10 WWE Storylines That Ended Too Soon

A great storyline can, and should, span several months if not years.

Some of the greatest storylines in WWE history have continued on for an age, but at their best remain compelling enough to take in an untold number of twists and turns and are on occasion even rebooted long after they appear to have wrapped up.

Other great storylines, however, are done and dusted far too early, leaving fans (and even the performers themselves) frustrated and wondering what could have been.

Check out 10 WWE Storylines That Ended Too Soon below.

10. The Two Man Power Trip

The 2001 heel turn of Steve Austin is generally regarded as a major creative misfire and is often cited as a key reason why WWE's business slumped in the wake of WrestleMania 17, but there were reasons to celebrate Stone Cold's jump to the dark side, such as his dastardly alliance with fellow villain Triple H.

The so-called Two Man Power Trip caused havoc on WWE programming, starting with their formation on the post-WrestleMania Raw.

The Cerebral Assassin and the Texas Rattlesnake had some great, albeit short, feuds with Team Extreme and the Brothers of Destruction and looked set to start a programme with Chrises Jericho and Benoit, when disaster struck and Hunter tore his quad.

Just like that, the duo were no more, which is a shame because it felt like they had at least a few more months left before they inevitably began warring with each other.

Obviously, there was nothing WWE could do about it ending when it did and there wasn't a chance to revisit it following Triple H's recovery, since both he and Austin were back in the babyface ranks by then.

9. The Devil’s Advocate

Sean O'Haire really had just about everything you could want in a WWE superstar.

He was big, jacked and athletic and, with the Devil's Advocate character, had a winner of a gimmick, too. The gimmick was introduced via a series of intriguing vignettes where O'Haire encouraged viewers to break the law, cheat on their spouse and skip church, among other hedonistic instructions.

Those vignettes spilled over onto SmackDown, as The Devil's Advocate used his powers of persuasion to convince Spanky to streak through the arena and Dawn Marie to flash the crowd. His scheming could have gone way beyond getting his co-workers to bear flesh, but the storyline was hastily dropped.

Turns out those effective vignettes were expertly edited and helped mask O’Haire’s flaws on the microphone and, when his shortcomings were exposed at non-televised live events, WWE changed direction and got Roddy Piper in to do his talking for him.

The Devil’s Advocate presented an untold number of possibilities as far as angles and feuds but, alas, it wasn't to be.

8. The Black Hart

One of the surprising positives to come out of the Montreal Screwjob was the creation of the nefarious Mr. McMahon character.

But while the now-former WWE Chairman got the opportunity to play the bad guy, the situation really should have led to Bret Hart’s brother Owen emerging as an uber babyface seeking revenge against Shawn Michaels.

Owen had taken a brief hiatus following the 1997 Survivor Series, but returned at the next pay-per-view as ‘The Black Hart’, intent on making The Heartbreak Kid suffer for his actions. The new, edgy Owen continued to attack Michaels and even got into a confrontation with Vince before receiving his WWE Title opportunity on the last Raw of the year.

The Black Hart won via disqualification and, frustratingly, never got another crack at HBK’s gold. He instead moved onto a dispute with Triple H over the European Title, as WWE cooled off Owen’s anti-authority stance.

Rumour is that backstage politics courtesy of the DX camp played a part in the Black Hart getting shut down before it could truly get going.

7. Kane vs. Kane

The execution may have left a lot to be desired, but Kane feuding with his former self in 2006 was a wacky premise that could have resulted in some very entertaining stuff.

The imposter Kane, decked out to resemble the 1997 version of the character, continually got the better of the real deal leading to a clash of the Big Red Machines at Vengeance.

Fake Kane won that one – convincingly, too – ensuring that a rematch would no doubt take place.

Well, it would have, had Kane not beaten up and thrown his tormenter out of the arena on Raw the next night, quickly and unsatisfactorily ending the not-so-epic saga.

According to Mayor Jacobs himself, the feud would have gone longer but Vince was so upset at Fake Kane’s frizzy wig during the first confrontation that he decided to put the kibosh on it early.

As goofy as the storyline was, there were a thousand directions they could have gone in (had it progressed) and you have to feel a gimmick match or two was in the offing.

Hell, they could have even drafted in a fake Undertaker and had the Stepbrothers of Destruction run riot.

On second thoughts…nah. A fake Undertaker would never work.

6. The Tyranny of King Regal

William Regal, as well as being a first-class wrestler, was a totally believable authority figure.

After a spell as Commissioner in 2001, Regal reclaimed power in the summer of 2007 when he won a battle royal to become General Manager of Raw.

Britain’s finest was a riot as GM and did lots of memorable things to put his stamp on the role, even little stuff like constantly pronouncing ‘Umaga’ as ‘YOU-MANGA’. He gained even more control in the spring of 2008 when he became the King of the Ring, last defeating CM Punk in the tournament final.

The power went to Regal’s head and, on the same night as his coronation, he demanded that the broadcast of Raw be taken off the air prematurely after commandeering the production truck.

The week after, he turned the lights out on Punk’s match with Randy Orton. He continued to meddle with and torment WWE stars and it looked like it could be leading to Regal challenging for, and possibly winning the WWE Title.

But then he got popped for a second Wellness Policy violation and was sent home for 60 days, bringing a regicidal end to proceedings.

5. Who Ran Over Stone Cold Steve Austin?

Though WWE deserved scorn for continuing to advertise Steve Austin for the 1999 Survivor Series (despite knowing his neck was knackered and he couldn’t perform), they at least set up an intriguing storyline for his eventual return.

When Stone Cold came back the best part of a year later, he set about finding out who ran him over, interrogating (and Stunning) a sizeable part of the roster over the course of several weeks.

But just a few weeks after Austin started his crusade, Mick Foley revealed that Rikishi was, in fact, the wheelman.

Not only was it an underwhelming culprit, but WWE had prematurely let the cat out of the bag and robbed us of weeks of further intrigue.

WWE could have easily prolonged the suspense by, say, having an unnamed heel continue to taunt Stone Cold about his involvement or, for example, have Austin ‘find out’ who mowed him down only for it to come out that he had actually gotten it wrong and that the real guilty party was still out there. 

4. The Kurt Angle/Stephanie McMahon/Triple H Love Triangle

Not too long before Steve Austin made his triumphant return, the most intriguing storyline on WWE television was the love triangle developing between Stephanie McMahon, Triple H and Kurt Angle.

In fact, it was at Unforgiven 2000, the same show where Stone Cold came back, that the love triangle storyline concluded, probably a good month too early.

It had all started in the build-up to SummerSlam when the Olympic Hero kissed a possibly concussed Billion Dollar Princess (Steph had been carried backstage by Kurt after inadvertently taking a bad knock).

Naturally, The Game was furious at Angle’s meddling and gave him a hiding, but Kurt continued to stir the pot and sow doubt as to whether Vince’s daughter had hots for him or Hunter – even though Steph herself maintained that they were ‘just friends’.

That led to the blowoff match, with Commissioner Foley as guest referee, where Stephanie showed her true colours by ensuring Triple H won.

Afterwards, the Cerebral Assassin gave his gal the most aggressive kiss ever captured on film, drawing a very weird line under the disappointing conclusion.

3. CM Punk Leaves WWE

WWE expertly blurred the lines between fantasy and reality with the storyline that saw CM Punk win the WWE Title right as his contract was set to expire.

The Straight Edge Superstar really did only sign a new deal just prior to downing John Cena in a classic at Money in the Bank 2011.

For weeks, Punk had claimed he’d bag WWE’s biggest prize before taking it home to Chicago and looked to make good on his promise by staying off WWE’s flagship.

For eight days, anyway.

Two Raws after taking off with the title, the champ came back to confront newly-crowned interim champ Cena.

There was a lot of potential for WWE to make Punk’s absence more meaningful.

He could have made appearances on shows for other companies, such as Ring of Honor, and fought the war against WWE from afar, before deciding to come back (or being baited to come back) in order to defend his crown. The anticipation for his re-emergence would have been huge, had WWE kept him away for at least a little while longer.

2. The Death of Vince McMahon

Just before the June 11th, 2007 episode of Raw went off the air, Vince McMahon blew up.

After acting noticeably a bit off (even more so than usual), the former Chairman went to his limo in the parking lot, closed the door and promptly went kaboom.

This was supposed to be the start of a summer-long storyline where the McMahon family, in conjunction with the authorities, tracked down the responsible party (or parties).

On the subsequent episodes of Raw, SmackDown and ECW, WWE talent shared their disbelief at the boss’s demise via testimonials.

Two weeks after his supposed death, the June 25th episode of Raw was set to be a special, three-hour memorial tribute to the Genetic Jackhammer.

But after the very real Benoit tragedy took place, WWE dropped all pretences and had Vince open a very different type of show out of character, ending the whodunnit storyline.

WWE couldn’t (obviously) in good conscience continue, given what had happened and so drew it to a close by having McMahon say that he had faked it all, before segueing into the illegitimate child storyline instead.

1. Shawn Michaels' 2005 Heel Turn

When Shawn Michaels returned to WWE in 2002, he did so as a reformed character, having cleaned up his act after finding the lord.

With his new outlook on life, The Showstopper was hesitant to revisit his previous evil ways and endeavoured to perform as a consummate babyface. His mind was changed, though, when offered the chance to have a programme with Hulk Hogan and HBK went rogue once more (albeit temporarily) in the summer of 2005.

It led to some of the best work of Shawn’s career, as he was clearly having the time of his life during the infamous Larry King parody and teasing Montreal with a phantom Bret Hart appearance.

Sadly, once Michaels had done the job at SummerSlam and Hogan has gone on his latest WWE hiatus, Shawn immediately reverted back to his previous character.

Which was fine and all, but a couple more months him as a heel would have been something to savour. Might have happened, too, if the Hulkster hadn’t backed out of the planned rematches.