10 Awesome Storylines That WWE Totally Ruined
5. Who Ran Over Stone Cold?
Survivor Series 1999 was supposed to see Stone Cold Steve Austin face off with Triple H and The Rock for the WWE Championship, but the Rattlesnake’s night ended in controversy. Austin became embroiled in a backstage scuffle with Triple H prior to the match, and when it spilled into the parking lot, a mystery assailant mowed Stone Cold down.
The storyline was designed to write Austin off WWE programming so he could undergo surgery to correct his longstanding neck problems. Set to spend nine months on the sidelines, Austin made a one-off return at Backlash 2000 to help The Rock reclaim the title from Triple H, before making his official return at Unforgiven and kicking off the Attitude Era’s greatest “whodunit.”
Lead by commissioner Mick Foley, the company searched high and low for the perpetrator, and nobody was safe. If you were a WWE employee, you were a suspect, regardless of status, tenure, or gender.
It was a fantastic opportunity for WWE to build a monstrous program between a bloodthirsty heel and one of the most popular wrestlers they’d ever produced, and who did they choose for the role?
Rikishi.
Coming out with a paper thin explanation (“I did it for The Rock.”), Rikishi’s heel turn was an immediate flop. Though extremely popular at the time, fans just couldn’t take him seriously as a heel after years of wearing thongs and dancing with Too Cool. WWE quickly shuffled the deck by revealing Triple H as the mastermind behind it all, and after a brief push, Rikishi was shunted down the card and placed in a listless tag team with the returning Haku. A total failure in every sense of the word.