Worst payoffs

[Dai]

The Elimination Chamber one, of course, but not having the Nash at Starrcade finish as one, though. Say what you like about whether Goldberg should of lost, or how it was Nash booking himself to win, but I think its a good finish, and at the time felt like a huge deal. Was a satisfying way to end the streak. It was all the shit after that soured it, but on its own I think it worked better than nearly anything else they could of cooked up.

[Carbomb]

Not watching wCw at the time, I couldn't say how it must have felt in the moment, but from a distance, it sounds like it was a waste to have Goldberg lose to Nash, and in that way. In fact, it sounds very much like wCw's approach in general during that era - if they'd actually been in the business of making new stars other than Goldberg, they might have used the opportunity of Goldberg's first loss to make a star of someone, instead of just handing it to an established main-eventer like Nash.

Edited October 10, 2025 by Carbomb
Robbie Earle

[sivy]

When it comes to Nash and Goldberg I think the finish to the Nitro WCW title match between Goldberg Vs DDP did a lot of damage to Goldberg. DDP gets disqualified for beating Goldberg down with a chair and injuring his leg with the ringpost. 

Kevin Nash runs out to save Goldberg with Goldberg holding on to Nash shoulder. This was what 3 months of the finger poke. You could hear the groan in the fans watching this.

[air_raid]

3 hours ago, Carbomb said:

Not watching wCw at the time, I couldn't say how it must have felt at the time, but from a distance, it sounds like it was a waste to have Goldberg lose to Nash, and in that way. In fact, it sounds very much like wCw's approach in general at the time - if they'd actually been in the business of making new stars other than Goldberg, they might have used the opportunity of Goldberg's first loss to make a star of someone, instead of just handing it to an established main-eventer like Nash.

I was watching at the time. I’m not going to lie, I thought that culminating with the Fingerpoke it was a bold but remarkably sensible move (I should stress - at the time). Subverting the inevitable drop off of interest in, and I can imagine Fin Martin writing this, “Goldberg won clean after a short match AGAIN” by him losing the anchor of “unbeaten” so soon, telling a different story than the last 12 months, not of “is Goldberg unbeatable” but “how does Goldberg rebound from defeat” - it made sense to me. The Fingerpoke has rightly been ripped to shreds since but at the time and in isolation I didn’t mind it as a TV plot twist. Since Hogan’s pretend retirement and “run for presidency” the top of the card was babyface heavy, more so with what was left of the black n white kicking Chico out. Goldberg, the Wolfpack, Flair and DDP had no real threats - who was top heel? Scotty Steiner? Oft-injured Bret? Non-wrestler Bischoff? A new direction was needed. An elite nWo band of Hall, Nash, Luger etc providing a crew for Bill to mow through one by one before eventually - surely - taking the title back from Hollywood made total sense to me and was something I actively looked forward to in January 99, many years before learning that had actually been the plan before “too many cooks” ruined it ; namely Hogan and Flairs mutual desires to turn, among others. But in isolation I didn’t have a problem with how it played out, with the end game they seemed to have set up.

Of course, you can’t view these things in isolation, and it was shitting on a 40,000 house that came to see Baldy get his rematch at home, and it was a bait and switch main airing in direct opposition to a proper main put on by your red-hot competitor, with a sensational ending, which you had your commentator spoil and ridicule earlier, then proceeded to put on a non-match after big hype. Clowns.

[Kfogg1991]

As I'm watching it on a WWE comp on YouTube without question when kane unmasked and turned on RVD. 

Only to just unveil abit of grease paint on his chops and a multiple month shoddy explanation of it was all in his mind all along the scars were mental.

[gmoney]

The Black Scorpion angle in WCW is a masterclass in self harm. Starting an angle without an end and painting yourself into a corner along the way so it would be impossible to please anyone unless you somehow managed to temp the other companies world champion to jump. Good old Ole. 

Edit: just noticed @The Reverend already mentioned this. Sorry Father.

Edited October 9, 2025 by gmoney

[tiger_rick]

15 hours ago, Kfogg1991 said:

As I'm watching it on a WWE comp on YouTube without question when kane unmasked and turned on RVD. 

Only to just unveil abit of grease paint on his chops and a multiple month shoddy explanation of it was all in his mind all along the scars were mental.

That's a great one. I remember being pretty pumped for that reveal. Despite some nonsense (Triple H again) they'd done a pretty good job elevating Kane around that time. He was a couple of decent wins from being a player for them, I think, but he ended up being accused of shagging a corpse, losing to Triple H and having the rest of his backstory exposed as nonsense within weeks, lost everything that made the gimmick unique and was a very unwelcome third wheel in the title match by Armageddon.

[Carbomb]

I thought the pivoting to Kane thinking his scars were all in his mind was actually the best thing they could have done following a really stupid decision to have him unmask when they knew Glenn Jacobs wasn't actually disfigured.

[air_raid]

On 10/9/2025 at 9:17 AM, Dai said:

Say what you like about whether Goldberg should of lost,

I definitely won’t.

[Ro_y Disco]

Just realised today is 15 years since 10.10.10 and "THErrrrE HErrrE"

I'm not sure if the payoff of Immortal being revealed as 'they' can be counted as worst, as most of TNA was rotten at the time. I was still watching and enjoying some of the RVD stuff. The reveal was incredibly disappointing. Jeff Hardy as a heel was just odd and led to the awful Hardy/Sting debacle.

[wandshogun09]

3 hours ago, Carbomb said:

I thought the pivoting to Kane thinking his scars were all in his mind was actually the best thing they could have done following a really stupid decision to have him unmask when they knew Glenn Jacobs wasn't actually disfigured.

It was either that or actually disfigure him. Like how committed to the gimmick are you Glenn? Even John Tenta got the tiger tattoo on his arm changed to a Shark when he became…The Shark in WCW.

The Kane unmasking thing is a funny one because I vividly remember people at school buzzing when Undertaker ripped Kane’s mask off at SummerSlam 2000. And I remember me and my brother kept rewinding that bit of the tape and trying to pause it to get a look at him. Even though by the summer of 2000 we knew it was the same big lump who played Isaac Yankem and Knock-off Diesel. If we wanted to see his face that badly we had multiple tapes with him on, with his face on show, in two different hair styles/colours. It wasn’t Kane though.

[Chico Torres]

The Rey Misterio unmasking in WCW was a terrible payoff because he removed his mask to reveal that he looked like a 12 year old boy which made it hard for him to have any credibility. Even worse was this child then becoming part of the least intimidating Latino gangsta group ever alongside white boy Kidman in his vest and jorts. Instant loss of aura.

[ReturnOfTheMack]

I remember quite liking The Filthy Animals. But yeah, the unmasking was a strange choice

[Supremo]

Whilst The Invasion as a whole goes without saying, it’s the downfall of DDP during it that winds me up the most. That first night when he was revealed as The Stalker was electric. Big moment. Huge reaction. He felt set for life.

Wild how quickly he went from this.

To this.

What a bunch of whoppers Undertaker and Vince McMahon proved themselves to be. Paid all that money just to bury whatever potential they had.

Still, it is quite funny that Taker’s ex-wife has a cagematch profile, and it’s just this. One, solitary match, beating DDP in six seconds. Better Streak than old ginger bollocks himself!

[wandshogun09]

While we’re on the subject of unmaskings, what were they playing at with Hypnosis?