10 Worst WWE Storyline Payoffs

Happy fourteen year anniversary of Hornswoggle being revealed as the illegitimate son of Vince McMahon!

A thrown-together storyline that took place in the summer of 2007 (replacing the 'who killed Mr. McMahon?' one that was nixed in the aftermath of the Benoit family tragedy), the quest to find out which WWE superstar was secretly Vince's kid made for some entertaining television that (we hoped) would have a gripping outcome.

By all accounts Ken Kennedy was the original choice for the role, but blew it when he was suspended following being named in the Signature Pharmacy scandal and WWE went with Hornswoggle as the punchline instead.

All that really resulted in was some bad television and so-so matches between Finlay and JBL. Had the payoff been handled differently, it could have been the centrepiece of WWE TV and the thing to propel a performer to main event stardom.

It was a dour end to a promising storyline, something that has sadly been a recurring theme in WWE throughout the years.

10. Let's Give Them A Hand

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Mark Henry's descent into a tawdry addiction may have given him the fantastic moniker 'Sexual Chocolate' but, on the whole, the entire thing was risible Attitude Era shock TV that has aged about as well as your average banana.

In late 1999, The World's Strongest Man confessed that he was a sex addict, confiding in his therapist (and millions watching on television) that he had first lost his virginity to his sister when he was eight years old, among other salacious gems.

Thankfully everyone's favourite neighbourhood pimp The Godfather was on hand to cure him of his illness and, in the aftermath, Henry became a babyface.

The saga took another interesting turn when the former European Champion began an on-screen romance with septuagenarian Mae Young. This oddest of odd couples then announced that they were, against all odds and science, expecting a child.

Despite being with child, the unbreakable Mae was still out there taking a beating every week (including an Angle Slam from Kurt Angle). After receiving first a clothesline from Hardcore Holly and then a splash from Viscera, Young was taken away by ambulance and, the next week on Raw, went into 'labour'.

And then she gave birth to a rubber hand covered in pink goo.

Speaking on the Edge & Christian Pod of Awesomeness in 2018, former WWE writer Tommy Blacha (who played the unfortunate EMT in the skit) said that there was no real idea behind the ending of the angle, other than Vince McMahon decided one day that he wanted it to stop immediately and this is what they came up with.

Bruce Prichard has also discussed in the past how Vince thought Mae giving birth to a hand was absolutely hilarious because 'it's a hand', without elaborating further as to why that is so funny.

I'm telling you, the WWE CEO could keep a team of the best psychologists in the world busy for a decade and I still don't think they'd even begin to scratch the surface...

WWE did call back the angle in 2012 at Raw 1,000 when Mae Young introduced her 'son', which was a young man wearing a giant hand costume.

9. Debuting Without A Bang

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One of the reasons the Invasion storyline (more on that in a bit) was such a letdown is because most of the top stars had guaranteed contracts with WCW parent company Time Warner, meaning they could afford to sit out and collect a boatload of cash for doing absolutely nothing.

Some, like Diamond Dallas Page, accepted a buyout in order to join WWE. Given how his WWE run turned out, I'm sure he wishes he hadn't bothered.

For weeks, Undertaker's then-wife had been stalked by some unseen presence who filmed her and aired the footage on WWE television. Naturally, this sent The American Badass apoplectic and he vowed to find the stalker and make them pay.

It was an intriguing premise in theory and an example of WWE attempting to do something more gritty and based in 'reality'.

In the end, the stalker was revealed to be none other than DDP. The reveal was very well done and the unmasking resulted in a huge reaction from the live audience.

Of course, when you sat and thought about it for a minute, the whole thing seemed a little bit off.

After all, this was a huge departure for the already established Page and, as he has rightly pointed out in recent years, the idea of him pining over someone else's missus was a bit daft when he had former head Nitro Girl Kimberly waiting for him at home.

Things went from bad to worse for Dallas, as he was routinely pummelled during his and 'Taker's ridiculously one-sided feud, which ended when Sara herself beat the former WCW Heavyweight Champion in a singles match on Raw.

8. The House Of Horrors

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Bray Wyatt/The Fiend was a magnet for silly nonsense during his WWE career. Some of it was rotten, some of it merely OK and some it was actually quite good.

His 2017 feud with Randy Orton certainly ran that gamut, as the initial storyline of The Viper joining the Wyatt Family, only to turn on them in spectacular fashion, was well done.

Then the two met in a WWE Title match at WrestleMania, where maggots and other creepy-crawlies were projected onto the ring canvas and you thought, 'jeez, that was bad but at least things can't possibly get any dumber'.

And you know something? You'd be dead wrong. Because the next month at Payback, the two had their big blowoff match inside the 'House of Horrors'.

Said house supposedly belonged to the Eater of Worlds, and Orton showed up there in a limo. Without a shirt on. But wearing regular pants and shoes. Hmmmm. Right from the off, you could sense this thing was going to be a strange disaster.

They then had a crap brawl around the gaff that ended with Bray chucking a fridge onto Randy, before turning everything red (I'm assuming via Google Home?) and knicking the limo.

Later in the show, the match continued in the arena, where fans had booed the previous 'cinematic' claptrap. Miraculously, Orton managed to free himself from the haunted fridge, but he ended up losing a short, poor match after the Bollywood Boys and Jinder Mahal interfered leading to Sister Abigail.

Just unbelievably bad on every conceivable level and a genuine horror show for all involved.

7. Kevin Nash Texts Himself

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The Summer of Punk in 2011 had the makings of being one of the best WWE storylines, well, ever, featuring some incredible moments like the Pipe Bomb promo and a series of great matches between CM Punk and John Cena.

Despite being an easy story to tell, WWE decided to dump a cold bucket of ice water all over this red-hot feud and somehow turned it into Triple H versus Kevin Nash.

Big Sexy returned to WWE for the first time in eight years (minus his Royal Rumble cameo earlier in the year) after the main event of SummerSlam 2011, attacking the Straight-Edge Superstar after his successful WWE Title defense against Cena and allowing Alberto Del Rio to cash-in his Money in the Bank contract and become new champ.

The next night on Raw, Nash explained his actions in a promo by revealing that Triple H had told him via text to 'stick it to the winner', accusations that The Game denied.

The whole thing devolved into a confusing mess and, in the end, it turned out that big Kev had broken into his pal's office, stolen his phone and sent the text to himself, supposedly because he couldn't sit idly by while Punk talked trash about the Cerebral Assassin and his family.

Right. Sure. Okay. That all seems perfectly fine then. Nothing hollow and untrue about that whatsoever.

Then we didn't even get the expected match between Nash and Punk, because Triple H replaced his Kliq buddy at Night of Champions (and went over Punk too, naturally).

The storyline eventually culminated in a Ladder Match between Kevin Nash and Triple H at TLC 2011. Another smart call, that, booking two men who legally don't have quads in a bout where the whole point is to repeatedly climb something.

6. The Anonymous Raw General Manager

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This one only kinda sorta counts, since it was basically used as a throwaway joke ages after the fact, but it's something that still rankles with fans.

Full disclosure here, but I kind of hated the Anonymous Raw General Manager. I know that was sort of the point, but the trope outlived its welcome and was an irritating aspect of WWE television when the quality of the product was already full of regressive comedy and dumb storylines.

For over a year, the Anonymous Raw General Manager reigned over WWE's flagship, with emails read out by spokesperson Michael Cole.

It was eventually phased out without the identity being revealed, after much speculation as to who it could be (fuelled by many red herrings contained within the emails).

It returned for one night on July 9, 2012, where Santino Marella stumbled upon the fact that it was Hornswoggle who had been running the show all that time.

Per former WWE writer Kevin Eck, the company had no plans when it came to the identity of the Anonymous Raw GM and the Hornswoggle reveal came about after someone had suggested it as a joke during a production meeting, referencing the poor reception of the Vince's illegitimate son payoff from years earlier.

There's something almost commendable about them making a decision they know is stupid and will annoy fans. Almost.

5. John Cena Kills Off The Nexus

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Twice! 

Yes, there were two terrible 'payoffs' to the John Cena and the WWE roster versus The Nexus storyline.

To recap, The Nexus were the gang of 'rookies' who had been contestants on the first season of NXT the game show, led by competition winner Wade Barrett and featuring the likes of Daniel Bryan, Justin Gabriel and Heath Slater in their ranks.

They had made an impact on WWE TV by attacking anyone and everyone in brutal fashion, from legends like Ricky Steamboat, to current stars like Chris Jericho and Edge and even Vince McMahon himself.

They got themselves over in a big way during the summer of 2010 and found themselves booked against a team of WWE stars in the seven-man tag team elimination match in the main event of that year's SummerSlam.

Having such momentum and being presented as such a genuine threat, you would think the boys in black and yellow would go over on the night, as Edge and Jericho suggested happen, but Super Cena had other ideas and ended up shaking off a DDT on the concrete floor to dispatch Gabriel and then Barrett with relative ease.

He later admitted that he got it wrong, but the damage was irreparable and it was all downhill for the Nexus from there.

Downhill right until, after a few more storyline twists and turns, Cena beat Barrett in their Chairs Match blowoff at TLC 2010. The show ended with Cena victorious as Barrett was, quite literally, buried under a bunch of chairs.

4. Doing It For The Rock

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Though WWE were guilty of a rather shameful bit of bait-and-switch when they advertised Steve Austin for a triple threat WWE Title match at Survivor Series 1999 (despite knowing full well that he was injured and unable to perform), they did at least set up a tantalising storyline for his inevitable return when they shot an angle where he was run down by a mystery assailant in the arena parking lot.

When the Texas Rattlesnake came back full-time in the fall of 2000, much of WWE's televised output was dedicated to finding out 'who ran over Stone Cold'.

Austin himself was on the hunt, hitting Stunners on just about the entire roster in his bid to unearth the culprit.

But in the end, it was Commissioner Mick Foley who got to the bottom of things and found out that that Rikishi was the wheelman that night. Yes, the lovable, dancing babyface who had become one of the most over acts on the show, was the one who tried to murder the biggest star in the business.

As Rikishi explained himself, he didn't run Austin over for his own gain but rather to allow The Rock to emerge as a megastar in Stone Cold's absence, while basically accusing WWE of holding back non-white performers. The segment where it was revealed not only fell flat, but the whole episode turned a very hot babyface act into a lukewarm heel for no real reason.

While Rikishi got a very short main event run (and pay-per-view matches with Austin and Rock) out of it, fans didn't take to the Samoan superheavyweight's character change at all and his career arguably suffered as a result.

Making matters worse, Triple H sucked up all the heat for himself when he let the world know that he had orchestrated the whole thing and put Rikishi up to it.

3. Sting Loses The Game

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Sting's WWE debut at the 2014 Survivor Series was a moment that, for some, had been decades in the making.

The last holdout from WCW, the potential of The Icon wrestling in a WWE ring had been discussed to death and some had given up hope as it looked as though The Stinger was happy to ply his trade in TNA.

But now he was under Vince McMahon's employ and, not only that, he was going to be wrestling the boss's son-in-law at WrestleMania 31.

One would assume the heroic babyface would go over on the dastardly authority figure on the grandest stage, since it was his first WWE match and all and the storyline practically demanded it.

But why give the fans what they want when you can rehash the Monday Night Wars mid-match and remind everyone that you were the war winner ALMOST FIFTEEN YEARS AGO.

WWE's insistence on beating WCW's former stars is well-documented, and Triple H himself was guilty of doing the dirty on the likes of Scott Steiner, Booker T and Goldberg during his early 2000's 'reign of terror'.

But why do it to Sting, who had so much audience support and really needed to prevail more than Triple H on the night? The justification was that Trips needed to be built up for an eventual match with The Rock (which never ended up happening).

The match itself was decent and Sting looked good out there. It's just a shame he went down to a sledgehammer shot and then had to shake The Game's hand afterwards while getting patronised with a little tap on his painted face.

2. The Rock Versus Steve Austin Settles The Invasion

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Look, I'm not one to knock The Rock versus Steve Austin, because anytime the Texas Rattlesnake and the Brahma Bull met it was simply solid gold.

But when the WCW and ECW Invasion of WWE began in the summer of 2001, I don't think many foresaw it being settled by the two multi-time WrestleMania main-eventers.

As mentioned earlier, the Invasion was hamstrung from the beginning since most of WCW's top stars had guaranteed contracts with WCW parent company AOL TimeWarner.

Really, you didn't think Goldberg, Hogan and Nash were coming in to work for a paycut when they could sit by the pool and rake it in, did you?

Despite being bereft of proper star power, the Invasion had its moments. Rob Van Dam and Booker T both emerged as major stars, while some of those lower down the card started to establish themselves. There were a few standout matches and promos to savour here and there, too.

It wasn't all terrible, by any means, but definitely a squandered opportunity and something that fell well below fans' expectations.

As for the payoff, that came just five months into a storyline that could have (under different circumstances) lasted at least a year.

At the 2001 Survivor Series, Team WWE (Rock, Jericho, Big Show, Kane and The Undertaker) saw off Team Alliance (Austin, Kurt Angle, Van Dam, Shane McMahon and Booker T) to banish those dastardly WCW and ECW wrestlers forever.

Except, not really, because they were all just integrated into the roster in the weeks after anyway.

Just look at that Alliance team, folks. You've got Austin, one of the biggest WWE stars ever and someone who admittedly disliked much of his time working for WCW. Angle, a product of the WWE developmental system. And Shane McMahon, the boss's son and the man likely to inherit some of the empire one day.

Doesn't exactly scream 'us versus them', does it?

It was a far cry from the Hogan/Austin, Sting/Rock and Flair/Angle dream matches that wrestling fans had hoped for and, by the time the Invasion came to a close, the result was inevitable.

1. The Higher Power

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The Undertaker and the Ministry of Darkness's feud with Vince McMahon and the Corporation was soap opera sports entertainment silliness turned up to eleven.

Flaming teddy bears, kidnappings and ritual sacrifices - it seemed as though nothing was off limits as the tale unfolded every week on Raw with another twist, turn or cliffhanger leaving Attitude Era fans baying for more.

A lot of the content that came out of the feud was hokey, yes, but Undertaker's claim of a 'higher power' pulling the strings behind the scenes was genuinely interesting.

Was it a yet-to-debut wrestler? A brand new character destined for the main event? Someone from McMahon's past coming back to haunt him?

The possibilities were endless and wildly speculated on (Christopher Daniels and The Jackyl were often discussed as those who could be it) but, alas, it turned out IT WAS VINCE, AUSTIN! IT WAS VINCE ALL ALONG!

Yes, as shown on the June 7, 1999 episode of Raw, the Higher Power was none other than Mr. McMahon himself. The whole thing had been an elaborate and nonsensical ruse designed to get back at Steve Austin.

The de-hooding makes for a hell of a meme, but as a payoff it was weak and didn't make a lick of sense as the whole storyline was riddled with inconsistencies.

Swerve, bro.