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2025 was a successful year for WWE for many reasons. It had the first-ever two-night SummerSlam. The company signed a huge deal to move PLE streaming rights to ESPN.
Jey Uso, Tiffany Stratton, Jade Cargill, and Stephanie Vaquer all won major titles. John Cena won his record-breaking 17th World Championship during the final year of his illustrious career.
While the company touted success up and down the board, there were several instances of making the wrong call. WWE made the next five mistakes in 2025.
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#5. The inconsistent pacing of WWE events
WWE used to have one PLE per month. It made it easy to book things from week to week and feature different people every now and then. Adding an extra show in between those PLEs has been both a blessing and a curse.
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Mid-carders get more opportunities, but due to the shorter build, the feuds often feel rushed. Saturday Night's Main Event often came two weeks after an event, like during January, May/June, and November/December.
More matches should mean more opportunities, but cramming three events into a six-week frame badly damages the quality of storytelling. Some matches get repeated while other one-offs feel unimportant.
If that wasn't an issue, having six weeks between the Elimination Chamber and Wrestlemania forced stars like Jey Uso and Gunther to repeat promos over and over.
#4. Speaking of Jey Uso . . .
Jey Uso had the best year of his career. It didn't start well, as he fell to Gunther at Saturday Night's Main Event on January 25th. That meant nothing since he won the Royal Rumble just a week later.
He turned that victory into a World Heavyweight title win over Gunther. The Ring General tapped out very quickly, hurting his aura. Jey then had a mediocre reign, defending the belt against Seth Rollins and then Logan Paul.
The Yeet Master dropped the gold back to Gunther two months later. His singles push didn't end as he had three more shots to regain the title.
Winning more opportunities polarized a large portion of fans since LA Knight was also involved, but hadn't won a major title.
#3. Everything The Rock did
The Rock joining the TKO board may be great for him, but for WWE fans in 2025, it was a confusing and fruitless chore to watch. Rocky showed up on the Netflix debut to randomly praise the Netflix officials as well as Cody Rhodes.
He then rambled on for nearly 10 minutes the next night during NXT. The Final Boss re-emerged, looking to add Cody Rhodes' soul to his trophy case. The rejection facilitated John Cena's brief heel turn at Elimination Chamber.
Rocky didn't even follow through by appearing at WrestleMania. Instead, he joined Pat McAfee's podcast two days later to dish about the show. The heel turn didn't need the Rock to go down, especially with how things played out after it happened.
#2. WWE PLES move from Peacock to ESPN (in the USA)
Financially, the move wasn't a mistake for WWE because they're in the business of making money. But when it comes to them framing things as 'listening to the fans' or 'without the fans this isn't possible,' it's patronizing and disingenuous.
The fans pay for tickets that allow these deals to be made. Millions of WWE fans were forced to choose after moving the PLEs to ESPN. The first option was paying even more money for a different streaming service.
The alternative was missing out on watching the PLEs they've been able to see on Peacock for years. Peacock was far from perfect, but fans didn't have to pay an additional charge if they already had the platform, like they have to with ESPN.
#1. Botching John Cena's retirement tour
Winning number 17 and competing at every PLE was perfectly fine for John Cena's Retirement Tour. A lot of the scheduling and booking decisions, however, were head-scratchers.
He didn't need the Rock to turn heel. Dropping the title back to Rhodes at SummerSlam, instead of to someone like LA Knight or Bron Breakker, didn't pay it forward to another star. Fans get the same promos and feuds from Cody.
As his final year wore down, he routinely missed go-home episodes of RAW or SmackDown. The venues held more of a priority, like wrestling in Boston and at Madison Square Garden.
Boston makes sense as he's from the area. Those were calculated decisions made well in advance of the end, and it only made his feuds with Brock Lesnar, Gunther, and Dominik Mysterio feel uneven.
