10 Once Awesome WWE Storylines Which Overstayed Their Welcome
Not all storylines can be year long anthologies!
Over the years there have been many a wrestling storyline that has struck gold. So much so that the story has been able to be stretched over months, over years, and in some special cases over decades.
There are certain stories that are so timeless they slowly become anthologies, two rivals going head to head time after time, never once losing that spark. Ric Flair Vs Sting comes to mind, Dusty Rhodes Vs The Four Horseman another and let's not forget the infamous Bret Hart Vs Shawn Michaels affair. Those are just some examples of wrestling stories told right. Unfortunately, the entries on this list are not.
WWE has gotten very good over the years at banging the same drum over and over, to the point that the drum stick bursts through the drum's skin, and they're left with a hollow barrel that is only good for kicking around and storing your rubbish in.
The company is certainly very good at producing quality match-ups with quality backstories behind them, but sometimes they manage to spoil it all with the story never really ending. All of a sudden, a once fun party has turned into an intervention for your drunk uncle that won't get off the couch.
Let us just pray to the wrestling gods that the entries on this list are some of the last prime examples of storylines lasting way longer than they have any right to.
10. AJ Styles Vs Shinsuke Nakamura
Oh boy, the sound of that matchup really gets the mouth drooling, doesn't it?
At least it did before the car crash that was this dream feud turned nightmare in 2018.
The Phenomenal One and The King of Strong Style, respectively, had met before each individual's signing to WWE in a scintillating Tokyo Dome affair that had the wrestling world talking for years. Fans couldn't wait to see the two tussle on the big North American stage and that opportunity came knocking when Nakamura won the 2018 Royal Rumble.
The internet went into meltdown, thinking of just how good the WrestleMania repeat was going to be. Well, as they say, the sequel is never as good as the original.
It was a very good match, nobody could deny it, but Vince McMahon restrictions and overhyped fan expectation combined to make it impossible for it to ever live up to its predecessor. And then the dick-kicking started.
Shin, as Michael Cole began to call him for some reason, grew an affinity for crotch abuse and would low blow Styles at every avenue. The pair would fight for the title another three times, each time fans expecting it to be the time that Nakamura surely would take home the title.
But no, Styles kept winning, which isn't a horrible thing, but certainly made Shinsuke look like a right idiot and weak as hell going forward.
The most disappointing bit of it all, it killed all anticipation of a future contest between the pair. The company could have recognised the benefit of keeping the two apart and letting them collide once or twice a year; instead, they had them meet twice a month for four months.