10 Lamest Swerves In WWE History

Swerves. Chances are that if you've been following professional wrestling for any length of time, you've fallen for a few over the years. Swerving the audience has been at the heart of wrestling storytelling for decades, and while wrestling's increased transparency makes it difficult to produce genuine surprises these days, the practice will always be synonymous with the sport.

Writers love taking their audience down a seemingly linear path, only to veer off in a different direction at the last possible second. It takes near-perfect timing, execution, and build to pull it off, but when it works, a great swerve can pop ratings, ignite enthusiasm, and generate buzz.

Part of what made moments like The Rock joining The Corporation and Mark Henry's fake retirement so memorable is that they came completely out of the blue, but there's a fine line between success and failure. The results are spectacular when the swerve serves a purpose, but when it doesn't, the whole storyline feels like a complete contrivance.

Swerving without rhyme or reason leaves fans feeling duped, and WWE have served-up many a botched plot twist over the years. Nothing tanks a potentially great wrestling storyline like a lame swerve, and these examples prove it...

CM Punk was the hottest star in wrestling until SummerSlam 2011 happened.

With the Summer of Punk in full flow, the Chicagoan was set to fight for the right to call himself the WWE Undisputed Champion in another match with John Cena. Punk went over, as he should have, but he didn’t leave with the belt. Kevin Nash ran down from the backstage area and attacked him out of nowhere, which led to Alberto Del Rio successfully cashing in his Money in the Bank briefcase and hastening the Summer of Punk’s demise.

Nash answered for his crimes the following night on Raw, stating that Triple H had sent him a text message ahead of the event instructing him to attack the winner. Punk was furious, as was his right, so Nash laid him out again the following week, costing him another title opportunity.

The swerve was right around the corner, however. Nash was originally scheduled to face Punk at Night of Champions, but couldn’t get medical clearance. This forced WWE to think on their feet, and they came up with the lamest compromise imaginable: it was revealed that Nash had texted himself, and the whole thing was a ruse.

Triple H eventually substituted for Nash regardless, so why they couldn’t have stuck with him as the perpetrator is anyone’s guess. The ensuing loss to The Game effectively buried what remained of Punk’s momentum.