WWE: Five instances when WWE dropped the ball

In the world of professional wrestling, timing is everything. It all depends on how things play out, and how well you can capitalise on them. They say you have to strike the iron when it’s hot, and the same thing applies in professional wrestling. But as it is often seen, the proverbial ‘dropping the ball’ comes true, and the bookers and the management have no clue how to take advantage of a situation. Whether a certain individual is ‘hot’ in the wrestling circuit, or a story-line plays out perfectly, there have been instances when the creative team and the management let go of something that could have been brilliant, or that could have captivated the fans and arguably could have changed the face of professional wrestling.

In this article, I take a look at such five instances in the WWE which could have been done in a much better way, but due to lack of proper booking and illogical story-lines, fell flat for the fans.

5. The Invasion storyline

Back in ’01, the then WWF ran their competitors WCW and ECW out of business, and to rub some more salt on their wounds, they bought the rights to both the companies. So with WCW and ECW being Vince McMahon’s new ‘toys’, WWF started a new angle, which was called the ‘Invasion’ storyline, where Vince’s children Shane McMahon and Stephanie McMahon owned the rights to WCW and ECW, and would wage a war against their father and his company, the WWF. What was so nonsensical about all of this? Vince did not buy out the contracts of the biggest WCW names such as Hogan, Nash, Hall, Sting, Flair and Goldberg, and when the Invasion story-line became one of the biggest flops in wrestling history, he brought in all the aforementioned names except for Sting. This only proved that Vince never intended to make WCW look like a competition, not even during a story-line!

4. Jericho’s second coming

If everyone remembers Jericho’s ‘second coming’ of sorts, during his cryptic ‘Save us’ messages and all the hype, Jericho came back and immediately challenged Randy Orton for a WWE title match. What happened after that? He lost to Orton and began a feud with JBL, who was until then a colour commentator. How does that make any sense? No one really knows, but after a while, Jericho did win the World heavyweight title and has had one of the best feuds in recent memory against Shawn Michaels, but that was nearly a year after his return. WWE could have given him the title, as his return was a big deal in the wrestling industry and for the fans, but WWE chose to make him irrelevant a month after his return, which was nothing short of baffling.

3. Christian’s 2005 heel run

When you know that a certain superstar has been receiving the biggest crowd response, the only logical thing to do is to make him the biggest face/heel in the company, depending on the type of reaction he gets. There are very few superstars in the wrestling industry with the charisma, the mic skills and the wrestling ability of Christian. Back in ’05, Christian became the top heel of the company, often receiving the biggest crowd response, so much so that people loved to hate Christian, and they often used to cheer him because of his great promos. WWE, knowing that, got him into a program against the WWE Champion, John Cena, and what happened next? They made Christian an afterthought, and because of that, Christian left the WWE for TNA, and although he became a multi-time world champion there, there will always be a bad taste in the fan’s mouth regarding WWE dropping the ball with Captain Charisma.

2. Summer of Punk

When CM Punk delivered the ‘Pipe bomb’ promo in 2011, the whole world stood up and took notice. Punk gained mainstream attention, and the WWE found someone who could be the new Steve Austin, and also the first CM Punk. After Punk beat John Cena and hightailed with the WWE title, the whole of wrestling industry was abuzz with the sensational story-line and the precision with which it was played out, but all of that came crumbling down when Punk returned just two weeks after allegedly ‘leaving’ the WWE. What more? Punk lost his PPV match to Triple H, which completely halted his momentum and stopped whatever effect the Summer of Punk had in the WWE. One can only imagine how great that would have turned out had the management taken a different route.

1. Zack Ryder buried, again

And the number one spot goes to the sad story of Zack Ryder. This might arguably be the worst story in professional wrestling, as Zack Ryder, who was fed up with the way WWE was treating him, decided to take matters into his own hands and started a show on Youtube which completely turned his fortunes around. He was original, fresh and entertaining, and the fans wanted more of him. Every arena echoed with ‘We want Ryder’ chants, as the fans demanded to see Zack Ryder. With CM Punk behind the Long Island Iced Z, WWE decided to give Zack his 15 minutes of fame, and 2011 ended with Ryder becoming the new US champion. All that immediately changed, as Zack not only lost the title, but went back to becoming a jobber in the company, and in a matter of 3 months, he went from being a nobody to Zack Ryder to nobody once again.