This year in the WWE has been a strange one to say the least. With the brand split, the Cruiserweight Classic, and a whole host of new faces the WWE has been very busy. This year has seen some of the best in ring talent and storytelling wrestling fans have seen in a long time. Now it’s time to take a review of the year and see exactly what went wrong, and what went right.

Now to start off let’s take a look at the positives. There has been a whole host of amazing debuts on to the main roster like Sami Zayn, Finn Balor, Nia Jax, American Alpha, and most surprising of all, Mr. AJ Styles. Some of these superstars fared better than others like AJ or Finn who both skyrocketed to the main event capturing their respective shows titles. But for the likes of Sami and Nia, they have just been floating around not really getting much air time. With 2017 and a collection of great talent in NXT, it will be exciting to see all the potential call ups.

After a positive we have a negative. The biggest missed opportunity of the year by far, the cruiserweights. They started off the year great with the Cruiserweight Classic, but after that they ceased to be treated as human beings. From high flying, hard hitting, fast paced action to a tame in ring showing and purple ropes. Where the Classic had the high flying action the Cruiserweights are synonymous with when they moved up to the main show they lost all of that. They were forced to work the more safe “WWE” style of wrestling on the main roster. And that’s such a shame too, with amazing athletes like Cedric Alexander, TJ Perkins, Neville, Rich Swann, and The Brian Kendrick just name a few. The cruiserweights have been moved over to Smackdown on the new 205 live and this will be the perfect opportunity to really show what they have.

And now onto the brand split. One of the most polarizing things to happen this year. It saw Raw and Smackdown split the rosters with a draft and made Smackdown a live show for the first time in some years. The reason this is just so polarizing is because of the effect it has had on the WWE universe. With the smaller roster on both shows it has given the WWE a chance to give other superstars a chance, and Smackdown has taken this a just run away with it. Unlike its big brother Raw, Smackdown just knows what to do with its talent. And where Raw has the same four guys run the place and give no room for the midcard to matter, Smackdown is dominated by the midcard. There is no better example of this then The Miz and Dolph Ziggler. These two men have been around for a while, but when the draft hit they completely reinvented themselves. The Miz has been playing the cocky heel character to perfection and he really the only true heel left on the main roster. He’s just a guy you can love to hate. And along with Dolph Ziggler they have revitalized the IC title. These two men have had a candidate for match of the year, and could definitely be seen as fude of the year. This is the complete opposite of Raw who doesn’t even have a mid card really. Their midcard title is held by one of their main eventers and doesn’t even matter at all. Instead of letting people like Sami Zayn, Rusev, and Big Cass fight for the belt Raw just decided to throw the belt around old Roman Reigns because he’s “the man”. Roman has single handedly destroyed all credibility that the US tile has previously had. In my opinion Raw is completely out of touch and doesn’t know what fans want, and until they listen they will always be in Smackdowns dust.

And that was the year. With some great matches and some amazing moments this year has been pretty good. Despite some questionable decisions this year has been good, and it is exciting to see what 2017 will hold for the WWE.