There is some relevence, it is pretty much the same deal as with MKGold. Same story, with extra characters. Cage was ressurrected to fight for Earth, and Raiden made himself mortal so he could fight also, as he couldn't exist in the merged Earth and Outworld realms as a god. Classic Sub Zero dropped in to prove he wasn't really dead after MK1 after all, and all the other characters who weren't in MK3 but were for MKT, had some relevence as well, storyline wise.

I'd say the only ones without relevence would have been Kintaro and Goro. Although Goro could have been a lead in to MK4. The MK1 versions of Raiden and Kano, plus the MK2 Kung Lao and Jax probaly didn't have any relevence either, their endings were identical to their most modern counterparts. So unless you wanted to think they were evil clones of those characters created by Kahn to fight for him, they were there for kicks.

I would have been nice to have older versions for ALL the characters who had them, but legal issues prevented that unfortunatly, Or so I've heard anyhow.

I agree with snowcat, I think there was some relevance there. I really don't know about Kintauro and Goro. I honestly didn't like having them around a whole lot because they are kind of annoying to play as. I doubt they knew what was going to happen with MK4 when they put them in, but having Goro in MK4 kind of validated him in MKT. I liked the story behind most of the characters. Although I was a little miffed that Johnny Cage was around after Trilogy because he was pretty much doomed to go back to being dead once they won.

But little things like eluding to Mileena being returned as a servent for a great dark power (probably supposed to be Shinnok) were neat, as well as Noob Saibot and the whole brotherhood of the shadow thing.

Overall, I thought the storyline ended up being relevent and interesting, even moreso then MK4 or MKGold.