10 Times WWE Swerved The Fans Just For The Sake Of It

7. Emmalina's Debut

AJ Styles Dean Ambrose
WWE.com

For decades, WWE has used vignettes to hype the debuts or returns of wrestlers whom they're intent on pushing. Typically, several weeks' worth of filmed segments give way to a debut match, and then the wrestler in question can start his or her career in earnest.

Recently, though, WWE turned the whole vignette trope on its ear - and not to good effect. When Emmalina was scheduled to make her debut, the hype videos just kept playing for weeks and weeks - even past the point when specific dates for her arrival had been announced. It sort of turned into a running joke, but it wasn't a joke that people found funny. It was just annoying and it undermined her.

What did WWE get out of it?

It's hard to say. It certainly didn't get anybody over or make TV better. It just seemed like a way to fool the fans, and that was enough for the company.

Contributor
Contributor

Scott Fried is a Slammy Award-winning* writer living and working in New York City. He has been following/writing about professional wrestling for many years and is a graduate of Lance Storm's Storm Wrestling Academy. Follow him on Twitter at https://twitter.com/scottfried. *Best Crowd of the Year, 2013