By James Caldwell, PWTorch assistant editor

Oh, 2012. You delivered the financial payoff to a full year of hype to The Rock vs. John Cena, but also featured an injury angle to Santa Claus that dominated a three-hour Raw. It was that kind of year - a year where pro wrestling's powerbrokers lost their minds and lost sight of fundamentals. Is it doom and gloom for the industry? Not as long as the WrestleMania brand is preserved, WWE develops young stars to build around such as The Shield, and TNA, ROH, DGUSA, and PWG remain in business to provide work for non-WWE talent.

The concern is that the future of wrestling is in the hands of powerbrokers who either (a) don't know, (b) don't care about, or (c) have forgotten the fundamentals of what has worked, does work, and will continue to work in pro wrestling, no matter the shifts in time.

In 2012, the following are examples of individuals and companies losing their minds.

(1) WWE and USA Network decided to go ahead with three hours of Raw television every week. It's basic supply and demand. Too much supply and not enough demand from the general audience for three hours of Raw every week. Plus, not enough talent to supply WWE's demand for three hours of programming.

(2) Flippant use of titles. It's fitting that Smackdown - which had one of its worst years in existence and slipped into irrelevancy in 2012, thanks in large part to (1) above - ended its 2012 campaign with Smackdown GM Booker T dipping into a tumbler to decide the next World Hvt. Title contender to Big Show. A tumbler. Not fundamental reasons like wins and losses, past title match outcomes, who's riding a hot streak and is deserving of a title shot, etc. No, a tumbler. With no anticipation for the match.

(3) Anticipation. Following up on #2, too often, both WWE and TNA threw out matches with potential to move the needle or sell PPVs without allowing the audience to anticipate the matches. The result was the wrestling match, itself, being defined-down as unimportant and irrelevant for settling differences.

(4) Embarrassment to be in the wrestling business. This is a big key to why wrestling's powerbrokers seemed to lose their minds in 2012. WWE has shied away from traditional wrestling themes, labels, booking, etc. for years, but they have also lost the fundamentals along the way (unless Vince McMahon is desperate and goes back to his Big Monster Booking with Ryback). Meanwhile, TNA has paid lip-service to traditional wrestling themes and labels, but they do not have the staff to pull off weekly, quality booking. There's a fundamental sense that wrestling's powerbrokers want to re-invent the wrestling business to define it as more acceptable in their eyes, rather than making money using someone else's fundamentals that might seem too much like 'rasslin that doesn't attract sponsors.

(5) Announcers embarrassed to be calling wrestling. This more applies to TNA, which features an announce team that wants to be cute and crack jokes and play games and be contrarian for no real purpose rather than enhance the stories being told for two or three hours at a time. Even if they believe the Creative is poor, it's their responsibility to make the Creative look better than it is. But, a culture of "we're too cool for this stuff" and "I don't want people to think I think this is real, so I won't invest 100 percent in the stories" has been a cancer to TNA's presentation. On the WWE side, the announcers just lack the fundamentals of wrestling storytelling to get heat on the heels and set up faces for meaningful comebacks and victories. WWE flipped Michael Cole to a lead babyface announcer, but Face Cole can only do so much to cover for Creative's lack of fundamentals.

(6) Flippant face & heel turns. Michael Cole "used" Jerry Lawler's heart attack to turn face, but there were so many unprotected turns in pro wrestling this year that you needed a scorecard to keep up. The result has been wrestlers pivoting back and forth and back and forth that talent is really struggling to find an identity. And, fans are really struggling to keep up and care. And, if the audience doesn't care, that's the worst kind of heat. WWE thinks it's "too 'rasslin" to have strong turns and TNA is too concerned about being unpredictable and "fooling the Internet" that they've lost sight of getting their audience to care about characters.

(7) Weak lead babyfaces. James Storm took his ball and went home, A.J. Styles was involved with Claire Lynch and Dixie Carter and turned into a whiner, John Cena no-sold everything, and Sheamus didn't take things seriously. Those are just four examples. The bottom line is wrestling needs strong heroes for the audience to invest in; wrestling needs heroes to conquer the heels who are built up as serious threats. 2012 was not a good year for lead heroes. Combine the above examples with C.M. Punk turning heel mid-way through 2012 and Austin Aries turning heel one month after defending TNA against Aces & Eights, and the heroes were lacking substance.

(8) Disarmed heels. PWTorch editor Wade Keller often pointed out how contradictory it was for WWE heels like David Otunga to appear in friendly B.A. Star videos on the same show where he is supposed to play a villainous lawyer. It also applies to TNA running ads for Halloween ShopTNA where lead female heel Tara is collaborating with tag champ face Chavo Guerrero to frighten Christy Hemme. The issue comes down to everything presented within the two or three-hour window of television needs to be consistent with the main wrestling stories. Everything. But, wrestling's powerbrokers aren't interested in the fundamentals of consistency with characters, which chips away at their ability to connect wrestling stories with the audience.

Like a bad NFL team with a good roster, these are all correctable issues, but it's a matter of pro wrestling's powerbrokers deciding to shed pride and bad habits in favor of doing what is proven to work. It's not sexy or cool, but it upholds the foundation of a sustainable industry. It takes discipline, which is lacking, planning, which has been thrown out the window, and understanding, which is missing. Will WWE and TNA find their way again in 2013? It remains to be seen because there were no signs of improved fundamentals at the end of 2012.

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