Wrestling angles/story lines that really annoyed you...

[Christian Faith]

Apologies if this is in the wrong forum. Also I have looked and cannot see a similar thread but again apologies if I have inadvertently duplicated a thread.

Over the years there have been some downright ridiculous angles and storylines in wrestling. Many have made us shake our heads in disbelief where as others have just plain annoyed us. It's these that I am interested in.

There is one moment that 22 years later still bugs the crap out of me as a 31 year old man as much as it did as a 9 year old boy.

Royal Rumble 1992. Sid (baby face) eliminates his buddy Hogan (baby face). Hogan is shocked, the announcers are shocked. Sid has betrayed Hogan. Hogan has to take revenge straight away and costs the now heel Sid the match......

Wait just a fucking minute.....

(Humor me for a moment here guys lets imagine it's real)

The match was a Royal Rumble, it was for the WWE(F) championship. It was every man for himself.... so how exactly did Sid "betray" Hogan? Was Sid meant to eliminate Flair then step over the top rope?

This always struck me as bad writing. I still remember watching it and thinking Hogan had just turned heel since he cost Sid the match and title handing victory to the heel Flair. Instead Sid became heel and we wound up with an awful Sid v Hogan main event at Mania instead of the WWE(F) title match which by rights should have closed the show.

I will also give an honorable mention to Hogan taking the title from Yokozuna at Mania 9 but I suspect that should this thread be a success somebody else will bring this one up

 

[S'All Goodman]

Off the top of my head i can think of two. I've only been watching since 2004-2007 and 2011-Present but:

1. Eddie Guerrero's losing streak against Rey Mysterio was highly annoying to me.
2. Alberto Del Rio cashing in on CM Punk after he defeated John Cena at Summerslam 2011. They had a great feud going and i didn't see the need for Del Rio to get involved.

If anybody knows why these two things happened i'd love to know

 

[Bobbywoodhogan]

WCW

- Hogan never officially beating Sting one on one, why did he never beat him? He had creative control to. Just find it strange.

WWF/E

- The Rock not beating Steve Austin during the attitude era, again why did this never happen?
- Golderbg not winning the Elimantion Chamber at Summerslam, really really dumb decision. He was so over that night and I don't think his character really recovered from that loss.

 

[Tyrant25]

Since you mention it, I'll bring up Hogan taking the title from Yokozuna at Wrestlemania 9. Bear with me if you may, I've only been watching wrestling for 8 years and the only reason I know of this storyline is because of 30 Years of Wrestlemania in WWE 2K14.

I've never been a fan of toying with main events, especially at Wrestlemania. It makes it less memorable. Hogan coming out to help Hart after the match wasn't the problem, the problem was having him beat Yokozuna, top heel at the time, in 22 seconds. Literally. I looked it up. 22 seconds. And this was before Lex Luger became the first to Bodyslam him, so it was a pretty big deal. The fact that Yokozuna and Mr. Fugi had been so adamant about a match that they would go on to lose in that amount of time also baffles me. I'll never understand why they couldn't just fight at the next Pay-Per-View. Imagine a Triple Threat between the three.

Another angle that enables me to channel my inner rage (you should see how hard I'm typing) was the feud between John Cena and CM Punk in 2011. No, not the pipebomb part - everything before Money in the Bank was great. Everything after is what gets to me. First of all, CM Punk should have never returned as early as he did. I know it was for storyline purposes, but man, it killed some of the steam for me. It didn't even feel like Punk had left the company. The whole back and forth "I'm WWE Champion!" and "no, I'm WWE Champion" banter was pretty good I'll say. Cena and Punk's mic work at the time was really top notch. Then the entire storyline went to shit. Del Rio got involved, Kevin Nash got involved, Triple H got involved... it was way too cluttered, sloppy and ended up sour. Didn't like it much at all.

 

[WBL]

Do I even need to say Katie Vick?

It insulted the fans, it insulted the intelligence of the writing staff, it helped HHH bury someone else in humiliating fashion, had no real positive impact other than to give The Hurricane some screen time...

 

[FlairFan2003]

WWE didnt get what they intended with Sid. They were banking on Hogan being so popular the idea his friend eliminated him would automatically make Sid heel. At the time they were turning Taker face, Jake Roberts was leaving, the roster was over loaded with heros but Flair & DiBiase were the only main event level villains. The problem is The Rumble is billed as 'Every Man For Himself' where friends have to fiit each other to win. Flair & Taker were partnered in the storyline but tangled in the Rumble, as he did with fellow heel Roberts. Likewise Hogan tangled with Piper & Savage, both his friends in the storylines. The idea of Sid, who was in the ring maybe 10 mins, choosing between Hogan who was in the ring only slightly longer or Flair, who had battled for an hour at this point, and deciding to dump Hogan first actually made perfect sense. The fact fans BOOED HOGAN showed just how wrong WWE predicted the reaction would be. It took a lot of maneuvering on WWE'S part to make Hogan sympathetic and Sid a heel in this scenario. Not the reaction they wanted.

Storylines that bothered me ? The NWO hi jacks Flair's limo: So the NWO hi jack Flair's limo so they can beat him senseless, injuring his ribs, in a secluded field right before SuperBrawl. Face value this is great stuff, plus it gives Flair a face saving excuse if Hogan wins at S-Brawl. HOWEVER, the NWO was filming the attack and airing the vignettes on Nitro, even though Bischoff is no longer WCW Pres and has no say what gets on TV. Even though the whole incident is shown on Nitro, the announcers act as if they cant see vignettes and they dont know by their commentary where Flair & NWO are (as they are not present in the arena at Nitro). HOWEVER Roddy Piper mid show comes out and addresses the Nitro crowd calling out the NWO for their attack on Flair (how does he know, did he see the vignettes, if so why cant the announcers see it ?) - Meanwhile Flair's teamate Chris Benoit wrestles on the show and makes no mention of the attack. WTF ?! THEN Hogan & NWO show up on Nitro celebrating the attack that apparently was shown to fans in the arena (and Piper) but not to other announcers or talent. MEANWHILE the camera crew working for the NWO apparently didnt return to the arena with the group as they are there filming Flair wave down a truck and hitch hike his way back to the arena! So the film crew is left behind ? Why didnt someone call for help, or at least a ride ? And Flair lets these guys hitch hike back with him ? And the random dude in a truck who picked up Flair didnt call the cops BUT HE DID give the film crew a ride ?

The execution here was so attrocious it made no sense. Finally, though the rib injuries that Flair suffered in the attack are referenced they play almost no role in the execution of the match vs Hogan at S-Brawl and have no impact on the nonsensical ending of the match (Torrie Wilson, in her debut, is revealed to be sleeping w/ David Flair so he'll turn on his dad). So bad I cant even describe.

 

[Wolf Pac]

DDP as Sara's stalker. It wasn't so much the angle that was the problem, it was the reveal of who it was and DDP being made to look like Taker's bitch at King Of The Ring and Summerslam. It basically killed off the DDP from WCW that we all knew and loved.

The Booker T-HHH racist angle wouldn't have annoyed me so much, if Triple H had gotten his comeuppance at Wrestlemania 19.

Russo did a lot of dumbshit in WCW, but his two moments that take the cake for me are the New Blood Rising incident. It was an insult to wrestling fans, it made the wrestling business look stupid, and it resulted in nothing. Tony Schiavone thanked Scott Steiner for taking the Powerbomb from Nash after the match. Whole thing was pointless.

The other moment is Hogan laying down for Sting at Halloween Havoc 1999, which no one ever explained. Bret Hart ended up becoming champion at Mayhem the following month though, maybe they could've brought back Hogan right after, and finally booked Hart vs. Hogan for Starrcade 1999. Bret had been going on all year about wanting to face Hogan anyway.

 

[Slash-LN]

Obviously any TNA fan is going to say Claire Lynch.

Horrible acting in a pointless feud that never led to anything positive.
Then you had the "actress" quitting in the middle of the angle because she couldn't handle the wrestling fans being mean to her.

I don't usually like to speak for "everyone" but you'd be hard pressed to find a fan that enjoyed that train wreck. And if you do the number of them will be minimal.

EDIT: Mods I forgot this was in the old school section so if my TNA post violates that feel free to delete it.

 

[TheICChampion]

Oh, boy. Where to begin? What about Hogan pretty much destroying any credibility Big Van Vader had after no-selling his powerbomb that KO'ed Mick Foley? I guess I'm just not a fan of really any storyline that either ended up going nowhere and dropped within a few weeks or that made someone look like a total joke.

 

[Rabbid Wolverine]

Goldbergs win streak...he went 170plus - 0. Every week he kept beating jobbers, if a guy goes 30-0, maybe its time to put him with more credible challengers?! I swear goldberg had to beat the flock 5 times each, glacier 9 times and every lower to mid carder at least twice. It became way too repetitive for me.

 

[Bobbywoodhogan]

Oh, boy. Where to begin? What about Hogan pretty much destroying any credibility Big Van Vader had after no-selling his powerbomb that KO'ed Mick Foley? I guess I'm just not a fan of really any storyline that either ended up going nowhere and dropped within a few weeks or that made someone look like a total joke.

Two way street there though as Vader wouldn't sell for Hogan either

 

[Creepy Old Man]

Stopped watching for 10 years when Jericho beat Triple H for the title and it was just overturned. Triple H was already killing my interest in the product (mediocre mid-carder being pushed as some kind of great main-eventer) and that was the final straw. It was just the annual WrestleMania with pals after that, until Punk got me interested again in 2011. It's been up and down since then; 2013 was disgraceful.

 

[sanefan_har]

This is interesting, I hated the angle pulled off at WrestleMania 9 where Hogan came out right after Bret Hart lost his title and defeated Yokozuna in a matter of a few minutes. I never understood why Bret Hart shouldn't have closed out Mania 9 coming out on top. Plus Hogan was getting booed at that point.

Papa Shango vs Ultimate Warrior : The storyline was satisfactory, with Papa Shango's reasons to attack the Warrior being very weak, and it didn't help that the matches were terrible. It was a forgettable feud, and a much better one could have been executed in its place, thereby making the subsequent Savage-Warrior feud even better than it was.


The current feud between the Bellas is the definition of 'highly annoying'. Saying stuff like "I wish you had died in the womb" is absolutely appalling and a very crude way of getting a few boos. It is no surprise that their brawls get cheered because it means the crappy acting is over (for the most part)

Hornswoggle being Vince McMahon's son was another waste of TV time that did nothing but satiate Vince McMahon's ego and arrogance.

John Cena vs Kane is infamous for being Zack Ryder's downfall in the eyes of both Vinnie Mac and the casual WWE fans. A storyline that was reminiscent of The Bold and the Beautiful for all the wrong reasons. The fact that it was the main-event over both the solid Elimination Chamber matches didn't make me feel invested, rather irritated the hell out of me.

 

[Makaveli31]

Anything with Bret Hart in WCW. I couldn't make heads or tails of the whole damn thing and after reading Bret's book and listening to his interviews neither could he!!

- One week he was face, then the next week he was heel.

- He was fighting Hogan and the NWO then he joined up with Hogan and the NWO but he was never "officially" in.

-He was relegated to the U.S. title. Here was the former WWF Champion battling for the U.S. Strap. It was almost as if they wanted to make point that Bret was second tier to guys like Hogan, Nash, and Flair.

-He was never a main event during his first couple years there it was only AFTER Hogan and Nash gave up power that Bret was given main event status.

- He was never in any meaningful feuds. Hogan v. Bret seemed like a no brainer at the time but they never touched but once on Nitro.

 

[Reflection]

From the last five years, a few such angles/characters that come to mind for really getting into my nerves; and all three are pretty much from the same year: the Mr. John Laurinaitis / People Power angle, the Anonymous Laptop GM, and the Sir Michael Cole character.

John Laurinaitis was a really annoying guy... someone I would have loved to watch die and decompose right then and there, so to speak. His broken voice, red suit, lack of flow, uninteresting character and repeated appearance on each episode made me particularly dislike him. I feel that he was booed not because he was a heel, but because he was simply awful.

The laptop GM was a totally bogus angle. Some motherf**ker sends an e-mail which makes the lights flicker, then Michael Cole opens the lid (after announcing that he has just received an e-mail) and clearly reads from a paper, while everyone stands and waits. Sometimes he'd even send 2-3 emails in succession. This thing was stretched for way too long and finally got the ending it deserved.

But the biggest failure of the three has to be Michael Cole's heel turn and his feud with Jerry Lawler. From personal attacks to Jerry including bringing the latter's son, to Stone Cold's involvement, to the kiss-my-foot match- nothing could save this angle from being a disaster. Not only was Michael Cole totally devoid of any personality or wrestling skills, segments and matches from this feud were often stretched for too long, thus consuming a lot of valuable time which could have been better utilized behind other talents.

 

[Hollywood Naitch]

the Anonymous Laptop GM

The laptop GM was a totally bogus angle. Some motherf**ker sends an e-mail which makes the lights flicker, then Michael Cole opens the lid (after announcing that he has just received an e-mail) and clearly reads from a paper, while everyone stands and waits. Sometimes he'd even send 2-3 emails in succession. This thing was stretched for way too long and finally got the ending it deserved.

THIS 1,000000%

The Anonymous GM angle was ridiculous. It initially had potential, if the big reveal had been a returning legend, or someone like Shane McMahon running things from afar before coming back to take control of the company....but we got a completely unsatisfactory ending to the whole angle, which dragged on for far too long.

By the end, I don't think a single fan in the crowd or watching at home really gave a shit who it was, they just wanted that fucking laptop smashed to pieces.

 

[Bobbywoodhogan]

I totally forgot about WWE mismanaging DDP, but while we're at it lets just go with the entire Invasion farce. There were ways to make those they had seem credible. Booker T was also mismanaged to hell and when Steve Austin joined the WCW/ECW Alliance it was a joke. Vince's ego destroyed that angle, WWE could have lived off it for years.

 

[mcfly2012]

Mark Henry and Mae Young is not far from the top of my list. Sick angle. Having said that. The ' grown up hand ' a few years back was funny. But other than that. Nah.

 

[enviousdominous]

The "DX invades WCW" bullshit annoyed me to no end. What makes it even more annoying is how it's being spun for the WWE's Monday Night Wars series.

What the WWE claims happened:

Degeneration X went to a WCW leased arena prior to their airing an episode of WCW Monday Nitro and rallied fans around the WWF's superior programming. Real fans showed off their free tickets, given to them so that WCW could fill their seats and give the illusion that they had sold all of their tickets. You want proof that all of this was real? Look at that marquee displayed above showing "Free Tickets". DX then chose to go to CNN headquarters and harass Eric Bischoff who surely would be there. Those silly scallywags sure showed WCW. Plus, HHH piloted a fighter jet and massacred all of Ted Turner's properties. Take that old person who doesn't get the young people!

What really happened:

Vince McMahon was desperate to turn the tide of the Monday night war. Vince had been "papering" his PPVs, which basically means that he had to give away free tickets or broadcast a Royal Rumble with only half the seats filled.

WCW was selling out of seats immediately after they went on sale.

Vince sets up some pretty fucking stupid skits where DX wanders around an arena the day before WCW would be performing inside. The people that DX encountered were hired actors, paid to act nonchalant and claim that they received their tickets for free.

The graphic of the marquee was later edited to show that it read "Free Tickets".


Basically; the WWF used their inability to draw and successfully duped the pro-wrestling world into believing that WCW was struggling.

 

[FlairFan2003]

Anything with Bret Hart in WCW. I couldn't make heads or tails of the whole damn thing and after reading Bret's book and listening to his interviews neither could he!!

- One week he was face, then the next week he was heel.

- He was fighting Hogan and the NWO then he joined up with Hogan and the NWO but he was never "officially" in.

-He was relegated to the U.S. title. Here was the former WWF Champion battling for the U.S. Strap. It was almost as if they wanted to make point that Bret was second tier to guys like Hogan, Nash, and Flair.

-He was never a main event during his first couple years there it was only AFTER Hogan and Nash gave up power that Bret was given main event status.

- He was never in any meaningful feuds. Hogan v. Bret seemed like a no brainer at the time but they never touched but once on Nitro.

Combination of politics (Hogan didn't want to put over Hart) and a lack long term planning. SUPPOEDLY the initial plan for him was To make money re visiting his WWE feud with Flair. The problem, although they wrestled a very good match and drew an excellent buyrate for their Jan PPV bout (on a PPV airing the same month as Royal Rumble on a card with no Hogan, Sting, or DDP) WCW fans wouldn’t boo Flair despite his acting like the heel in their promos. Large portions of the crowd still cheered for Flair and booed Hart, prompting a change to making them partners and having a long feud vs The NWO which would set up Hart vs Hogan by year’s end. Hogan didn’t like the idea (since he’d likely have to put Hart over). There were rumors of re visiting the WWE “Real World’s Champion” angle by having Flair crown Hart (since he was blatantly screwed out of the WWE Title at S-Series) similar to his 1991 debut in WWE. Supposedly that idea was nixed because it would interfere with a potential feud between Hart & DDP.

By mid 1998 however pretty much all of WCW was a booking disaster. The NWO roster split was ridiculous with almost all of WCW joining the Wolf Pac while the Black & White was comprised almost exclusively of mid carders and jobbers headlined by Hogan who only wrestled a part time schedule. It seemed Hart & Lex Luger switched between heel & face and WCW & NWO almost weekly. Ravens Flock was gaining significant heat as a new heel faction but were quickly buried (no one could compete with the NWO as power heels). The Giant was buried…..Savage was off with surgery…. Bischoff tried to sue Flair in a complicated breach of contract suit over a contract that was never signed….By the end of the year things started making more sense but from March-Sept there was no continuity and no strong heel presence, the whole product was a booking disaster. Unfortunately for Hart, he was injured and unable to contribute to a Starrcade PPV that had three very appealing, well drawn out matches (DDP-Giant, Flait-Bischoff, Goldberg-Nash). It’s amazing to me considering what a cluster f^%$ most of the yea’sr (not just Hart) booking was the S-Cade drew a huge buyrate for a show without Sting, Savage, Hart. Or Luger (all injured), Hogan refusing to appear, where the second biggest match featured a non wrestler (Bischoff).

Hart’s booking never really improved though. 1999 wasn’t much better, no consistency to his character at all. It’s a shame because he was a talent and was over from his time in WWE. I was never a huge fan because I never thought he had the charisma that other guys had but he was popular, and could deliver in the ring. His PPV matches vs Flair & Sting from this time were excellent. He did win the vast majority of his matches so he was hardly buried, he just wasn’t given anything worthwhile story wise to do. It wasn’t a Hart problem though, WCW booking in general 98-99 suffered from that nonsensical out of nowhere shifts that made no sense and often killed promising angles.

 

[FlairFan2003]

I totally forgot about WWE mismanaging DDP, but while we're at it lets just go with the entire Invasion farce. There were ways to make those they had seem credible. Booker T was also mismanaged to hell and when Steve Austin joined the WCW/ECW Alliance it was a joke. Vince's ego destroyed that angle, WWE could have lived off it for years.

Money destroyed that angle. There is no way you run a WCW Invasion without Flair, Sting, Goldberg, Nash, Hogan, et all. Some major names weren't palatable for personal reasons (WWE wasn't interested in Scott Steiner due to his behavior problems, Lex Luger had drug issues and his performances had declined significantly after his 1998 injury). HOWEVER, when WWE purchased WCW they only purchased the rights to the video library and name, no other business assets were purchased, leaving the wrestler contracts and all other assets in the hands of Time Warner. Higher paid wrestlers with guaranteed contracts with Time Warner had no reason to give up guaranteed money and sign new deals (maybe for less pay) with WWE. Therefore almost any major name associated with WCW was interested in joining right away. DDP was the only legit main eventer who signed on. Booker T was a tag team guy seen as a mid carder by the wrestling audience, but compared to the rest of the crew he at least had name recognition. WWE offered buyouts to WCW talent under contract but they were far less than the original contract values(maybe 50 cents on the dollar, maybe less). If you were a newbie or mid carder with no real name value it was worth it to you to give up the guaranteed Time Warner money, take the buyout, and sign for less with WWE just to get on WWE TV. If you were Hogan or Nash or Goldberg it wasn't worth it, with your name value there was money to be made in WWE whenever you come in, why give up Time Warner money when WWE money would be waiting for you whenever you wanted in ?

McMahon & WWE did approach Sting, Golderg, & Flair right away according to some accounts but all initially declined for different reasons. Flair eventually signed on at the end of the year for a deal that paid him the same he was getting in WCW. Hogan & Nash opted in later as their Time Warner deals drew to a close with the knowledge that Flair's success since arriving guaranteed they could get good deals and be valuable to WWE. Goldberg followed suit later.

I don't blame the main eventers for waiting to join, they were right to collect their Time Warner money because the had value to WWE whenever they signed on. WWE certainly got plenty of use out of them when they did finally join. Likewise I don't blame WWE for not making any special deals and spending a lot more money to lure Hogan, Nash, Goldberg, Flair etc in earlier, with WCW gone WWE was going to make money no matter what so why spend the extra money when they don't need too ? Both sides made business decisions that benefitted both. The only problem was it did hurt the credibility of the Invasion Angle because no WWE fan was going to believe that Chuck Palumbo & Friends, the 3rd string of WCW , was any threat to Austin, Taker, HHH, etc - It's like having the 3rd string of the NY Jets take on the 1st string of Sea Seahawks - no one on face value would believe NY could win that match. Likewise without their legit stars WCW fans weren't interested in watching WWE.

No matter what McMahon did booking wise their was no way to make the Invasion look like a legit threat to WWE without the main eventers. DDP alone wasn't enough to carry the rest of mid carders & unknowns and make them look equal to Rock, HHH, etc.

 

[Jonyboyuk2]

Matt Hardy heel turn on Jeff Hardy January 2009. The angle had built for months and then the pay off was it was Matt Hardy. It was meant to be Christian; as a way of introducing Christian back to WWE. The IWC found out it was meant to be Christian and it ruined his return because WWE changed plans. Instigated by, ironically, THAT moron Vince Russo. He wrote the stupid angle for the Main Event Maffia to kick Christian out of the group via a beatdown (he may have left before- I pay little attention to TNA because it is the worst TV show ever in wrestling) and they told the world that Christian was going back to WWE. That was stupid. Sure it damaged Christian's impact for his return for anyone who watches TNA, but it also said "WWE is a better promotion. Even our former world champion is going back there. So we shall give them some free advertising for their show".

The whole lot of this SUCKED and that was sad cos I was genuinely excited for Captain Charisma to return.

 

[Bockwinkel's Class]

Any angle that dragged on well past it's sell date (ie the "evil authority figure" angle) and any recycled angle that gets resurrected too often too soon (ie tag-team partners turning on each other). There are plenty of angles out there that have been laying peacefully interred that can be reborn (if the bookers are too creatively challenged to come up with anything new) without having to reuse and angle that you just used last freaking year.

 

[Bobbywoodhogan]

Money destroyed that angle. There is no way you run a WCW Invasion without Flair, Sting, Goldberg, Nash, Hogan, et all. Some major names weren't palatable for personal reasons (WWE wasn't interested in Scott Steiner due to his behavior problems, Lex Luger had drug issues and his performances had declined significantly after his 1998 injury). HOWEVER, when WWE purchased WCW they only purchased the rights to the video library and name, no other business assets were purchased, leaving the wrestler contracts and all other assets in the hands of Time Warner. Higher paid wrestlers with guaranteed contracts with Time Warner had no reason to give up guaranteed money and sign new deals (maybe for less pay) with WWE. Therefore almost any major name associated with WCW was interested in joining right away. DDP was the only legit main eventer who signed on. Booker T was a tag team guy seen as a mid carder by the wrestling audience, but compared to the rest of the crew he at least had name recognition. WWE offered buyouts to WCW talent under contract but they were far less than the original contract values(maybe 50 cents on the dollar, maybe less). If you were a newbie or mid carder with no real name value it was worth it to you to give up the guaranteed Time Warner money, take the buyout, and sign for less with WWE just to get on WWE TV. If you were Hogan or Nash or Goldberg it wasn't worth it, with your name value there was money to be made in WWE whenever you come in, why give up Time Warner money when WWE money would be waiting for you whenever you wanted in ?

McMahon & WWE did approach Sting, Golderg, & Flair right away according to some accounts but all initially declined for different reasons. Flair eventually signed on at the end of the year for a deal that paid him the same he was getting in WCW. Hogan & Nash opted in later as their Time Warner deals drew to a close with the knowledge that Flair's success since arriving guaranteed they could get good deals and be valuable to WWE. Goldberg followed suit later.

I don't blame the main eventers for waiting to join, they were right to collect their Time Warner money because the had value to WWE whenever they signed on. WWE certainly got plenty of use out of them when they did finally join. Likewise I don't blame WWE for not making any special deals and spending a lot more money to lure Hogan, Nash, Goldberg, Flair etc in earlier, with WCW gone WWE was going to make money no matter what so why spend the extra money when they don't need too ? Both sides made business decisions that benefitted both. The only problem was it did hurt the credibility of the Invasion Angle because no WWE fan was going to believe that Chuck Palumbo & Friends, the 3rd string of WCW , was any threat to Austin, Taker, HHH, etc - It's like having the 3rd string of the NY Jets take on the 1st string of Sea Seahawks - no one on face value would believe NY could win that match. Likewise without their legit stars WCW fans weren't interested in watching WWE.

No matter what McMahon did booking wise their was no way to make the Invasion look like a legit threat to WWE without the main eventers. DDP alone wasn't enough to carry the rest of mid carders & unknowns and make them look equal to Rock, HHH, etc.

I know the Time Warner contracts stopped them getting certain wrestlers in but they had DDP & Booker T, not to mention Rob Van Dam on the ECW side was an instant hit aswell. Booking them correctly could have made a big difference. Looking at later on Flair, Hogan, Nash & Hall had all joined WWE. Had they booked it correctly the storyline would have easily carried into later months when those wrestlers joined. Also better booking may have seen Sting join as he didn't join cause if how they booked guys like Booker T & DDP.

 

[d_henderson1810]

From the last five years, a few such angles/characters that come to mind for really getting into my nerves; and all three are pretty much from the same year: the Mr. John Laurinaitis / People Power angle, the Anonymous Laptop GM, and the Sir Michael Cole character.

John Laurinaitis was a really annoying guy... someone I would have loved to watch die and decompose right then and there, so to speak. His broken voice, red suit, lack of flow, uninteresting character and repeated appearance on each episode made me particularly dislike him. I feel that he was booed not because he was a heel, but because he was simply awful.

The laptop GM was a totally bogus angle. Some motherf**ker sends an e-mail which makes the lights flicker, then Michael Cole opens the lid (after announcing that he has just received an e-mail) and clearly reads from a paper, while everyone stands and waits. Sometimes he'd even send 2-3 emails in succession. This thing was stretched for way too long and finally got the ending it deserved.

But the biggest failure of the three has to be Michael Cole's heel turn and his feud with Jerry Lawler. From personal attacks to Jerry including bringing the latter's son, to Stone Cold's involvement, to the kiss-my-foot match- nothing could save this angle from being a disaster. Not only was Michael Cole totally devoid of any personality or wrestling skills, segments and matches from this feud were often stretched for too long, thus consuming a lot of valuable time which could have been better utilized behind other talents.

John Lauranitis was actually a pretty interesting character. He played his GM role like a face, but was actually a heel. Whereas a Mr McMahon gets in your face with his dislike for you, Lauranitis was more smug, and untrusting. He never got caught doing anything actually "heelish" and explained them away. Punk insulted Lauranitis, yet if someone took out Punk, it could never get traced back to Lauranitis.

John Lauranitis played the untrustworthy GM, the guy you know is screwing you over, but you can never prove it. He was sneaky and slippery, and duplicious. You know when Triple H or Vince have an issue with you, whereas Lauranitis would smirk away, putting doubt in his enemies' mind if he could be trusted or not.

It only got ruined when they had Lauranitis wrestle John Cena on PPV, and Big Show attack Cena on his 1,000,000,000, 000th heel turn in WWE.

BTW, I read that ratings went up when Lauranitis was GM.