The WWE Universe has bought many of the storylines presented to us, including your's truly.

Yes, as a young fan, I actually thought Eugene was the nephew of Eric Bischoff. I thought Kane and The Undertaker were actually brothers. I also thought these wrestlers despised each other and were fighting for real, not for scripted entertainment's sake.

But those are different beliefs than the storylines WWE imposes. How many times have we seen a match stipulation where we are convinced changes are on the way? How many times have we seen a wrestler lose a "You're Fired" match and then come back within a calendar year?

It's not fair to fans who believe that match stipulations will actually take place, when at the end of the day, they really don't. It's an insult to the fans who spend countless hours supporting the program and helping Vince McMahon build up his global empire even more.

There are a number of match stipulations throughout the years that were supposed to bring new storylines, wrestlers, champions, rivalries, events, and much more. But for whatever reason, WWE and other wrestling promotions have decided many times that the match stipulation doesn't make sense and that it's time to go against it.

Yes, we fans have been duped more than enough times into thinking that WWE was truly going to fulfil the promises they made in matches. But those never took place. Let's take a look at the 12 biggest wrestling match stipulations that ended up being useless, time-wasting, and meant absolutely nothing.

12 12. Kane and Lita's Wedding

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via wrestlingforum.com

In one of the oddest storylines Vince McMahan and co. ever came up with, Matt Hardy and Kane faced off at SummerSlam 2004, with the winner having the honour of marrying Lita. I mean, who would even buy this stipulation?

So, of course, The Big Red Machine won, married Lita a week later on Raw, amid Hardy's interference. They got married and an awful storyline came into play where Lita was pregnant with Kane's baby. Gene Snitsky fell on her and "killed" the child inside. After that, nothing really came out of this.

Oh, except Hardy would return and have real-life drama backstage with Lita after she left him for fellow Superstar Edge.

11 11. Randy Orton Can't Face Triple H For Championship

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via pt.wikipedia.org

Randy Orton rose to the top of the WWE ladder when he turned against Triple H and Evolution, the group that made him a Superstar.

After a lengthy rivalry with The Game, Triple H won the World Heavyweight Championship from Orton at Unforgiven 2004. Later, a match stipulation came into play that if Orton lost a match to Ric Flair, he could never face The Game in a title match again if the latter held the title.

Thanks to interference, Flair would beat Orton, essentially ending their feud.

As we all know, Triple H and Orton would feud many different times over the years, but at WrestleMania XXV, The Cerebral Assassin successfully defended his WWE Championship against Orton. That's a violation of the stipulation.

10 10. Kane Loses Director of Operations Role

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via wwe.com

Kane faced off against Seth Rollins for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship at Hell in a Cell 2015, with the stipulation being that if Kane failed to take down the champion, he'd be fired as Director of Operations.

Of course, Rollins would beat Kane and the latter was "fired" from his job. The only problem? This stipulation had zero impact on the WWE and its storylines. Kane wouldn't start any other rivalries (with Rollins, The Authority) or anyone else. He's been put in random matches with no storyline here-and-there.

So basically, this match had a useless stipulation.

9 9. The Miz Gets "Banned" From Raw

The Miz (as The Calgary Kid) vs. Eugene

The Miz and John Cena began a short-lived rivalry in the summer of 2009 and on the August 3rd edition of Raw, Cena won a singles match, with the stipulation being that the guy who's "AWESOME" was banned from Raw, SummerSlam, and the Staples Center.

And then because WWE thought it was genius, they had him face off against Eugene (remember him?) in a Contract on a Pole match the following Raw, which was taking place in Calgary.

Miz came out dressed in Calgary Flames attire while wearing a mask. He won the match, revealed his true identity and was back on Raw. Something tells us this was a whole waste of time.

8 8. John Cena Gets "Fired"

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via cagesideseats.com

There was no way the top star of the WWE would get fired, so this stipulation was impossible to sell in the first place.

When Wade Barrett faced Randy Orton for the WWE Championship, Cena needed the former to win, otherwise he'd be "fired." Well, Orton beat Barrett and Cena got "fired."

With Cena being Cena, he'd return to attack each member of the Nexus, vowing to take them down, even though he "no longer" worked for the company. Barrett would re-hire him and Cena came back to be the face of WWE once again.

7 7. John Cena "Headlines" WrestleMania

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via wwe.com

The main rule for the winner of the Royal Rumble is to "headline" WrestleMania. After John Cena made a shocking return at the 2008 venue, we assumed he'd be in the main event on the "grandest stage of them all."

That's not what happened. For some reason, WWE decided it was smarter to have him challenge Randy Orton at No Way Out for the WWE Championship. Cena "won" by disqualification and Orton would defend the title at WrestleMania that year against Cena and Triple H.

So yeah, this was just a huge mess of planning the entire way. Shouldn't the winner of the Royal Rumble always headline WrestleMania? This particular year did a lot to hurt the credibility of the Royal Rumble match.

6 6. King of the Ring

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via wrestlingnews.co

The King of the Ring tournament has had an impact in a similar way to the Royal Rumble. That is, some Superstars use it as a platform to launch their names to the top of the card, but such isn't life with KOTR anymore.

Stone Cold Steve Austin, Triple H, Brock Lesnar, and Kurt Angle all used KOTR victories to immediately take off as mega stars in the WWE. However, the last three winners, William Regal (2008), Sheamus (2010), and Wade Barrett (2015), didn't benefit or go anywhere with these victories.

Maybe it's time to rename it "King of Wasting Our Time?"

5 5. Stephanie McMahon and Paul Heyman Get "Fired"

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via ajleefanation.tumblr.com

There are a lot of reasons people didn't enjoy the Invasion angle, one of which is because Mr. McMahon failed to use all of his new talents properly. The Invasion angle also brought us a useless stipulation.

As part of a stipulation, Vince's daughter and Paul Heyman were fired after Team WWE defeated The Alliance (which was loaded with ECW and WCW stars). The only problem?

Heyman and Stephane were brought back on television shortly after. In fact, both of them were on-screen General Managers of SmackDown at one point, thereby giving us another interesting storyline that ended up meaning nothing.

4 4. Ric Flair's Last Match at WrestleMania XXIV

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via reddit.com

As The Nature Boy neared the end of his career, he was put in a match against Shawn Michaels, with Flair being forced to retire if he lost their showdown at WrestleMania XXIV.

In a very entertaining match with an epic finish that basically had Flair asking The Heartbreak Kid to finish him off before being hit with Sweet Chin Music, the crowd gave The Nature Boy an incredible standing ovation.

The next night on Raw, WWE Superstars gathered to say good-bye to an illustrious career. But of course, Flair would end up fighting in TNA for a while, so the WrestleMania storyline meant nothing for the general wrestling audience.

3 3. Shane McMahon Loses to The Undertaker

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via forbes.com

While WrestleMania 32 was a disappointment to say the least, Shane McMahon's 20-foot jump off the top of the cell against The Undertaker gave us fans a breathless moment that we won't forget any time soon.

However, we can look back now and call that match a disappointment. In case you just started watching WWE again, if Shane O'Mac took down The Phenom, he would have taken control of Raw from Vince, Stephanie, and Triple H. If Undertaker lost, he wouldn't be able to fight at WrestleMania ever again.

The Undertaker won predictably and for (at least) the following four weeks on Raw, Vince allowed his son to take control of the company while Triple H and the other McMahons weren't on the show.

We'll see where this angle winds up, but right now it appears as though the WrestleMania build-up between these two meant nothing afterall.

2 2. Randy Savage "Loses" Career at WrestleMania VII

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via fishbulbsuplex.tumblr.com

Though WrestleMania VII didn't have one of the better venues, Randy Savage and The Ultimate Warrior's epic "Retirement" match had everything fans could have asked for, except, well, the storyline not making sense.

Nobody is going to complain about the fact that Savage returned. After all, The Macho Man was the biggest star in the industry not named Hulk Hogan. But Savage would lose and was forced to retire, only he'd return shortly after as an announcer and would still fight a number of matches for WWE.

A number of years later, he'd join WCW, but not before a few more matches in WWE, even though the WrestleMania VII storyline suggested that wasn't going to happen anymore.

1 1. The Authority Loses at Survivor Series 2014

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via wwe.com

On the bright side of Survivor Series 2014, the Five-on-Five Tag Team match that featured Team Cena against Team Authority was one of the best in recent memory. It was also the debut of Sting, the long-time WCW legend who had never appeared on WWE programming before.

So here's the stipulation: If Cena's team (him, Dolph Ziggler, Big Show, Erick Rowan, and Ryback) lost to Team Authority, all five of them would be fired. If Cena's team won, The Authority would be removed from power.

As Triple H interfered to help The Authority win, Sting came out, attacked him and helped Team Cena win the match. But as we all know, The Authority were back in power soon after.

Though many people (myself included) are still enjoying Triple H and Stephanie McMahon running the show, a lot of fans think it's dried up and needs to end. You have to feel sorry for those ones who were SURE it was over after Survivor Series 2014.

But we were all duped big time.