10 WWE Matches That Completely Fell Short Of Expectations

Credit where it’s due, Scott Steiner got a pretty strong reaction when he returned at Survivor Series 2002 in front of a Madison Square Garden crowd. Fast-forward to the Royal Rumble, though, and it was quite a different story.

In his two months with the company, Steiner hadn’t wrestled a single match, while the build to his Rumble meeting with Triple H had seen minimal contact between the pair, with arm-wrestling segments and a ‘posedown challenge’ in place of any physical confrontation. As such, nobody knew how good – or rather, bad – this one was going to be.

Together, the pair had zero chemistry, and Steiner relied far too heavily on his overhead suplex. The pace was too slow, the crowd stopped caring, and then there was the ultimate sucker punch in the form of a DQ finish.

To cap it off, Steiner beat Triple H up with a sledgehammer after the bell, but even that got booed.

Fans weren’t expecting a masterclass, but the idea of another WWF vs WCW feud was at least appealing on paper. Unfortunately (in this case, at least), wrestling matches don’t take place on paper.