10 Times WWE Successfully Recycled Its Own Storylines

3. Urning Your Stripes

cm punk urn
WWE.com

Every f*cker took The Urn, yet it never particularly seemed to matter than the plan to apparently disable The Undertaker by owning the remains of his dead parents never actually worked.

Hogan opened it up to throw ashes in the face of 'The Deadman' to briefly claim back his WWE Championship in 1991, whilst Yokozuna allowed a mythical power to escape from it to retain his in 1994, but ownership of it hasn't ever proved particularly powerful.

Harvey Wippleman via henchmen Giant Gonzalez and Mr Hughes was the first to think he had all the power with all the gold, but Ted Dibiase was positively obsessed with it. He paid off some druids to allow IRS to nick off with it in 1995, sent his 'Supreme Fighting Machine' Kama to retrieve it and melt it down into some gaudy jewellery when King King Bundy took his eye off it at WrestleMania 11, and even distracted him just long enough for Mabel to poach the necklace long after Kama had been stuffed in a coffin.

Paul Heyman took it twice. At least the 2004 theft only resulted in jokes over the comedic "death" of Paul Bearer, rather than the slightly unsavoury ones alongside CM Punk that soundtracked his real demise in 2013.

Contributor
Contributor

Michael is a writer, editor, podcaster and presenter for WhatCulture Wrestling, and has been with the organisation over 8 years. He primarily produces written, audio and video content on WWE and AEW, but also provides knowledge and insights on all aspects of the wrestling industry thanks to a passion for it dating back over 35 years. As one third of "The Dadley Boyz" Michael has contributed to the huge rise in popularity of the WhatCulture Wrestling Podcast and its accompanying YouTube channel, earning it top spot in the UK's wrestling podcast charts with well over 62,000,000 total downloads. Within the podcasting space, he also co-hosts Benno & Hamflett, In Your House! and Podcast Horseman: The BoJack Horseman Podcast. He has been featured as a wrestling analyst for the Tampa Bay Times, Fightful, POST Wrestling, GRAPPL, GCP, Poisonrana and Sports Guys Talking Wrestling, and has covered milestone events in New York, Dallas, Las Vegas, Philadelphia, London and Cardiff. Michael's background in media stretches beyond wrestling coverage, with a degree in Journalism from the University Of Sunderland (2:1) and a series of published articles in sports, music and culture magazines The Crack, A Love Supreme and Pilot. When not offering his voice up for daily wrestling podcasts, he can be found losing it singing far too loud watching his favourite bands play live. Follow him on X/Twitter - @MichaelHamflett