Even though professional wrestling is staged, that doesn't mean there isn't a need for winners and losers. If competitors just came to the ring, rolled around for a little bit, jumped off something, and then took a bow and left, the whole thing would be far less appealing. Turning what is effectively a show into a competition with pre-determined results gives fans a reason to watch beyond seeing someone performing cool moves. Someone to cheer for, someone to root against, a cause to get behind.
Promotions have demonstrated they understand the importance of winning and losing over the years. A huge part of the reason Hulk Hogan and Bruno Sammartino were so popular is that they almost always won, and did so without help or dirty tactics. Move on a little further and find Goldberg's streak as further evidence of that. The Undertaker's streak, Asuka never losing, all perfect examples that wrestling needs definitive winners, and in these cases often hundreds of losers.
11 and 10 Doesn't Have The Same Ring To It
That WWE has been the stage for almost all of the above examples makes it even more baffling that the faith in having winners and losers has been lost. 50/50 booking, and the damage it can do to wrestlers and wrestling, is a term that is often thrown around. It means exactly what you think it does. The process of having both sides of a rivalry win the same number of matches, or close to it. If The Undertaker had lost at half of the WrestleManias he attended, Brock Lesnar ending his streak would have meant nothing. If Goldberg had been on the losing end of 100 of his first matches in WCW, he may never have had the Hall of Fame career he wound up having.
Perhaps one of the worst examples of 50/50 booking in recent years is playing out on WWE TV right now. Shinsuke Nakamura and Baron Corbin. The feud began with Nakamura stealing Corbin's crown. It sounds corny if you haven't seen it, but The King of Strong Style made it work. Add Rick Boogs shredding on guitar for Nak's entrance and it felt like WWE had assembled all the key ingredients for yet another homerun SmackDown angle.
Fast forward six weeks and the angle means nothing, and 50/50 booking is to blame. Nakamura and Corbin have battled it out four times and up until this point, the two of them have quite literally been taking it in turns to win. Corbin picked up the first win only for Nakamura to get him back one week later. The feud was then picked back up two weeks after that allowing Corbin to win for a second time, only for Nakamura to even the odds seven days after that.
This Ain't No Best Of Seven
There is a scenario in which this exact type of booking can work. A best of seven series. They're so few and far between that when they do happen, especially in WWE, they are almost always fondly remembered by fans. If this had been framed as that from the start, it would be a different story. Hell, even if WWE introduced the element at this point it could work. The trouble is, that isn't going to happen.
What makes this particular situation even more frustrating than other 50/50 booking scenarios in WWE is the caliber of the talent. Both have been on trajectories to the top during their time with the company only to be derailed by poor booking. Nakamura because he has incredible amounts of charisma and even more in-ring talent, and Corbin because he has molded himself into a bad guy with genuine heel heat. The reason you want him to lose, or at least you cared if he did before this, is because he was doing his job well.
What makes the entire situation even worse for both Superstars is the show they're on. It's hard to pinpoint something about SmackDown that isn't great right now. That included Nakamura and Corbin for a brief week or two. Now its 50/50 booking gives even the most casual of fans the impression that their matches and segments aren't all that important. It's a chance to go grab a drink or scroll through Twitter until something that is actually going somewhere takes its place.
The saddest part of all is the reason for all this is probably because WWE has no idea what to do with them. It recognizes that both Nakamura and Corbin are talented Superstars but just doesn't know how to use them. Pushing one to the next level would mean leaving one behind, at least in WWE's eyes. Odds are the two will continue to take it in turns to win matches until WWE and the fans care so little about their angle that it is just left in the past.