's a work, or at the very least, it's embellished.
16:02Em, it's, it's a storyline, and then they were all giddy backstage, thinking they'd worked
16:09people, and everyone sniffed it out pretty damn quickly.
16:11Hamflot was one of the first to, like, really suspect and doubt this thing ain't legitimate
16:16at all.
16:17And just generally, this smug, off-putting, it's what we do.
16:21It's what we do tone.
16:23It's, when you present yourself as this absolutely incredible, manipulative storytelling machine,
16:31and then produce slop.
16:34And I think, ah, you know, I'd lean sensibility-wise in the direction of other promotions and styles
16:40and what have you.
16:40But I think the core audience has been absolutely thrilled by WWE's 2025 output.
16:45Neither.
16:45Just get your head down.
16:48Stay humble, eh?
16:49Stay humble, eh?
16:50Because you're being arrogant, and it's awful.
16:53And you're failing creatively.
16:56And, you know, a little bit joy to derive from that.
16:58Because, you know, people want to see people get knocked off their page.
17:01It's a classic sporting story, right?
17:03You don't want to see dynasties succeed forever and be really arrogant with it.
17:07Like, massive, massive, massive sporting moments have been premised on that exact idea.
17:14And Triple H and Tony Korn, er, Nick Korn, are sat on that perch right now enjoying themselves
17:20way too much.
17:21And they're not backing it up, neither.
17:23So just get your head down and stay on, brother.
17:25Stay on.