Whose comeback did WWE botch the most?

[Guest Austin3164life]

Austin's return in 2000 had great buildup with one of the hottest storylines as to "Who Ran Over Austin", but the worst, worst thing they ever did was reveal Rikishi as the driver, with Triple H as the mastermind. Such HORRIBLE blowoff which set the tone for future horrific booking. I think HBK would've been a good hit-and-run guy, since he has never gotten revenge from the WM 14 humiliation he suffered.

[Guest wrestlingbs]

Here we go:

 

Benoit-Everything has already been said, but I'd like to add Austin also ruined Benoit's return by walking out and thus already taking a potential Austin/Benoit fued away.

 

Kane- I know some people hate the guy, but he had the potential even with the stupid things he did to have a superb comeback. He had a great thing going on as Hurricane's partner. But as soon as he arrives -BAM- Katie Vick. Kane may never touch the main event again, and definitely not the title.

 

Goldust-'cause being a gold-wearing wrestler with terret syndrome and the shakes didn't exactly help his career.

[Guest Kamui]

2)NWO although this was doomed from the start.

Please. The smart mark line about the "nWo return being doomed from the start" couldn't be more ridicolous.

 

The nWo angle drew money for two years straight. The fact of the matter is that none of us know what would have happened if they had done the ACTUAL nWo angle, rather than the crappy version we got. That wasn't the nWo gimmick at all.

 

The nWo gimmick worked because they made the fans believe. In Hogan, Hall, and Nash showed up without ANY warning and beat the shit out of a WWE superstar after coming out of the crowd before walking off again, you don't think the fans would believe? The marks certainly would believe it. I'm NOT saying the angle would have been perfect, or would have saved the WWE, but if given the opprtunity it could have drawn money. Hell, it could have even gotten talented workers heel heat- have them betray the WWE and join the nWo, boom, instant heel heat.

 

-Duo

[Guest Kamui]

Austin's return in 2000 had great buildup with one of the hottest storylines as to "Who Ran Over Austin", but the worst, worst thing they ever did was reveal Rikishi as the driver, with Triple H as the mastermind. Such HORRIBLE blowoff which set the tone for future horrific booking. I think HBK would've been a good hit-and-run guy, since he has never gotten revenge from the WM 14 humiliation he suffered.

I don't see the point in putting that as an option when, from all accounts, Shawn was unable to wrestle at the time. Be realistic if you're going to provide suggestions.

 

-Duo

[Guest Kahran Ramsus]

HHH. He could have been huge, but that dogshit thing and being overpushed too quickly completely destroyed that. Now he's the most hated man in wrestling.

 

Benoit's return was also botched, but he recovered pretty quickly and then some.

 

The NWO's return wasn't botched so much that other than Hogan they were completely useless to begin with.

[Guest RavishingRickRudo]

Benoit didn't recover quickly. He is only now reaching the level of overness he had before he left in 2001.

[Guest Kamui]

The NWO's return wasn't botched so much that other than Hogan they were completely useless to begin with.

 

I never said they weren't useless as wrestlers. But they were still over, and they were still perfectly capable of running out from a crowd and beating up a WWE wrestler with baseball bats. If you don't think that angle was botched, you obviously never saw the original nWo.

 

-Duo

[Guest The Decadent Slacker]

Austin's return in 2000 had great buildup with one of the hottest storylines as to "Who Ran Over Austin", but the worst, worst thing they ever did was reveal Rikishi as the driver, with Triple H as the mastermind. Such HORRIBLE blowoff which set the tone for future horrific booking. I think HBK would've been a good hit-and-run guy, since he has never gotten revenge from the WM 14 humiliation he suffered.

Personally, i'd have waited & debuted Raven in that capacity. Just because it would lead to good matches & promos, & Raven would be credible.

 

As for blown returns, WCW itself is the biggest in my opinion. WCW invading was blown more than anything else, & i think that's probably the most significant & depressing.

 

Benoit i think they blew because mainly of Austin having the hissy fit.

 

Taz should have been brought in as a monster. well, a mini monster. it was going well until they shoved him in the hardcore division & never looked back.

 

I'd say also either of Rock's big returns. for the invasion, Rock should have just shown up, & not been on either side, just fight for the Rock. This year, it seems they tried to hard to make him a killer heel, but the people just can't hate the Rock. especially when he's using fucking comedy most of the time.

[Guest jester]

The problem with a lot of these comebacks, is that the WWE spends weeks of hype saying "X is coming back! He's really special! Can't you tell we're excited? You should be excited too!"

 

Then X debuts, and starts do the same thing as every other wrestler.

 

It's not enough to say we should be excited about a wrestler. It's not enough to hype how important or special he is. They have to have him DO something special to make us think he's special.

 

Very few have done anything of note.

 

Goldberg missed the last frickin' PPV, for God's sake. That happens, and we're supposed to keep care about him?

[Guest Lightning Flik]

What he got was a heel turn in his hometown...

Benoit's return was the worst thing to happen, especially here. Because that pretty much killed his ME status... Fuck, even his Uppercard status was pretty much revoked from that point.

 

It was a hard pill for the wrestling fans of Edmonton to swallow. Or at least every Edmontonian I've met (9 out of 10) that likes wrestling will say.

[Guest Old Brown Heineken]

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.

You forgot to say that he was teamed up with the first wreslter to come in the locker room (do I have to list all the stupid and nonsens partners he got, except Taker?)

That being said I thing he wasn't the most unlucky coming back worker on the roster... what you mentioned mainly comes from Vinze breaking kayfabe (as for Taker...)!

[Guest swilk]

How about Eric Bischoff?

 

There was hardly any talk of him joining the E as GM of Raw.

 

Instead surprising everyone by saying the new GM is.....Eric Bischoff, what do they do?

 

The have Bischoff appear in a backstage segment with Booker T and Coach!

 

"How're ya doin' Booker? Nice to see again."

 

Groan! How to spoil the surprise Vince!

[Guest Adrian 3:16]

Austin, 2003:

 

So you have one of the 2 biggest stars in the history of wrestling returning after an 8 month absence where his presence was badly missed. They dropped the ball by not having him as the mystery Rumble entrant, but they had a second chance by having Bischoff bringing him back to save his job and one-up Vince and Steph. That could've been a great storyline.

 

So of course they cocktease Austin's return for weeks, bring him back in a match with Bischoff, and have him do nothing before Wrestlemania, turning away viewers left and right in the process. Small wonder his heat was diminished for a while, in what should've been the biggest event imaginable short of a Bret coming back.

 

 

Benoit, 2002:

 

Another head-scratcher. Benoit was getting over huge as a face before his injury and returned to a massive ovation, so of course they turn him heel to be in a goofy evil stable with Flair. Austin can't take all the blame due to the walkout, because the proposed Austin/Benoit storyline was stupid, bad booking to begin with. Even in kayfabe terms it made no sense, was Benoit somehow out of line for being furious that Stone Cold put him out for a year, while he was a "good guy" no less? What no one seems to consider is that you could still create a story where Benoit hates Austin and wants revenge while leaving them both faces. Faces don't always have to get along, its corny and unrealistic. But turning one of the most beloved wrestlers around heel after being out so long in his home town no less should simply not be done.

 

As insult to injury, don't forget that he didn't even job to real Dudley Boyz, he lost to the bootleg Bubba/Spike version.

 

 

Kanyon, 2003:

 

Ugh, I get mad just thinking about this one. I think everything's been said about this already.

 

 

In defense of NWO 2002:

 

The events leading to their return were very well done. Vince's creepy, increasingly insane ramblings, Flair pleading with him and showing the Desire video, this was awesome, very ominous stuff. Even at No Way Out when they returned, the way they tried to make nice with Rock and Austin at first before showing their true colors was a nice, somewhat creepy touch.

 

It's only everything that happened afterwards that made it go to shit: destroyed ambulances, net guns, promos against cardboard cutouts, styrofoam cinder blocks, Rock's no-sell of death, Hogan's premature face turn, Austin's politicking, the fact that no one besides Vince, Flair, Austin and Rock even noticed, cared, or were affected by their return, X-Pac and his booty shorts of doom, Hall's firing. The thing went down in flames as the biggest disaster in recent history, far worse than Invasion or heel Austin. However, the initial buildup and comeback can't be blamed, they really weren't bad at all.

[Guest The Hamburglar]

Triple H's 2002 return. They took everything the fans wanted to cheer the man for - the sadistic edge, doing whatever was necessary to achieve his goals, and they turned him into a cookie-cutter "bad-ass" face with no distinguishing features. Not to mention his storyline in gaining the historic world title at Wrestlemania was driven by him trying to extricate his pet dog Lucy from underneath a car. I still say the only difference between the damage done to Jericho and Triple H in that particular storyline was the fact that Triple H happened to win it. Doesn't excuse what happened later, but that and then Triple H immediately dropping the title semi-clean to Hulk Fucking Hogan certainly destroyed any hope of Triple H as a viable babyface character.

[Guest RavishingRickRudo]

Given the fact that HHH could have changed the way he returned in the blink of an eye, I don't think self-determined botching can count in this matter... cannit?

[Guest BANKYWOOD]

Scott Steiner shoulda been a heel.

[Guest Jobber of the Week]

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.

In my ideal world, they could have introduced the "Lonely Road of Faith" video as a regular occurance on Raw and Smackdown. Then after about two or three weeks of that, switch to the "hijacked" NWO version (where Vince Sr. gets branded)

 

It certainly would have shocked more people.

[Guest evilhomer]

The worst one that jumps into my mind was Goldberg's return. Hate him or hate him, his return could have been one of the biggest moments in recent memory. They could pull a Triple H and hype the shit out of the return date, or they could make it a huge "holy shit" moment and make it a surprise.

 

Instead they announce his return for one whole day, building 1% of the excitement that it could have generated. Then to further screw it up, they don't hype it on the night to build some excitement for later on in the show, I suppose trying to make it a surprise. The problem with this is it wasn't a surprise. It was painfully obvious based on the gist of The Rock's promo that Goldberg would be coming out. The chants ensured that even the most dense mark would figure it out before the "big surprise".

 

The topper was when he finally made his appearance. The best way out of this bad booking would be to kill the lights, let the crowd grow some anticipation, hit Goldberg's music to really get them going, then let the pyro illuminate the man to blow the roof off. Instead, he just shows up on the Titantron, does a very quick pyro spot, hits his two moves and that's it.

 

So from two years in exile, he walks on like he's been there for months. No big "wow, I'm finally back", just a casual walk to the ring and an attack on the company's biggest star for no reason.