The biggest let down / failure

[Winston]

I really enjoyed the thread about "The best angle ever".

 

Got me thinking about the flip side, what angle did you think could've been great but just didn't work out or fell flat on it's arse?

 

For me I'm thinking the Who Run Over Stone Cold angle. I was young and really invested in the angle. It was a time where wrestling wasn't short of star names and it really could've been anyone. If I remember correctly I was sure it was Shawn Michaels but obviously hoped it was someone big from WCW.

 

But it turned out to be Rikishi and "he did it for Da Rock"..

[LaGoosh]

The Invasion angle wins this one. The biggest missed opportunity in wrestling history.

[Callum1993]

Adding to the WCW theme DDP/NWO/Goldberg in WWE. All let downs and fails in their own way.

[Your Fight Site]

The Invasion angle wins this one. The biggest missed opportunity in wrestling history.

Ditto.

[Undefeated Steak]

+1 for the invasion angle.

 

Also adding Kurt Angle joining TNA. Way to jump the shark with the hottest in-ring commodity your company will ever have.

[air_raid]

I'll go with a couple of less obvious ones. Although these are probably not true let-downs so much as me being a retard at the times involved.

 

When Jeff Jarrett returned to the WWF at the tail end of '97 after a forgettable run jobbing to Mongo "down South" he really convinced me with his angry promo where he basically said "Double J is dead" and that he was one of the world's best and he was fed up being treated like shit. I really thought a reinvigorated Jarrett was going to be a fresh main eventer, and when they instantly booked him against Undertaker for the next PPV, I thought that was only going to be the start. And I liked his new "main event" music, tights and haircut. Sadly bell to bell, it was the same story as ever, he got bogged down with Bradshaw and the interminable NWA revival, and Double J was back in time for Mania, before Jeff finally got his groove back with the crew cut and Debra. I was actually becoming a really big fan round about the time he fucked off again, although in hindsight that may have been something to do with the correlation between the length of Miss Kitty's skirt and my increasingly sore wrist.

 

Complete moron that I was, I thought that LOD 2000 were going to be the bollocks. They had a refreshed look and theme, and I was convinced that them just smashing everyone in short matches combined with Sunny wiggling her arse at ringside was their ticket back to mega-stardom. Then they had a crap match with the Outlaws at Unforgiven which was too long, with a crap finish, that they didn't win. They were miles past their best, they were still being exposed in too-long matches, and it turns out giving a new look and Sunny to LOD in 1998 was like sprinkling sapphires on white dogshit. Once Sunny got shitcanned for being a walking chemical dumping ground, I lost any lingering interest that I still had. Hot new look at Mania... off the PPVs again by SummerSlam.

 

When Chris Jericho made his debut for the WWF, I was convinced they were throwing him into the main event instantly, and Jericho vs Austin, Rock, Undertaker or Triple H would be par for the course for the next six months. Instead he trod water with Road Dog, Chyna and Hardcore Holly for six months. Then again, he was lucky. In Undisputed he makes it sound like working X-Pac was what saved his job at all. We're back to "if you can't work with Kid, you can't work with anyone" again.

 

At the time I was convinced that Bulldog coming back in late 1999 was going to lead to an emotional "doing it for Owen" quest for the WWF title that the fans could get behind and in the end at least if Smithers winning the big one wasn't on the cards, then he'd get a PPV shot at it and look valiant in defeat. Instead he turned heel virtually as soon as he was back and sold his tights and Rule Britannia to pay for crack, becoming a zombie in jeans coming out to shit generic music to wrestle Steve Blackman every week. Watching him stampede around at Rebellion barking "Wurr's my title shot?!?" would have been comedic, if it hadn't been so sad.

 

 

Finally, I was devastated the Lex Express never made a stop in Telford.

[FUM]

I was massively excited about John Cena joining the Nexus - it was awful.

[IANdrewDiceClay]

Most of the big angles in 2001 and 2002 spring to mind. The disappointment in the Invasion angle was massive. Looking back on it, fuck all happened. Its an angle anyone on here could have booked better. Its not like they were under staffed. DDP, Booker T, Sting, Rey Mysterio, Ric Flair, Eric Bischoff, Scott Hall, Hulk Hogan (who could have did his big babyface turn), Chris Kanyon, Mike Awesome and loads of others were all available. Fuck, you could have brought the Road Warriors back and they could have credibly represented WCW with all their history in both promotions. Hawk and Animal vs the Dudleys in a big brawl would have been pretty good and hidden their Roadies weaknesses. Nash was only a few months away from returning. You could have switched Benoit and Jericho back over to WCW. That was an angle you could have continued for years. Shame, really.

[Professor Paul's Bin]

I remember 2011 being an interesting year for Wrestling but after Summerslam it took a massive down turn. Many regular members on here were expecting some sort of nWo faction to be formed involving Nash who was floating around at the time but nothing at all happened. Instead the later part of 2011 ended up being rather disappointing.

 

The nWo 2002 Angle was utter shite.

 

We all agree the Invasion wasn't what it could have been but still it did have some good moments.

 

Chris Jericho's return in 2012 was another one.

 

Public Enemies 1999 run in the WWF.

 

Goldberg, Scott Steiner and DDP in the WWE.

[Smokin']

The Invasion angle was as good as it could have been given the lack of talent that the WWE signed. If they'd had Hogan, Nash, Hall, Goldberg, Flair, Steiner etc., I'm sure it'd have been a competitive feud but you can't allow the WCW jobbers and smackhead ECW talent to be seen as equal to Kane, Undertaker, Jericho, The Rock etc.. That feud had to be one sided and over quickly because the talent wasn't there on the WCW/ECW side. It's a shame that's how it unfolded but it wasn't a missed opportunity.

[Pier Six Brawler]

The Invasion angle was always better in theory than it would ever be in practice.

 

Biggest let-down? I would say the Gobbledy-Gooker. They spent so much time hyping that egg. If they'd done it without the hype I don't think the reaction to the Gooker would be nearly as bad. And they already had a mystery on that show that paid off big-time with the Undertaker's debut.

[IANdrewDiceClay]

Anyone who says the Invasion angle wasn't a missed opportunity wasn't watching wrestling pre-2006. It isn't like now where we are conditioned for everything to die on its arse and we all pull our plonkers pretending things are better than they actually are. The Invasion PPV is still one of their biggest ever PPVs and that was pretty much built around established WWF vs established WWF wrestlers in the main event. They drew 775,000 US buys for it. There's no way there wasn't interest in it. Its the feud people were dreaming off for years. The funniest thing when people try and come up with reasons for why the Invasion couldn't work is always "they didn't have the wrestlers". If that PPV was available internationally, it was probably cracking a million buys. For a show headlined by Rhino and the Dudleys on the heel squad. They had enough momentum and interest without the likes of Goldberg. Imagine what DDP vs the Rock would have done. Then you could have gradually brought the WCW talent in as the year went on. It was a shocking clanger.

[Undefeated Steak]

TNA as a whole. They looked like they were on the right track to becoming a major player for a year or so way back when.

 

Edit - Couldn't agree more with the post above mine. The invasion angle was a travesty. They could have made SO much money from that had they played it properly.

[MoKonjic]

The anonymous Raw GM was a massive let down, especially seeing how long they ran with it.

[Nothing to see here!]

It's a fairly recent one because as I get older I'm harder to impress so please don't fuck it up once you've got me. Austin Aries is the only guy I can say I've been a mark for in the past 5 or so years for, and by tna standards he was super hot. Fans chanted his name pretty much everywhere they went with not a lot of help from creative other than letting him win. Crimson, before you say anything, Crimson. They had the golden goose right there and then they started jobbing him out mercilously to Hardy and ditched him as a main event guy to pursue the hobby horse of the aces and eights. He didn't fail, he didn't get old, they just stopped using him and now EY's champ. Excellent.