Good Feuds/Storylines That Fell Off A Cliff

[Sheffbag]

Flair / Hogan in 91-92 This should have been the feud of the year but never made it to PPV. Recognising Flair as a world champion, having him trash Hogan and challenge him, cost him the belt at Survivors/Tuesday in Texas but never resolve it at a PPV was a waste.

 

Vader / Hogan. Again this should have the feud to really make Vader even bigger than he was but he wasn't allowed the first win. After that you couldn't take him as a threat seriously. This could have been big bucks for WCW.

[Supremo]

Not to derail the thread, but what storylines from WWE can people think of that didn't fall off a cliff? Genuine question.

[tiger_rick]

 

 

I'm going with Ultimate Warrior vs Undertaker. I felt like nothing came of the amazing funeral parlour where they put Warrior in the casket. Everybody rushed to get out and save Warrior and even when they did you thought he was lucky to be alive. As a kid I was truelly worried about Warrior and wanted him to get revenge. I think they did a 6 minute Saturday Night Main Event with a DQ finish but that could have led to a big match in my view.

I don't think that really counts. It was a house show feud. It didn't fall off a cliff, it just served its purpose.

 

Really? When on tv kids were speaking about it at school. Seemed like something really big to me when I watched it. If it was a house show feud then I feel it was a waste. Warrior was a big name face and Undertaker was a scary bad guy.

 

I agree, I loved the thought of it at the time (although I only read about it in WWF Magazine). But it was designed to draw houses and did really well that summer. If there was any intention for it to have a televised blow-off, it could have happened at SummerSlam.

[Wrasslin]

Not to derail the thread, but what storylines from WWE can people think of that didn't fall off a cliff? Genuine question.

 

Austin, Tyson DX?

[Jazzy G]

Didn't they try and get something going with Shango & Bret right before Summerslam '92? I seem to remember a WWF Magazine issue with the headline "Hitman Hexed?" on the front, implying that he was cursed by Shango, but don't recall anything else coming of it. Jake Roberts and Sting in WCW never really got going properly either. I think he had a couple of squashes on Worldwide, cut some promos about Sting then disappeared again.

[Fanny Pack]

I'm going for that Shane/Vince storyline from this year's Mania. Basically that bloody lock box and Vince saying "fuck" in that great promo with Shane. It felt massive at the time, to me anyway. I thought "this is it! Vince is finally taking a backseat and letting Shane run the shizzow".

 

I even went as far as to put 40 quid on Shane to beat Taker at Mania (absolute idiot, I know!). My reasoning was that there was no chance, no chance in hell, no chance in hell in a cell that they would bring Shane back for this epic storyline just to lose to Taker... and that's exactly what happened.

 

The following weeks on Raw when Vince had to come out and go "you know what Shane, you can run Raw", it was just awful, made zero sense and amounted to fuck all.

 

Bloody lock boxes!

 

 

Also, just for Karl to sink his teeth into... the Kane "burlap sack" storyline... which was just Reys mask in a bag. Shite.

[GPW Kristian Zane]

Might be an odd choice, but for me it was Orton/Triple H prior to Wrestlemania 25.

 

Orton had gone all bad-ass, with the new tattoos/faction/attitude, won the royal rumble and had Triple H in his sights. The story progress'd fantastically, with Orton taking out Stephanie in the process, and not just RKO'ing her, but kissing her unconscious body in front of a restrained Triple H. I believe he may have also had vince/shane off in the process.

 

At this point, it all had to 100% culminate with a solid victory from Orton at WM, showing he's the man to beat going forward. Instead what we got was Triple H demolishing him fairly decisively [from my recollection] and instantly ending all the the months of fantastic build up, they had with Orton. 

Just to add a bit extra to this if I may? I went into Mania 25 expecting an Attitude Era style brawl with run in's from the participants allies etc. Instead we had a textbook wrestling match where at the end Hunter decked Orton with the sledgehammer and that was it.

 

Similar thing happened with Eddie Guerrero vs. Kurt Angle at Mania 20, they hated each other but then they went hold for hold in the end as well.

[The Gaffer]

Not to derail the thread, but what storylines from WWE can people think of that didn't fall off a cliff? Genuine question.

There's plenty, to be fair. Some played out but I wouldn't say they fell off a cliff. Bret and Shawn is one if you consider Montreal to be the ultimate poetic tragedy of an ending it was summed up to be in Wrestling With Shadows. Bret & Austin never soured. Undertaker & Foley was always great, and when it eventually came back off the boil for what looked like a tired, thrown together angle it resulted in the most infamous match in company history. 'Taker/HBK, in both incarnations. Vince and Austin was always good if you consider they wrapped up the initial angle at Fully Loaded 1999, tidying it up before SummerSlam. Triple H/Rock.

 

Austin & Rock is probably the biggest modern ever between two in ring competitors, and I don't think that fell off a cliff. Austin siding with McMahon was something else entirely, Rock was gone after X-Seven anyway, and the whole thing wrapped up bittersweet at WrestleMania XIX in a perfectly great rematch under weird circumstances.

 

Maybe I'm shooting fish in a barrel and you're looking for bigger angles but Edge/Cena, Batista/Undertaker, Edge/Undertaker, Triple H/Batista. These were all huge angles in their respective years that usually ended perfectly around the third PPV match. WWE was solid as a rock with some of this shit from Batista and Cena being crowned top dogs to about four or five years after.

 

It's only in the last few years these kind of things would be repeatedly fucked up with mental overexposure.

[bradfordcity]

Aces & Eights in TNA, started off so good, just died a death.

[DCW]

Test winning the 'immunity from being fired for a year' battle royal at Survivor Series 01 could have been a fun year long storyline, but they forgot about it after a few weeks and that was that. 

[Guest]

 

 

Not to derail the thread, but what storylines from WWE can people think of that didn't fall off a cliff? Genuine question.

Austin & Rock is probably the biggest modern ever between two in ring competitors, and I don't think that fell off a cliff.

No, it fell off a bridge.

[PunkStep]

First one to jump out at me was the Nexus. Incredible angle to start their story and decent follow-up to build the SummerSlam 7 on 7 where upon they were taken apart handily and were never as interesting again. The angle had a flicker of life when Cena had to join the Nexus but much like Daniel Bryan joining the Wyatts or CM Punk leaving with the WWE title, nothing remotely interesting came of it. Such a massive missed opportunity. They'll have to wait years now to do an nWo style angle. They had one, they had interest and intrigue and they blew it.

 

I think Bryan joining the Wyatts was fine to be honest. Sure, they could've dragged it out a bit, but only if it were any other time of the year. This served as a vehicle to keep Bryan pre-occupied and garner an even bigger following before going for the title at Mania. And my god, the reaction he got in that cage match when he turned on Bray- that was worth it alone. Short, sure, but sweet. THAT is my favourite moment of the road to WrestleMania that year, above the Yes Takeover, which felt a little too forced. The crowd eating up and reacting to EVERY SINGLE THING he did in that cage was incredible, one of the best crowds I've ever seen/heard.

[The Gaffer]

By the time Aces & Eights fell off a cliff the vultures had already made hors d'oeuvre of it's kneecapped and crucified corpse.

 

 

The love triangle is the best one I can think of but I'll go for Triple H's return as a whole. Triple H was my guy when I got into wrestling in 2000 so I was pumped beyond belief right through that run of desire videos they done for him. His return was just incredible and I think maybe the first of it's kind insofar as he was the biggest heel in the business when he left but it was just an automatic character switch when he came back because of the crowd reaction. The kind of stuff that constantly happens nowadays. Honestly as an 11 year old high as shit on my 2 litre bottle of Raw coke I nearly shat it when they got to that 'TRIPLE H RETURNS - NEXT!' graphic.

 

The whole road leading into WrestleMania from there was a sorry mess though as it became less about Jericho Vs. Triple H and more about Stephanie Vs. Triple H. With their dog Lucy playing the Dominic Mysterio role. Jericho also plays into all of this, of course, being booked as the sort of underwhelming champion we'd constantly get once the belts were split. The match was underwhelming, Triple H drops the belt to Hogan at Backlash, has a nothing summer, shines again as a villain in his angle with pal Shawn before being awarded the Raw belt and going on his big fat purple trunks Ripple H year of infamy. I'm getting ahead of myself because that encompasses plenty of other storylines that couldn't even stick their Kevin Nash of a pickaxe into the base of the cliff but yeah, Triple H's return fell off a cliff.

 

So did everything else from that Survivor Series 2001-WrestleMania X8 period, by the way. Fuck the Invasion. People thought the company might refocus when it went back to being just WWE. That five month period redefined our expectations of WWE writing to this day, took the sheen permanently off the boom years and kickstarted this whole 16 year long "WWE is shit now" phase.

[FWA Goon]

I thought the Randy Savage Jake the Snake Roberts Feud never really came to a proper end PPV wise.

 

I know the had a match I think  on Saturday Nights main event but never seemed have the big pay off at the end. Perhaps the timing wasn't great as Royal Rumble in 92 was for the belt so both had to be included in the mix for that. 

 

I know Savage went on to WM to win the title so it worked out for him and Jake ended up leaving.

I thought the Randy Savage Jake the Snake Roberts Feud never really came to a proper end PPV wise.

 

I know the had a match I think  on Saturday Nights main event but never seemed have the big pay off at the end. Perhaps the timing wasn't great as Royal Rumble in 92 was for the belt so both had to be included in the mix for that. 

 

I know Savage went on to WM to win the title so it worked out for him and Jake ended up leaving. Though I wouldn't say it fell off a cliff.

[tiger_rick]

I think Bryan joining the Wyatts was fine to be honest. Sure, they could've dragged it out a bit, but only if it were any other time of the year. This served as a vehicle to keep Bryan pre-occupied and garner an even bigger following before going for the title at Mania. And my god, the reaction he got in that cage match when he turned on Bray- that was worth it alone. Short, sure, but sweet. THAT is my favourite moment of the road to WrestleMania that year, above the Yes Takeover, which felt a little too forced. The crowd eating up and reacting to EVERY SINGLE THING he did in that cage was incredible, one of the best crowds I've ever seen/heard.

Fair shout on the cage match. I think the pay-off is because of Bryan's popularity though. They did nothing with the angle to help.