10 Worst Payoffs To WWE Storylines

In April 2012, after eight long years away from the company—five of which were spent away from the industry entirely—Brock Lesnar made his return to WWE.

Given all that he’d achieved in those intervening years, namely the small matter of a UFC Heavyweight Championship win just four fights into his MMA career, Lesnar’s return was a pretty huge deal.

Initially, things looked to be going swimmingly. An awesome segment saw him gatecrash the Raw after WrestleMania and ended with him laying out John Cena, before the following weeks provided a bloody beatdown, some excellent promos and a perceived sense of legitimacy that the product had previously been sorely lacking.

It was a huge breath of fresh air as the PG era showed further signs of morphing into the Reality era. Until of course, Lesnar made his in-ring return against Cena at the Extreme Rules pay-per-view.

There, after brutalizing Cena and busting him open, Lesnar eventually lost.

So much for the idea of legitimacy. Not only did it halt Lesnar’s momentum, it also shattered all those illusions of Lesnar’s style being able to blur the lines between what was real and what wasn't.