Whose comeback did WWE botch the most?

[Guest Redhawk]

I would vote for...

 

The Rock, summer 2001 -- When he came back from his "suspension" during the WCW/ECW Invasion. They blew it with Vince going out there and running through all of Rock's catchphrases. Then on the night of the comeback, they showed him outside of the arena before he actually made his entrance, I thought his return would have been best with more of a surprise.

 

Steve Austin, No Way Out 2003 -- The way Bischoff kept doing the "Austin's here tonight....no he isn't" thing took some luster off of the eventual comeback.

 

Kanyon -- Busting out of a box and singing WHAM songs to the Undertaker? If that weren't bad enough, now I hear they're going to have him do some Kung-Fu, The Legend Continues gimmick.

[Guest Choken One]

Austin 2003.

[Guest Downhome]

The nWo.

[chaosrage 0]

Benoit, 2002. Bringing him back as a heel. WTF was that?

[Guest RavishingRickRudo]

Benoit, Benoit, Benoit, Benoit, aaaaand lemme see... BENOIT.

[Guest Choken One]

It was the right thing to do because they were creating a Flair Group of Heels in Flair, Eddy and Benoit to oppose Austin...

 

But it was aborted when Prima Donna threw a fit...

[Guest oldschoolwrestling]

Benoit - They could have built him up as a serious world title threat if they had brought him back properly.

 

Rhyno - He should have been built up a little better also. Does the guy even speak on tv anymore?

[Guest Some Guy]

nWo was the worst one. The way Vince brought them in was totally contrary to the group's purpose and didn't even make sense storyline wise considering the group was disbanded well before WCW died.

 

They should have just showed up through the crowd with bats and beat the shit out of Austin and Rock, spray painted them and left. Lather, rinse, repeat, and then if they has to go with the Vince thing he should have revealed himself as their leader or whatever he was supposed to be after a few weeks.

 

Instead we got seemingly endless "I'm gonna kill it. I'm gonna kill my creation. I'm gonna inject a lethal dose of poision into the WWF." skits.

 

The WWF has a knack for getting someone knew and making him seem like he's been there for years after a week. It sucks, no one seems special after their intial entrance. They make everybody into just another WWF Superstar. They did it with Goldberg, nWo, Steiner, Booker, RVD, Tazz, Benoit, Eddy, Jericho, etc... They ruin the momentum that a new guy has coming in and them try to rebuild it. It doesn't usually work. Steiner, nWo, Tazz, RVD, and Booker had so much damage done to them that they may never be useful to draw money again (nWo, Steiner, and Tazz for certain). Goldberg is still up in the air.

[Guest My Eyebrow is on fire]

OH MY SHIT ^^^

 

I just realized you had 7500 fucking posts?!?!?! Do you sleep here or something?!?

 

Anyway...Kanyon. They had the opportunity to make the audience care about him with a dramatic video package and reinvent his character. They chose to make him a comedy jobber. Benoit, on the other hand, will always be somewhat over.

 

EDIT: Sorry was referring to choken.

[Crimson Platypus 0]

nWo was the worst one. The way Vince brought them in was totally contrary to the group's purpose and didn't even make sense storyline wise considering the group was disbanded well before WCW died.

 

They should have just showed up through the crowd with bats and beat the shit out of Austin and Rock, spray painted them and left. Lather, rinse, repeat, and then if they has to go with the Vince thing he should have revealed himself as their leader or whatever he was supposed to be after a few weeks.

 

Instead we got seemingly endless "I'm gonna kill it. I'm gonna kill my creation. I'm gonna inject a lethal dose of poision into the WWF." skits.

 

The WWF has a knack for getting someone knew and making him seem like he's been there for years after a week. It sucks, no one seems special after their intial entrance. They make everybody into just another WWF Superstar. They did it with Goldberg, nWo, Steiner, Booker, RVD, Tazz, Benoit, Eddy, Jericho, etc... They ruin the momentum that a new guy has coming in and them try to rebuild it. It doesn't usually work. Steiner, nWo, Tazz, RVD, and Booker had so much damage done to them that they may never be useful to draw money again (nWo, Steiner, and Tazz for certain). Goldberg is still up in the air.

I couldn't agree more with everything you say here.

[Guest Choken One]

OH MY SHIT ^^^

 

I just realized you had 7500 fucking posts?!?!?! Do you sleep here or something?!?

 

Anyway...Kanyon. They had the opportunity to make the audience care about him with a dramatic video package and reinvent his character. They chose to make him a comedy jobber. Benoit, on the other hand, will always be somewhat over.

 

EDIT: Sorry was referring to choken.

7931 to be exact.

 

*I am on a mission for 25,000*

 

 

And I am not even in the top ten for most posts so why are you stunned?

[Guest wildpegasus]

1)Benoit

2)NWO although this was doomed from the start

 

In Benoit's first match back his tag team lost to the Dudley Boys. In Benoit's first PPV match back he lost in a table match to a Bubba bomb in the opening match. This is from the same person who was main eventing before he had to leave for injury. Don't even get me started on the hype for Benoit's return compared to the "shove it down the fans throught" return of HHH. Benoit never got one video, just a 20 second piece for advertising the WWE's new CD. That, my friends can just not be topped.

[Guest Polish_Rifle]

Rhyno - since now his a regular staple on Velocity.

 

They better not mess up Lita's comeback!

[Guest RavishingRickRudo]

The NWO at least got hype - Benoit got *nothing*.

 

Benoit, a man who - for a month before he left - gave his EVERYTHING to that promotion. He deserved something, he deserved recognition, he deserved hype, he deserved fucking respect. What he got was a heel turn in his hometown... yeah, THAT will work...

 

They could have made him huge. They could have shown the fans all his hard work and dedication over the years and forced them to develop the respect that they are only now developing for him. But nope. Heel turn. So rather than being a mega-face, he's a heel with no heat. His first PPV match? A curtain-jerker loss to the dudley boyz...

[Guest Mole]

Kanyon. I love Kanyon, and he got the rath of Taker in his first 5 seconds out there.

[Guest MD2020]

The Rock, summer 2001 -- When he came back from his "suspension" during the WCW/ECW Invasion. They blew it with Vince going out there and running through all of Rock's catchphrases. Then on the night of the comeback, they showed him outside of the arena before he actually made his entrance, I thought his return would have been best with more of a surprise.

 

Well, if I remember correctly, they had been hyping his return for a while on TV, so it's not like it was totally unexpected.

 

As for the night of the comeback, it was in Philly--I was able to attend--and they showed the Rocky statue, then the Rock, in a nice bit of cleverness from the creative team. Of course, then they showed you a few minutes later "arriving" via limo, when in reality, the Rocky Statue is at the Spectrum, directly across the street from the FU Center.

 

You have to remember, they really needed ratings at that point, so it made some sent to hype it up as much as they did. However, from a "marking out" standpoint, they should have made it a surprise.

[Guest JAxlMorrison]

Tazz's return in mid 2001. They turn him heel after he was getting huge face pops, and put him in a dead end feud with Lawler, who he LOST TO! Then they team him with Raven who he also jobs cleanly to.

[Guest nikowwf]

I'd say THE ROCK, this time. They took the most over heel in the company, with real fan hatred of him and made him a comedy character.

 

niko

[Guest Choken One]

What fan hatred? They were barking like fucking seals when he came out and he had to go into cheap heat overdrive to get the job done...

[Guest Old Brown Heineken]

The nominates for the worst 2002 comeback are, drumming, Hulk Hogan, SCSA, Kevin Nash and Scott Hall...

 

and the Worst Comeback of the year is Awarded to Kevin Nash and Scott Hall! We have a tie here.

 

I think that PWI awarded the best comeback to Hulk in 2002, with Eddie as 1st runner-up, Benoit 2nd runner-up and Ron Killings 3rd runner-up... Anyway who cares about the PWI awards?

[Guest wildpegasus]

I think the PWI polls are sussposed to be rigged.

[Guest Old Brown Heineken]

I think the PWI polls are sussposed to be rigged.

When you find out that they gave the best rookie of the year award to Erik Watts in 1992 you know that there's something peculiar going on...

[Guest Fook_Hing_Ho]

Rhyno

 

No video promos, no mike time, no big feud.

[Guest Lil Naitch]

Benoit, if only because he was drafted to Smackdown! during the Drafts, then shows up on Raw because it's his hometown and turns heel the same night

 

Give this man the belt, STAT

[Guest Redhawk]

I have to put Kane on there too. The buildup was fine, with the random "The Fire Still Burns" thing, but once he actually came back...

 

1. The Kane-a-rooni

2. He had that ugly-ass new outfit.

3. His music was changed to it's sucky current form.

4. He moved into the thrilling Katie Vick angle.

5. He was talking.

6. His mask sucked.

[Guest saturnmark4life]

Like him or not, they could have done somehting with Kane, yes. Never again.

 

I don't even want to talk about Rhyno or Kanyon's cos they made me fucking sick.

 

Austin's was partially his own fault. Quite a large part, in fact.

 

I still laugh at the fact they put so much effort into Orton's comeback. Unlike others, I don't hate him, but substitute him in that angle for Rhyno, Kanyon or Benoit, and it would have worked SO much better.

[Guest BobbyWhioux]

Kanyon -- Busting out of a box and singing WHAM songs to the Undertaker? If that weren't bad enough, now I hear they're going to have him do some Kung-Fu, The Legend Continues gimmick.

Actually, that's Culture Club, not WHAM.

 

Not that it really matters.

 

The point is he had a great potential comeback story. It was so easy for them. The "Creative" Team didn't even have to create anything (not that they ever do, anyway); the story was already written for them. Devastating injury, surgery, tragedy during rehab, life on the line, but he perserveres, strives, never gives up, survives.

 

DESIRE.

 

But no, instead of DESIRE, we get a Boy George impersonation, and "Taker MAD! Taker SMASH!" and the worst part of it all was, it was all part of a plot to add heat and buildup to Undertaker VS. Big Show. Kanyon was given up for the sake of The Big Show, a sacrifice on the Hoss Altar, sacrificed for a cause with no hope of success and that wouldn't have generated any gain even if it had succeeded.

 

And that's downright criminal.

[Guest KingOfOldSchool]

Benoit - As others have said, they could have turned this into something big. A few weeks worth of promos showing his dedication, hard work and sacrifice. Then the return in his hometown.

 

I actually didn't mind the heel turn though. It's the fact that it was so poorly followed through, what with those losses to the Dudleys, and Austin walking out, thus ruining Benoit's reason for turning.

 

Kanyon - As BobbyWhioux said...

 

Rhyno - Obviously. He got nothing at all. He got even less than Benoit.

 

nWo - The nWo return just had no unpredictibility to it. That's the thing about the nWo, you're supposed to wonder what they're gonna do next. Just have them show up in the crowd, no foreshadowing from Vince. After a few weeks then, sure, have Vince be revealed as the man behind their resurrection.

 

Instead Vince cuts a crappy promo, heralding the return. And from there it only got worse. Especially when Rock no-sold fucking DEATH.

[Adam 0]

Rhyno: The man is a former World Heavyweight Champ in ECW, and he can put on entertaining matches. Why wouldn't you hype his return?

 

nWo: They could have at least had them interact with Vince a little more, and hijack a broadcast. But I suppose they weren't to know that Hogan would get the reaction that he did.

 

Benoit: Obvious one here. Should have come back, and because Austin walked out should have won KOTR or something, or at least got a shot at the Undisputed Championship at Vengeance.

 

Undertaker: Had the chance to turn him back into the Deadman, didn't take it. Nuff said.

 

Kane: Could have done alot better with this guy. Made him darker again, scarier again, less human, more monster. Thats when he was really over.

[Guest JDMattitudeV1]

Kanyon -- Busting out of a box and singing WHAM songs to the Undertaker? If that weren't bad enough, now I hear they're going to have him do some Kung-Fu, The Legend Continues gimmick.

Actually, that's Culture Club, not WHAM.

 

Not that it really matters.

 

The point is he had a great potential comeback story. It was so easy for them. The "Creative" Team didn't even have to create anything (not that they ever do, anyway); the story was already written for them. Devastating injury, surgery, tragedy during rehab, life on the line, but he perserveres, strives, never gives up, survives.

 

DESIRE.

 

But no, instead of DESIRE, we get a Boy George impersonation, and "Taker MAD! Taker SMASH!" and the worst part of it all was, it was all part of a plot to add heat and buildup to Undertaker VS. Big Show. Kanyon was given up for the sake of The Big Show, a sacrifice on the Hoss Altar, sacrificed for a cause with no hope of success and that wouldn't have generated any gain even if it had succeeded.

 

And that's downright criminal.

You've just convinced me, I'd have to say Kanyon. The had a goldmine just sitting there, but instead we get Boy George (:shudders).

 

Honourable mentions to Benoit and the nWo.