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A storyline is one of the most important ingredients of professional wrestling. A feud without a gripping or exciting backstory behind it wouldn't generate interest and won't be able to keep the fans invested for long.
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A well-told story is the very foundation of a great wrestling match. WWE has always prided themselves as storytellers and has harped upon the fact that their performers tell stories inside the ring. A storyline is what makes professional wrestling different from other combat sports.
A well-written feud with strong characters is a guaranteed money spinner for the company. But, everything must come to end to an end and so does a great feud or storyline. Getting to a logical and satisfying conclusion of a feud storyline is one of the important aspects of storytelling. It decides the course the Superstars involved in it will take in the future.
The WWE has, over the years, managed to mess of everything at their disposal including putting a hot feud or storyline to a satisfying and logical conclusion. The reason given in most cases did make sense but the company should've avoided planting the seeds for the same in the first place.
With this in mind, here are five such WWE storylines.
#5 Bray Wyatt's feud with Brock Lesnar
Bray Wyatt Vs Brock Lesnar was one of the anticipated feuds leading up to Royal Rumble 2016. Fans hoped that the Beast Incarnate would clash with the Eater of the Worlds at WrestleMania 32.
This was a dream match fans have been clamouring to see for years and with the seeds of the feud being planted when the Wyatt Family attacked Lesnar on the go home episode of Royal Rumble that year. Wyatt along with Harper, Rowan and Braun Strowman even eliminated Lesnar from the Royal Rumble match.
But in a piece of a weird booking, WWE booked a 2-on-1 handicap match between Lesnar, Harper, and Wyatt for Roadblock 2016 ( the last pay-per-view before WrestleMania).
The match saw Harper taking the punishment dished out by the Beast Incarnate while Wyatt saw from ringside and did absolutely nothing.
This did upset a lot of fans as expected who were dumbfounded with the booking and logic behind the match. The company could've instead opted to book a Lesnar Vs Harper singles match for the event if their sole intention was to protect Wyatt, but they didn't.
And that was it. One of the most anticipated feuds of the year ended with a mediocre match at B-show which few people watched.
Dave Meltzer of Wrestling Observer Newsletter stated that the company was looking to continue the feud between Wyatt and Lesnar post-WrestleMania 32, but that never really happened as Lesnar would become busy for his UFC return against Mark Hunt at UFC 200.
Lesnar would go on to face Dean Ambrose in a Street Fight at WrestleMania 32 while the Wyatt Family got obliterated by the Rock and John Cena.
#4 Vince McMahon faking his own death
Vince McMahon has done some of the distinguish things on TV during his WWE Carrer. But the head of the company faking his won death has to be the craziest storyline that he has ever been a part of. At WrestleMania 23, McMahon lost a Hair Vs Hair match to current US President, Donald Trump. After being humiliated by Trump and his representative, Bobby Lashley, McMahon would start a feud with Lashley over the latter's ECW Championship.
Vince beat Lashley for ECW Championship at Backlash 2007 (yes, it really happened) in a 3-on-1 handicap match where McMahon had Umaga and his Son, Shane McMahon as his partners. Lashley would eventually win back the title from Vince at One Night Stand.
After losing the ECW Championship, Vince began to show signs of desperation and not being his usual cheerful self. On June 11, 2007 episode of Monday Night Raw, the last segment of the show featured McMahon entering a limousine before it exploded. The storyline was supposed to continue the next week when RAW would hold a three-hour special Memorial for the WWE head honcho.
But the real-life death of Chris Benoit forced the company to abruptly scrap the storyline altogether with Vince appearing on RAW that week acknowledging that his death was part of the storyline. (H/T- Wrestling Pundit)
#3 Bray Wyatt cosplaying as Sister Abigail
2017 was a difficult year for Bray Wyatt, career-wise. This statement in itself is quite ironical considering the fact that Wyatt reached the pinnacle of Sports Entertainment by Winning the coveted WWE Championship at Elimination Chamber earlier that year. He would lose the title to Randy Orton at WrestleMania 33. This was followed by their horrendous House of Horrors match at Payback 2017. Wyatt had lost all the momentum in a jiffy and went from being the WWE Champion to a mid-carder in a matter of days.
Wyatt was drafted to RAW in the superstar shakeup and would start a feud with Seth Rollins, which the Eater of World surprisingly won. Wyatt would then feud with Finn Balor defeating the Irishman on the go-home episode of SummerSlam. At SummerSlam, Wyatt would once again face Balor, but this he ended up locking horns with the Demon and lose to Balor's alter ego. Their feud would continue as Balor once again defeated Wyatt at No Mercy.
Wyatt would then summon his own alter ego 'Sister Abigail' (which many believed to be a woman as the name suggested) to take on Balor's 'Demon' at Tables Ladders and Chairs (TLC). But it wasn't supposed to be as Wyatt was pulled out of the match and was replaced by AJ Styles who ended up having one of the best matches against the Demon in a losing effort. The character of Sister Abigail was ridiculous to such an extent that the feud was scrapped and we never saw or heard (I'm not quite sure we did ) of Sister Abigail again.
#2 Sasha Banks feuding with Stephanie McMahon
Sasha Banks was one of the hottest Superstars in the company in 2016. Her feud with Charlotte Flair for the RAW Women's Championship was one of the best women's feuds in decades.
Banks and Charlotte were breaking barriers during the course of this feud. Banks was undoubtedly the MVP of the company and as such seeds of a very intriguing feud were planted on an episode of RAW which could've changed the trajectory of her Carrer, but alas it wasn't meant to be.
On a January 2017 episode of RAW, Banks and her lifetime best friend, Bayley were attacked by the heel duo of Charlotte and Nia Jax. Banks and Bayley went to Commissioner Stephanie McMahon's office to demand a match but Stephanie being the heel that she ripped the babyfaces before making the match official.
This would lead to a Twitter spat between Banks and McMahon where the Legit Boss would take potshots at McMahon but the storyline never really materialized. This would have been a feud for ages but the WWE never really capitalized and all we were left with were a few twitter exchanges.
#1 Shane McMahon getting F5'ed by Brock Lesnar
The ending to SummerSlam 2016 was very, to say the least. The main event saw Brock Lesnar beat Randy Orton to a pulp with elbow shots bloodying The Viper. Lesnar would win win Technical Knockout when Orton passed out on a pool of blood. The finish left fans baffled and some were highly critical of it as they believed that the finish did not justify the build-up to this once in a lifetime match.
The Show ended with the visual of Lesnar standing tall after laying Smacked Commissioner Shane McMahon out an F5. McMahon had come out to check on Orton after the match had ended. This led to Stephanie McMahon imposing a storyline fine of $ 500 for attacking her brother, Shane, who was an authority figure. Shortly after this incident, rumours of a showdown between the Beast Incarnate and the McMahon Scion began surfacing online. The two were supposed to have faced off at WrestleMania 33 but destiny had other plans.
As per Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, Shane McMahon was pencilled in as Lesnar's opponent for WrestleMania 33 but Lesnar was not keen on facing Shane O Mac. Meltzer added that plans for McMahon Vs Lesnar were put on the back burner once Goldberg signed with the Company and agreed to stay past Survivor Series 2017.
Initially, the match between Lesnar and Goldberg at Survivor Series was supposed to be a one-off but as Goldberg decided to stay back, the company decided to continue the Lesnar-Goldberg feud. Lesnar would go on beat Goldberg for the Universal Championship at WrestleMania 33 while Shane would have the match of the night against AJ Styles in the show opener.
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