Good Feuds/Storylines That Fell Off A Cliff

[GordyM]

Matt Hardy vs Edge & Lita.

 

This feud burned briefly but dear fucking god did it burn brightly for a moment! This was a molten-hot angle that got many, including me, watching the WWE shows again just to see how Matt and Edge could even exist in the same ring together after the latter had been giving the 'pork spear' to Lita behind the former's back and even gotten him fired too thanks to Edge being one of Vince's protected 'golden boys'. There was clearly, and for good reason, an intense hatred between the two of them that would've left even Bret and Shawn saying "Woah, calm it down a little, guys". Their match at Summerslam had to be the most anticipated match of the year and had so many of us desperate to see what would happen. How far would they take it? How stiff would they be working? Would it even maybe spill over into one or both saying "fuck it" and start shooting on the other? It was going to be exciting, no matter what.

 

Well, it was for the first couple of minutes, and then Edge squashed Matt so bad you'd have thought he was a jobber who'd momentarily forgotten his place and been turned into a bloody pulp because of it. Booking the match to end via ref stoppage not because the two guys were trying to murder each other but rather because Matt was made to look too shit to last the pace against the Rated R Superstar (maybe it was Edge's superior stamina that led to Lita switching penises?) killed the angle. Matt never truly recovered from it and went on to lose the feud in a very clear and definitive manner that was made to show Matt was inferior to Edge in every way, including getting Lita wet. Goodbye all the heat Matt had. Goodbye all the ratings and millions of dollars the feud could've generated if only Matt and Edge had been booked as equals. Instead Vince once again put his ego before business and simply used the whole thing to make his golden boy look great and punish Matt for not toeing the company line when Edge and Lita's affair was initially revealed. What a fucking waste.

[Briefcase]

Some really good shouts so far. 

 

I still think they could have done something more with Eugene, he was white hot during the Summer when he had the brief programme with Triple H and as a face I thought the character was brilliant, but it fizzled out in the end when he was thrown into tag matches, I still to this day think they should have turned Eugene heel for a few months, where either he was manipulated by Triple H (and Evolution?) or because his character was confused. I know its not a storyline as such but would have enjoyed them running with the angle, but just felt it died a death.

[Guest]

They did turn him into a confused heel eventually, and it was awful.

[Mr.E]

If I recall correctly, Eugene lost all momentum after he broke his leg at New Years Revolution. When he came back it was never the same.

[The Crystal Maze]

 

The nwo. The nwo was a super hot angle in WCW for over a year and then it faded fast. When Goldberg destroyed Hogan in the dome it should have ended the nwo but they went with nwo time and time again until it meant nothing, culminating in the shitty nwo 2000 borefest.

It should have ended sooner, probably at Starrcade 97. I personally find the nWo dies around the time The Giant joins. But fell of a cliff? It was money for another 20 months. Huge money and huge ratings so hard to argue.

 

 

I agree, it should have ended with Sting beating Hogan but they bodged it up. I just feel the general storyline of the nwo got old really fast and never really had the definitive overthrowing it should have done. Instead we got the nwo b show, nwo latino, nwo wolfpack, nwo 2000 and even nwo 2002. Like pretty much everything in WCW there was no payoff and it was all just a bit meh. 

[Guest]

The Eugene character was always gonna die a death. Once the initial decent angle with HHH/Rock/Regal/Benoit was done and Hogan had saved him from the muzzies at Mania he'd outstayed his welcome

 

Eventually he was always gonna just be a guy pretending to have downs. Look at him at the end of his run.

Haha, backwards E! He's so simple

 

 

 

Good shout on the Edge/Hardy stuff, but was it all Vince's bitterness? I remember Hardy not coming across all that great on his return promo, some have suggested he took a lot of the money out that angle himself. That Summerslam match was still baffling, though they did get at least one really good cage match out of it on the next PPV I think.

[Jazzy G]

The ideal way for Eugene to turn heel was to drop the whole thing and say he was faking it to get a foot in the door. There's a built in feud with Regal then who could be incandescent with rage over being besmirched in such spectacular fashion. It'd kind of explain away those "moments of clarity" when Eugene would just string together big long chains of wrestling holds etc.

[lamply]

Eddie Guerrero/Rey Mysterio on Smackdown - when Eddie's heel turn eventually transitioned into the "feud for Dominic". I'm sure there are some people who really enjoyed it, but I wasn't one of them. The start of Eddie's heel run was phenomenal but this storyline didn't really work for me. 

 

I'd also suggest the start of the Authority storyline. I loved Triple H siding with Randy Orton and screwing over Daniel Bryan. What followed was pretty dire. 

[Jazzy G]

It just never feels like there's any long term booking in place anymore. Whenever it does feel like a storyline is starting to make sense somebody usually seems to shit out and either pull the trigger too early, or hold off and miss the opportunity completely.

[Doctor Whos Next]

The ideal way for Eugene to turn heel was to drop the whole thing and say he was faking it to get a foot in the door. There's a built in feud with Regal then who could be incandescent with rage over being besmirched in such spectacular fashion. It'd kind of explain away those "moments of clarity" when Eugene would just string together big long chains of wrestling holds etc.

 

This...   either have him come out and say "Yeah, it was my Uncle Eric's idea, Contraversy Creates Cash, right?" 

 

Or have him be a super intelligent manipulator who reveals he's been faking his condition since he was a child.  

[The Gaffer]

I'd love to have seen Eugene turn heel just to have WWE do that thing where they heel up his existing theme and turn that happenstance little piano ditty into a slowed down dirge.

[ColinBollocks]

Punk after MITB, Nexus and Orton right after he punted Vince are the three that come to mind.

 

Punk returning to lose to Triple H and then getting his revenge on Nash by pointing and laughing, after Triple H did all the work is hilarious now, but it's nonetheless a classic bury job from Triple H. It only highlighted how selfless and integral Vince and Cena were selling Punk's pipebomb talk.

 

Orton felt like the biggest deal going into the Rumble that year too, but then fat Shane turned up and hit fresh air, which Orton then sold.

[HarmonicGenerator]

Just finished listening to the show. A decent episode, but it all got a bit samey as it went on. At about the halfway point, I could pretty accurately predict how it was going to go. Liam introduces the feud or angle and tries to get a bit of debate doing, Kieran starts having a go but ends up just going 'nah' about it falling off a cliff, and Karl says that the feud or angle wasn't that interesting or good anyway so there was no cliff to fall off. I listen every week and I love the show, but it seemed very rinse and repeat with how the panel responded this week. Next time there's a feedback heavy show it might be worth trying to get one of the other panelists in there as well, it seems to help stop things getting so negative. Or maybe you could do a show that's exclusively about things Karl likes, I don't think he said anything positive the entire episode this week, give him a subject to cheer him up! If someone had never heard the show before they'd be forgiven for wondering why someone who hates everything about wrestling was appearing on a wrestling fan podcast. That bunker's not good for his temperament!

[PowerButchi]

Yeah, maybe a week or two of positivity is in order? It is nearly Christmas after all. Things online tend to be very negative, moan moan moan about things, something positive for a change would be a positive change (no thesaurus needed).

[tiger_rick]

I found that with the bloom off the Rose show only they were positive about everyone being suggested. Karl and Keiran are surprisingly similar in their opinion. It needs Liam to be a bit contrary to spice things up.