Was 2011 a good year for WWE?

[Abdullah]

I wish I had long drawn-out post about this, but the question is a pretty simple one: was it a good year, did you enjoy it?

I think last night's RAW was really telling about the things people liked about WWE lately and it's enough for me to put it in the good column, to say 'yeah, it was good overall': you had the raise of Punk, Ryder and Bryan really highlighted. But on the flip-side, you have the Divas at the worst low in years and the tag division being half-assed yet again. The overall product isn't exceptional, just the parts the writers choose to make look good.

In other words, the filler is... really filler-ish. -_-

They get credit for salvaging Punk from an angle HHH pushed seemingly to amuse himself, but they also botched the best angle they've had in awhile with Punk stealing the title and Hunter being the man in charge of a fresh era. Man, for like a month, everything felt important.

So... what's your verdict?

[Clash, Never a Meter Maid]

I thought it was one of the best years WWE's had in a long time. And yes, I even enjoyed COOHHH.

[Wolf Hurricane]

It wasn't the best year, but it was pretty good. To think, most people (including myself) thought following WrestleMania 27, it was gonna be one of those years. Everything went better than expected.

[Big L]

Yea

[Yami Daimao]

Kharma (albeit short lived), Summer of Punk, the return of The Rock, different booking for Cena, Johnny Ace, MITB and TLC, and the rise of Zack Ryder, Dolph Ziggler and Cody Rhodes.

Aside from Michael Cole, COOHHH (after the first few weeks), and "Twittertainment", I say WWE has had a helluva year.

[Arrow]

I'd say yes.

Rock returning, the rise of CM Punk, Mark Henry, R-Truth, Dolph Ziggler, Cody Rhodes, Zack Ryder, and Daniel Bryan, Cena and Orton being phased to the background a bit, and great pay-per-views like Extreme Rules, Money in the Bank, and Survivor Series.

There's always going to be room for improvement, but I enjoyed 2011.

[Efren]

My favorite in a long while.

[Deleted]

I thought it was a story of two halves personally. Nearly everything from January through to June was pretty bad, what with the lacklustre Wrestlemania, Del Rio's momentum being squashed, Cena and Orton being champs once again, the draft completely screwing over Smackdown and a number of midcard talents to name just a few.

However, it seems as if Punk's promo in June has had long term ramifications for the company's direction. Cena and Orton's reign of dominance has weakened, Del Rio became the main eventer he should have been at the start of the year, Punk has been riding a massive wave of momentum and is now trusted to main event PPV's by himself.

Add to that Zack Ryder's push, Mr. Excitement replacing the terrible Anon GM, Kofi and Evan being tag champs, pushes for a number of other midcarders (Barrett, Bryan, Cody, Ziggler) and this has probably been the WWE's best year since 2005/6.

[jadison]

It's one of my favorite years of watching wrestling, probably my favorite since 2001. I missed most of 03-07, but 2011>2008-2010 for sure. Not perfect, but the bad I can mostly overlook because of all the good, which is really just all the talented wrestlers they have in prominent spots. A fun transitional year.

[PKO]

This has probably been the biggest mixed bag of good and bad that I've personally experienced watching wrestling. There have been weeks where I could hardly wait until the next show, and weeks where I geniunely considered quitting watching for the first time ever.

[Deleted]

They did a good job elevating quite a few people that weren't doing much the year before.

[Deleted]

2011 made me proud to be a WWE fan again. I bought two WWE t-shirts, started attending live events again, and Raw, Smackdown, NXT, and Superstars all all must watch tv/internet shows for me again.

[Bub (BLM)]

Yeah, it was pretty damn good.

[moneyman20]

This has been the best year in WWE for quite some time. New people have been elevated, some HUGE returns, and I feel that right now, there's actually a plan for all the champions.

The reason I don't give it an A grade is Cole/Lawler(Should have ended at Mania.), COOHHH walkout(So much potential, but you can't live up to it when you give up on it after an hour), Cole/JR(notice a trend with 2 of the 3 events mentioned), the constant shilling of Twitter(Don't mind it when it's just a crawl on the screen, when Cole rants about it and promos become about it, It's a problem), and GM Super Dave Funkman who I don't understand the love for(I think he's a boring waste of space who takes away from other people who need the time to get over).

Overall, it's a solid B. Not perfect, but dammit if it isn't the best effort WWE has given in the past several years.

[The Ichi]

Despite having the worst commentary ever, yes.

[MrBRulzOK]

This year had some awful stuff going for it: (The Jerry Lawler/Michael Cole feud, the birth of the Michael Cole character, The Walkout that went nowhere, the fumbling of numerous pushes, John Cena being at his most obnoxious character wise in years, the disappointing Wrestlemania main event, the unfortunate retirement of Edge, COO Triple H, that awful feud with Edge that nearly buried Dolph Ziggler deep deep beneath the Earth, the Christian title reign that was taken away before it could even begin, the Johnny Curtis skits that ended up being a complete waste of time, the beginning of beating Twitter into the ground...)

But at the same time it also had some awesome wrestling matches, some enthralling promos, the emergence of Crazy R-Truth, Dolph Ziggler's rise from the ashes, Natalya and Beth Phoenix finally being spotlighted again, the Usos actually becoming entertaining, the unprecedented rise of Zack Ryder thanks to Youtube, the Tyson Kidd/Trent Baretta Superstars match series, the fantastic CM Punk stuff from the summer, and even a few weeks of Jim Ross on commentary again.

While I can't call it a great year by any means, there is definitely some good to balance out the bad.

[woowoowoox]

Enjoyed 90% of it. Sure there was some bad, there always will be, but overall I'm happy.

[fw91]

solid winter for mania build up, okay spring, EXCELLENT Summer, boring early fall (Del Rio reign) Great late fall to winter.

pretty good i'd say

[eldandyjamupguy]

2011 was the IWC's dream come true:

The Rock return? CHECK
Christian finally becoming World Champion and having the new Eddie/Hardcore Holly moment with Edge? CHECK
Christian finally getting a main event run? CHECK
CM Punk becoming World Champion again and breaking out? CHECK
Daniel Bryan winning MITB? CHECK
Daniel Bryan winning a World Championship? CHECK
Zack Ryder getting featured on TV? CHECK
Zack Ryder winning a midcard title? CHECK

What else is there?

That's a pretty god damned good year if you ask me.

[Wolf Hurricane]

Dec 20, 2011 13:00:48 GMT -5 @jadison said:

It's one of my favorite years of watching wrestling, probably my favorite since 2001. I missed most of 03-07, but 2011>2008-2010 for sure. Not perfect, but the bad I can mostly overlook because of all the good, which is really just all the talented wrestlers they have in prominent spots. A fun transitional year.

I'd say 2010 made 2011 possible, in many ways. It was the start of the youth movement (it gave us Barrett, Bryan, and a lot of the other new faces), and I believe it's around this time that Ryder started gaining steam, albeit marginal since this was before his show started.