Best/Worst Retcons in Wrestling History

[AnthonyMango/NoFate007]

As with all my threads, any mod that thinks it should happen, feel free to merge/move accordingly.


For anyone that isn't sure what this thread is about, the word "retcon" is a literary term short for "retroactive continuity". Essentially, a retcon happens when you do a storyline, then further down the line, you decide to rewrite how it happened and you politely ask the audience/reader to simply forget about how it previously was written, and to believe that this new method is the truth.

What are your ideas for the best and/or the worst retcons in wrestling?

Examples of retcons, to get the ball rolling:

1) McMahon has a bastard son. Its supposed to be Kennedy. At the last minute, they change it to Hornswoggle. Then, later on, they retcon it, saying that Hornswoggle is FINLAY's son, not McMahon's.

2) McMahon asks for Austin's help in getting Stephanie back from the Undertaker. Retcon occurs when they decide that McMahon was the mastermind "higher power" all along.

3) His name is Atlas Ortiz. Nope, retcon, its Ricky Ortiz.

4) *Insert character* is a heel. Now they've changed their ways and they're a face. Uh oh, no, they're still a heel but were hiding that the whole time. Wait a minute, no, there's another retcon, and they're a face again. Nevermind, heel....


Name some of your favorite or least favorite retcons.

 

[klunderbunker]

I wouldn't really call 2 a retcon as much as a twist to the story.

 

[klunderbunker]

For some reason WWE annoucers insisting that Taker's debut match was the match against Hogan for the title when that was a year later.

Ted Dibiase never wrestled a match as World champion

The ROckers never won the tag titles.

 

[The Instant Classic91]

The worst RetCon (or abortion is the word Ive always used but I guess that irrelevant) I can remember was the extremely short lived angle with Kane and Edge.
After Kane "married" Lita by beating Matt Hardy at SSlam, but Hardy was fired from WWE, and Lita's affair with Edge became public they put Kane in a feud with Edge,

Thats a mans WIIIIFE!!!!

God it was horrible, but then Matt Hardy returned he feuded with Edge because of the affair, and Jr and King never mentioned Kane in the story ever again.

I even said to my brother during Edge and Hardy's match at Unforgiven 2005, "are we just supposed to completely forget about all the bullshit these 2 had with Kane?"
He replied, "Simply, yes"

And he was right, and that really pissed me off.

 

[Crimson Bonez]

Well recently, I gota say the things they're doing with M.V.P.. Before the draft he was saying he wasn' satisfied with his current postion, maybe forshadowing a change of shows. Now although that didn't happen, post draft he was however having problems with Vicki, which brought in Edge and the rest of La Familia. Which I think would have ben good to elevate him in the ME. And then in the V.I.P. Lounge, we had Triple H as the guest and then Edge came out, and it seemed what was forshadowing some type of Aliance with the to to maybe take out La Familia. And what happened, it was completly droped, nothing more with M.V.P. and La Familia.

Then we have what happened after that with him and Kennedy. With Kennedy having that match, M.V.P. doing comentary, which we all thought was leading to a fued. And then Umaga comes out and attaches Kennedy, which that lead to pretty much squash matches with Kennedy and Umaga, but no more M.V.P. And soon, the Umaga and Kennedy thing just droped and Umaga is now fueding with Big Show. And M.V.P. just moved to Jeff Hardy.

And, that Bastard son storyline just went out of control. It went from the limo explosion (which had to be droped after the Benoit incident) and that lead to the bastard son storyline, which that was sapose to be Kennedy but he got suspended and ended up with Hornswaggle. Hornswaggle gets his ass beat and tormented in the cage by JBL (I actually think that Hornswaggle did get injured in that match, just no as bad as they said, and that was a way of keeping him on tv and not wreslte), and that leads to Hornswaggle actually being Finlay's son. I'm still wondering how Kennedy being the bastard son would have turned out or would that have eventually ben droped or forgotten.

 

[Miko]

The only one I can think of now is when Randy Orton first won the WHC and Evolution attacked him, making Randy Orton the face.
Now whenever that moment is mentioned again Randy is portrayed as the heel and HHH was teaching him a lesson for being cocky.

 

[foundation611]

As with all my threads, any mod that thinks it should happen, feel free to merge/move accordingly.


For anyone that isn't sure what this thread is about, the word "retcon" is a literary term short for "retroactive continuity". Essentially, a retcon happens when you do a storyline, then further down the line, you decide to rewrite how it happened and you politely ask the audience/reader to simply forget about how it previously was written, and to believe that this new method is the truth.

What are your ideas for the best and/or the worst retcons in wrestling?

Examples of retcons, to get the ball rolling:

1) McMahon has a bastard son. Its supposed to be Kennedy. At the last minute, they change it to Hornswoggle. Then, later on, they retcon it, saying that Hornswoggle is FINLAY's son, not McMahon's.

2) McMahon asks for Austin's help in getting Stephanie back from the Undertaker. Retcon occurs when they decide that McMahon was the mastermind "higher power" all along.

3) His name is Atlas Ortiz. Nope, retcon, its Ricky Ortiz.

4) *Insert character* is a heel. Now they've changed their ways and they're a face. Uh oh, no, they're still a heel but were hiding that the whole time. Wait a minute, no, there's another retcon, and they're a face again. Nevermind, heel....


Name some of your favorite or least favorite retcons.

What bothered me in reference to #3 was Matt Sydal. I said oh cool he's using his name. that's pretty sweet but premieres as Matt Sydal then the very next week is Evan Bourne. I was like what the hell!! Still think its idiotic but oh well the Atlas/Ricky thing made no sense to me either. I know why Vince changes the names but that to me is stupid too. I even think that Bourne's debut is listed as the second week in ECW as Evan Bourne not the first week as Matt Sydal.

 

[jpfizzle]

Any of my friends who see Kane now a days say, Kane??? Thats Kane, I thought he was burnt to a crisp! That storyline where his scars where all in his head was more than a little ridiculous, especially the moment when he first revealed his face he had make up on, the next week it was all forgotten.... and oh yeah Kane used to speak with that robotic voice!

 

[MisterRob]

1) McMahon has a bastard son. Its supposed to be Kennedy. At the last minute, they change it to Hornswoggle. Then, later on, they retcon it, saying that Hornswoggle is FINLAY's son, not McMahon's.

2) McMahon asks for Austin's help in getting Stephanie back from the Undertaker. Retcon occurs when they decide that McMahon was the mastermind "higher power" all along.

These two aren't retcons. There was no estabished history that was changed, it was merely the storyline playing out to an ending. Whether people had insider knowledge of what the writer's had originally planned or not, that's not how it played out on television so it certainly isn't a retcon.

4) *Insert character* is a heel. Now they've changed their ways and they're a face. Uh oh, no, they're still a heel but were hiding that the whole time. Wait a minute, no, there's another retcon, and they're a face again. Nevermind, heel....

Same with this one, not a retcon. This would be character development.


I personally didn't like how they started to announce all the Canadian wrestlers in WWE as being from American cities when they were known throughout their career as from those Canadian places, but I can still understand the reasoning behind it.

I think the best example of a retcon is Andre the Giant back in the build up to his match with Hulk Hogan at WrestleMania. They changed his history to being undefeated, claimed he'd never been slammed, etc.. when none were actually true and merely done to build him up as the unbeatable Giant.

 

[The Dungeon]

One of my favourites is when The Undertaker and Big Daddy V were fighting on Smackdown...and Michael Cole said this was the "First Meeting" between these two! While I know not many people were watching WWF in 1995....still...I just had to laugh my ass off, and make fun of good ol' MC!

 

[The Dungeon]

3) His name is Atlas Ortiz. Nope, retcon, its Ricky Ortiz.

Yeah, because he can't have the same name as a washed up hack of a legend that no fan today can even remember, who is playing a manager, of a Never-Was boring wrestler.

 

[Frank the Frowner]

Worst retcon I can think of that I'm still waiting for Disco's explanation of...

Robert Roode and Booker T are involved in a feud where Roode does all sorts of things to Sharmell, and two weeks later, they're tag team partners.

IT DOESN'T MAKE SENSE!

 

[FallenAngelV2]

Here's a few examples I can think of:

a) When Edge started bragging about how Batista had never beaten him for the World Title, when in fact in May 2005 on RAW, Batista did just that, retaining his title against Edge.

b) Michael Cole proclaimed in 2004 that when Rikishi and Scotty 2 Hotty won the tag titles from the Basham's, it was a "long" journey for this team that had been "together" 5 years. Seems like Cole forgot that the team he used to get a hard on for, Too Cool, was GMS and S2H, with Rikishi as their ally.

c) Anytime wrestler a and wrestler b are friends in real life, so even after these wrestlers have feuded in storyline, some time later they are best "friends" in storyline. Ex. Eddie Guerrero and Chris Benoit had an on again, off again feud in 2002 and 2003, yet in early 2004, they a best buds. At least explain that the two have repaired their relationship, like TNA did with Rhino and Christian Cage. I never thought I would praise TNA for actually making a storyline somewhat make sense.

 

[Y 2 Jake]

The best reaction I heard was for William Regal at a Raw taping in October 2004. It was akin to Steve Austin in his prime. Which is amazing when you consider that regal was in a nothing tag team with Eugene at the time, he didn't come out to his musak, and he talks nothing like an Englishman.

 

[Mighty NorCal]

 

[48.7 is Approximately 49 Times Better Than You]

He hit the nail right on the head..

 

[Mr. TM]

Triple H and Ric Flair's friendship. A couple years ago they were gonig at it with a screw driver.

 

[Uncle Sam]

Wrestler X never having done something. Edge never losing a ladder match. Angle and Taker never tapping out. Stan never killing anyone. Wait, that's American Dad.