10 Best One-Night WWE Storylines

While WWE fans love a long storyline, sometimes there is an episode of WWE television or a pay-per-view that revolves around one particular storyline thread or show-long angle that is as good as anything that utilises a longer build. 

These are often part of the bigger picture, but the way that they unfold over the course of a single event helps them stand out as their own thing. 

These are the 10 Best One-Night WWE Storylines. 

10. Triple H at No Mercy 2007

WWE were in a bind heading into No Mercy 2007, as WWE Champion John Cena got injured on Raw six days prior. 

With Big Match John on the shelf for the foreseeable future, a new champion needed to be crowned and where better to do that then on pay-per-view? Vince McMahon handed the title to Cena’s planned opponent Randy Orton to kick the show off, only for Triple H to goad The Viper into a title match which Orton then lost. 

However, The Game was originally scheduled to take on Umaga, so McMahon kept that match on the card and made it a title affair to boot. Triple H managed to see off The Samoan Bulldozer, but McMahon informed him (while he was getting his ribs taped up in the trainer’s room) that fans were also promised a Last Man Standing match on the show and that The King of Kings would have to defend the title once more against Orton (who was invoking his automatic rematch clause) in the stipulation bout. 

Randy won that one, bringing to a close a novel show that saw three title matches and the belt go from Orton to Triple H and back to Orton again.

9. Beat The Clock Challenge - December 27, 2004 episode of Raw

Ahead of the 2005 New Year’s Revolution pay-per-view, Raw General Manager Eric Bischoff had a surprise for those scheduled to clash in the Elimination Chamber match over the vacant World Heavyweight Championship. 

On the December 27, 2004, edition of Raw, Bischoff announced a show-long ‘Beat the Clock Challenge’, which would see all six combatants compete against surprise opponents. 

The caveats were that whoever won their match the fastest would become the last entrant into the Chamber, while anyone who lost their match would be out of the Chamber match and replaced by the person who beat them. 

The stakes were certainly high and it made for good drama, with Randy Orton setting the pace, before Chris Benoit got the next best time, which was then obliterated by Batista. 

The Animal setting the pace caused some dissension with Triple H, with The Game unable to beat Shelton Benjamin in time, whilst coming perilously close to losing his spot. 

To cap things off, Bischoff brought out the returning Shawn Michaels at the end of the show, announcing him as the special guest referee for the Chamber match.

8. Vince McMahon Appreciation Night - June 11, 2007 episode of Raw

The June 11, 2007, edition of Raw was a three-hour affair that featured not only that year’s Draft and participation from Raw, SmackDown and ECW wrestlers, but also Vince McMahon Appreciation Night. 

The recurring theme of the night was that McMahon was a very, very bad person with few, if any, redeeming qualities. After McMahon read a statement claiming he had all his mental faculties at the beginning of the show, people from Vince’s present and past made intermittent appearances to mostly dunk on his character. 

This led to McMahon himself coming out a the end of the night, though he looked confused, said nothing and walked backstage, before heading to the car park and getting into his limo, which promptly blew up.

This was supposed to lead to a summer-long ‘Who Killed Vince?’ storyline but the double-murder suicide carried out by Chris Benoit only a few days later led to the programme being scrapped. 

7. Raw is ECW - February 24, 1997 episode of Raw

With most of the WWE roster touring Germany at the time, Monday Night Raw got Extreme as the ragtag crew from Paul Heyman’s Philadelphia-based promotion accepted Jerry Lawler’s challenge and showed up on the February 24, 1997, episode of the show. 

As well as matches between ECW stars, you had moments like The Eliminators wiping out a ring boy, Sabu diving off the big ‘R’ in the entranceway and the night-long war or words between Heyman and Jerry Lawler on commentary. 

ECW stars had shown up on WWE television before and would do so again for a short time after, but this was the one night where they really made their presence felt in the absence of WWE’s biggest stars. 

Yes, you still had to put up with stuff like The Godwinns vs. The New Blackjacks and an arm-wrestling match between Sunny and Marlena, but the ECW segments were exciting and added an air of unpredictability.

6. Steve Austin, Shawn Michaels & The Hart Foundation - April 21, 1997 episode of Raw

The April 21, 1997, episode of Raw was all about the interaction between Steve Austin and Bret Hart, with Shawn Michaels and the rest of the Hart Foundation thrown in for good measure. 

It started with Stone Cold challenging The Hitman to a Street Fight (which Bret accepted), though Austin seemingly couldn’t wait and was soon shown trying to break down The Hart Foundation’s dressing room door. 

The Street Fight turned out to be all a ruse, giving Bret, Owen, and Davey Boy the opportunity to lay in a beating, though Michaels soon popped up from the crowd to take out the tag champs. 

That gave Austin the chance to destroy Bret’s knee, which prompted Gorilla Monsoon to throw the Texan out of the building. The Texas Rattlesnake returned in hour two, emerging from the ambulance Bret was loaded into and laying a further beating on The Excellence of Execution, before being chased off by The Rocket and the Bulldog. 

Even that wasn’t the end of it, as Austin came back again for a closing interview with McMahon, that devolved once again into a brawl involving Owen, Smith and Michaels and a returning Brian Pillman, who revealed himself as the newest member of the Hart Foundation.

5. The Trial of Eric Bischoff - December 5, 2005 episode of Raw

As great as Eric Bischoff was in his role as Raw General Manager, as 2005 came to a close there was a strong sense that his heel authority figure schtick had become played-out and that there really wasn’t much more he could do after three-and-a-half years on the job. 

And thus, WWE wrote him out of storylines on the December 5, 2005, episode of Raw with the Trial of Eric Bischoff. The former WCW head honcho had to plead his case in a courtroom to Judge Vince McMahon in a bid to save his skin, with Jonathan Coachman acting as defence attorney and Mick Foley heading up the prosecution. 

Multiple witnesses were called, including Masters, Stephanie McMahon, Tajiri, Daivari, The Boogeyman and Maria. The show kept cutting back and forth to the testimony between matches and everyone played their parts brilliantly, creating some genuinely funny moments inside the courtroom. 

Bischoff’s fate was ultimately determined in the ring at the end of the show, where he was fired by McMahon, FU’d by John Cena, and taken out of the arena in a bin lorry. 

4. Deadly Game - Survivor Series 1998

The Deadly Game tournament to crown a new WWE Champion at Survivor Series 1998 was far from perfect and the wrestling wasn’t great, but the wrestling was really beside the point on a night where you had multiple story threads converge and new storylines begin thanks to this singular, well-booked tournament. 

You had Mankind as the supposedly handpicked talent with an ‘easy’ route to the final, the ongoing war between Kane and The Undertaker, the attempts to suppress Stone Cold and prevent him from getting the gold and, finally, the big reveal that The Rock was the chosen ‘corporate’ champion all along, complete with a Montreal Screwjob recreation for the finish.

If you’re in it for the wrestling this isn’t the show for you, but as a one-night storyline with a fantastic payoff, it really is hard to find too much to fault with. 

3. Mankind wins the WWE Title - January 4, 1999 episode of Raw

He may have been screwed out of winning his first WWE Title at Survivor Series 1998, but Mankind would get his day sooner rather than later. 

The January 4, 1999, episode of Raw (which was actually filmed on December 29, 1998) was famously the scene of Mick Foley’s title triumph, but while everyone may remember the result and that pop, it’s often forgotten that Mankind’s big win was built up with other goings on throughout the night.

You had the reunion of DX, some back-and-forth between Mankind and Mr McMahon, Shane screwing Mankind over in his match with Triple H (where the winner would receive a spot in the upcoming Rumble), Mankind then threatening Shane McMahon with bodily harm and getting his match with The Rock, Commissioner Shawn Michaels getting attacked backstage and, finally, the thoroughly sports entertaining main event which saw DX scrap with The Corporation and Steve Austin return to turn the tide while receiving a glass-shattering ovation.

You can argue that these events were all continuations of other storylines – Austin vs.McMahon, Rock vs. Mankind – but everything came together wonderfully in this one episode to create a magical, night-long arc.

2. Ric Flair goes for the gold - May 19, 2003

On the May 19, 2003, episode of Raw, co-Raw General Manager Steve Austin demanded that Triple H defend his World Heavyweight Title, allowing The Game to choose his opponent so long as the person was a former world champion. 

Rather than Kane, Shawn Michaels, Chris Jericho, Booker T or Kevin Nash, Hunter chose his running buddy Ric Flair, much to the chagrin of Stone Cold. It was assumed that the Evolution members would put on a sham match, while The Cerebral Assassin openly asked The Nature Boy to take a dive in Flair Country. 

The rest of the show featured segments involving Triple H, Flair and Michaels, as Slick Ric (after a pep talk from HBK) ultimately decided that he was going to challenge for the title for real in the main event. 

The match itself was an emotional affair and they really had fans believing that Flair could pull it off and win his 17th world title, before falling victim to the Pedigree. 

1. The Old Stone Cold - July 16, 2001 episode of WWE Raw

After Vince McMahon asked Steve Austin to become the ‘old Stone Cold’ once again, the Texas Rattlesnake spent the July 16, 2001 episode of Raw drowning his sorrows at referee Tim White’s tavern, while mulling over whether he had it in him to lead WWE against the invading WCW and ECW Alliance. 

The show kept cutting back to Austin as White and McMahon tried to get through to him, but it was only after witnessing a locker room rah-rah speech capped off with Freddie Blassie standing up from his wheelchair that the WWE Champion decided enough was enough and headed to the arena. 

During the show-closing brawl, Austin showed up in his pickup truck and proceeded to stomp about 17 different mudholes in various Alliance members, almost singlehandedly evening the odds for his outnumbered comrades. 

Granted, this might not have been a great way to build up the opposition ahead of the Invasion pay-per-view, but it was a great conclusion to what had been an engrossing show-long storyline.

Austin leading WWE would last a whole six days before he sided with the Alliance.