The WWE's Awful End To The Decade (2017-2019) 

RIP Bray Wyatt, it doesnt feel real :( ❤😔

2017 was tolerable, but 2018-19 were the years where they were proving CM Punk right. Also, godspeed, Bray Wyatt...

Vince McMahon leaving (or at least not having as much creative input as before) was one of the best things to happen to WWE. PLEs in particular have been way better.

2017-2019 WWE is an example of why we need more than one major wrestling promotion.

2017-2019 were truly my dark years, its insane to see how better the company is when not much has changed besides a few members of the roster

The real irony that Roman was at his absolute lowest point booking wise here, and yet his return in 2020 and winning the Universal title is what started the resurgence of WWE as a product. Dude always had the potential and it just took him hitting his lowest point to realize it. Also, RIP to Bray Wyatt and Terry Funk. We lost the former too soon and the latter redefined wrestling.

May Bray Wyatt rest in peace. this feels so unreal, what's worse is how we lost terry in the same week. Condolences to both their family and loved ones

Watching RAW in 2018 was painful.

Dude, the Jason Jordan storyline was potentially brilliant. A spoiled heel taking advantage of his babyface GM dad. Could've been great. It's a shame he was injured.

2019 was horrible especially with crowd noise. As terrible as the pandemic was I’m glad it reinvigorated them.

By the way, R.I.P Bray wyatt. He will forever be remembered as a creative genius and legend.

2017-2019 was rough for the WWE but it had it's moments. I do remember skipping out on watching shows because of how bad the quality was. But one thing to keep in mind is that those years was the prime of black and gold NXT (2018 especially). I would not miss NXT and not miss a TakeOver ppv (even got to attend my one and only TakeOver in Toronto). I miss these years of NXT a lot, such good times.

Whats weird is post mania 2016 to the start of 2017 was the best WWE had been in a long time. Brand Split, Aj Styles rise, KO Jericho, Survivor Series, and much more. The bag was severely fumbled after that.

If we talk about this time period the Miz deserves a mention, dude single-handedly carried the company throughout these years & it doesn't get talked about enough, imo. Amazing video btw

Once the superstar shakeup in 2017 happened the quality of the overall product took a total nosedive

Tbh 2017 was a good year had a lot of classic matches but in 2018 was when wwe got sour 😖

I started watching wrestling again in 2017 😂truly one of the worst periods of all time, didn't take me very long to quit again. 2023 pulled me back in after hearing how crazy 2022 was and I gotta say, we eating good right now

One thing that should've been mentioned here was the greatness of smackdown in late 2018. Becky Lynch (The Man) Randy Orton (Legend Killer) Daniel Bryan (Planet's champion) Samoa Joe (Verbal killer) Rey Mysterio vs Andrade

2017-2019 was truly the worst years of wwe

It’s crazy how the main roster was terrible at the time but NXT was at its peak

What's crazy is that a while ago I had a conversation with my cousin bout how WWE was in 2017-2019 and how inconsistent and weird It was. For every 2 or 3 good moments, we got another 5 or 6 bad ones. Brock and Jinder holding the world titles for most of 2017, raw was unwatchable most times, part timers taking most of the shine, kofi losing his world title in the worst way possible, ppvs were really not good and having so much talent and pretty not doin much with it. These years almost made me stop watching pro wrestling but then roman came back in 2020 and pretty much got me back on it. Also yt channels like u and gifs and premier and others who make great content like this is why I stay watching wrestling so basically thank u superkick Also RIP bray🙏🏿🙏🏿🙏🏿

NXT black and gold saved WWE in this era

The initial phase of The Fiend run was so well executed, especially the cinematic WM match v. Cena. I seriously thought they had a believable and marketable monster to carry forward with. It's a shame that they dropped the ball (per usual,) with Bray's vision.

2018 was so bad I literally stopped caring completely about WWE back. No one could've even guess I once loved keeping up with this show weekly. Thankfully it's so much better now

These were definitely some of the worst years of WWE history. OMG, the amount of bad garbage we got here was just disgusting, and makes you wonder how the hell did any of this pass the creative minds. While we did have some positives during these years, the negatives definitely overshadowed them all, and it made you miss the good ol’ days all the more. But ironically, despite that tho, this was when I came back as a fan, and it makes me wonder, how the hell did I manage to handle it all. What a time to be alive😂.

2017 was forgettable to me. 2018-2019 was abysmal. RIP Windham Rotunda

2018 was really the year that broke me as a WWE fan. I made it through 2017 after being completely bored and having the show on as background TV, but 2018 made me quit watching full time. Like it’s crazy how WWE went from a great 2016 to those last 3 years of the decade, but thankfully things really started to improve from like 2021-present

This may be unpopular but I loved Smackdown Live around that 2017 era, and during 2019 I loved the way they debuted Bray as the fiend. I loved Bray’s work, may he rest in peace 🕊️

Many people talk about how awful Raw was in 2017-2019 and I agree that it was Raw's worst period ever but SmackDown at times was actually worse. Remember SmackDown's 1st year's half ? The tag team division was non existant, the midcard division between Randy Orton...and Jeff Hardy...and Jinder Mahal ??? Yikes ! That awful Carmella/Asuka feud (and yet people calls Carmella's title reign underrated 🤣) and the main program was Nakamura making low blows to Styles...like dude what is this ??? This is probably WWE's worst ever period it's not even funny. Not even the PPVs were that good overall. To forgot all the bad, I wanna talk about the positives of WWE in 2017-2019 : - AJ Styles and Kevin Owens carrying SmackDown (2017) - The tag team division (2017) - Braun Strowman's rise (2017) - Seth Rollins's first Intercontinental championship run (2018's first half) - Becky Lynch's rise and the women's division at its best with Flair/Rousey/Lynch help (late 2018-early 2019) - Daniel Bryan's champion of the planet run (late 2018-early 2019) - KofiMania (early 2019) - Bray Wyatt/The Fiend (RIP btw) (until HIAC 2019)

Yeah, we should blame WWE Creative for making bad decisons for this decade of the 2010s!

It's nuts to me how bad WWE was at this time between 2017 & 2019 they genuinely had the best roster in wrestling. NXT was great during this time period but with how bad main roster was at the time it really shows Vince needed to retire because he didn't know what he was doing. With a roster this good how the old man screwed up this bad I'll never fully know

The late 2010s were like the early 90s to modern WWE's mid-late 90s. Today's product isn't as good as the peak Attitude Era, but the late 2010s were arguably worse than the early 90s to the point where the improvement is just as significant.

Seriously WCW in 1999 was much better then 2017-2019 wwe

Vince was the problem

In 2018 it was embarrassing to be a wwe fan Lets appreciate what we have today . Rest in peace bray 💔

2019 definitely made me rethink wrestling and then the thunderdome era completely turned me off, from 2020 to mid 2022 I just didn't follow wrestling and it's all because of the nonsense that was 2019

17:39 Taker nearly broke Goldberg's neck as well.

These years were rough, as someone who loved WWE growing up this shit was making me question if I liked it anymore. It’s mind boggling how many stupid decisions WWE made between those 2 years. I stopped watching Raw and Smackdown and would look at highlights on Instagram or Twitter it got so bad.

I remember the iron man match. The crowd wasn’t counting at random intervals. After they took the clock off the Rita trim, people in the audience pulled up the live feed of the show on the network and counted along with it. Pretty disrespectful, but damn it’s funny looking back😂

10:02 "Two Samoan Joes" that's fk'n clever man lol

And what makes this even more is that WWE had top teir talent in WWE and yet Vince booked them so poorly!!!

Seeing this video is eye opening to me to see how bad 2017-2019 really was

I will say growing up I always watched Cena during the Ruthless Aggression Era and stopped watching a little before highschool def when Taker lost at Mania, but recently started getting back into watching so it’s nice you posted a vid like this to kinda see what I missed out a bit 😅🫶🏻 Appreciate ur hard work man

This is perfect timing i was wondering when a video would cover these years review style

The first half of the 2017 was pretty decent since it carried the strong energy from 2016.

2017-2019 was really the dark years of wwe it was like 1995-1997 all over again

Rest in paradise Bray Wyatt 💔🕊️ Thank you for everything you’ve done to make all of our childhoods so legendary ♥️

Bray Wyatt got me back into wrestling when the Wyatt family started in 2012, and he got me back into wrestling in 2020 when i stoped watching in early 2017. This hurts. RIP 🕊️

Just like you, I've watched WWE Stomping Grounds live at the Tacoma Dome, you were right about the seats being tarped off and ppv quality wasn't good, but Samoa Joe vs Ricochet for the US title in my opinion is the only match on the card that deserves a re-watch. I also went to Monday Night RAW after Stomping Grounds in Everett, WA and it was worse. Half of the arena was tarped off, we were ranked as the lowest attendance in RAW's history until COVID-19 happened. The only positives are, The Undertaker saving Roman Reigns from a Shane McMahon and Drew McIntyre beat down and Ricochet vs AJ Styles

Wwe from 2017 to 2020 was awful thank god roman heel turn save the wwe

I remember: AEW dynamite debuted, Smackdown debuted on Fox, Kofi lost the title in 7 seconds, and THAT HIAC happened all in less than a week

I don't know how many times I said OH GOD watching this 😂. I got PTSD with every segment of this video.

2016 was a great year for wwe but I cant remember 2018-2019

I genuinely loved every single 24/7 title segment

Got back to watching WWE few days ago after leaving it post Wrestlemania 32. Your videos are a great boost to my already sky high happiness on the recent developments in 2023. Looking forward to this year!

to be honest as a fan 2023 is definitely the saddest year weve lost Bray Wyatt Cody lost in the main event the usos turned on each other

2016-Early 2019 was my first run with WWE- i didn't actually mind it that much imo. Of course there was flaws, but I didn't mind it as a kid. Looking back, i still dont think it was that bad, But i will say that in 2023, WWE is much much better!

a lot of the nxt call ups from that period had a hard time when they came up to the main roster i could say that asuka bayley & drew came out of it better in the long term but still it was rough for them as well

During this time it was my break from wrestling, I’m sad i missed out on all the awesome nxt stuff 2017-2019 but I’m so glad i missed out on this

Hearing bayley in the 2017 part is such a throwback. I remember sitting there the first time bayley debuted at home with my dad and I was so excited when I saw her because of her entrance with the big inflatable guys

This video is 26 + minutes and I didn't even feel it. Truly had a blast

It’s a shame because 2016 was so good I don’t know how the next couple of years after that was so bad

Great video as always man! But for me 2018 had some hits as well…perhaps the most important one , the return of Daniel Bryan , man that was special and absolute cinema …especially when they made the TAG at WM 34.

the pandemic helped wwe a lot because once fans came back the show quality got mildly better

I legit stopped watching WWE around 2018, and started watching again in 2021 around Royal Rumble. WWE's best year is 2023 so far not only PLEs are fun to watch but even weekly shows have improved a lot.

These were definitely the dark times in WWE. At least we are in a much better position now. RIP Bray Wyatt BTW

Godspeed Windham...gone too soon pal. Say hi to Brodie for us. Thanks man.

Finally someone agrees with me that 2017-2019 were terrible years

I started watching WWE again in 2019 after about 5 years of not watching it, but after WrestleMania 36, I couldn’t stick with it and only watch it on occasion. I don’t know what it was that caused me to come back to it but now I watch it on a regular basis as of last year

These were the years I stopped watching it consistently and started watching it casually.

I am a survivor of the 2017-2019 & 2020-mid 2022 era of WWE

First of all Rest in power to Bray Wyatt and Terry Funk 2017-2019 was the time I lost complete interest in WWE, I watched since 2008 I came back around when Roman turned heel it’s had its ups and downs but it’s definitely better now then it was in those times for sure

R.I.P. Bray Wyatt. You will always be remembered as a creative genius and we will never forget you.

I stopped watching WWE around 09 and got back into it last year. I had no idea things got this bad lol im glad i got back in when i did

Hey I'm glad you brought this up because everytime icaew Doom posting on Twitter I always think back to these years when the roster was way more stacked than it is today yet they were performing in front of half empty arenas all over the country. I didn't hear anybody talking about WWE going out of business in a year I didn't hear anybody calling them the next WCW I didn't hear any of this Doom posting. Every company it's a little rough patch aew is going through it right now but they will recover. So next time somebody wants to sit there and post empty hard cam side just remember like during these years it was like that for almost every raw and SmackDown live for YEARS.

This was the time where NXT was the WWE we were looking for.

Great video. I couldn't agree with you more on this video. 17 to 019 was really the dark days of WWE for me. I would say only the NXT gold and white era brand was at its best. So, that was at least something i can fall back to. I think once AEW arrived. Thats when WWE really started to sharpmen their skills. And shows you whe having competition from another wrestling promotion is sooo important.

Needed this I was looking at wwe the other day and was like wow they keep adding ppl haven’t watched it in like 4-7 years

2017 was pretty good all things considered, aside from a few parts and storylines. RIP Bray Wyatt…

Proud to say that the first pay-per-view I’ve ever attended live was extreme rules 2022

i tried so hard to get back into wrestling since 2015 and i just couldnt get myself to keep watching. i really thought it´s me and i just dont like wrestling anymore... started watching again like a year ago and i actually quite like it nowadays. now i found this video and it seems like it really wasnt just me lol

I took a break from wrestling after mania 33 and I didn’t come back till like summerslam 2019 so I miss pretty much the last 2 years and I’m glad I did.

This stretch legit made me stop following wrestling consistently. I stopped watching like mid way through 2018 and I came back in late 2019 because the Survivor Series storylines were cool, but the pandemic put the nail in the coffin for me

RIP Brey Wyatt

It's funny how i stopped watching it around that time only ... i dropped it around early 2017s and I am looking back at it all in hindsight.

Damn I came back to watch WWE consistently after Wrestlemania 39. I stopped watching on 2010 when Jeff Hardy, HBK and Batista left. I am glad I missed these years.

The last 5 years of Vince McMahon under creative control were awful. Not just the late 2010s, but 2020-early 2022 as well. The Triple H era, even at its worst, is more bearable.

Funny during these years hhh was too busy running banger takeovers on nxt while vince mchanon was bookimg the main roster horribly

Thanks for reminding me why I stopped watching for the WWE... again 😅 2016 was SOOOO good when I got back into it then they did this shit 😤 Now I've found myself catching up to this Bloodline story. I'm praying once I catch up, they won't fuck it up 🤞🏾

I love retrospectives like this because it reminds us of how good we have it now vs how terrible things were during this 2017-2019 run. It also serves as a cautionary tale to TKO/Triple H about the consequences of becoming an out-of-touch promotion.

From a broader context, this was also the period every wrestling fan and his do started a wrestling podcast. And then creating a patreon and selling "merch" after a few episodes. People talk about how bad wrestling tribalism has become since AEW started in 2019. But 2017-19 when it was just WWE, you just had every wrestling fan creating a podcast about how bad WWE was.

The way 2017-2019 is talked about, I'm really thankful sometimes that around that time School made it impossible for me to catch up with WWE. I'd only tap into it Wrestlemania szn then miss alot of PPVs where the most cringe things happen 😂😂

Seth crying cos Bray was being too violent was the end for me for a while.

As much as the PG Era was hated while it was happening, looking back on it now I would take the peak of SuperCena over whatever the late 2010s are called. You had enough stars from the Attitude Era/Ruthless Agression era still around to cover up for a lot of the bad booking. The inability to create new stars during that time directly lead to the awful end of the decade though.

I honestly think Vince McMahon was in a very bad mental state, and probably still is. He ruined so much talent in those few years, and definitely set the company back a lot. 2019 is when I really just couldn't watch it, it was some of the worst WWE I had seen. I do not know how 90% of this stuff came to be, it just seems so terrible. Roman wasn't ready but everyone besides Vince knew that. They ruined the Fiend character, made the main title seem worthless, and really just kept fumbling. I'm glad things are on a better track, Vince almost killed his own creation.

IMO the 2010s ended in with 2017, 2018 & 2019 feels like 2020s beta.

AEW could not have come at a better time. WWE was just spiteful towards the audience for the longest time

I didn't know you were here in Washington! I heard that Stomping Grounds was objectively horrible and judging by your retelling, I know why. I hope they come back here though for a WrestleMania!

2017-2019 was awful 2020 - pandemic 2021- mass releases, unnecessary name & theme change, so many wrestlers got buried. NXT buried. It only got better when Vince stepped down. If it weren't for the allegations we would still be having the same garbage product.

My overall verdict for 2010s WWE: D Pros CM Punk's 434 Day Reign As WWE Champion Kofimania Dolph Ziggler's 2013 MITB Cash-In 2016-2017 Smackdown! Triple H Era Of NXT Heist Of The Century John Cena's WWE United States Title Reigns Kevin Owens The Shield Daniel Bryan Sasha Banks Bayley's Heel Turn Cons So Much Evolution, So Little Time To Accept Uncredible Stars The Continuation Of The Supercena Era Brock Lesnar As The Face Of Raw The Debut Of LED Ring-Posts Roman Reigns As The Next Poster Boy Of The Federation The Fall Of Zack Ryder The Summer Of Punk Debacle The Authority (2013-2016) Babyface Seth Rollins Lack Of Potential Big Stars Poor Treatment Of The Fiend Retiring The Big Gold Title The Streak Is Over Overuse Of White Ropes The NXT 6 (Except For Otis Dozovic) Poor Treatment Of The Revival Baron Corbin Getting Rid Of The Titantron Wild Card Rule Celebrities Running Wild Raw In General (Except For 2013 & 2016) Poor Treatment Of Women's Wrestling (Main Roster) Charlotte Flair (2018-2019) Shane McMahon The Best In The World