Which wasted wrestling storyline had the most potential?

Summer of Punk

In short CM Punk was fed up with WWE and was going to walk out of the company with the WWE Championship. This was the hottest story in years because it had everything - one of the greatest promos of all time, two of the loudest pops of all time, and an excellent 5 star match.

What happens next? Rey Mysterio wins the WWE Championship on Raw, and a fresh and somehow babyface John Cena pins him for the title minutes later. Punk returns the next week and challenges Cena for the belt just two weeks later at the next PPV. There Kevin Nash costs Punk the title, and Alberto Del Rio cashes in MITB to become the new champion. Punk then loses to HHH for no reason, and most of his momentum is gone.

The Invasion

WWE has officially defeated WCW and basically owns all of wrestling. Now WCW is going to invade the WWE and take over.

So why did this fail? It was rushed and became all about the McMahons, and many of WCW's biggest stars were nowhere to be found. Look at the final team for WCW - Stone Cold, Kurt Angle, Booker T, Rob Van Dam, and Shane McMahon. 2 WWF guys, a McMahon, and 2 stars who were fine members but not on the level of Ric Flair, Hulk Hogan, or Sting for example. This was decent but could've been much bigger.

Anonymous Raw GM

For one year an anonymous person was the general manager of Raw. Who could it be? Stone Cold? The Rock?

Well no one because the story was dropped. 3 years later Santino Marella (uhhh... actually Santonio Holmes) discovers the GM was the leprechaun who lives under the ring. The leprechaun then bites Jerry Lawler in the butt. Seriously.

The Nexus

One night on Raw the "rookies" from the first season of NXT debuted and destroyed everything in sight. The ring, arena, announcers, wrestlers, etc. It was the most exciting ending to Raw in years. A couple of months later, John Cena and team WWE beats the Nexus, and that's basically it. Cena feuds with Nexus for a few months, but they're treated as a mild annoyance instead of a legitimate threat.

This was a fine story, but again it could've been much bigger. What if John Cena turned heel and was revealed as the leader? Ok Cena's not turning heel, but what about someone else like Jericho or Edge? Instead they rehashed the original attack, and it slowly lost its appeal until Cena overcame the odds. Again.

I've said it many times and I'll say it again Jeff Hardy's heel run in TNA.

Jeff Hardy the mega face. The likeable high flyer who everyone just can't help but like, turns heel at Bound For Glory 2010 by attacking Mr Anderson and Kurt Angle and wins the TNA Heavyweight title in the process. His heel character is sort of an arty version of Raven which was really cool. Turning on the fans because he was looking out for number one.

I still find this promo from soon after to be one of my favourites and arguably one of Jeff's better ones (lets be honest he was never good at promos)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3YR3jHMWVZY

Sure there were some kinks that could have been ironed out (the over reliance on Immortal and him still using high flying moves) but aside from that I felt it had potential for a great storyline. They could have built up a big face to take on Hardy and eventually beat him (AJ Styles, Alex Shelley etc) and Hardy turning back face would have been immense. Like a not botched version of Starrcade 1997.

Now obviously Jeff's personal problems got in the way and derailed any possible storyline but I still reckon a heel Jeff Hardy would have been a great storyline

If you want to use TNA, Austin Ariesâ??s rise was awesome, but when he finally won the title they turned him heel so he could drop the belt to a returning Hardy. I think he even dropped it on their first match. That was one of the hottest times TNA had, and they threw it away.
They did the same thing to Velvet Sky for a returning Gail Kim, one of the blandest wrestlers ever.

And Punkâ??s run was very hindered by HHH, but as soon as he turned heel it became pretty awful.

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Originally Posted by Fire Marshall Bill

If you want to use TNA, Austin Ariesâ??s rise was awesome, but when he finally won the title they turned him heel so he could drop the belt to a returning Hardy. I think he even dropped it on their first match. That was one of the hottest times TNA had, and they threw it away.
They did the same thing to Velvet Sky for a returning Gail Kim, one of the blandest wrestlers ever.

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I do remember Austin Aries' rise with Option C being amazing and then he turned heel soon after. Granted he was always better as a heel but still could have delayed it for a bit. They probably could have delayed Jeff winning the belt (redemption storyline and all that) but I see why they did it.

Gail Kim's entire careet has coasted off those Awesome Kong matches. She's a great wrestler but bland as hell. I still don't get how she had the career that she did. She must have been really good friends with Dixie Carter

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Originally Posted by BestSportsEntertainer

Summer of Punk

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I get that SummerSlam always needs a big match, but Cena vs Mysterio would have sold tickets to boatloads of children! Punk was literally giving the title credibility by not being on WWE TV, showing up in the indies and crashing WWE panels at ComicCon. It's a shame they didn't keep that ball rolling by, say, Punk tweeting that he bought a front row ticket. So much untapped potential by rushing this.

I was on board with the heel turn. Punk was a better heel than a babyface, even in his best babyface run. It's just the run as heel that felt mismanaged.

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The Invasion

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A spoilt angle sure, but I've never subscribed to the analysis that this angle failed because they didn't have the big stars. I won't argue that Flair, Sting or Goldberg would have helped bring the angle to the next level, but they had more than enough working parts on TV to make this angle great. Hell, the fallout of this angle helped Jericho reach the next echelon. Why couldn't he have been a prominent WCW guy? Why was the Ultimate Battle between WWF and WCW between The Rock and Stone Cold Steve Austin.

I'd have had Jericho start off pro-WWF, while everyone on the WWF side question his loyalties and slowly pushing him away. All the while, Shane courts Jericho saying that he might not have had a chance to be the superstar he should be in Bischoff's WCW, but McMahon's WCW would be a different story. Have Jericho eventually lead team WCW alongside Shane, Booker and Big Show (Who again, a prominent WCW guy all on board with WWF? Come on guys, he was right there)!

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Anonymous Raw GM

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Yeah, I didn't need latter-day reports from writers saying "we didn't know who would end up anonymous GM and were hoping it would fall in place later" to tell me what I could tell after the first month of this angle.

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The Nexus

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I would have been on board with Nexus losing if returning Daniel Bryan had won that. Either victory could have set the tone for the next year of programming.

My own pick has to come from WCW. They brought in Bret Hart who had all the intrigue in the world behind him, and he sat in the wings for what felt like months.

The botched, rushed Invasion angle could have went 100 good ways it's not even funny. Most of the WCW stars were not even taken seriously. The one over the top moment where Stone Cold Stuns everyone not part of the WWE is the only memorable thing about the invasion angle, one of the loudest pops ever when his music hit and it kind of seems that's where the angle died at the same time. Stunner burial after stunner burial.

The often dumb Anonymous GM could have had at LEAST a worthwhile payoff or start of a new faction...fucking Hornswoggle.

I think a lot of the storylines in the op played out the way they did and would have more or less. I think all could have been improved upon, without question, but i still think most of them ended up going where they went, even if some were rushed, or stretched too far, or people were replaced. If reports are believed to be true, the son of Mr McMahon could have been huge. Giving Mr Kennedy the push, the title, and a feud for a fathers love with HHH would have been really fun to see play out.