2023 is almost over! WWE has done some of the best booking in the past year; from the entire Bloodline saga with Sami Zayn to Dominik Mysterio’s change to Prison Dom, there’s no shortage of great moments or matches that have taken place in WWE. However, Triple H and his creative team are far from perfect. So, it’s not too surprising that there have been mistakes along the way. These are the most baffling booking decisions the company has made in 2023.

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Cody Rhodes Loses To Roman Reigns

Did we get more great Bloodline moments after this shocking loss? Yes! But ultimately, Cody still should’ve won the WWE titles at WrestleMania 39. It would’ve given his feud with Brock Lesnar some genuine purpose. Plus, it was clear that the company didn’t have much for him following his feud with Reigns.

Cody has been spinning his wheels since WrestleMania. There hasn’t been much character growth since Roman beat him at WrestleMania. Sure, WWE is protecting him by keeping the third-generation star strong, but he hasn’t had anything as compelling as his Reigns feud. Rhodes is in an awkward position where he can’t challenge the guy he’s beaten three times for the World Heavyweight title (Seth Rollins) nor can he truly let someone get over in a feud because WWE doesn’t want to kill his momentum.

Reigns keeping the belt hasn’t been good for Cody. But it also hasn’t done much favors for Roman as well. The “Trial Chief” clearly isn’t going to lose the belt until WrestleMania (or at least I think he will), so all his title matches feel heatless because we know that Roman will win. It’s time for him to drop the belt. Roman’s out of compelling options. Even then, he’s dominated the main event scene so long that it's starting to get stale. Cody should’ve won. End of story.

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Brock Lesnar Turns On Cody Rhodes

This feud had all the potential in the world. It was cool seeing Lesnar and Cody feud. The problem is that it had no purpose. Why did Brock Lesnar attack Cody Rhodes? That question was never answered. It would’ve been cool if the reason was that Paul Heyman paid off Lesnar to take out Cody Rhodes so Reigns doesn’t have to deal with him.

If that was the case then it makes sense for Lesnar to never reveal his true reasoning for his sudden turn. However, it’s unlikely that me and Triple H have the same ideas, so these guys were spinning their wheels in a feud that was never defined. Cody’s promos started to sound the same because there wasn’t a particular beat for him to pinpoint for Lesnar’s attack. The matches themselves were fine, but this does go down as one of the more underwhelming feuds of 2023.

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Trish Betrays Becky Lynch

It was great to see Trish Stratus back in a WWE ring regularly. However, her rivalry with Becky Lynch was rather forgettable until their Cage match. The turn itself was a sound idea: take out Lita and purposely cost Becky the tag team titles. The execution was horrendous.

Why allow Becky to come close to retaining the belts for ten-plus minutes? Wouldn’t it make more sense to turn on her early in the match so Liv and Raquel can have the full two-on-one advantage? Their feud started on the wrong foot, especially since Lita being taken out was never paid off in the long run.

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Shayna Baszler Turns On Ronda Rousey

The Baszler turn was in the same vein as Trish, but worse. We never got any sort of dissension between Baszler and Rousey before it. Hell, we never even got a tease that Baszler was frustrated with Rousey’s positioning in the company. This got their rivalry off to a terrible start because the turn itself didn’t make any sense.

Plus, the heel/heel dynamic made things extremely awkward because audiences have never been given a reason to feel sympathetic to the two women who have been acting like the bullies of the tag team division. WWE rushed a year’s worth of storytelling into the span of one month. The reasoning behind Baszler’s turn is a good one. Unfortunately, it was buried by terrible creative decisions that didn’t help either woman.

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Jimmy Uso Turns On His Brother Jey

So let me get this straight: Jimmy Uso screwed his brother out of being the WWE Undisputed Universal Champion because he didn’t want Jey to end up like Roman? This made no sense. There was NEVER a moment where Jey seemed to be heading off in that different. Even worse, Jimmy ended up crawling back to the same man that he didn’t want his brother to be.

However, for this story to work, Jey had to beat Roman and become the tyrant monster that his cousin was. But worse. Then in a rematch, Jimmy would pick the lesser of two evils (Roman) and screw over his brother because of the change that came with the Universal title. In theory, the idea is quite good. But the key component is that Roman HAD to lose.

It was obvious the moment this match was announced that Roman wasn’t dropping the belt. So this idea became half-baked and convoluted because we’ve never seen hints of Jey changing in pursuit of the championship nor did we even get to see the reign itself. The strange turn here hasn’t done Jimmy any favors, and the Bloodline saga hasn’t exactly been as hot because of this baffling decision.