WWE's Failure to Capitalize on Goldust-Stardust Feud Is a Mistake

A brother turned on a brother, and WWE isn't doing anything about it. The heat WWE generated for the Goldust and Stardust rivalry has dissipated. 

The WrestleMania 31 card is all but set after Monday's Raw, with Undertaker accepting Bray Wyatt's challenge and John Cena using heel-like techniques to get Rusev to agree to a match. The Goldust vs. Stardust showdown that the company moved toward at Fastlane is nowhere to be seen.

WWE invested airtime earlier in the year to highlight the bad blood between these two men. It has loaded a cannon and then let it sit, wasting a story with potential.

The writing team has a bad habit of leaving stories unfinished and loose ends just left out, forgotten. You don't have to go far back on the company's timeline to find examples of this. Adam Rose attacked The Bunny, and it led to nothing. Nikki Bella forced Brie Bella to be her slave for a month, but that narrative simply faded as the sisters made up with no explanation.

Add Goldust's animosity with Stardust to that list.

Credit: WWE.com

At Fastlane, the brothers collided in what felt like the first chapter in a saga of family infighting. The Bizarre One hesitated to strike Stardust at full force but eventually won the bout in fluky fashion. A roll-up netted him a victory but set Stardust off.

The man formerly known as Cody Rhodes berated his father backstage and smashed Goldust's head against sound equipment.  

The next night, Goldust distracted his own flesh and blood during a match with Jack Swagger. The lack of focus cost Stardust a win.

It was then Stardust's turn to strike. Just after Goldust scored a pinfall victory over Adam Rose on that week's SmackDown, Stardust attacked him while dressed in a sock monkey costume.

That strange image moved the story along, but the narrative's pace went from brisk to glacial.

After this attack on SmackDown, Stardust and Goldust have only battled at house shows. On TV, though, they haven't crossed paths. Goldust hasn't wrestled on Raw or SmackDown since—and it wasn't as if Stardust whipped him so badly that he needed to sell an injury.

Randy Orton just throttled Seth Rollins far worse, and there's no way WWE goes two weeks without trotting out Mr. Money in the Bank.

Stardust, meanwhile, hasn't bragged about laying out his brother and hasn't dared Goldust to come get his revenge.

Instead, the face-painted predator has been busy modeling a stolen Intercontinental Championship. He finds himself in the crowded, cartoony IC title picture. He is among the many men who have snatched Bad News Barrett's belt and walked around claiming it to be theirs. 

That has left the audience with a fistful of questions. Is Stardust vs. Goldust over or just postponed? Is WWE just neglecting this feud and having Stardust meander into the IC title hunt?

Houston Wrestling Radio wasn't happy with the idea, and PWMania's Jason Solomon expressed confusion about the situation via Twitter:

If Stardust joins the IC title Ladder match, all that buildup before Fastlane and the assaults that followed would go to waste. Stardust will have jumped from one story arc to another for no obvious reason.

If he doesn't and the expected clash at WrestleMania still goes down as previously thought, it will be without the benefit of consistent hype. It's been two weeks now since WWE tended to that rivalry. 

This was the year to go with this match. Goldust will turn 46 in April. Before he wraps up his career, he could have aided his brother's.

Their story centered on Goldust's attempt to get Stardust to start being Cody again. The younger Rhodes, though, was so caught up in his persona that reality and fantasy had bled into each other. He could have collided with his brother in a hard-fought match and realized the error of his ways.

Credit: WWE.com

Stardust's wiping off his face paint and embracing his brother would have made for a tremendous WrestleMania moment. It would have also served as a fitting, powerful sendoff for Goldust. 

Now fans will either miss out on this match or get it without WWE's paying it sufficient attention.

Either way, it's a missed opportunity. WWE began building what appeared to be a memorable work of art but has simply left it half-constructed.