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10 Worst WWE Storyline Payoffs

They went in what direction?!

Happy fourteen year anniversary of Hornswoggle being revealed as the illegitimate son of Vince McMahon!

A thrown-together storyline that took place in the summer of 2007 (replacing the 'who killed Mr. McMahon?' one that was nixed in the aftermath of the Benoit family tragedy), the quest to find out which WWE superstar was secretly Vince's kid made for some entertaining television that (we hoped) would have a gripping outcome. 

By all accounts Ken Kennedy was the original choice for the role, but blew it when he was suspended following being named in the Signature Pharmacy scandal and WWE went with Hornswoggle as the punchline instead. 

All that really resulted in was some bad television and so-so matches between Finlay and JBL. Had the payoff been handled differently, it could have been the centrepiece of WWE TV and the thing to propel a performer to main event stardom. 

It was a dour end to a promising storyline, something that has sadly been a recurring theme in WWE throughout the years. 

10. Let's Give Them A Hand

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Mark Henry's descent into a tawdry addiction may have given him the fantastic moniker 'Sexual Chocolate' but, on the whole, the entire thing was risible Attitude Era shock TV that has aged about as well as your average banana. 

In late 1999, The World's Strongest Man confessed that he was a sex addict, confiding in his therapist (and millions watching on television) that he had first lost his virginity to his sister when he was eight years old, among other salacious gems. 

Thankfully everyone's favourite neighbourhood pimp The Godfather was on hand to cure him of his illness and, in the aftermath, Henry became a babyface. 

The saga took another interesting turn when the former European Champion began an on-screen romance with septuagenarian Mae Young. This oddest of odd couples then announced that they were, against all odds and science, expecting a child. 

Despite being with child, the unbreakable Mae was still out there taking a beating every week (including an Angle Slam from Kurt Angle). After receiving first a clothesline from Hardcore Holly and then a splash from Viscera, Young was taken away by ambulance and, the next week on Raw, went into 'labour'. 

And then she gave birth to a rubber hand covered in pink goo. 

Speaking on the Edge & Christian Pod of Awesomeness in 2018, former WWE writer Tommy Blacha (who played the unfortunate EMT in the skit) said that there was no real idea behind the ending of the angle, other than Vince McMahon decided one day that he wanted it to stop immediately and this is what they came up with. 

Bruce Prichard has also discussed in the past how Vince thought Mae giving birth to a hand was absolutely hilarious because 'it's a hand', without elaborating further as to why that is so funny. 

I'm telling you, the WWE CEO could keep a team of the best psychologists in the world busy for a decade and I still don't think they'd even begin to scratch the surface...

WWE did call back the angle in 2012 at Raw 1,000 when Mae Young introduced her 'son', which was a young man wearing a giant hand costume. 

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Lewis Howse

Written by Lewis Howse

Features journalist for Cultaholic.com and script writer for the Cultaholic YouTube Channel.