The WWE has been home to some of the greatest storylines in professional wrestling history over the years but unfortunately, not all of them can be winners. You have to give the WWE credit for coming up with some of the greatest angles of all time but every once in a while we have to watch a major storyline fizzle out for one reason or another. Here are the angles that should have very well been epic…but weren’t.
#10 – The Invasion
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This one ranks dead last on the list because the way the WWE pulled it off wasn’t half as bad as people think. The invasion angle gets a lot of flack from people but the truth is, WWE did the best they could with what they had.
The most common criticism of the invasion is that it lacked star power on the WCW end, which is true. Fans had dreamed for years of seeing guys like Sting, Goldberg, Flair, Hogan and more go toe to toe with the biggest stars of The Attitude Era. Instead what we got was a lot of top WWE stars switching sides to give the alliance some name value.
Once again though, WWE did the best they could with what they had but the lack of top stars from WCW definitely kept this storyline from reaching its full potential.
#9 – William Regal Takes Raw Hostage
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William Regal is arguably the greatest wrestler to never win the WWE Championship but he’s had more than a few stints as the Raw General Manager. After years of attempting to get to the top of the WWE it finally seemed like his time had come when he won King of the Ring. Not only was he the King of the Ring, but he was also the Raw General Manager.
William Regal became one of the most talked about characters on Raw because when he didn’t like how things were going on the show, he would just turn the lights out. It was shocking to see Raw end simply because William Regal turned the lights off. That was it. When he turned the lights off, Raw was over.
Certainly this angle got people talking and it seemed to be just what Regal needed to finally get himself into the main event. Unfortunately, at the height of his popularity in WWE, Regal was suspended and he never managed to get his momentum back.
#8 – Cesaro Is A Paul Heyman Guy
[youtube_sc url=”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_f89jikDOCc”]
Cesaro is one of the most beloved members of the WWE roster. He’s currently a hot topic among fans because they want to see him rise to the top and without a doubt, eventually he will. Cesaro really managed to win the support of the fans after he teamed with Jack Swagger to form The Real Americans. He had major momentum on his side when he won the Andre The Giant Memorial Battle Royal at WrestleMania XXX and everyone was ready to see him breakout.
The night after WrestleMania XXX Cesaro announced he was a Paul Heyman guy and it seemed like that pairing would be perfect. The fans quickly realized that Heyman wasn’t really doing much to help Cesaro however. Whenever Heyman was presented with a mic he wouldn’t hype up Cesaro, instead he would talk about Brock Lesnar conquering the streak. If anything Heyman actually ended up hurting Cesaro’s momentum.
How this one went wrong so quickly we will never understand. All of the pieces were there to truly catapult Cesaro to the next level. Cesaro spends a few months as a Heyman guy, then eventually feuds with Lesnar and gets a major rub win or lose. The storyline pretty much writes itself.
Instead it just fizzled out and Cesaro recently mentioned on Raw that he’s no longer a Heyman guy. No payoff whatsoever.
#7 – G-TV
[youtube_sc url=”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Pxvu21RgGk”]
G-TV was a hidden camera segment that WWE was running on their show for a while during The Attitude Era. The G-TV cameras would record something controversial that the public wasn’t supposed to see and then reveal it to the world. G-TV was used to reveal a lot of secrets that would keep many angles going but we never got the big payoff as to who was behind it. Most people assume it was Goldust because it was called G-TV but WWE dropped it for no reason.
Goldust was asked if he was behind it during an episode of WWE Inbox which you can watch above, but he doesn’t give a straight answer.
#6 – The Death Of Vince McMahon
[youtube_sc url=”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6iCFrgU0HDA”]
Without going into too much detail here because we all know why this one ended, this storyline was doomed from the start. The one thing it did right was get a lot of people talking. Minutes after Raw went off the air following the explosion of Vince McMahon’s limo, WWE was getting major media coverage. They even had to issue a press release saying Vince McMahon wasn’t really dead.
The fans will always have to wonder where this one was supposed to go. Sure, we knew Vince wasn’t really gone forever but we all wanted to watch the mystery unravel. Unfortunately this one was cut short before it even got started due to other tragic events tied to the WWE at the time.
#5 – Kane Vs. Kane
[youtube_sc url=”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pr1kxUpdm_U”]
When WWE created a storyline where Kane was set to face off against…himself, it had a lot of potential. Sure, it was a little silly but they had pulled off a similar angle before when The Undertaker faced off against The Undertaker so we had no reason to believe this wouldn’t work. WWE spent weeks building this storyline up and it eventually led to a match at Vengeance 2006. The fans thought for sure that we would get some sort of resolution to this feud but after the events which took place in the video above, impostor Kane (who was actually Luke Gallows AKA Festus) was never mentioned again.
#4 – Vince McMahon’s Son
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When this storyline started it seemed like a no brainer. No matter who was revealed at the end of this angle, WWE was going to make a star instantly just by associating them with Vince McMahon. This angle could have very well made someone’s career but it just wasn’t meant to be.
Over the weeks that this storyline played out WWE kept hinting that Mr. Kennedy was Vince McMahon’s son and that would have made perfect sense. Kennedy was a breakout star at the time and he had a lot of momentum behind him. Mr. Kennedy was going to be a star no matter what, but this angle was going to give him exactly what he needed to get to the top and stay there.
Unfortunately WWE was rocked again by a previous tragedy (which we won’t get into here) and the Signature Pharmacy scandal came into play. Many WWE superstars were suspended, one of which was Mr. Kennedy and the storyline pretty much lost all momentum from there.
Hornswoggle (yes…Hornswoggle) was revealed to be Mr. McMahon’s son and all the hype around this storyline quickly fizzled out. Mr. Kennedy would try several times to climb the WWE ladder until he was eventually released. He’s currently putting on some great matches under his real name Mr. Anderson in TNA.
#3 – The Anonymous Raw General Manager
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The anonymous Raw General Manager had to have been one of the most annoying storylines to hit WWE in recent years. This angle went on way too long and it really had no upside. After having to sit through Michael Cole being the voice of an anonymous Raw General Manager who ran the show through a laptop for months on end, the fans figured there would be some sort of payoff when this angle came to a close.
One thing this storyline did do was keep the fans guessing as to who was the identity of the Raw General Manager. There was so much possibility here for a big reveal but eventually the storyline was dropped and Hornswoggle (again) was revealed to be the anonymous Raw General Manager. A whole lot of buildup for a big letdown.
#2 – The Conspiracy/Summer of Punk
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CM Punk’s pipe bomb promo changed everything in WWE. Much like Nexus did a few years before, CM Punk managed to get a huge buzz going for WWE and people who hadn’t even uttered the letters WWE in years were finally talking about wrestling again. Fast forward to Money in the Bank where Punk walked out with the WWE Championship and both CM Punk and WWE were burning white hot at the time.
CM Punk leaving with the title was great. It had a lot of people guessing as to what would happen next. It gave the viewers a reason to tune in every week because they wanted to know when or if CM Punk would be back. Make no mistake about it, that much was epic.
WWE quickly panicked and brought CM Punk back a few weeks later in order to set up a match for SummerSlam. They could have dragged it out a lot longer, but bringing Punk back is both understandable and forgivable, what happened next just isn’t.
After putting on another great WWE Championship match with John Cena at SummerSlam CM Punk successfully defended his title only to get ambushed by Kevin Nash after the match. Alberto Del Rio capitalized and cashed in on CM Punk who was just attacked by Kevin Nash. In the weeks that followed there was a lot of mystery surrounding Kevin Nash, Triple H and CM Punk and why anyone would want to screw Punk out of the title.
Kevin Nash claimed he got a text from someone using Triple H’s phone telling him to take out CM Punk. The story was intriguing and once again the fans were sucked in. Was Triple H behind all of this? Was someone else pulling Kevin Nash’s strings? Who’s behind the conspiracy?
Eventually Kevin Nash revealed that he texted himself from Triple H’s phone. Yes, really, that happened. The storyline pretty much died from there and due to Kevin Nash being unable to compete at the time, CM Punk was shoehorned into a match with Triple H, which he lost. The most over guy in all of wrestling at the time (CM Punk) get sidetracked into a useless conspiracy angle that didn’t benefit anyone whatsoever.
The angle gave us some great promos and epic CM Punk moments, it just didn’t make a whole lot of sense. Luckily CM Punk was on fire at this time and all of the fumbles on WWE’s part did little to kill his momentum. A few months later WWE saw the error of their ways and let CM Punk defeat Alberto Del Rio for the WWE Championship at Survivor Series and get back to doing what he does best.
#1 – Nexus
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When Nexus made their debut it was unlike anything the WWE had ever seen. These rookies from NXT all banded together with a mission to take over the WWE and for a while they succeeded. Week after week Nexus ran the show and decimated the WWE roster. WWE was running somewhat cold from a storyline standpoint at this time but Nexus got a lot of people talking.
For the first time in years there was a big buzz around WWE because of this group but it quickly fizzled out. When Team WWE defeated Team Nexus at SummerSlam about a month after their debut, it killed all of the momentum the group had. From there the angle would die a painful death. It took a few twists in turns in the months to come and John Cena even became a member of the group at one point.
Eventually Nexus would split off into two separate groups New Nexus and The Corre. Both groups ended up fizzling out and in the end no one really benefited from the huge buzz that Nexus was able to create with their debut.
