History BLAM / ProfessionalWrestling

* During Wrestling/{{WCW}}'s Capital Combat in 1990, Wrestling/{{Sting}} was trapped in a cage with metal bars at ringside by the Four Horsemen. Later on, Franchise/{{RoboCop}}--yes, ''that'' [=RoboCop=]--came out and bent the bars on the cage, allowing Sting to escape.[[note]]If you're wondering why that cage was at ringside to begin with it's because the previous segment was a U.S. Tag Title match between Wrestlling/TheMidnightExpress and the team of Wrestling/BrianPillman and Tom Zenk, with Express manager Wrestling/JimCornette locked in the cage. The Express still won, clean[[/note]] There was never any mention of this again and [=RoboCop=] left just as quickly has he had arrived. This was actually intentional as the PPV was a crossover promotion with Film/RoboCop2, the show was even subtitled "Return of [=RoboCop=]".

* During Wrestling/{{WCW}}'s Capital Combat in 1990, Wrestling/{{Sting}} was trapped in a cage with metal bars at ringside by the Four Horsemen. Later on, Franchise/{{RoboCop}}--yes, ''that'' [=RoboCop=]--came out and bent the bars on the cage, allowing Sting to escape. There was never any mention of this again and [=RoboCop=] left just as quickly has he had arrived.

** That generally happens in a Rumble where there are early entrants who dominate most of the match like that, as a way to let them rest. In the 2001 Rumble, Wrestling/{{Kane}} entered at seven and was the last man over, at one point eliminating the entire ring single-handedly. So the next person to come out was old-timer Wrestling/HonkyTonkMan, who did something similar: had the audience participate in singing his theme song. After two minutes (exactly!) Kane beat him with his own guitar and eliminated him. The next entrant was [[Wrestling/DwayneJohnson The Rock]], who stayed for the rest of the Rumble almost, so it was definately just to let Kane rest before having an epic battle with Rocky. Still BLAM.

* On the 4/2/2010 edition of Smackdown, Wrestling/{{Kane}} decided that he was bored and would take on all 8 of the Season 1 NXT rookies by himself in an elimination match. Kane would prove dominant and score a few eliminations, until the remaning rookies got together and ganged up on Kane and beat him down handily, even though they ended up getting disqualified for ignoring the ref's 5 count. Aside from Kane making a couple appearances on NXT, this was never mentioned again. However, this would not be the last time that the [[Wrestling/TheNexus NXT rookies teamed up]] (well it sort of was, for [[Wrestling/BryanDanielson one of them]] -- who would ironically [[Wrestling/TeamHellNo team with Kane himself in the future]]), so it may have been subtle {{Foreshadowing}}.

* Many of these examples (along with some angles that were CutShort) were parodied in the [=WrestleCrap=] Headlie [[http://wrestlecrap.com/headlies/headlies-wwe-observes-memorial-day-by-remembering-forgotten-angles/ WWE Observes Memorial Day By Remembering Forgotten Angles]].

** The point was to (somewhat redundantly) make clear that Orton was out of control and would RKO literally ''anyone'' who got in the ring with him (despite being a face by this point!) for no reason. Wrestling/{{Edge}} at least made reference to the incident elliptically, saying that he was sick of Orton RKO'ing random people all the time.

* Another one happened during Raw Roulette, where when he was spinning the wheel, Wrestling/{{Edge}} starting fistpumping and singing Dead or Alive's Right Round with Wrestling/JillianHall, only to stop and give her a weird look.

* Wrestling/{{WCW}}'s entire "Blood Runs Cold" angle was rather infamous for being a BLAM that was several months long, and ate up time on several of their shows. At a time when the entire WCW is gearing up for war with [[Wrestling/NewWorldOrder the nWo]], and every storyline seemed to gradually weave its way into that, there was always one segment each night that involved a bunch of ''Franchise/MortalKombat'' knock-offs fighting over a helmet for some reason. Once the whole thing was over, Wrestling/{{Glacier}} and Wrath disappeared for months, Ernest Miller was demoted to a {{jobber}}, and Mortis got mocked by Wrestling/{{Raven}}, eventually lost his mask, and became Wrestling/{{Kanyon}}. Glad to find out that this storyline, which was hyped for months and played out (badly) over several more months, was so damn important, guys.
** WCW was prone to creating unintentional BLAMs. They did not allow their commentators to view the backstage segments so that the commentary would be more spontaneous... unfortunately they just looked clueless more often. One notorious example was a segment where the [=nWo=] beat Wrestling/RicFlair up in some random farm field. Flair later hitchhiked to the arena in a truck filled with turnips. When he finally made it to the arena, dirty and stumbling around dazed holding an axehandle, the commentators - who didn't see the beating or hitchhiking scenes - wondered if he was drunk, rendering the whole thing a BLAM.
*** Not to mention, [[Wrestling/{{Goldust}} Dustin Rhodes is Seven]]... well, for a few vignettes anyway. The Standards and Practices department at Turner hated the character and wanted him gone, mostly because WCW made Seven look like a child abductor/molester.[[note]]The character's appearance was based on the title character from the 1995 movie ''Film/{{Powder}}'', whose director was found guilty of child molestation.[[/note]] Just before Rhodes made his debut as Seven, Wrestling/VinceRusso was hired to be the head writer of WCW, and he debuted the character with a spooky Undertaker-like entrance - then had Rhodes [[WhoWritesThisCrap rail against that gimmick]] ''and'' his Goldust gimmick in one of Russo's many WorkedShoot promos to bury the gimmick once and for all.

* On the December 21st 2009 edition of ''Raw'', WWE apparently decided it was time for them to finally make a joke about Tiger Woods and his crumbling personal life. Unfortunately, they chose the worst way to do it: during the show's opening segment, while the guest host was cutting a promo, they had someone in a tiger mascot costume run out of the crowd with a blond woman chasing after him with a golf club (the two were also in a backstage skit an hour or so later). No reason was given for this, the announcers didn't really make a point of mentioning it, and felt so out of place with the rest of the show that it was pretty much a BLAM no matter how you look at it.

* In 1990, [[Wrestling/{{WWE}} the WWF]] was hyping a giant egg, whose contents would be revealed at ''Wrestling/SurvivorSeries''. The egg's hatching turned out to be a [[StealthPun rotten]] moment, as what emerged was a huge turkey-like thing called Wrestling/TheGobbledyGooker (played by Wrestling/EddieGuerrero's older brother Hector in a hideous suit). Website/{{WrestleCrap}} [[http://www.wrestlecrap.com/gooker.html has more]]. Also, they name their yearly people's choice award for wrestling's worst thing, The Gooker.
** The Gooker has been referenced since then, but it's usually been to reference just how [[Horrible/ProfessionalWrestling horrible]] the idea was.

* Prior to the main event of the August 30, 2016 episode of Smackdown, a {{jobber}} called Gary "The Milkman" Millman [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zqk6GHeV0zI appeared randomly in the ring and cut a promo refusing to leave until someone came down to face him]]. He then proceeded to strip down to his underwear (he was wearing underpant "tighty-whitey” briefs instead of wrestling trunks). Wrestling/{{Kane}} then came down, chokeslammed him, and left. It had no bearing whatsoever on the rest of the show, was not referenced again during the main event, and left both the announcers and the audience confused about what they had just witnessed.

** Probably the only thing ever remotely resembling sense in this is that thing was a turkey, when you recall that ''Survivor Series'' used to be held on Thanksgiving Day. The most hilarious aspect of this episode was that for weeks, both wrestling commentators and fans were wildly speculating on what could possibly be inside the egg. Some even wondered if a new wrestler was about to make his debut. I mean...IT'S AN EGG! Did they actually think that ''anything'' other than a giant bird (or maybe a dinosaur) was going to emerge from it?

** Probably the only thing ever remotely resembling sense in this is that thing was a turkey, when you recall that ''Survivor Series'' used to be held on Thanksgiving Day. The most hilarious aspect of this episode was that for weeks, both wrestling commentators and fans were wildly speculating on what could possibly be inside the egg. [[WhatAnIdiot Some even wondered if a new wrestler was about to make his debut.]] I mean...IT'S AN EGG! Did they actually think that ''anything'' other than a giant bird (or maybe a dinosaur) was going to emerge from it?

* Let's talk about Creator/JayLeno for a minute. After the bizarre match in which Jay Leno and Wrestling/DiamondDallasPaige fought Hollywood Hogan and Eric Bischoff - yes, that actually happened, but we're not here to talk about that - the WCW wanted more from Leno. Leno began insulting Bret Hart on ''Series/TheTonightShowWithJayLeno'' which was to lead up to Bret Hart's return to WCW where he challenges Kevin Nash (who was WCW World Heavyweight Champion at that time) to the World Championship. Tragedy, however, occurred the weekend before Bret Hart (and Nash supposedly) was to appear on ''The Tonight Show''. Bret's brother, Owen Hart, died during a mishap at a WWF match. Bret Hart postponed returning to WCW for four more months, Leno offered his condolences on his show, and the Leno-Hart feud was never brought up again.

* Many of these examples (along with some forgotten angles) were parodied in the [=WrestleCrap=] Headlie [[http://wrestlecrap.com/headlies/headlies-wwe-observes-memorial-day-by-remembering-forgotten-angles/ WWE Observes Memorial Day By Remembering Forgotten Angles]].

* The way WWE books the Cruiserweight division has turned the whole division into this - the usual show with the usual cast of characters stops, the ropes turn purple, a bunch of other guys who never interact with the rest of the roster come into the ring and have a match, the match ends, and everything goes back to normal afterwards. Back at the turn of the century, the Light Heavyweight division was run the same way, with the light heavyweights rarely interacting with the rest of the roster.

* Prior to the main event of the August 30, 2016 episode of Smackdown, a {{jobber}} called Gary "The Milkman" Millman [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zqk6GHeV0zI appeared randomly in the ring and cut a promo refusing to leave until someone came down to face him]]. He then proceeded to strip down to his underwear (he was wearing regular "tighty-whitey” briefs instead of wrestling trunks). Wrestling/{{Kane}} then came down, chokeslammed him, and left. It had no bearing whatsoever on the rest of the show, was not referenced again during the main event, and left both the announcers and the audience confused about what they had just witnessed.

* Prior to the main event of the August 30, 2016 episode of Smackdown, a {{jobber}} called Gary "The Milkman" Millman [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zqk6GHeV0zI appeared randomly in the ring and cut a promo refusing to leave until someone came down to face him]]. He then proceeded to strip down to his underwear (he was wearing regular "tighty-whiteys” instead of wrestling trunks). Wrestling/{{Kane}} then came down, chokeslammed him, and left. It had no bearing whatsoever on the rest of the show, was not referenced again during the main event, and left both the announcers and the audience confused about what they had just witnessed.