5 WWE feuds that ended way too early
Professional wrestling gives fans multiple opportunities throughout the year to see some incredible stories of triumph, heartbreak, betrayal, and redemption. However, sometimes we never see the ending that wrestlers were building up to. Sometimes an injury puts the brakes on a blood feud between two former tag team partners. Sometimes the creative team just fails to deliver on what was promised.
Whatever the case may be, we've seen dozens of feuds over the years that were completely derailed, robbing the WWE Universe of payoffs and getting them emotionally involved into something that was never set to deliver the way it was promised to.
What would've happened if, weeks before WrestleMania X7, Stone Cold Steve Austin suffered a serious injury, putting the championship match between himself and The Rock in jeopardy? What if Shawn Michaels never won the World Heavyweight Championship at the first ever Elimination Chamber because the creative team decided he wasn't the right guy for that spot? What if Edge failed his Money in the Bank cash in, essentially putting an early end to the greatest feud of the Ruthless Aggression era between the Rated-R Superstar and John Cena?
Feuds and storylines end abruptly all the time in the world of professional wrestling. Today, we're starting off out list with a recent rivalry that completely halted the momentum of a former WWE Champion.
#5 – Bray Wyatt vs Randy Orton
Back in 2017, the Wyatt Family was dominating SmackDown Live. With Randy Orton and Luke Harper by his side, the Eater of Worlds managed to put away some of the best talent in the WWE, and was mere inches away from the WWE Championship. However, cracks in the new Wyatt Family quickly formed, as Luke Harper broke away from the faction, unable to trust the Viper.
At the Royal Rumble in 2017, Randy Orton managed to outlast twenty nine other men and earn an opportunity at the WWE Championship at WrestleMania 33. However, he would end up facing off against his master on the Grandest Stage of Them All.
At Elimination Chamber 2017, Bray Wyatt did the impossible, pinning both AJ Styles and John Cena in the later half of the chamber match to capture his first WWE Championship.
Wyatt would again cement his placement at the top of the ladder by defeating both Styles and Cena in a triple threat match later on. It didn't take long after that before the completely expected happened. Randy Orton betrayed Bray Wyatt. Orton took the champion's trust, learned the location of his compound, and found the burial site of Sister Abigail. He then burned her along with the shed which was built upon her grave while Wyatt wept at ringside.
It was a feud full of emotional investment. Fans were eager to see Wyatt finally capture the WWE Championship, and didn't want to see his run end too soon. However, that's exactly what would happen, as Randy Orton would take the belt away from him in an odd and overall underwhelming match, featuring LED projected roaches and worms.
The three week reign was heartbreaking for Wyatt, but fans hoped to see him regain the title, overcoming the Viper at Payback, which he would do in a House of Horrors match. However, it wasn't for the WWE Championship, as Wyatt had been drafted to Raw beforehand, making his win utterly pointless.
We never got the rubber match between the two, either, completely robbing us of the rest of this feud in order for the WWE to slap the championship on Jinder Mahal. Bray Wyatt's credibility took a massive hit here. To top it all off, Randy Orton connected with an RKO after the match, taking away whatever momentum Wyatt had moving forward before the WWE Champion was attacked by Jinder Mahal, making the leader of the Wyatt Family a complete afterthought.
Looking back, it's hard not to say that this was where the fall of Bray Wyatt began.