It’s happening again! Happy May 19th, WWE fans. I hope you’ve spent the entire day wandering around mumbling to yourself.
If you need a refresher on why this day is so meaningful, it is because it is basically a wrestlecrap holiday. May 19th is one of the great, ridiculous WWE storylines that was completely dropped with no real resolution.
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May 19, 2006, was the day that the movie “See No Evil,” starring Kane, was released. During the weeks leading up to that date, Kane was tormented by the mere mention of the date. Was he nervous about his WWE Studios film not drawing well at the box office? What he would wear to the premiere?
Oh no.
WWE wanted to promote the film’s opening night by building an entire ridiculous story around the date. This eventually led Kane to reveal that it was the day his mother and adopted family were killed in a fire.
We had previously been led to believe it was Kane who started the fire, but then it turned out Undertaker was the culprit. Although that may have been later reversed as well. It’s confusing.
Anyhow, the explanation of the date wasn’t the part that was completely dropped. It was the appearance of Fake Kane (yes, both Taker and Kane have been tormented by doppleganger stalkers) who suddenly dropped off the face of the earth once Kane defeated him in a match on Raw.
Once the imposter (Luke Gallows in a halloween wig) was vanquished, months of build up were completely dropped so WWE could move on to bigger and better things.
May 19th isn’t the only failed storyline WWE has jumped ship on without feeling the need for a pay off. Here are the top 5 unsolved WWE mysteries.
GTV
If you don’t remember GTV, it was an angle where WWE would cut into their programming with black and white “hidden camera” videos showing the wrestlers in embarrassing situations. A year later, the story was completely dropped without explanation. It was rumored Goldust would be the G in question, but he was released half way through the angle.
That didn’t stop the WWE from keeping it going.
Chris Jericho eventually revealed what was supposed to happen with the angle, “When I did the Live with Chris Jericho with Stephanie at the Titan Studios WWE Studios. GTV was supposed to be Tom Green. Yes. And I just found out about it the other day. I didn’t know! GTV. And remember doesn’t it fit because remember Tom Green used to film stuff you know, pranks, stuff and all that shit and then what happened was they started planting the seeds for GTV and then Vince actually saw Tom Green’s stuff and said this guy is not funny. Done.”
Hade Vansen’s Prophecy
Before Bray Wyatt, the WWE tried and failed several times to build up a supernatural threat to The Undertaker. In 2008, a sinister cult-like figure emerged in a vignette claiming that he’d “dedicated his life to studying the darkness” and that he was coming to WWE “to fulfil his prophecy.”
The wrestler, with one of the worst names ever, was set to lead a group of “mutants” against Taker leading up to an eventual WrestleMania match with the Deadman.
Yes, mutants. X-Men style. Seriously.
Despite Hade doing a pretty damn good job with his promo, Vince scrapped the angle two weeks later and Vansen (and his prophecy) dropped out of the WWE forever.
Million Dollar Giveaway
What better way to get out of paying off a debt than by faking your own death?
2008 was a banner year for bad ideas. In 08, Vince announced that he would be giving away ONE MILLION DOLLARS (read in Dr. Evil voice) each week to lucky Raw viewers.
The giveaway fell apart within three weeks. McMahon had just given $500k away when he must have realized what a horrible idea it was and had the angle abruptly end with the stage blowing up and falling on him.
McMahon was kept off WWE television for six months, and the Million Dollar mania was never spoken about again.
The Anonymous RAW GM
In June 2010, Vince McMahon unveiled a new anonymous GM with Michael Cole being chosen as the one to read the GM’s announcements on Raw. In theory, this would have led to a great reveal of who was actually pulling the strings at Vince McMahon’s request.
In actuality, WWE had no clue who they wanted to be the GM. They just assumed it would make sense eventually. The angle ran for over a year and was eventually dropped when John Laurinaitis took over in 2011.
On RAW’s 1,000th episode in 2014, Hornswoggle was revealed as the mystery GM, but it was clearly WWE’s way of poking fun of their own failure to pay off the story.
Who Killed Vince McMahon?
Another Vince McMahon death remains unsolved.
The angle of Mr. McMahon blowing up in the limo may have actually gone somewhere. Some rumors suggest it was going to be revealed Vince faked his own death and he would reemerge with a (and I swear I’m not making this up) hobo army to return to the WWE.
However, the following week when WWE had planned to pay a 3 hour tribute to Vince, they also learned of the death of star, Chris Benoit, which prompted them to drop the angle in favor of doing a 3 hour tribute to Benoit – which, little did they know was in even in worst taste as WWE had yet to learn of the horrific cirumstances of the Benoit murders.
But, let’s not end this on a sour note.
Fun fact about the Vince story: Triple H once revealed that after the angle, Donald Trump called WWE to FIND OUT IF VINCE REALLY DIED!
Trips revealed the following on a 2008 episode of the Opie and Anthony show:
“What kills me is, so many people called — I mean, the office the next day, people … I’m not kidding you. And he’ll probably be mad at me for saying this, but like, Trump called, and was like, ‘Did something happen to Vince?’ It’s just the magic of television, you know what I mean?”
