Name the storylines

[Stopspot]

Saw this on another forum and figured that we could start this discussion over here as well.

What feuds going on right now on WWE main roster programming have actual backstory to them? A storyline structure for the talent to fall back on and create material off of.

The ones I can come up with right now are the following:
Cena vs Ryback (Ryback feeling betrayed by Cena for Cena not helping him against the shield even though Ryback helped Cena plenty of times).
The weak link (Bryan feeling like the weak link of team hell no after having eaten a series of pinfalls that eroded his confidence and creating a need to prove himself)
The secret admirer (yeah, a divas feud actually has some backstory going into it).

Who can you come up with were the ones involved have emotionally connectable backstories for the fans to care about?

 

[Rysenberg]

I'll post each feud that's going on and include my thoughts on whether it actually has that backbone or story you're talking about:

- Fandango vs. Wade Barrett vs. The Miz

Um, how did this start again? I think it was indolently put together after a tag team match where Fandango turned on his teammate so he could dance at ringside. Then some Miz TV segment... and the worst of all, a 2 second match where Miz was the special ref. Did anything memorable happen in this feud? nope.

- Ryback vs. John Cena

Ryback complained for 7 minutes about how John Cena didn't help him when he got his ass handed to him by The Shield. Instead of having his actions match his monstrous appearance, Ryback has been reluctant to go right at John and be the intimidating monster that everyone says he is. He has been running away far too much and hasn't made a single impact. It doesn't help that he lost 6 PPV matches in a row before getting a random title shot.

- Ziggler vs. Del Rio

Well, Dolph hasn't even been on any of the shows since his concussion. Instead of working around it and offering something interesting to build up to Dolph's appearance, they gave us an overkill of Langston/Del Rio matches.

- Team Hell No vs. The Shield

The interaction between Bryan and Kane has been pretty solid. Bryan's progression as he becomes more and more intense has been one of the most enjoyable parts of the current product. Their feud with The Shield however has no depth at all. They have matches with each other every week and most of the storytelling seems to be going on between Bryan and Kane. It has been really good overall.

- Sheamus vs. Sandow

Basically a repeat of Sheamus vs. Mark Henry. You have segments where both guys take part in some cheesy competition and it ends with Sheamus being a boring douche bag. Yawn.

The rest is quite messy. Sheamus has gone from teaming with Orton against The Shield to feuding with Sandow. Can they just focus on one and make it worthwhile instead of jumping back and forth? this company obviously can't handle making things up as they go along. It just comes off as lazy and mediocre. Too much filler on the TV shows as well, and very little hype for the upcoming PPV. There's far too much emphasis on social media, which is why I skip majority of the show.

 

[Crayo]

Curtis Axel as well.

 

[Stopspot]

But what is the emotional investment in Axel? The emotional investment seems to be more on Heyman than on Axel right now. But that is solved once he ends up in a program with another wrestler. Axel is more setting up emotional investment and a backstory in my opinion than it already having some.

 

[Snowman1]

It's not a current feud, but Orton vs Big Show last month was one with some backstory to it with Big Show screwing over the random babyfaces at WM, but with that the backstory didn't help us get into the feud at all.

Where's the line between "backstory" and "backstory that's actually interesting?" inb4somethingthatdoesn'tinvolvebigshow

 

[Lockard 23]

Those five-point previews for Raw every week pretty much sum up the only things interesting in the company, story line wise.