It’s time to wrap up this Miz vs. Dexter Lumis storyline

Since taking over WWE creative over the summer, Triple H has markedly improved the promotion’s on-screen product. However, his booking isn’t without its flaws, particularly when it comes to maintaining a storyline’s momentum. This problem has presented itself in the program between The Miz and Dexter Lumis.

For weeks, fans have watched Lumis — who returned to the company in August — terrorize the Miz, kidnapping the former WWE Champion at every opportunity and even invading the man’s home when he wasn’t there.

After weeks of this repetition, we finally learned the reason behind Lumis’ dogged pursuit of Miz via his quasi-but-not-really-father-in-law, Johnny Gargano. So, this should signal the end of this feud, right?

Has the Miz/Dexter Lumis story dragged on for too long?

Now that fans have learned through Gargano’s figurative and literal whistleblowing that Miz actually paid Lumis to stalk him in order to boost his reputation as a celebrity, there isn’t much left to do with this story other than having Miz and Lumis wrestle each other.

WWE has understandably held off on this match, as fans would probably lose interest in this feud the second these two mediocre workers (and that’s putting it kindly) locked up. Plus, it lines up with WWE’s renewed attempt at telling longer stories without exhausting fans with endless rematches. It even baited and switched on an advertised Miz vs. Lumis match (it turned into an angle where Miz hit

the floor

Lumis with a steel chair) to stretch this out for a few more weeks.

But there’s only so far you can extend things in wrestling without a match, and the elasticity has just about run out, even with Gargano’s involvement as Lumis’ unofficial mouthpiece.

Fortunately, it looks like Miz vs. Lumis will finally happen, presumably at Survivor Series: WarGames. The bout carries the same stipulations as the one that didn’t happen: Lumis gets the rest of the money Miz owes him and a WWE contract if he wins. Sure, Triple H and company could book another plot contrivance to delay this again, but that would be a bridge too far for a story that has trudged along for quite a bit without producing a single match.

Miz and Lumis’ match won’t likely make many fans’ Match of the Year lists — if the match is merely good, it will have exceeded most people’s expectations — but in order to justify the feud’s lengthy existence, it needs to happen in order to close things out.

Miz and Lumis (and Gargano) have gotten some fun moments out of this story, but in the end, what’s the point of booking all those non-wrestling segments on your wrestling show if no one is gonna wrestle?