Worst payoffs

[mim731]

6 hours ago, wandshogun09 said:

 

Whenever it comes up I always see people go ‘It should’ve been Jake The Snake!!’

But while the initial reveal would’ve been cool as a standalone moment, what then? By 99, nobody wanted to see Jake wrestle. He was awful in 96, for fuck’s sake. I would have preferred him as the mouthpiece and cult leader of the Ministry over retreading the same Vince stuff we’d been seeing for 18 months by that point, but even with Jake it still would’ve ultimately been the same thing we got. Jake would’ve still been leading the likes of Mideon, Viscera, Gangrel and the Acolytes while Taker still did his own thing. They’d booked themselves into a corner. Proper Black Scorpion in 1990 stuff. 

The talk of Christopher Daniels in the role is even weirder to me. Was there ever anything to that? Surely not right? Is that just people looking at the ‘Fallen Angel’ nickname and somehow thinking he’d fit? Because I never got that one. Where did that even come from? Why would they have The Undertaker taking orders from a tiny balding bloke who was doing jobs for Taka Michinoku on Shotgun a year earlier? 

The ever reliable Sky Text was adamant that it was Sid. Which would presumably have made even less sense. 

[wandshogun09]

2 hours ago, tiger_rick said:

Almost certain @Chico Torres was the one defending King Of The Ring 95 and Battlebowl 93 on here not long ago. Two of the absolute worst PPVs the big two ever put on. But he’s saying the Bret vs Owen cage match was “shite”? Yeah, alright. 

Someone’s either being contrarian for the sake of it or they have an absolutely dogshit palate for pro wrestling. 

[gmoney]

1 hour ago, mim731 said:

The ever reliable Sky Text was adamant that it was Sid. Which would presumably have made even less sense. 

Around this time me and my mate had discovered chat rooms, and rather than be groomed by nonces we were being fooled by people in the WWF.com chat with names like WWF_Guest_Ken_Shamrock telling us the higher power was definitely Sid. 

[Chico Torres]

40 minutes ago, wandshogun09 said:

Almost certain @Chico Torres was the one defending King Of The Ring 95 and Battlebowl 93 on here not long ago. Two of the absolute worst PPVs the big two ever put on. But he’s saying the Bret vs Owen cage match was “shite”? Yeah, alright. 

Someone’s either being contrarian for the sake of it or they have an absolutely dogshit palate for pro wrestling. 

I’m sure when it comes to any wrestling after 1997 my palate is dogshit since I am clearly in the minority in considering all your Hangman Omegas and Young Grunts and whatnot as utter shite. But going back to the good times…

On most matches I’m sure my view is pretty in line with consensus, I think Bret Owen from Wrestlemania is great for example, but I recall the cage match being a really long and dull match with lots of someone trying to climb and getting pulled down over and over as opposed to me expecting two brothers locked in a cage and killing each other. In fairness I haven’t watched it in decades but the main thing I remember was Smithers showing up looking like  yer divorced auntie just got back from Tenerife.

Also fuck off Battlebowl 1993 is a great memorization of 1993 Worldwide Disney era on PPV with the flashes of good like Austin and Scorpio and Vader and Cactus and Steamboat and Regal mixed in with (entertaining) bottom of the barrel crap like Cole Twins, Equalizer, Shockmaster and Charlie Norris. The crowd getting excited to finally have The Godwinns face off is a highlight!

But yes, sorry the cage match sucked but they had a much better match on Action Zone shortly after that.

[Devon Malcolm]

3 hours ago, Chico Torres said:

Come to think of it the Bret Owen cage match was shite as well

In fact, I believe it's still going on as we speak.

[Chico Torres]

As far as Summerslam 94 goes, the best match was obviously Razor vs Diesel followed by Alundra Blaze vs Bull Nakano, I remember the opening tag match between Bam Bam and Irwin vs Headshrinkers being good and all action, Tatanka vs Lex was at least short despite the crap payoff and I’m sure JJ vs Mabel was a fun fatty vs cowardly heel match that never outstayed its welcome. So I hereby officially declare that the never ending cage match was the 6th best match on the show, only ahead of the double Takers and the highlight was Shirley The Hammer Valentine getting knocked out by The Anvil. I haven’t seen the Adam Bomb vs Kwang dark match if it’s subsequently been released so can’t comment on that.

[RIDDUM_N_STYLE]

How bout payoffs that didn’t work out because the angle went over better than thought or ended up shelved cos of injuries/firings

Prime example, Bob Backlund’s heel turn in 94, had Bob not put the effort in of being a crazy, delusional former champion so well, the back up plan was bringing back Papa Shango and having it that Backlund was under a spell so Shango could avenge his losses to Bret in 92

Another one, which still hasn’t been fully resolved, was GTV being the brainchild of Goldust, who hadn’t been seen for over a year and indeed wouldn’t be back until the 2002 Rumble by which time GTV had been phased off

[air_raid]

6 hours ago, RIDDUM_N_STYLE said:

Another one, which still hasn’t been fully resolved, was GTV being the brainchild of Goldust, who hadn’t been seen for over a year and indeed wouldn’t be back until the 2002 Rumble by which time GTV had been phased off

GTV started in the middle of 99. Goldie, while injured, was still under contract and had just come off his (brief) 3rd run with the ICT.

[Chris B]

As much as I love AEW... the exploding ring was hilariously bad. Gives an idea how good Eddie Kingston and Mox are that they were able to navigate that filmed promo the following week.

Also, the payoff to John Cena joining the Nexus - this was probably where the Super-Cena stuff came from, if memory serves. Totally cut the legs off a heel unit that had some left at that point.

[RedTwoster]

Claire Lynch.

TNA built up a semi-interesting mystery involving AJ Styles, which culminated in one of the most bafflingly horrendous reveals in wrestling history.

TNA had a habit of doing that at the time, with interesting build (Aces and Eights was taking place at around the same time) that would result in catastrophically bad final chapters. 

Claire Lynch was not only the worst of these, but is a strong contender for being the worst ever storyline in wrestling.

[Supremo]

Special shout out to the people who were convinced the Wyatt Cinematic Universe wasn’t a bunch of mumbo jumbo and it would definitely eventually pay off in a satisfying manner.

Some say they’re still pumping out YouTube video essays to this very day. Just you wait for that Sister Abigail reveal!

Edited October 7, 2025 by Supremo

[tiger_rick]

14 hours ago, Chico Torres said:

On most matches I’m sure my view is pretty in line with consensus, I think Bret Owen from Wrestlemania is great for example, but I recall the cage match being a really long and dull match with lots of someone trying to climb and getting pulled down over and over as opposed to me expecting two brothers locked in a cage and killing each other. In fairness I haven’t watched it in decades but the main thing I remember was Smithers showing up looking like  yer divorced auntie just got back from Tenerife.

Nothing about the feud, the second greatest story in WWF/E history, built to two brothers killing each other in a cage. Owen wanted to be better than his brother and to be the WWF Champion. The WWF blue cage rules were never more perfect in set up or execution than they were in this match. Some big spots from the ropes and the cage but generally just a masterful display of using the gimmick to create scenarios the fans got behind or feared. 

It wasn't better than either 5* match at Mania 10, nor was it anywhere close to the Ladder Match in terms of the innovation and pure drama but it's an excellent match between two guys at the top of their game. 

Davey Boy is definitely still laying knocked out on the floor of the United Centre though.

[Callum1993]

A lesser remembered one but still crap. As mentioned in other threads 2019 was a really bad year for WWE particularly towards the end of the year. On the Raw side you had the crap with Rollins and Fiend and on Smackdown you had Brock beating Kofi in 6 seconds to win the WWE title in order to set up a match with Cain Velasquez. 
 

At the same time there was a ‘whodunnit’ storyline with someone attacking Roman Reigns by dropping crates on him on one Smackdown and then trying to run him over on Raw. It felt like an opportunity to elevate someone and at the time the rumours of the attacker were Samoa Joe or Buddy Murphy. Ultimately it was revealed to be….an Erick Rowan lookalike

 

Eventually it turned out Rowan himself had been the attacker. He turned on Daniel Bryan who he had been aligned with and reunited with Harper. They then went on to lose to Roman and Bryan at Hell in a Cell and he was then drafted to Raw where for a few months he carried around a cage with a cover over it. Eventually it was revealed to be…..a robotic spider.

Someone(I forget who) crushed the cage with the steel steps and Rowan was then released from the company later that year. What a rollercoaster. 

[BomberPat]

the only reason I think that there's some truth in Christopher Daniels being planned as the Higher Power at some point is that he was revealed as Vampiro's Higher Power in WCW, and then if memory serves it was never mentioned again. So much of Russo's booking of WCW was either recycling his WWF angles, or finding dumping grounds for the ones they didn't let him run with, and a lot of the Vampiro/Sting feud, and how he booked Vampiro in general, was just a dumping ground for his ideas for Kane and The Undertaker, so the fact that he went with Daniels when he had a second stab at the Higher Power reveal makes me think Russo probably pushed for him to get the gig first time around. 

[tiger_rick]

Fucking hell, Rowan's giant spider. Was it him who had the rat in a box too?