In WWE, Wins And Losses Mean Less Than Ever

WWE may not be a sport in the traditional sense of the word, but as a sports-based form of entertainment, wins and losses should matter. They just don’t.

One of WWE’s biggest creative miscues in recent years has been its decision to ignore the importance of picking up “Ws” and taking “Ls.” Never has that been more evident than on the road to WrestleMania 36 and in the weeks that have followed it.

Let’s just consider these few realities: The new No. 1 contender for Drew McIntyre’s WWE Championship is Seth Rollins, who lost to Kevin Owens at WrestleMania 36. Apollo Crews, who hasn’t won a match that matters in what feels like an eternity, qualified for the Money in the Bank match (before being removed due to “injury”) and is suddenly getting a massive push on the red brand. Braun Strowman is the Universal Champion mere weeks after losing the Intercontinental Championship and after doing exactly nothing to earn his title shot against Goldberg. He’s now feuding with Bray Wyatt, who lost that title two months ago. Tamina got a WrestleMania world title match even though she has done little to nothing over the course of the past several years. AJ Styles is in the Money in the Bank match a month after being “buried alive” by The Undertaker.

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Here’s the real kicker, though. Charlotte Flair is now the NXT Women’s Champion despite “The Queen” telling Sportskeeda (h/t SEScoops) back in January that she essentially felt like the biggest loser in all of WWE:

“If you look at my stats, I have the highest losing record out of anyone on the roster. It’s just, ‘Oh, it’s Charlotte Flair.’”

WrestleTalk kept track of WWE superstars’ win/loss record for TV and pay-per-view matches in 2019, and according to the site, Flair wrestled 39 televised matches last year and won just 18 of them, giving her a 46% winning percentage. While—despite her claims—that was far from being the lowest winning percentage in WWE, it is somewhat baffling to see how few televised wins she had considering how heavily she’s featured and how strongly she, at least on the surface, appears to be pushed. Now, WWE is reportedly using Flair on both Raw and NXT in order to help NXT overcome AEW Dynamite in pro wrestling’s “Wednesday Night War” because the internal belief within the company is that “a main roster star is needed” to overcome its new No. 1 competiton.

So, WWE has relied mainly on Flair to fill that role, and based upon the fact that NXT has only topped AEW twice in viewership in 2020, her presence doesn’t seem to be helping. In fact, viewership data indicates that Flair isn’t moving the needle at all. That is, of course, ultimately a reflection on the confusing way in which WWE books even some of its most high-profile stars. Flair—even though she’s now already an 11-time women’s champion—loses fairly consistently, which makes her continued presence in the world title picture all the more frustrating for fans. Why, after all, does Flair continue to be featured so heavily when she isn’t winning many matches and isn’t drawing in more fans, either?

This problem, however, undoubtedly isn’t exclusive to Flair. Here are some notable win/loss records and percentages for top stars in 2019, according to WrestleTalk:

• AJ Styles: 23-21 (52%)
• Alexa Bliss: 13-17 (43%)
• Andrade: 17-3-23 (40%)
• Apollo Crews: 4-13 (24%)
• Bobby Lashley: 12-1-21 (35%)
• Braun Strowman: 21-2-13 (58%)
• Charlotte Flair: 18-1-20 (46%)
• Daniel Bryan: 14-2-19 (40%)
• Drew McIntyre: 19-2-27 (40%)
• Elias: 13-18 (42%)
• Lacey Evans: 10-1-17 (36%)
• King Corbin: 22-1-26 (45%)
• Randy Orton: 9-2-16 (33%)
• Sasha Banks: 16-2-12 (53%)

The vast majority of those names have had a consistent role in high-profile storylines over much of the past year, and yet, as you can see, winning isn’t exactly their strong suit. Current United States Champion Andrade and current WWE Champion Drew McIntyre, Lashley, Flair, Bryan, Evans, Corbin and even Orton won less than 50% of their matches last year, and yet, all of those stars were featured in high-profile matches while McIntyre is now booked as WWE’s most dominant champion. When you look at the way WWE’s viewership for Raw and SmackDown has tanked to historic lows over the past several months, you can put some of that blame on the fact that WWE is having audience-less shows and that it’s been missing top stars like Orton, Styles and Roman Reigns.

But even though wins and losses can be measured, the impact of those wins and losses really can’t. It stands to reason, though, that the up-and-down booking of even WWE’s biggest stars is a major turnoff to viewers, who realize that 50/50 booking is one of the biggest deterrents to WWE’s never-ending quest to create new stars.