The part that is being missed here, is they aren't owned by a wrestling person anymore. They are owned by a profit driven company above all else, there are going to be a a lot of baffling decisions based on nothing other than what they view as proven draws and proven profit etc.
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Proven draws and profits is what always drove WWE.
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To a degree...now they don't see the payoff in building a star when they can just bring in the rock.

What they just did would have been like if Stone Cold after winning the Rumble in 97 was on his way to face HBK at Mania as he had gotten extremely hot...and Bob Backlund just appeared to take his spot cause you know this guy was the champ 20 years ago and proven draw and then we sent Stone Cold to wrestle for the IC title.
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See Hulk Hogan in WrestleMania 9 for other reference material as well.
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Accurate, that also got shit on pretty hard.
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Comparing Bob to the Rock? Hogan or Warrior maybe a better example
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Huh? This has happened plenty of times before and was incredibly prevalent under Vince.
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Remember when Kofi actually got over big for a bit. Ended in a 7 second squash just so Lesnar could have a shitty match with Velasquez in Saudi
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Ah yes it happened a lot once there was no competition and they struggled like mad to make any kind of stars.

They have 100% gone to a part timers save us, attitude in the last decade or so.

Since Wrestlemania 28 only 2 Wrestlemania Sunday main events have not featured a part timer, and of those two both matches featured a participant who left the company shortly thereafter. The reason I specifically say Wrestlemania Sunday, is that I think we'll all agree that's generally the REAL main event.

28: The Rock Def. John Cena
29: John Cena Def. The Rock
30: Daniel Bryan Def. Randy Orton and Batista (left about 2 months later)
31: Seth Rollins Def. Roman Reigns and Brock Lesnar
32: Roman Reigns Def. Triple H
33: Roman Reigns Def. Undertaker
34: Brock Lesnar Def. Roman Reigns
35: Becky Lynch Def. Charlotte Flair and Ronda Rousey (Left immediately after)
36: Drew McIntyre Def. Brock Lesnar
37: Roman Reigns Def. Edge and Daniel Bryan
38: Roman Reigns (went part time following this match) Def. Brock Lesnar
39: Roman Reigns Def. Cody Rhodes

Imagine how much of a slap in the face it is to be a full timer in company busting your ass year-round and constantly be told that people who only show up a few times a year or people that aren't going to be there tomorrow, are more important than you are, and that your contributions to the company aren't important enough to be part of the most important match of the year.

And come this year it'll be another main event featuring TWO part timers.
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Right. This mini Renaissance WWE has been having is precisely because they got away from that shit and Roman demanding Heyman and Hayes be solely responsible for his creative.
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And you can see, they still don't care, Immediately opting for part timers again.
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Even if WWE pivots to Cody/Roman (and I'm not at all convinced they will), they'll have still fucked the story and made Cody look like a huge idiot.

I hate that WWE's method of creating drama often boils down to "This match you really wanna see? It's not happening...or maybe it is? Guess you gotta tune in!"

It's the booking equivalent of pretending to throw a ball for a dog before actually throwing it. They did it for Bryan, they did it for Kofi, and if they pivot here they'll be doing it for Cody. If you just book a fucking match people wanna see then half the promotion is taken care of for you, since "See So-and-So take on Such-and-Such" has generally been what draws in pro wrestling.

The whole "the company is the biggest heel" thing Vince ran with for so many years. Way too often the drama wasn't "will so and so overcome the dastardly such and such to win?", instead it'd be "will Triple H FINALLY job?", or "are they gonna put Cena/Roman/etc. over again?", or in this case "will they actually do the right thing and put Bryan/Cody in the biggest spot?"

Basically, the meta story of "WWE's decisions will annoy you" was treated as more significant than any actual on-screen story or character progression.
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Eh, this is also a pretty special set of circumstances. For one, they pretty much had to give Rocky what he wanted to get him on the board. And the part timers they would have relied on are all aged out to where they literally cannot work anymore.
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Why is it needed for Rock to be on the board? He's literally only back because Hollywood isn't calling him at the moment because his ego got to big and he delivered a couple of bombs. When Rocks movies are doing great he has no interest in wrestling, things don't go right and magically he's back.

I wonder if it hurts him that Batista has managed to get better roles than him.
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Once they knew Vince stiffed Grant on the NDA payment and it all became public, they were pretty obviously desperate for anything that would divert. Hell, they gave him ownership rights to "The Rock". That's fucking insane.
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