10 Greatest Long Term WWE Storylines Ever

10. The 24/7 Hardcore Title Ruling

Beyond formulaic main event storytelling, WWE is in a creative malaise because so few of its lower and midcard are given anything meaningful to do. Instead, countless talents trade wins in feuds which happen just because. WWE doesn't really "do" storylines anymore, and as a consequence, even guys like Apollo Crews, with WWE-approved looks, are really just there to make up the numbers.

The Hardcore Championship's 24/7 ruling - in which the title could be contested anytime, anywhere, as long as a referee was present - gave practically every lower card member of the Attitude Era roster a reason to exist. It was a triumph of shared universe storytelling, in which the WWF served up a heady cocktail of comedy and violence, making fabulous use of the otherwise drab likes of the Headbangers.

Before they made their inexplicable and intermittent return to the SmackDown roster in 2016, messieurs Mosh and Thrasher had been rendered irrelevant by the TLC triumvirate of The Hardy Boyz, The Dudley Boyz and Edge and Christian. Languishing in the obscurity of the ironically-monikered Heat, the 24/7 title ruling somehow furnished that stale act with intrigue.

Tracking the champion at the Fun Time USA amusement arcade on a March 2000 edition of SmackDown, the Headbangers chased the beleaguered Crash Holly down a slide (!), at the descent of which he was met with an unceremonious garbage can shot to the face.