10 Times WWE Threw Money Down The Drain
Guaranteed winners? Not so much...
Throughout all their ups and downs, one thing has remained consistent about WWE - the company makes money. Sure, there were some lean times in the 1990s, and yes, the poor initial performance of the WWE Network in 2014 made that year an overall money-loser, but even with all of Vince McMahon's failures outside wrestling, the company has generated enough to make him and his family very wealthy.
Still, as CM Punk famously said of McMahon in his 2011 "pipe bomb" promo, "He's a millionaire who should be a billionaire." For all of McMahon and Co.'s success in promoting wrestling over the last 35 years, there have been several opportunities to make even more money that, for whatever reason, they've simply allowed to pass them by.
Typically, those instances involve hot stars whom the company didn't push in a manner befitting their fan reaction - men and women who could have drawn some serious cash for themselves and the company, but were overlooked, typically for political reasons. There are also instances where personal feelings got in the way of what could have been very interesting storylines.
Finally, there have been times when what went wrong is anybody's guess...
10. Not Going All The Way With Rob Van Dam
As much of a flop as the invasion storyline was, there was one man who actually got over in the midst of the mess: Rob Van Dam. The ECW stalwart's reputation as an unbelievable athlete was known to WWE's fanbase, and when they finally got to see him on the big stage, he didn't disappoint.
Van Dam first scored an exciting victory over Jeff Hardy in a ladder match at the Invasion PPV, then continued to accrue success with singles victories over all of the active top stars in the company - The Rock, Steve Austin, Kurt Angle, and The Undertaker. Before long, RVD was getting pops that rivaled anyone else's, and with Rock on his way to Hollywood and Austin reaching the end of his career, it looked like WWE had found its new megastar.
RVD got a WWE World Title shot at No Mercy 2001 as part of a triple threat match with Angle and Austin, but he came up on the losing end. After that, his star started to fall, and he ended up settling in the midcard. For the next five years, he racked up Intercontinental Titles and lost to main eventers. By the time he captured the belt in 2006, it was too late for him to become the breakout star he could have been.