I really think one of the biggest reason for the lack of emphasis on undercard feuds is the commentary team. When Sheamus and Christian are having a match on Raw, do the team actual tell the story of the build? Do they tell the story of the match? No, they spend the whole match bickering with one another until the go home sequence.

 

Fantastic point, plus all the plugging they are made to do.

I just remembered, Rey vs Punk was an awesome and intense mid card feud.

I just remembered, Rey vs Punk was an awesome and intense mid card feud.

That is definitely a good call. Great feud. I'm still disappointed that they didn't have a chance to have a Wrestlemania match that went long enough to be memorable.

The mania match went like five minutes, but I remember the Extreme Rules match where Punk lost his hair being really great. I'll have to check it out again on the network.

Benoit/sullivan feud was the most intense as it played out in real life as well, which at the time was more interesting than the in ring one. Their GAB 96 match was an awesome, stiff wild brawl.

Benoit/Sullivan was all well and good except for Sullivan being miles away from any damage to himself while kicking the crap out of Benoit. Benoit is taking all the stiff bumps while Sullivan will use any wrestler trick in the book to not hit his head on anything hard.

I think in hindsight we should be able to recognize that Kevin Sullivan was being SMART.

I think in hindsight we should be able to recognize that Kevin Sullivan was being SMART.

Agreed 100%.

Yeah, given Benoit's brain injuries and all that, probably best to protect the ol' noodle instead of make it look good.

The commentary point is the biggest part, in my opinion. Think about how mid 90s Vince McMahon, or Paul Heyman, or Tony Schiavone would be driving home the story of the Sheamus/Christian stuff. Instead it's Michael Cole attempting to do 20 different jobs at the same time, an uninterested Lawler who likely has no idea that the story exists, and JBL tossing out jokes, appeasing Vince, and sometimes even making up backstory that the wrestlers don't know about and aren't trying to sell. I can't blame Cole, because he's just doing what the company wants their lead announcer to do at this point, but there is absolutely no reason to be playing hype man for anything other than the match in the ring. You can still constantly hype the main event between matches, but you wouldn't have to be so desperate to remind the crowd to stick around if you gave them a reason to want to watch the show as it's happening.