Some of the storylines are short and sweet, like Alexa Bliss bullying her ‘friend’ Nia Jax, whilst other storylines take a bit more time to nurture and mould such as the ongoing power struggle between Baron Corbin and Kurt Angle.

Storylines can be very hit or miss with the WWE Universe, whether it’s down to the popularity of the wrestlers, the chemistry the wrestlers have with each other, or simply how interesting the actual storyline is.

It is fair to conclude that in the overall scheme of things, WWE generally have strong storylines - they wouldn’t hold the proud title of the top two longest running weekly episodic shows on television with weak storytelling.

However, among the hundreds of storylines the WWE decide to entertain us with every year, there are some storylines that WWE starts sowing the seeds for and then cancel for seemingly no reason.

#10 Free Taco?

WWE are no stranger to starting streaks for wrestlers while they build their reputation in the WWE. This list includes the likes of Rusev, Braun Strowman, Asuka and most recently Ronda Rousey. However, WWE don’t just create winning streaks - for of all the undefeated wrestlers there are, there’s always going to be one or two who get the short end of the stick.

On the June 4, 2018 episode of Raw, Curt Hawkins entered the ring that night sitting on 199 losses in a row, but had promised the arena that he was not only going to break his streak tonight, but would also give everyone a free taco to mark the result. The fact that Hawkins’ opponent was a local wrestler, James Harden, suggested that Hawkins’ streak was finally going to end.

Then Baron Corbin came out. To this day, there has been no explanation as to why Baron Corbin came out that night and attacked Hawkins’ opponent, giving them the victory and taking up Hawkins streak to 200 losses in a row.

While Corbin’s position as acting general manager was announced shortly afterwards, and the argument could be made there was a villainous authority figure around, it still doesn’t explain the fact that Hawkins never once questioned Corbin’s actions or even requested a match from then General Manager, Kurt Angle.

Since then, all of Hawkins appearances’ on Raw have usually been to break up fights with the exceptions of a brief cameo appearance interfering one of Elias’s segment and replacing Braun Strowman in the Mixed Match Challenge, leaving this storyline completely unresolved.

#9 Best friends and worst enemies

Right from when they started their WWE careers back in NXT, Sasha Banks and Bayley have been no strangers to facing each other – including their memorable (and first ever) 30-minute Iron Woman match. However, since Bayley joined the main roster at the Battleground pay-per-view event back in July 2016 as Sasha Banks mystery partner, they appeared to be inseparable.

It had seemed that they’d finally put their NXT history to one side and formed a strong friendship as they were regularly tag team partners and would also come to aid each other if needed.

The first sign of their relationship beginning to crack was at the first ever woman’s Royal Rumble match this year when Bayley had her back towards Sasha Banks, and Banks then sneakily eliminated her from the match.

When they were both involved in the first ever women’s Elimination Chamber match the following month, Banks had appeared to be on the same page as Bayley only to attack her again.

Although Bayley appeared to have got some redemption on Banks at the WrestleMania Women’s Battle Royal, the fact that neither woman won any of these matches planted an idea to the WWE Universe that their own personal problems are getting in the way of achieving their own individual goals.

For the next few months on Raw, Bayley and Banks traded insults, sneak attacks and had a backstage brawl, which all led to only one possible conclusion – these two were going to feud with each other again. With the exception of one match which ended in a no contest between the two, the WWE instead decided to go down the route of the wrestlers having to go to counselling to settle their differences.

This led to a terrible conclusion on the 16th July episode of Raw as the apparent reason this whole feud started is because Sasha Banks ‘loves’ Bayley.

First, the question that needs to be asked is: in what context does Banks love Bayley? Is it a sisterly love or something more? Moreover, if you consider the amount of times that Banks showed animosity towards Bayley in the build up to this feud, this doesn’t suggest that there is any love at all.

Furthermore, the storyline has been wrapped up without even a pay-per-view match. This storyline has left the WWE Universe feeling short-changed. The fact that we’ve been more or less told to forget the problems these two superstars had with each other is why this is a storyline that is left unresolved.

#8 Bludgeon Lust?

When Luke Harper and Erick Rowan came back and reinvented themselves as The Bludgeon Brothers in November 2017, it was clear they were going to be an unstoppable force. After destroying all of their opponents every time they appeared, they soon captured the SmackDown Tag Team Championship at WrestleMania 34, beating the two most dominant tag teams, The Usos and The New Day, in a matter of minutes.

It was easy to see that the Brothers had shaken up the SmackDown tag-team division in a big way. It didn’t matter if their opponents were high flyers like Jimmy or Jey Uso or physically strong wrestlers like Big E. The Bludgeon Brothers didn’t seem to have any sort of weaknesses whatsoever, except for one.

On the 17th April episode of SmackDown, The Bludgeon Brothers brutalised The Usos after a singles match between a member from each team, until a distraught Naomi came to the aid of her husband and brother-in-law.

In an unusual change of pace for the Bludgeon Brothers, they appeared to show mercy on the Usos - just because of her. The following week, Naomi then distracted Rowan, giving her husband Jimmy the victory.

Their feud ended in Saudi Arabia at The Greatest Royal Rumble (where women aren’t allowed to compete), causing Naomi to miss the end of the storyline, but it never actually explained as to why The Bludgeon Brothers had a weakness for Naomi. Did they see her as someone of a higher power, someone they just lusted over, or something else entirely?

Either way, due to the fact that she wasn’t allowed to appear at The Greatest Royal Rumble, it did ultimately cause a hole in this storyline and failed to explain why Harper and Rowan was constantly distracted by Naomi.

#7 Where is Mojo Rawley?

Winning the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal is usually a stepping stone for a breakout wrestler or reigniting the flame of a seasoned professional, and most of them have followed up with a very solid year. Cesaro captured the Tag Team Championships with Tyson Kidd, Baron Corbin managed to be on the main pay-per-view show five times (including a WWE championship main event at Elimination Chamber 2017), and Matt Hardy re-captured Tag Team Gold since winning the most recent edition at WrestleMania 34.

However, Mojo Rawley is the only wrestler that has yet to fulfil his potential from winning such an honor. Despite his success at WrestleMania 33 in April 2017, he has failed to be on the main card at any pay-per-view in the following twelve months. Of the four pre-shows he has been on, he’s lost three of them.

The irony to all of this is the person he last eliminated at WrestleMania 33 was Jinder Mahal, someone who eventually went to capture the WWE Championship.

However, between the months of May-July this year, there appeared to be some sort of resurgence as Rawley defeated both Tyler Breeze and No Way Jose a few times, and even answered Seth Rollins’ Intercontinental Championship open challenge despite coming up short. However, despite the fact that Rawley was on a roll around the summer of this year, he has yet to appear in a match on Raw in the last few months.

WWE usually has a solid formula for wrestlers that are on a roll on the weekly shows, with most of them ending up holding titles – examples from this year include the Bludgeon Brothers and AoP both having captured championships. What doesn’t usually happen is a wrestler on a roll to suddenly not get any further screen time.

The fact that Rawley hasn’t been confirmed with a real-life injury or any potential contract dispute leaves us with the question of ‘Where is Mojo Rawley?’

#6 The relationship between Apollo Crews and Dana Brooke

Originally named the ‘Titus Brand’ back in 2016, Titus Worldwide has had very little success as a unit, despite that being exactly what they were trying to promote. With the exception of Akira Tozawa, everyone else in Titus Worldwide had failed to win any Championships during their time with the group, as Apollo Crews, Titus O’Neil and Dana Brooke were all on the losing end of the majority of their respective matches. Unfortunately, this was only going to end up one way.

However, there is one thing that is amiss with all of this. Prior to the split, on the 20th August episode of Raw, O’Neil finds both Crews and Brooke backstage (who both appear to be somewhat flirting with each other) wondering where they’ve been, with Brooke responding they are discussing ‘strategy’.

However, from the immediate reaction on Crews’ face when Brooke said that, it can be safe to assume that while we don’t definitively know what they were actually talking about, they definitely weren’t talking about strategy.

Following their loss to AoP on the same night, it is evident that there may have been some sort of intimate relationship between the wrestlers when Brooke moved O’Neil to one side just to see if Crews was injured or not – and Crews did the same for Brooke the following week after her match.

In many ways, if Crews and Brooke turned on O’Neil, this would be an ideal way to end a group that had lasted just under two years. Instead, the WWE decided to backtrack on this storyline completely the following week, when Brooke lost again (this time in a tag team match) and decided to ditch them both instead.

The two weeks prior to the official split of Titus Worldwide has still left a few unanswered questions though. Were Brooke and Crews intimate with each other? Why was O’Neil being left out from the group? What were they talking about backstage?

All of these questions could have been answered quite easily but due to the abrupt break-up from Brooke, it seems highly unlikely that these will ever be answered.

#5 Dolph Ziggler’s potential bid for the WWE Championship

This storyline technically stems from Clash of Champions 2017, when Dolph Ziggler pulled off the shock of the night. He was randomly inserted into a feud building up between Corbin and Bobby Roode and did the unthinkable – he won the United States Championship in a dramatic fashion.

Two nights later, Ziggler did the unthinkable again – he voluntarily relinquished the title, claiming that the fans didn’t deserve him. If this was Dolph Ziggler’s way of announcing he was leaving the WWE, that would be one thing - but this proved not to be the case as he returned at the Royal Rumble in 2018 as the last entrant.

This leads to a rational explanation of Ziggler relinquishing the United States Championship because he wanted one of the World Championships. This all would make sense had he won the Royal Rumble - but he didn’t.

What makes it slightly more confusing is that instead of being thrown into a fatal-five way for the United States Championship on the main card at WrestleMania 34, he instead settled for a pre-show match, which he didn’t win either.

Even though he formed a formidable partnership with Drew McIntyre and has captured both the Intercontinental and the Raw Tag Team Championship since then, Ziggler’s storyline of relinquishing the United States Championship has yet to come to any conclusion.

#4 Team Hell No

There was a time this year that the thought of Daniel Bryan ever stepping into the ring as a wrestler again was an impossible one. However, a few weeks before WrestleMania 34, Bryan probably delivered one of the best moments of WWE this year when he revealed to the WWE Universe that he was now cleared to wrestle again for the WWE after being forced to retired just over two years ago.

He then immediately stepped up to the plate at WrestleMania and went on to win with Shane McMahon against Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn.

After having successfully winning the feud he had with Big Cass, his next unanticipated feud came from the Bludgeon Brothers, who attacked him on the 26th June episode of SmackDown. However, the former teammate of Team Hell No, Kane, came to Daniel Bryan’s rescue, which led to General Manager of SmackDown Paige quickly jumping in and announcing they will be fighting for the Tag Team Championships at Extreme Rules.

However, Team Hell No failed to reclaim gold for the first time in over five years after The Bludgeon Brothers attacked Kane backstage prior to the match, leaving Bryan to fight the match predominately alone.

Considering the characters of Daniel Bryan and Kane, it seems very unlikely that they would forget such a cowardly attack from anyone, let alone the reigning tag team champions. However, both wrestlers seemed to have moved on without any real reflection on Extreme Rules as Daniel Bryan then focused on his long term rival, The Miz, while Kane next appeared alongside Undertaker, reuniting the Brothers of Destruction.

While one could argue that Kane did sustain a real-life injury just after the match, the fact that Daniel Bryan didn’t confront The Bludgeon Brothers once after the pay-per-view has left viewers wondering why they were reunited in the first place if there was going to be no intention of a follow-up match making this, once again, another unresolved storyline.

#3 Why did Asuka scream?

Asuka’s undefeated streak from NXT put every female wrestler on the main shows on alert, and when Asuka first arrived on Raw in September 2017, she quickly continued her winning ways, including being the sole survivor of the women’s elimination match at Survivor Series and winning the first ever Women’s Royal Rumble.

Despite having only tapped out once at WrestleMania 34, Asuka was heading into her second WWE SmackDown Women’s Championship at Money in the Bank against Carmella as indestructible as ever.

Whilst the match was fairly evenly balanced throughout, Asuka eventually gained the upper hand, and it appeared she was going to finally claim the Smackdown Women’s Championship. Then, something interesting happened.

Someone approached the ring, dressed up in Asuka’s outfit, and distracted her. When the masked person later revealed themselves to be none other James Ellsworth, Asuka completely freaked out as if she had just seen a ghost.

Her reaction does pose the question of why she reacted in such a way. There’s no history between her and Ellsworth, and if she was genuinely reacting in such a way because she just doesn’t like anyone else wearing her clothes, then it’s a tenuous way of showing Asuka’s weakness, considering she’s such a focused wrestler with solid victories over Bayley, Ember Moon, Sasha Banks, Nia Jax and almost everyone else on the main roster.

Even though Asuka eventually fought James Ellsworth and won, the fact remains that Asuka didn’t mention once after the match why she had such a problem with James Ellsworth wearing her clothes, leaving her reaction as an unresolved storyline.

#2 The Viper and The King of Strong Style avoid each other

When Shinsuke Nakamura won the United States Championship off Jeff Hardy at Extreme Rules this year in six seconds, it was the start of several shocks in a matter of a few minutes. Not only did Randy Orton return after being away from the ring for a few months, he ended up giving Jeff Hardy a low blow for no apparent reason.

Two nights later on the 17th July episode of SmackDown, Hardy had appeared to have his match against Nakamura won, until Orton came out again and delivered one of the sickest attacks that we’ve seen for many years on the WWE. However, Orton didn’t appear to be finished, and was distinctly heard asking ‘Where is Shinsuke?’ afterwards.

Two weeks later on SmackDown, Nakamura returned the favour by attacking Hardy from behind, letting Orton pick the bones of the former United States Champion. Despite Orton making it clear why he was attacking Jeff, what he never made clear is why he showed mercy on Nakamura every single time he interrupted.

If you take into account that a villainous Orton doesn’t care who he attacks, it makes no sense why he has avoided any sort of conflict with Shinsuke at any point. Furthermore, considering that Nakamura is also holding a title which Orton also would love to try and win back again this year, it begs several unanswered questions.

These questions include: ‘What relationship does Orton have with Shinsuke? Why were they constantly helping each other? Is either wrestler afraid of each other?’

Unfortunately, the last few months has suggested that Orton’s new focus is now on Rey Mysterio, while Nakamura is fighting off the likes of Rusev and R-Truth bringing the very confusing relationship between the two wrestlers to a sudden halt.

#1 The Scottish Psychopath and the Monster Among Men

When The Shield prevented Braun Strowman from cashing in his Money in the Bank contract on the night after SummerSlam, Strowman knew he would need some of his own back-up to prevent this from happening again. He aligned himself with both Dolph Ziggler and Drew McIntyre out of necessity more than anything else.

Self-dubbed ‘The Dogs of War’, it had appeared they were able to neutralize the threat of The Shield, but unfortunately came up short in a six-man tag match at Super Show Down. When they came up short again a few weeks later after McIntyre accidentally hit Strowman with the Claymore Kick, it was clear that this was the beginning of the end for this trio.

If McIntyre had only kicked Strowman on the same night they split up, then the storyline of the stable splitting up would be wrapped nicely. However, this wasn’t the case, as McIntyre attacked Strowman again the following week on Raw (22nd October), but this time, completely unprovoked.

The WWE Universe know that Strowman is simply not a wrestler that forgives and forgets, and it doesn’t matter how strong and athletic Drew McIntyre is, it would be logical to assume that Strowman was going to get McIntyre back at some point. But this didn’t happen.

Instead, Strowman appeared to have moved on from the two blindsided attacks by McIntyre and instead decided to focus on Brock Lesnar.

What makes this storyline even more confusing is that when Corbin blindsided Strowman at Crown Jewel, regardless if it was for the Universal Championship or not, it is evident that Strowman doesn’t forgive anyone who betrays him.

That attack has now led to a Tables, Ladders and Chairs match at the namesake event with Strowman, where Corbin will be stripped of all power if the former wins.

0 votes