10 Worst Payoffs To WWE Storylines

Apparently, there’s something hilarious about paying off major angles with a comedy character. Or at least, there is in Vince McMahon’s eyes.

This time, the angle in question was that of the anonymous Raw General Manager—a gimmick that had been introduced in June 2010 and ran for a good couple of years before the big payoff in July 2012. Admittedly, the concept faded from prominence in the summer of 2011 when Triple H became the on-screen COO, but it was revived for Raw 1000 when the GM’s identity was finally revealed.

Again, it was Hornswoggle, and again the big reveal felt like a bit of a letdown.

The story goes that there’d previously been no plan regarding who the anonymous GM actually would be, until someone suggested Hornswoggle in a tongue-in-cheek nod to that earlier illegitimate child angle. There are also rumours that the writers entertained the idea of having Hornswoggle become some kind of mob-style boss with a power complex, who “would speak with a W.C. Fields-like accent, chomp on cigars, and refer to women as ‘dames."

Obviously, that didn’t quite happen. Instead, the whole angle became little more than a joke—compounded by the fact that Santino Marella, another comedy character, played a big part in the eventual slapstick reveal.

Safe to say, it made for a pretty lousy way to pay off a long-term, multi-year angle. And that's being generous...