redoneja
11-06-2009, 02:47 PM
Been thinking about some of the most disappointing storylines in terms of the final payoff. There have really been some tremendous angles/feuds in wrestling in which the buildup was tremendous, but the climax was weak. The ones that come to mind for me are:
Sting v nWo (Fall Brawl 1996-Starrcade 1997)
This may be the most disappointing to me. A match that was a culmination of perhaps the largest angle in WCW history. Starrcade '97 even drew WCW's largest buyrate. Huge angle, with about 15 months of buildup, wasted when Hogan decided to exert creative control and insert a tainted finish in his match with Sting. This could have brought a close to the nWo angle, or at least began to "turn the tide" in favor of WCW. Instead, we get a rematch, which Sting wins albeit still not cleanly, and the nWo continues to expand out of control until it splits into two factions, with most of the main WCW guys joining either nWo Hollywood or nWo Wolfpac. Including Sting.
Who ran over Stone Cold Steve Austin? (Survivor Series 1999-Survivor Series 2000)
A year long storyline that could have been huge. But, as it turns out, Rikishi ran over Steve Austin. For the Rock. :| But then go on to find out that HHH was in on it. :eek: So, Austin and HHH decide to settle it once and for all. Austin gets the last laugh by trapping HHH in a car, lifting the car with some sort of loader/forklift, and then dropping it smashing HHH upside down in the car. :wtf: End of story, right? Wrong. HHH is back on Raw within a few weeks and he's miraculously uninjured. :|
But at least they did go on to put on an incredible 3 Stages of Hell match a few months after this.
Who's side is Mr. Perfect on? (Summer 1992-Summerslam 1992)
Going a bit oldschool here. At Summerslam 1992, Randy Savage was set to defend his WWF Title against the Ultimate Warrior. Pretty intriguing match up for the time as they were the top 2 faces in the company at the time. Added to this, Mr Perfect, who was Ric Flair's Executive Consultant came out and began saying he was going to be in the corner of either Randy Savage or the Ultimate Warrior. The next few weeks of WWF Superstars was filled with speculation about whether Savage or Warrior had "sold out". During the match at Summerslam, Perfect accompanied neither man to the ring. However, he did show up during the match but seemed to favor neither Savage nor Warrior. Eventually, he ended up assisting Flair in attacking Savage, until Warrior ran them off.
In the end, it turns out Perfect was working for Ric Flair all along and this was a way of getting at both Warrior and Savage, in order to help Flair regain the title. Flair would eventually regain the title (at a house show, with virtually no fanfare or buildup to the match) and he would then join forces with Razor Ramon to take on Savage and Warrior at Survivor Series. Unfortunately, Warrior got canned, Savage asked Perfect to be his partner, Perfect accepted and turned on Flair. While that was pretty cool to see Perfect get back in the ring, it completely nullified the whole "divide and conquer conspiracy" angle that had been going on since the middle of the summer.
Sting v nWo (Fall Brawl 1996-Starrcade 1997)
This may be the most disappointing to me. A match that was a culmination of perhaps the largest angle in WCW history. Starrcade '97 even drew WCW's largest buyrate. Huge angle, with about 15 months of buildup, wasted when Hogan decided to exert creative control and insert a tainted finish in his match with Sting. This could have brought a close to the nWo angle, or at least began to "turn the tide" in favor of WCW. Instead, we get a rematch, which Sting wins albeit still not cleanly, and the nWo continues to expand out of control until it splits into two factions, with most of the main WCW guys joining either nWo Hollywood or nWo Wolfpac. Including Sting.
Who ran over Stone Cold Steve Austin? (Survivor Series 1999-Survivor Series 2000)
A year long storyline that could have been huge. But, as it turns out, Rikishi ran over Steve Austin. For the Rock. :| But then go on to find out that HHH was in on it. :eek: So, Austin and HHH decide to settle it once and for all. Austin gets the last laugh by trapping HHH in a car, lifting the car with some sort of loader/forklift, and then dropping it smashing HHH upside down in the car. :wtf: End of story, right? Wrong. HHH is back on Raw within a few weeks and he's miraculously uninjured. :|
But at least they did go on to put on an incredible 3 Stages of Hell match a few months after this.
Who's side is Mr. Perfect on? (Summer 1992-Summerslam 1992)
Going a bit oldschool here. At Summerslam 1992, Randy Savage was set to defend his WWF Title against the Ultimate Warrior. Pretty intriguing match up for the time as they were the top 2 faces in the company at the time. Added to this, Mr Perfect, who was Ric Flair's Executive Consultant came out and began saying he was going to be in the corner of either Randy Savage or the Ultimate Warrior. The next few weeks of WWF Superstars was filled with speculation about whether Savage or Warrior had "sold out". During the match at Summerslam, Perfect accompanied neither man to the ring. However, he did show up during the match but seemed to favor neither Savage nor Warrior. Eventually, he ended up assisting Flair in attacking Savage, until Warrior ran them off.
In the end, it turns out Perfect was working for Ric Flair all along and this was a way of getting at both Warrior and Savage, in order to help Flair regain the title. Flair would eventually regain the title (at a house show, with virtually no fanfare or buildup to the match) and he would then join forces with Razor Ramon to take on Savage and Warrior at Survivor Series. Unfortunately, Warrior got canned, Savage asked Perfect to be his partner, Perfect accepted and turned on Flair. While that was pretty cool to see Perfect get back in the ring, it completely nullified the whole "divide and conquer conspiracy" angle that had been going on since the middle of the summer.