Voodoo's Reflections: The 15 Best Storyline Payoffs in History (No. 10-6)

Welcome to today's edition of the best storyline payoffs in wrestling history. Today, we'll be counting down from No. 10 to No. 6 (if you missed the first edition to this series, click the link if you want to catch up).

Before we get started, I want to address an issue that might come up: today's installment deals with a controversial performer whose outside actions have tainted his legacy in professional wrestling; in case you haven't figured it out, I'm talking about Chris Benoit.

I would like to make something clear at this time: I do not in any way endorse the 2007 actions of Chris Benoit.

This article series is meant to celebrate great moments in the history of wrestling, and only wrestling, and as such I am separating the heinous actions of the man from the persona who won the World Title in 2004.

If you cannot separate your feelings between Benoit the performer and Benoit the criminal, I completely understand; I have provided an alternate payoff in the same ranking slot if you would like to skip to it.

That being said, enjoy today's celebration of some of the great angle payoffs ever!

#10A: Benoit Climbs the Mountain, Wins the World Title

Yes, I know that Chris Benoit’s legacy is not a good one. But the focus on this series is on the great payoffs in the history of pro wrestling; for the purposes of what I’m trying to do, the events of real life are not going to taint one of the all-time great storylines and subsequent payoffs submitted by one of the best in-ring performers of all-time.

If you cannot get over Benoit’s real-life actions, please feel free to move directly to the next slide, which presents an alternate payoff. For those of you who can separate Benoit’s heinous actions from his wrestling character, let’s continue:

Over the course of his career, Chris Benoit seemed constantly overlooked. In WCW he was one of the “vanilla midgets” who never got the push he deserved.

Sure, he wasn’t the biggest, the strongest, or the best talker; what he was, truly, was the consummate professional who was arguably the greatest technical wrestler in the world (and perhaps ever).

When he got to WWE, he was part of The Radicalz, a group that was made up of awesome workers from WCW who never got their just due, and now were going to take what was rightfully theirs.

The long-term success of each member of The Radicalz varied; Dean Malenko did fairly well in the lower-midcard (being an excellent Light Heavyweight champion), Perry Saturn did a few things here and there but never really caught anyone’s attention (except for the hilariously underrated, so-bad-its-good Moppy storyline), but it was the stars of Eddie Guerrero and Benoit that shone the brightest.

Both would wind up world champions, but the story how Benoit got there was the most powerful.

Throughout his early WWE career, Benoit got several opportunities to win the WWE title, but came up short every time. However, in late 2003, he started an outstanding feud with Brock Lesnar; the feud started after Benoit made Lesnar tap to the Crippler Crossface at Survivor Series, leading to Lesnar and his agent (and at the time, Smackdown GM) Paul Heyman holding a serious grudge against him.

Time and again, Lesnar and Heyman would go out of their way to screw over Benoit and his dream of becoming champion, giving him one last opportunity to do it: entering the 2004 Royal Rumble and winning it.

However, while Benoit did win entrance into the Rumble, Heyman screwed him over one more time by making him enter at the No. 1 spot. Despite this setback, Benoit became the second person to ever win the Rumble from the No. 1 position (the first, of course, being Shawn Michaels in 1995) and earning a shot at the title at WrestleMania.

While it was likely expected that Benoit would challenge Lesnar again, he became the first person to switch brands after winning the Rumble (leading to the tradition of the Rumble winner “deciding” who he would face), starting a feud with Triple H.

While Shawn Michaels, who had unfinished business with Triple H, stole Benoit’s spot in the match by superkicking Benoit and signing the World Title contract, Steve Austin (then the co-GM of Raw) added Benoit back into the match at Wrestlemania XX.

In the end, Benoit finally accomplished his dream by making Triple H tap out to the Crossface (the first time a Wrestlemania World title match had ever been won by submission) in one of the greatest matches ever.

It was, at the time, one of the all-time best feel-good moments in WWE history; Benoit had finally accomplished his dream of becoming world champion, the stellar payoff for one of the best, most emotionally-driven feuds ever.

Recent events, though, have cast a dark cloud over the historical impact of this match. However, in a vacuum, Benoit’s title win was one of the greatest payoffs in pro wrestling history.

It would rank higher, but 1) Benoit’s run at the top was not very long or that effective in the end (they could never find him a quality opponent other than HHH or HBK), and 2) there really is no way around what he did in real life.

#10B: Steve Austin Sells His Soul for the WWE Title

It was an iconic moment, the end of the Attitude Era; Stone Cold Steve Austin, shaking hands with his former arch-nemesis Vince McMahon, the title newly around his waist after an epic encounter at WrestleMania X-7.

But the thing is, the aftermath of this moment was not what WWE would have wanted, and that is why it ranks so low.

Say what you will, but Austin’s main-event run as a heel was an absolute failure. Austin tried his hardest to heel it up and get heat from the audience–including beating the hell out of his friend Jim Ross–but people never really took to Austin as a heel after he spent so much time as the everyman, antihero babyface that spat in the face of authority.

Now he was siding with Vince McMahon and being antagonistic? People weren’t buying it.

Then, of course, the Invasion happened, and suddenly Austin was a wildly over babyface once more. However, since WWE wanted Austin to keep his heat and stay a heel, he turned on the WWE and joined the Alliance; once the Invasion storyline was over, however, Austin immediately returned to being a mega-babyface and that was that.

I’ll be honest: I actually considered leaving this moment off the list entirely, but I can’t deny that the build-up to Austin’s match at WrestleMania X-7 was phenomenal, and that his match with The Rock was one of the all-time great battles in WWE history.

It’s just that what happened afterwards was such a train wreck. Had Austin gotten over as a heel champion, stayed that way for a while, and lasted longer in WWE (remember, he abruptly quit the company in mid-2002), this moment would rank much higher.

#9: Virgil Strikes Back on Ted DiBiase

Be honest: you know that, at one point, you’ve wanted to get back at your boss for treating you like crap. Everyone knows the feeling. So when Ted DiBiase kept berating his assistant/man-servant Virgil over and over again for several years, people were obviously understanding of his pain.

Virgil would be forced to carry DiBiase’s things, would take beatings from DiBiase’s opponents (while DiBiase got away unharmed), and would in general be treated like garbage by his employer.

Then, at the Royal Rumble in 1991, Virgil had enough. With the encouragement of Roddy Piper, Virgil nailed DiBiase with the Million Dollar Belt after their match against Dusty and Dustin Rhodes, leading to a monster pop from the crowd and a face turn that earned him a victory over DiBiase at WrestleMania VII.

Virgil would subsequently win the Million Dollar Belt from DiBiase at Summerslam and would get a steady push for the next year or so before essentially becoming a jobber and leaving the company a few years later.

Virgil’s moment may not have led to world titles or a long main-event run; it was, however, arguably the most satisfying moment in pro wrestling history as far as someone getting back at an abusive and arrogant boss.

Virgil’s revenge on DiBiase no doubt set the stage for future such storylines where an employer goes off on his boss (the most notable of which being Stone Cold Steve Austin’s feud with Vince McMahon), and remains one of the all-time feel-good moments in wrestling’s long history.

(in the video above, skip to around the 15:00 mark to see Virgil hitting DiBiase)

#8: Batista Turns Face on Evolution, Rises to Main Event

Over the years, wrestling fans have had vastly different opinions on Dave Batista; regardless of how you feel about him, though, his rise to the World title scene was one of the best ever. Don’t believe me? Well, let’s take a look back:

So back in early 2003, Batista joined Evolution, and despite an early injury setback he became a dominating presence in WWE. He was, big, strong, could cut capable promos, and improved in the ring on a consistent basis.

Over time, Batista’s role in the group went from straight-up enforcer to tweener; his relationship with Triple H, specifically, started becoming more and more combative as 2004 went on, with Batista teasing leaving Evolution at one point (though it turned out to be a big swerve).

As the 2005 Royal Rumble approached, Triple H and Ric Flair told Batista not to enter the match, and instead focus on helping Triple H retain his World Heavyweight Championship. Batista, against orders, entered and won the Royal Rumble; Triple H, then, tried to convince him to go to Smackdown and defeat JBL for the WWE title so that Evolution could be in control of all of WWE.

One problem though: Batista overheard some of Flair and Triple H’s scheming and, after teasing going to Smackdown, gave his Evolution stable mates the “thumbs down” and attacked them, thereby turning face and challenging Triple H for his World Heavyweight Title.

At WrestleMania 21, Batista won the championship and began a five-year run of dominance as one of WWE’s marquee guys and a perennial main eventer.

The storyline of Batista’s slow rise to the main event and eventual face turn was one of more well thought-out, well-executed storylines WWE has done in the new millennium.

In fact, I would rank the “thumbs down” and subsequent pop he gets from the crowd as one of the most satisfying moments (and one of the best face turns) in WWE history. Everything was done perfectly: the build, the teases, and the ultimate payoff.

In addition, Batista confirmed WWE’s faith in him by becoming one of the most over and most dominant champions of this generation.

Great angle, great build, great payoff. That’s how it’s done.

#7: Raw Is Jericho

“Welcome to Raw…is…Jericho!”

Throughout wrestling’s history, there have been countless performers who have debuted after a series of promotional videos; these videos, starring the soon-to-be-debuting performer, would tell us a little bit about who they were, what they wanted, and what they planned to do.

Razor Ramon and Triple H (originally Hunter Hearst Helmsley) were two prominent examples; when we saw their videos, we knew exactly what we were getting.

However, Chris Jericho changed all that.

When a series of short videos hyping the “countdown to the millennium” started appearing in 1999, no one knew exactly what was going on. It was a just a clock, and it was counting down until…something was going to happen.

More than likely it was going to be a debut of a new wrestler, but who? And what was going to happen? As the time went on (and the clock ticked down) anticipation built and built.

Then, finally, on Aug. 9, 1999, the clock reached zero. The WWE had reached the new millennium, and the world of professional wrestling suddenly had a serious Y2J problem. The clock ticked away during a promo by The Rock (now that’s having nerve, interrupting The Rock of all people), leading to the debut of former WCW star Chris Jericho.

People who had watched WCW undoubtedly knew who Chris Jericho was; like Benoit and his fellow Radicalz, Jericho was another one of the “vanilla midgets” who apparently couldn’t draw. So, Jericho left WCW and made an enormous splash, from the jump, in WCW’s main competition.

Not only was Jericho’s debut completely and inarguably phenomenal (really, it takes a special talent to interrupt The Rock during a promo and subsequently not only completely own him on the mic but also get cheered while doing it), but it was a sign of things to come.

Here was a guy that WCW refused to push, despite being all kinds of awesome, that was going to become a big star in WWE (which he did). Unlike WCW, where guys like Hogan and Nash were always going to be in the top spot, WWE was going to give fresh, exciting guys like Jericho the chance to succeed.

Jericho’s move to WWE was yet another nail in the coffin of WCW, because WWE showed that they were not only going to push new talent, but they were going to do it in a spectacular way. Steve Austin went from a Hollywood Blond to a beloved anti-hero redneck; Chris Jericho was going to be a straight-up rock star.

Jericho’s debut was not the tipping point in the Monday Night Wars (I’ll get to that one, don’t worry), but it was a further symptom of what ailed WCW, and why they would be out of business within two years.

And seriously…that hair rocks my world.

#6: The Undertaker Retires Shawn Michaels

All good things must eventually come to an end. And so begins the story of the retirement of The Heartbreak Kid, Shawn Michaels.

HBK’s retirement was one of the most emotional moments in pro wrestling’s history.

It was the official goodbye to arguably the greatest all-around performer in the history of the business; while Ric Flair’s retirement has been tainted by him tarnishing his legacy by coming out of retirement and performing again (mostly badly), HBK has mostly stayed away, save for a few angles here and there.

Not only that, but it was a fitting end to one of the great feuds in WWE history.

Back in 2009, Shawn Michaels entered into a feud with The Undertaker; HBK, the representative of the light, was sure that he could beat The Undertaker, the representative of darkness.

It wasn’t the most original idea, but it was the kind of feud that pro wrestling is built on: one guy thinks he can beat the other guy, and they fight it out to see who is better. Solid storytelling, but not spectacular.

What was spectacular, though, was the way these two outstanding performers went about telling this story. They took the angle and ran with it, and at WrestleMania XXV put on one of the greatest matches in the history of professional wrestling (how it didn’t get a 5-star rating from Dave Meltzer is beyond me).

In the end, Michaels couldn’t break the streak; over the next year, Michaels did some soul searching and decided that there was nothing left for him to do as a wrestler other than beat The Undertaker at WrestleMania. Therefore, at WrestleMania XXVI, HBK put his career on the line against The Streak. Michaels lost.

His ensuing farewell, both at WrestleMania and the next night on Raw, was one of the most emotional moments in pro wrestling history.

On Raw, Michaels bared his soul to the world and said goodbye to the sport that made him famous (I loved how he brought back his “The Heartbreak Kid Shawn Michaels has left the building” line one more time). It was heart wrenching, heartfelt, and overall a wonderful conclusion to a great feud.

Of all of the payoffs on this list, this one was probably the toughest call as far as where it should go. After much deliberation, I placed it here at No. 6, just outside the top 5 all-time payoffs.

The reason I placed HBK’s retirement angle into the No. 6 spot instead of the top 5 is because, simply, the top 5 payoffs as they stand were all game-changers, moments that altered the history of pro wrestling to some degree; without each of the top five, pro wrestling might not be where it is today.

As much as HBK’s retirement was a great moment (and let’s face it, being the sixth-greatest ending to a feud ever isn’t too shabby), it was not a game-changer to the same degree as the ones that rank above it (and for all of you HBK fans, don’t worry – he’s making an appearance in the top 5).

Conclusion to Part II/Preview

So that's it for Part II. Stay tuned for the final installment, where I'll count down all the way to the greatest payoff in wrestling history.

Until next time, leave some feedback!