WWE storylines can be a short term or long term plan by management to push certain superstars or to do the complete opposite. Professional wrestling has had many hot storylines over the years – Hulk Hogan versus Andre the Giant, the New World Order taking over WCW, Stone Cold Steve Austin versus Mr. McMahon, Shane McMahon buys WCW and the list goes on.
The NWO, Austin versus McMahon and even Shane buying WCW, which led to the Invasion storyline, all lasted a long time. Multiple years were given to these hot storylines. Eras in the professional wrestling have been the length of some of these plots in WWE or WCW.
However, there have been times when WWE had a hot storyline going and then….BAM! It’s over. WWE fans wanted more and the company for whatever reason changed direction. This is one of the the most criticized aspects of WWE that fans complain about. The company was building a young star to the top or had a very compelling and interesting storyline happening, when the whole angle is just dropped. Sometimes it has to do with wrestlers being fired or suspended, but other times there aren’t any explanation for the change.
Here are ten hot storylines that quickly died and were killed by WWE management.
9. Nexus
- WWE.com
Nexus was a group of rookie superstars from the very first season of NXT. At this point in time, which was 2010, NXT was supposed to be a reality television show where wrestlers competed against one another for a contract in WWE. In reality though, all the superstars were signed to WWE in some capacity. In any event, Wade Barrett (now Bad News Barrett) won the first season and at first was the only member to be on WWE programming.
However, Barrett would recruit the other members of NXT season one and form the Nexus faction. The group immediately caused havoc attacking everyone from John Cena to Justin Roberts. It seemed as if no one was capable of beating Nexus. Their fights always seemed to be a handicap match involving all members of the Nexus helping each other out.
Nexus’ big run in WWE began in June and then two months later, it was SummerSlam time. Nexus faced a team of WWE Superstars including John Cena, Chris Jericho, Edge, Bret Hart, R-Truth, John Morrison and former Nexus member Daniel Bryan. This was the perfect opportunity for WWE to put Nexus over their top stars. However, Cena wanted things to happen differently.
Edge joined Chris Jericho on his podcast in December of 2013 and they discussed the situation.
Chris Jericho: “It was Team WWE vs. Team Nexus, and the finish boiled down to [Edge] and [Jericho] in there, but it was Cena against a couple of them. John wanted to do things a certain way and we told him ‘you’re wrong’. He did it anyways, and it sucked. And then after he came over to us and said ‘I should have listened to you, but I wasn’t seeing it that way.'”
Edge: “I remember. I was like, fine I’m out of the match by that point.”
Chris Jericho: “He wanted to get DDT’d on the floor by Barrett, then kick out and beat them both. And you and I were like, that’s the dumbest thing. That’s just throwing it away for no reason.”
Edge: “They should have gone over because they were so hot.”
Chris Jericho: “We were fighting for Barrett to go over. And where’s Wade Barrett now?”
Jericho and Edge were probably right. After SummerSlam, Nexus was never the same. They would gradually lose members and gain new ones until CM Punk was the leader and began his Summer of Punk storyline in 2011.