10 Recent WWE Rivalries That Underwhelmed In The Ring
AJ Styles vs. Shinsuke Nakamura is far from the feud that didn't meet fans' lofty expectations.
On paper, AJ Styles vs. Shinsuke Nakamura is a high-profile program that ideally should have kicked off this apparent new era on SmackDown Live with a bang. Fans had been clamoring for them to do battle inside a WWE ring since their exceptional encounter at Wrestle Kingdom 10 two years ago, and finally, that dream match became a reality at WrestleMania 34.
Unfortunately, fans were left unimpressed by what they witnessed from Styles and Nakamura that night, to say the least. While it was unquestionably an entertaining outing, it was by no means the instant classic fans had high hopes for. Worse yet, their last two rematches weren't quite up to snuff, either.
In their defense, Styles and Nakamura aren't the only athletes to fall short of fans' expectations in the ring. In some cases, certain superstars don't have the chemistry fans imagined they would, or the creative could be lacking. Time constraints can play a factor as well.
There are several other storylines that should have been much bigger (and better) than they were, but for whatever reason, the matches underwhelmed and are remembered for the wrong reasons - if they're remembered at all.
10. CM Punk Vs. The Shield
It was pretty apparent dating all the way back to SummerSlam 2013 that CM Punk was destined to fight Triple H at WrestleMania XXX. In the meantime, he would attempt to fend off all of The Authority's cronies, including The Shield at the tail-end of 2013.
Consisting of Dean Ambrose, Seth Rollins and Roman Reigns, The Shield was quite the cohesive stable and each of its members were outstanding athletes. Therefore, them having great matches with Punk should have been academic, but sadly, the focus of that feud was on anything but the quality of their matches.
In retrospect, it's clear Punk was at the end of his rope at that point and didn't care about having the best match of the night anymore. He phoned it in almost every time against The Shield, whereas the cracks were starting to show within the ranks of the rebellious faction as well. They spent far too much time teasing tension than proving themselves against the former two-time WWE champion, which is why their matches aren't remembered too fondly by fans.