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There’s this old saying that appears to be constantly repeated: ‘anything can happen in the WWE’. Though this phrase is often used to try and give the company an air of unpredictability, the opposite rings true, more often than not.
Unless you’re one of Vince McMahon’s handpicked chosen few, you’re left to your own devices when it comes to a push or when trying to get some kind of long-term booking in place for yourself. So really, WWE isn’t a place where anything can happen, especially since long-term planning doesn’t appear to be a company-wide philosophy.
Although Vince does deserve some credit for at least having a rough sketch for his plans for WrestleMania 34 in place months ago, there are still far too many gaps in long-term planning for the majority of the roster for him to show that he actually does plan things through carefully.
One need only look at what were widely reported plans for WWE in 2017 to see that things can change on a time, any not always for the better.
The ten situations listed below are those plans that were initially penciled in to take place in WWE in 2017, but were cancelled for one reason or another. Out of these ten situations, only one of them had a better outcome than what was initially booked to happen, and that was because forces outside Vince McMahon’s control behooved him to book things on the fly.
10: Big Cass's singles push
From the very beginning, it was clear that Vince saw big things in Big Cass. He had the obvious look and size, wasn’t too bad of a worker compared to other men of his stature, and despite Enzo being the superior talker of the two of them, Cass could still speak quite well.
He clearly had the word ‘superstar’ written all over him, and the start of a strong singles push began when he turned on, and eventually defeated, former partner Enzo Amore.
Sadly, this push was completely derailed when Cass suffered a catastrophic knee injury on RAW that sidelined him for up to nine months. Not only has he missed the entire remainder of 2017 since his injury, but there’s a good chance that he won’t be able to return in time for WrestleMania.
WWE’s bookers must’ve certainly been devastated by this injury, as there must’ve been obvious and pre-determined plans to push Cass to the moon as a new giant on the main roster.
9: The Revival's main roster tag team push
The Revival were one of the best tag teams in all of WWE for the better part of two years. Their matches with the likes of American Alpha and #DIY are now the stuff of legend, and there were hopes that they would replicate their NXT success on the main roster.
Unfortunately, this never came to pass, as both members suffered injuries at different times. First, Wilder shattered his jaw which sidelined him for several weeks. This came at an awful time, as The Revival were just starting to get over with the main roster audience.
After some time, Wilder’s injury healed, but then Dawson suffered a ruptured bicep which put him on the shelf as well. In other words, The Revival have spent the majority of 2017 not even wrestling, which has prevented them from really getting over as an act and becoming a great main roster tag team.
Had these injuries never happened, there’s a good chance we’d have gotten the chance to see them face off against great tag teams like Gallows & Anderson, Sheamus & Cesaro, and Rollins & Ambrose.
8: The Hardy's push as a top tag team on RAW
At WrestleMania 33, Matt and Jeff Hardy made their shocking return to WWE after many years of wrestling in other promotions. In their return match, they won the RAW Tag Team Titles, much to the delight of the crowd in attendance. This sudden return and victory sent an obvious message to the audience: the Hardyz were going to be fixtures of the RAW tag team scene.
This didn’t fully come to pass for a number of reasons. First, some of the teams they were supposed to feud with suffered from their own problems (Enzo & Cass, The Revival, etc.).
Second, they’re still dealing with the ramifications of a lawsuit against TNA/Impact Wrestling over the rights to the ‘Broken Hardy’ gimmick and intellectual property, which prevented them from taking that wildly successful gimmick and using it in WWE.
Thirdly, Jeff Hardy suffered an injury that put him on the shelf for up to six months, which prevented the duo from performing as a unified tag team act. As a result, Matt Hardy has been wrestling in lower card matches for the most part, waiting patiently for his lawsuit to end and for Jeff to return from his injury.
7: Baron Corbin's mega-push
At the beginning of the 2017 calendar year, there were obvious signs that WWE had plans to push Baron Corbin as a top guy on SmackDown. The guy did check a lot of boxes that would’ve made him a top star in Vince McMahon’s eyes: he’s tall, he looks menacing, he’s tall, he has a killer finisher, he’s tall, etc.
The biggest indication of this push was him winning the Money in the Bank contract and getting a world title shot at a time of his (or should we say, the bookers’) choice.
Then everything came crashing down.
Within the span of a few weeks, Corbin’s main-event push came crashing down. He cashed in his MITB briefcase against Jinder Mahal, took a swing at Cena (who was at ringside), and got pinned by a roll-up in a few seconds. Then, at SummerSlam, John Cena demolished him in a highly one-sided affair that seemed to send him falling down the card with cinderblocks tied to his ankles.
It was reported that he rubbed people the wrong way with both his behaviour on Twitter, and with his alleged negative reaction to CTE discussion backstage. It seemed that enough people in WWE’s backstage environment reacted negatively to Corbin’s behaviour, which led to his push being cancelled before it could even get off the ground.
6: A Shield 6-man tag team match at TLC 2017
TLC was supposed to be the show that would mark the in-ring return of the Shield as a trio. Fans have been clamoring for years to see the now-legendary trio reunite and take on their foes as a single unified force, and given WWE’s booking earlier this fall, that was supposed to take place.
However, those plans were jettisoned because Roman Reigns fell ill and couldn’t wrestle. It was believed that he was diagnosed with the mumps, which made it impossible for him to do anything remotely athletic, including wrestling.
But fans were still expecting a match between the Shield and their foes, so WWE booked Kurt Angle to replace Roman Reigns instead. This marked Angle’s first WWE match since 2006, and was well executed in hindsight.
Angle looked to be in good condition for a man whose body has been as damaged as his was, and the fans were treated to something special when Angle teamed with the Shield for one night.
5: The 'Sister Abigail vs. The Demon King' match at TLC 2017
One of the most (un)desirable feuds going into TLC 2017 was that between Bray Wyatt and Finn Balor. The mid-card feud appeared to be centered on both men’s alter-egos and esoteric personalities, both of which appeared to be centered on some kind of supernatural powers.
WWE spent weeks having Balor play up this ‘Demon King’ alter-ego as some kind of ominous force, which Wyatt countered with an awfully-executed alter-ego of his own, which featured Wyatt with a distorted face and half-feminine-half-mechanical voice called ‘Sister Abigail’.
Clearly, if this match were to take place between ‘the Demon King’ and ‘Sister Abigail’ it would’ve been one of the most over-the-top and ridiculous gimmick matches of the year.
However, these plans never came to fruition, as Bray Wyatt was stricken with an illness that prevented him from wrestling altogether. Thus, to save TLC from being a complete debacle, SmackDown’s A.J. Styles wrestled Balor in Wyatt’s place. That match ended up being the best match on that show, and one of the best WWE matches of the year.
4: Finn Balor's return to the World Title scene
Finn Balor was originally going to be the new ace of RAW when he became the first-ever WWE Universal Champion. Sadly, an in-match injury forced him onto the sidelines for an extended period, which prevented him from competing at WrestleMania 33.
Balor returned to RAW shortly thereafter, but was reported to have suffered a concussion in a match with, of all people, Jinder Mahal. Thus, Balor suffered two injuries after spending such a relatively short amount of time wrestling on the main roster (one of which was a concussion, which WWE takes very seriously these days).
As a result, there has been an obvious divergence when it comes to Balor’s return to the world title picture.
Instead of challenging for the world title, Balor appears to be drifting aimlessly in mid-card and upper-midcard feuds without much of a payoff. This reluctance to push him to the very top despite his consistent popularity and solid fan reaction appears to be stemming from a combination of his aforementioned injuries and the rumor that Vince McMahon finds him bland.
Because of these glaring issues, any plans to put Balor back in the world title picture appear to have been thrown aside, which is a great disservice to Balor and his abilities.
3: Charlotte vs. Bayley at WrestleMania 33
Early in 2017, Charlotte was the RAW Women’s Champion and Bayley was the young, hungry challenger. Given how much time and attention was given to this rivalry, the logical decision would’ve been for it to culminate in a singles match at WrestleMania 33.
This was especially true since it would’ve been a crowning moment for the underdog Bayley and would’ve been the perfect moment for Charlotte’s undefeated PPV streak to be ended.
Instead, Bayley pinned Charlotte in a nothing match at Fastlane 2017, which did far more harm than good. This win came completely out of nowhere and simply did not make any sense.
Bayley’s celebration and title victory felt like a complete afterthought given that WrestleMania was just around the corner. Furthermore, fans were robbed of the perfect chance for Bayley to defeat Charlotte at WrestleMania, which would’ve simply been the perfect storyline and the most logical creative direction to choose.
2: The Miz vs. Shinsuke Nakamura at WrestleMania 33
For years, Daniel Bryan and the Miz have been involved in an on-again-off-again rivalry that stemmed from their days together in the original NXT. There have been constant comparisons made between both of them, with Miz excelling in some areas and Bryan in others.
This purported bitterness between them reached a fever pitch last year when Miz cut arguably the greatest promo of his career on Talking Smack, which made him look like a much bigger star. To many fans, that promo also planted the seeds for some kind of feud between them, which was likely to have culminated at WrestleMania earlier this year.
It was widely reported that the rumored feud (which would’ve made perfect sense in every conceivable way) was for Shinsuke Nakamura to debut on SmackDown and feud with the Miz in Bryan’s stead, since Bryan wasn’t medically cleared to wrestle and he and Nakamura have a history together.
That match would’ve culminated in Nakamura debuting at WrestleMania 33 and winning the Intercontinental Championship, which would’ve been an excellent way to debut a new star.
However, these plans were abandoned in favor of a relatively-uninspiring feud between the Miz and John Cena over the latter’s personal life. Though the promos betwixt all parties involved were actually quite good, it doesn’t compare to what could’ve been an excellent SmackDown-exclusive rivalry between the Miz and the debuting King of Strong Style.
1: John Cena vs. The Undertaker at WrestleMania 33
This was the one dream match left in WWE. It was the one match that every single WWE fan wanted to see, especially since Cena’s injury in 2016 forced WWE to change their plans at least year’s event as well. When John Cena began cutting ominous promos, they were clearly trying to build towards that much-desired dream match.
Unfortunately, one of the power-brokers in WWE’s behind-the-scenes environment managed to successfully lobby Vince McMahon to change this dream match to something altogether different. Instead of getting John Cena vs. The Undertaker and The Miz vs. the debuting Shinsuke Nakamura, we got the Miz & Maryse vs. John Cena & Nikki Bella.
This was not meant to be a dream match for the fans, but another cheesy ‘moment’ that emphasizes the wacky non-wrestling at the expense of actual wrestling matches that fans wanted to see.
If Cena faced the Undertaker as was planned originally, WrestleMania 33 would’ve ended on a much better note in hindsight.
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