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It's not that uncommon, honestly, to see wrestling promotions drop storylines half-way through. WWE is guilty of this, sure, but we've also seen the same happen in IMPACT/TNA and WCW, among others.
Looking back, there are even some that were rightfully dropped due to lack of interest or just poor taste, and when it comes down to something like that, it's an understandable decision. However, sometimes WWE has left us completely in the dark regarding these storylines, leaving us with dozens if not hundreds of questions over the years.
A personal favorite that will almost never be answered, especially since the victim is no longer with the company, is who attacked and injured Hideo Itami back in 2015. We'll never know, but it's a fact that the NXT parking lot is a dangerous place and needs more security. Still, that's a subject for another day.
Today, we'll look at some of the biggest WWE storylines that reached a dead-end seemingly out of nowhere. We're starting off with some McMahon family drama.
#5 Shane McMahon returns to WWE with a lockbox
Remember how excited the WWE Universe was when Shane McMahon's music hit after many years away from the industry? It was a huge shock to the system, and Vince McMahon and his daughter Stephanie were quite surprised, to say the least.
Shane-O-Mac wasn't back for a hug or a handshake, though. No, the former European Champion was here for control of the flagship brand of WWE, Monday Night RAW. He even had some blackmail he tried to use to force Vince's hand...the mysterious McMahon lockbox.
Now, to this day, nobody has any idea what was in that thing. Shane got his opportunity to run RAW at WrestleMania, but failed to defeat The Undertaker. Even after that, he was given nearly two months to handle the Red Brand, pretty much forgetting all about whatever dark secrets his father had hidden from the world.
It's likely we'll never know what was in that box, and Shane has moved on. He doesn't run RAW, now, but he is running his own underground fighting pit known as RAW Underground.
Judging by Shane McMahon's record, expect WWE to drop RAW Underground in about a month or so. Enjoy it while you can, because there's a good possibility you'll be seeing it one a list like this in the future.
#4 GTV embarrasses various WWE Superstars
Remember those weird hidden camera prank shows that were around between the '90s to even the 2010s? TV crews would place a camera somewhere, and random pedestrians would have to deal with some wild occurrence, unbeknownst to them that they were being watched by the good people at home. WWE...sort of tried that out.
This isn't the only time we're going to talk about 1999, by the way. During that year, we saw an influx of strange black and white grainy video clips with various WWE/WWF Superstars in some quite embarrassing scenarios.
Shawn Stasiak, then known as Meat, was caught cheating on Terri Runnels in one of the more memorable moments of GTV. Various WWE couples were broken up through these, actually, which kind of lined up with the Attitude Era's Jerry Springer-esque storylines.
The feud between Big Boss Man and Big Show, which saw Boss Man steal the casket of Big Show's father, was even used for GTV, outing a fake cop that had helped Boss Man in the process.
As important as GTV seemed to be, one day the segments just stopped happening. No real explanation. GTV simply vanished and were never really spoken about again, aside from a one-off joke every now and then throughout the decades since.
Though...maybe that wasn't a joke...maybe it was the Gobbledy Gooker after all.
#3 WWE is plagued by a hacker
What happened to this gimmick? For months, WWE, primarily SmackDown, was being harassed by an unknown hacker who claimed to be bringing a lot of "terrible truths" to light. In fact, the hacker was a vital piece of the story between Otis, Mandy Rose, Sonya Deville, and Dolph Ziggler.
If it wasn't for the hacker, Mandy wouldn't have figured out that Dolph and Sonya sabotaged her date with Otis. Without that, the greatest couple in WWE today would never have gotten together, and we also probably wouldn't have gotten this incredible run for Sonya Deville either.
Various glitches and graphical errors would appear during segments involving those Superstars, hinting that there was something going on. Considering how much WWE was pushing the storyline, it's kind of incredible to see that they completely dropped it.
While there was no concrete evidence, it was rumored and assumed that the man behind the hood would be the returning Mustafa Ali. Sadly, we'll never really know. Ali is someone that could've done well with it, too. Being a former police officer and someone that has strived to be someone people could look up to, becoming some kind of vigilante looking to out "true evil" in the locker room seemed right up his alley.
#2 An unknown WWE employee robs Stone Cold Steve Austin in a ladder match
1999 was definitely an interesting year in WWE/WWF, and the King of the Ring event was no exception. Heading into the event, Linda McMahon stepped down as CEO and hand-picked her successor...former WWE Champion Stone Cold Steve Austin, who had been screwed out of his championship thanks to Vince and Shane McMahon and the Corporate Ministry.
This didn't sit too well with Vince, obviously, seeing the Rattlesnake take everything he held dear. So, of course, Austin's control over the company was put on the line in a ladder match. It would be a handicap match, with Austin taking on both Shane and Vince.
Still, there was the Corporate Ministry to worry about, and Austin had the opportunity to ban them from the match when he faced Big Boss Man. After suffering a loss, Big Boss Man was outed from the Ministry.
Cut to WWE King of the Ring 1999, and Steve Austin is just inches away from the briefcase, it was raised high above the ladder, way out of Austin's reach. He was unable to get a hold of it, and would ultimately lose the match to Vince and Shane.
Now, according to several people involved, and context clues and all that, it seemed that the culprit would be Big Boss Man. Since he wasn't a part of the Ministry anymore, he could interfere in the match without any repercussions. The next night, he was even welcomed back to the group with open arms.
For some strange reason, WWE just didn't reveal the one responsible, leaving a pretty gaping plot hole in the story. Though, clearly, it's not the first or last time WWE would do something like that.
#1 Vince McMahon's limo explodes on WWE RAW
Of all the storylines WWE never really got to finish, this is definitely the crème de la crème. There was a lot going on around this time in the company's history. It was 2008, Vince McMahon had recently gotten shaved bald by current U.S. President Donald Trump, followed by winning, and then losing the WWE ECW Championship.
Along with giving us one of the strangest versions of McMahon that we've ever seen, durag Vince, his feud with Bobby Lashley ended with him being incredibly depressed. So much so that, a week after losing the title to Lashley at One Night Stand 2007, he silently walked to his limousine, walking past the entire WWE locker room on the way, without even uttering a word.
When he closed the door, the limo suddenly exploded, supposedly killing off Vince McMahon. It was treated, over the next few weeks, as if he'd actually died, with each and every show opening with a moment of silence and a ten-bell salute. The supposed death of Vince took place on June 11th, but the company only ran with it until June 25th, which was supposed to be a three-hour in-memoriam show for the Boss.
Unfortunately, some actual tragic events took place that forced the company to drop the storyline altogether. The weekend before, Chris Benoit murdered his wife and child before committing suicide. That Monday, the details of the incident were unknown, and WWE instead gave us a show dedicated to Benoit and his family. It was not until the next day that the gruesome news and facts came to light, and McMahon and WWE essentially erased Benoit from their programming.
McMahon returned to TV in August to begin the "illegitimate son" angle which...well...ended rather poorly.
