The words \"lock box\" haunt too many WWE fans considering it was only ever said once.
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00:00Wrestling, unlike the vast majority of television programming, is never-ending, and whilst it's
00:04easy to criticise when it goes wrong, it sounds like a hell of a job to continuously come
00:08up with fresh and exciting storylines.
00:10However, when something doesn't land, as happens not infrequently, it's better to
00:14perhaps just move on entirely.
00:16As such, there are a lot of wrestling storylines that just don't go anywhere.
00:20With that in mind, I'm Si for What Culture Wrestling, and here are 10 Wrestling Storylines
00:24That Vanished Without a Trace.
00:2610.
00:27Black Liquid Supernatural wrestling can get away with a
00:30lot of truly nonsensical stuff, for the very same reason that horror films can.
00:34It asks you to suspend your disbelief, surrendering to the idea that there are things we may not
00:38truly understand.
00:40And in fact, we may not want to for the sake of entertainment.
00:43After all, not knowing is half of the chills.
00:45As part of the never-ending 2020 and 2021 feud between Randy Orton and the Firefly Funhouse,
00:51the Viper found himself constantly harassed and tormented by Alexa, I'm 29 but dressed
00:56like a small child Bliss.
00:57One of these moments saw your standard fare of turnbuckle pyro to frighten Orton, but
01:01was followed by the odd sight of him falling to his knees, vomiting a strange black liquid.
01:06Calls of possession, courtesy of the then-MIA Fiend, were heard from the portion of the
01:10fanbase who tried to make sense of supernatural wrestling.
01:13But at WrestleMania 37, it was firmly established that the black goo was the domain of Alexa
01:18Bliss.
01:19As the match between Orton and the Fiend drew to a close, Bliss appeared from inside the
01:22box-like structure at ringside.
01:24Orton was her usual brightly-coloured overalls.
01:27Instead, Bliss sat cross-legged in gothic wear, a crown around her head, covering her
01:31in the mysterious black secretion.
01:33This moment led to Bliss splitting solo from Wyatt, but the black liquid, where it came
01:37from and what it represented, was never mentioned again.
01:40Which is weird, as the ability to force your opponents to choke on supernatural goo seems
01:44like quite a handy talent to have in wrestling.
01:46Oh well.
01:479.
01:48GTV
01:49WWE love jumping on a trend.
01:51Sometimes it works, and other times it's GTV.
01:53With the rise of reality TV and hidden camera shows in the late 90s, the company began to
01:57air superstars caught unaware backstage in grainy black-and-white CCTV-like vignettes.
02:03What started as rather banal, candid moments of wrestlers picking their noses or stinking
02:07out the men's restrooms started to escalate.
02:09The hidden cameras caught Meath cheating on Terry Runnels and a Mean Street Posse faking
02:13injuries furthering storylines.
02:15The original plan was to have the culprit be Goldust, which was pretty clear from the
02:19get-go since they were originally marked as GDTV.
02:22This fit, since the character would be used for a lot of seedy, perverse or boundary-pushing
02:26stories and at that time was looking to return to air.
02:29However, when Dustin Runnels departed the company for WCW, it left WWE at an impasse.
02:34Famously, MTV comedian Tom Green, who you might know from Freddie Got Fingered or Road
02:38Trip, was considered, but Vince didn't like Green's style of humour.
02:42As such, they did what WWE always does when they can't think of an answer.
02:45They pointed in another direction to distract their audience, and then brushed it under
02:49the rug.
02:508.
02:51Dusty Rhodes' kiss of death.
02:52It's not just WWE that have had their fair share of stories that went nowhere.
02:55In 1988, Jim Crockett Promotions started an angle that could have added an interesting
02:59element to perennial hero Dusty Rhodes if it hadn't gone awry.
03:03On an unassuming airing of the show, Larry Zbysko's valet, Babydoll, hand-delivered
03:06Rhodes a mysterious envelope, threatening the American Dream with blackmail in exchange
03:10for a United States title shot.
03:12To close things off, Babydoll took Dusty by the chin and pecked him on the cheek.
03:16This was apparently meant to symbolise a kiss of death for Dusty's career.
03:20By some stroke of hilarious irony, it was this kiss that allegedly brought down not
03:24Dusty Rhodes, but the angle instead.
03:26So, the story goes, according to Zbysko, that Babydoll made the choice to kiss Dusty on
03:30the cheek rather than the lips, as originally pitched.
03:33Incensed by what they viewed as insubordination, Crockett and Rhodes fired Babydoll on the
03:37spot.
03:38The valet tells it differently, saying she was fired for a conflict of interest after
03:42her husband, fellow Crockett star Sam Houston, got hired by WWE.
03:46Because of this, the story was dropped and it looked on-screen as though Zbysko had issued
03:49an empty threat.
03:517.
03:52I Still Remember
03:53Do you remember I Still Remember?
03:55Considering how inconsequential it was, you'd be forgiven for forgetting.
03:58The November 2003 segment, which is less than a full minute long, starts with Booker T hanging
04:03out backstage with Heidenreich reading-slash-advertising WWE's unscripted annual.
04:08However, it all takes a very odd turn when there's a knock at the door, which marks
04:12the arrival of an envelope, a book.
04:14Unlike the contents of Dusty's, which was kept a secret, this one was shown to contain
04:17a piece of paper that simply read, I Still Remember.
04:20Was this a threat?
04:21Was someone from Booker's past coming back to haunt him?
04:23Was it a reference to better days, and someone was about to enter the former WCW Champion's
04:28life in order to get him to the top of the WWE mountain?
04:31This may well be the most mysterious of the entries on this list, because it's never
04:34really had any concrete answers about the plans either.
04:37Much like GTV, fans have long theorised that it was a way for Goldust to step back into
04:41a story with Booker T after their legendary feud, but your guess is literally as good
04:45as anyone else's, of course, because by virtue of being on this list, there is no
04:49answer.
04:50These 59 seconds are all that exist of this angle.
04:536.
04:54Who Attacked Hideo Itami?
04:55For the fans, and clearly for head Booker Triple H too, it was an exciting prospect
04:59to have indie star KENTA on the NXT books.
05:02Performing under the name Hideo Itami, the former pro-wrestling NOAH Heavyweight Champion
05:06wasted no time getting to work, teaming with fellow indie signee Finn Balor, and even making
05:10an accelerated jump to WrestleMania 31 with a featured appearance in that year's Andre
05:15Giant Memorial Battle Royal.
05:16In May 2015, Itami was scheduled to take part in a Triple Threat No. 1 Contenders match
05:21for the NXT Championship before he suffered a legitimate injury.
05:25Making the best of a bad situation, WWE attempted to turn the injury into its latest whodunit.
05:30Itami was found in the parking lot after being taken out by a mysterious attacker.
05:34This surely meant that when he returned, he would have a ready-made feud to slot into.
05:38Problem was that Itami was out for a full year, and NXT moved fast.
05:41The man who made the most sense to be Itami's attacker, Kevin Owens, had moved up to the
05:45main roster a long time ago.
05:47Other possible picks like Samoa Joe or even Balor were otherwise busy.
05:51More than this, WWE's desire to do much with Itami seemed to have fizzled out, which
05:54was made worse by another injury he suffered later that same year.
05:58Maybe Itami just tripped and fell.
06:00Yeah, that was probably it.
06:015.
06:02Lacey Evans' Pregnancy
06:04Very clearly a Vince McMahon story, because he seems to find the same roles for women
06:07over and over again in wrestling.
06:09Lacey Evans found a new, old-school way to get under the skin of rival Charlotte Flair
06:13in 2021.
06:14At first, flirting with Charlotte's father Rick seemed like a playful use of her feminine
06:18wiles to further the feud, but on the February 15th episode of Raw, the storyline took a
06:23very weird turn.
06:24Teaming with Peyton Royce against Charlotte Flair and Asuka, Evans refused to tag into
06:28the match for reasons that became apparently clear when, midway through the bout, she backed
06:32away from the ring.
06:33The Southern Belle then shocked the world by announcing that she was pregnant, implying
06:37that Flair was the father, as he belted out, call me daddy.
06:40But later that night, after the show, it was confirmed that Evans was pregnant for real
06:44in her personal life and would be taking time away from the ring.
06:47For some reason, WWE had decided to add it to her burgeoning story with Naitch, without
06:51really thinking about where to go next with it.
06:54It was like the company figured this would generate great heat for her future WrestleMania
06:57bout against Charlotte, which obviously didn't happen because Lacey was legitimately pregnant.
07:034.
07:04Samoa Joe is Kidnapped by Ninjas
07:07In February 2009, Samoa Joe was abducted by ninjas.
07:10Wrestling is weird.
07:11In actuality, it's just a bunch of guys in black hoodies, but they somehow got the
07:15moniker of ninjas, which makes the proposed story even weirder.
07:18This idea came out of nowhere, ending a random episode of TNA Impact, with the former world
07:22champion being bundled into a white van and driven off into the night.
07:26Originally, Joe was apparently going to return as a psychopathic heel character, however
07:30TNA needed faces.
07:32As such, by the end of April, Joe had made a grand return to fill a gap in the babyface
07:36Team Hogan against Team Flair, and thus, this was never mentioned again.
07:40In 2021, writer Vince Russo attested that Bischoff's original plan was to have Jimmy
07:45Snooker of all people be behind the strange attack, but it didn't pan out, thus left
07:49with an unfinished story and a hole in their roster they chose to completely abandon it.
07:53Whilst TNA never went back to the well with the kidnapping, Joe himself made a cute reference
07:57to it in 2020 during his time on WWE commentary when he remarked,
08:02Ninjas can really ruin a night.
08:043.
08:05Vince's Lockbox
08:06At WrestleMania 32, a post-streak Undertaker defeated Shane McMahon in a fairly forgettable
08:10match propped up by a story about as watertight as a slice of Swiss cheese.
08:15If Shane returned to the WWE to blackmail Vince, why did he agree to compete in a match?
08:19Why did Vince think the Undertaker was his pawn, and so too, why did Taker go along with
08:24it?
08:25Vince's interesting wrinkle was totally passed over.
08:28Vince had not been the centre point of a WWE story for some time by 2016.
08:32As such, the mention of a mysterious lockbox, including apparently blackmail-ready goods,
08:37was something that caught many fans' attention.
08:39The first and final mention of this MacGuffin came from Vince's mouth as part of his terms
08:43for Shane.
08:44If Shane-o beat the Undertaker, he'd have control of Raw.
08:46If he lost, he would destroy the lockbox and its contents.
08:49But by merely presenting the mystery box, fans wanted to know what was inside of it.
08:53He was a Chekhov gun of sorts, and bizarrely, considering that Shane lost to Taker and still
08:58got what he wanted as a temporary general manager of Raw for about three months until
09:02the brand split, he did so without revealing the dirt he had on his father.
09:06What Vince might be hiding was the most interesting part of the tale, so it's quite incredible
09:10that taken in the full context of the story, it looks more like an ad-lib that McMahon
09:14made up on the spot.
09:152.
09:16The Nightmare Collective's Hair Collection
09:18AEW's issues with booking a half-decent women's division have been the subject of
09:22much debate over the last few years, but the truth is they've always struggled.
09:26Nowhere is this more apparent in what may well be the worst storyline they've ever
09:29put to television, not to mention the most confusing, in the Nightmare Collective.
09:33It was bad from the get-go, experiencing the whiplash of Brandi Rhodes being the valet
09:36to her husband and super-face Cody Rhodes, to suddenly going to her being apparently
09:41a cartoon bad guy.
09:43More than this, after aligning herself with Awesome Kong, Brandi began a weird obsession
09:46with cutting clumps of hair out of their defeated opponents.
09:50There was no explanation for what this was for, which made the indoctrination of fan
09:53plant Melanie Cruz painful to watch.
09:56There was similarly no reaction to the debut of Luther filling the gap left by Awesome
10:00Kong departing the company, and so AEW dropped the gimmick.
10:04Admittedly, one final note was supposed to wrap this up when it was shown that Brandi
10:07had gone to therapy, but what about Luther and Mel?
10:10Did they continue to lurk backstage at Dynamite with clippers and pockets full of hair?
10:141.
10:15The Attempted Murders of Vince McMahon
10:17One of the most infamous unfinished WWE storylines is Vince's exploding limo.
10:22There's nothing more to the angle than that phrase, Vince stepped in his car and it's
10:25engulfed in flames.
10:27Of course, this was all ignored in the wake of the Benoit tragedy in the following days.
10:31But it's not the only time that Vince set up a story where someone seemed to want him
10:35dead.
10:362008's Million Dollar Mania was a ratings grab that saw Vince dial phone numbers and
10:40promise cash to those that could give the correct phrase.
10:43Concept was a total car crash that resulted in some of the most uncomfortable television
10:47imaginable.
10:48The biggest highlight was Vince being rickrolled twice by a fan who then went on to win $20,000.
10:53What a great night for that person.
10:55All in all though, it wasn't working and so Vince put an end to the idea by writing
10:58an event where the stage exploded and collapsed upon him.
11:02Perhaps most strangely of all, to hype up Vince's return to TV six months later, the
11:05January 19th 2009 episode of Raw opened with a video package with footage of precisely
11:10what led to Vince missing TV, but it never truly went and told us why.
11:14Debatably, there was no angle.
11:16It was simply to allow Vince to end the million dollar failure.
11:19However, it was clearly set up to be a whodunit, but it vanished without a trace.
11:24And that's the list.
11:25Let us know what you thought of this video down in the comments below.
11:28Which wrestling storylines that just stopped dead keep you up at night?
11:31And don't forget you can stay with us here at What Culture Wrestling by clicking on these
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11:37Make sure you subscribe and head over to whatculture.com for more content every day.
11:41I've been Si for What Culture and have a good week!