10 WWE Storylines That Horribly Backfired

It couldn't happen to a nicer angle. Not you, Kurt.

By Jack Morrell /

There are a lot of reasons that storylines €“ angles, as the jargon has it €“ in pro wrestling can go wrong, and sadly most of them are obvious from the drawing board. This is professional wrestling, after all: if one of the participants in a storyline gets hurt, they€™ll almost always work through it. The show must go on. No, when an angle goes bad or is poorly received, it€™s usually because it€™s been poorly conceived or executed. Maybe the crowd just isn€™t getting behind the babyface character because he€™s far too good at being a heel (that€™ll be the Miz, and his ill-fated anointing as Ric Flair€™s new protégé - and would it have killed him to practice the figure four a little more?) ; or hey, maybe it€™s the other way around. Maybe the heel is being cheered over the fan favourite (as tends to happen with Cesaro €“ because he€™s a tall, well-built, handsome, preternaturally strong guy who wrestles better than everyone else on the roster. You know, a natural babyface). Then there are the angles that are just so terrible that watching them unfold is like watching a motorway pile-up happening in slow motion. Say hi to your Katie Vicks, your anonymous General Managers, your Yetis and your fingerpokes of doom. Most storylines like that elicit confusion and a fervent desire to pretend that they never happened: we€™ll call them the €˜Let Us Never Speak Of This Again€™ stories. And then, occasionally, there€™s a little natural justice. A big push for someone wholly undeserving will finally be cut off; a terrible, pointless, offensive or just plain stupid storyline will receive such a backlash, or rebound so spectacularly on the people involved, that you€™d almost believe in a higher power (except Vince was the Higher Power, and we all know how that turned out. Urrgh). This article is dedicated to the storylines that have blown right up in the WWE€™s faces, like faulty grenades of shame. Crack open some nyah-nyah juice, and let's get our schadenfreude on.

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