10 Cancelled WWE Storylines

Creating WWE television is a creative process involving many different parties and, as such, not every idea that gets tossed around is going to make it to Raw or SmackDown.

Some storylines, however, may be given the green light and even get teased or, in fact, begin in earnest on screen, only for them to be abandoned for one reason or another.

From dropped romances and canned title wins to nixed reveals and more, these are 10 cancelled WWE storylines.

10. Sable and The Undertaker kissing in a tree

For a time during the Attitude Era, the blonde bombshell known as Sable was solid ratings gold.

The key 18-34 male demographic couldn’t get enough of her, tuning into Raw in their millions to see what she was going to do next. One male aged between 18 and 34 who was positively besotted with the real-life Rena Mero was Vince Russo, who spent many hours furiously coming up with ways to get her on television.

One of his pitches (back in 1997) was to have Sable ditch Marc Mero in favour of The Undertaker, who would have transformed into a character akin to what he would later become as the leader of the Ministry of Darkness.

The Deadman and his gothic princess would then rule over the roster as WWE’s most evil power couple.

However, ‘Taker’s real-life wife at the time reportedly didn’t like the idea of him cuddling up to a future Playboy cover girl and the plan was scrapped.

9. Jake Roberts vs. The Ultimate Warrior

A storyline feud between The Ultimate Warrior and Jake Roberts would, on the surface at least, pretty much book itself.

On one side you had the chiselled, face-painted hero to WWE’s legions of young fans. On the other side, you had the dishevelled, snake-wielding villain that gave them all nightmares.

As Jake tells it, Vince McMahon informed him that he had to first go and ask for Warrior’s permission to work a programme together.

Once the approval was received, WWE filmed some segments between them, including one showing Roberts locking the former WWE Champion in a room with his serpentine friends, where he was bitten by a cobra.

Regrettably, things didn’t progress any further than that.

Warrior famously made a bunch of demands and held up Vince McMahon for a lot of money prior to his match at SummerSlam 1991 and was sent home pretty much as soon as he came back through the curtain.

Jake then transitioned into a captivating feud with Randy Savage instead, though he harboured a grudge against Jim Hellwig for years for blowing what he believed would have been a big-money storyline for him.

8. WWE vs. Jackass

The big angle heading into SummerSlam 2007 was supposed to be WWE taking on members of the Jackass crew.

Spearheaded by Shane McMahon, the storyline was going to see Johnny Knoxville and the gang come in for a bit of crossover promotion, resulting in a series of gimmick matches on the pay-per-view itself.

Actual commercials were shot and print advertisements were drawn up showing the Jackass lads battling Umaga.

Remember, the Samoan Bulldozer had not long ago gotten into it with Chris ‘Party Boy’ Pontius and a no-selling Steve-O during an infamous segment on Raw.

Like many of WWE’s plans back then, they were thrown out of the window in the wake of the Benoit family tragedy.

According to reports at the time, Knoxville (who had a burgeoning career as an actual Hollywood actor to worry about) got cold feet and pulled out when WWE started getting hammered by the mainstream media.

Knoxville himself later said it was a scheduling issue and put over WWE, saying there was no ill will between the two sides.

He would, of course, appear for WWE several times after that and even compete at WrestleMania 38, but his in-ring debut was supposed to take place 15 years beforehand.

7. Taz runs over Steve Austin

The big angle WWE aired at Survivor Series 1999 was no doubt infuriating for anyone who stumped up their hard-earned cash in the hope of seeing Steve Austin compete for the WWE Title in a triple threat match with Triple H and The Rock.

It was blatant false advertising, yes, but it at least set up a compelling hook for when Stone Cold had recovered from his neck surgery.

The ‘Who ran over Austin?’ storyline looked set to dominate WWE television the following autumn, with the Texas Rattlesnake returning and, naturally, seeking justice.

WWE fans were gripped by the saga, too, the possibilities seemingly endless. WWE messed it all up by having Rikishi confess to being the wheelman, of course, only to then put all the heat on the real mastermind – a certain Triple H.

According to former WWE writer Brian Gewirtz, the original culprit was, at one point, set to be none other than Tazz.

Per Gewirtz, Vince McMahon himself suggested the Human Suplex Machine, but quickly changed his mind and we got what we got instead.

6. Hirohito

Shortly after Tajiri had to convince the creative minds to ditch a Yakuza-inspired group out of fear it would upset the actual Japanese mafia, WWE aired a vignette for a character that could have torpedoed their popularity in the Land of the Rising Sun.

On an April 2004 edition of Raw, a trailer heralding the impending arrival of ‘Hirohito’ was broadcast. Ostensibly, the new WWE star was going to be the grandson of Emperor Hirohito, who had ruled the country during World War II.

The new Hirohito would be out for revenge against the United States. So, naturally, his first major storyline was going to be challenging the Canadian-born World Heavyweight Champion Chris Benoit.

According to former WWE writer (and Hirohito pitchman) Dan Madigan, the Japanese royal family got wind of what was going to happen, didn’t exactly appreciate it and the whole thing was kiboshed a day after the initial vignette aired.

Kenzo Suzuki, the man who was going to portray Hirohito, was brought into SmackDown under his real name instead.

5. The Undertaker vs. Nailz

Few WWE stars were as scary as Nailz. He was big, he was imposing and the former prison convict was mighty frightening to young impressionables in the early 90s.

So frightening, in fact, that he’s one of the few WWE stars you’d fancy not to crumble in the presence of The Undertaker.

Vince McMahon evidently felt the two big men would work well together and prepared a feud between the pair for the end of 1992 and the beginning of ’93.

Their first meeting was a big staredown on an episode of Superstars and the two subsequently cut promos on each other on television.

Away from TV, they had a smattering of matches on non-televised house shows, including an outing at Madison Square Garden.

WWE Magazine even featured their staredown on its cover, but by the time it went to print the man in the orange jumpsuit had been fired after physically attacking Vince McMahon because he was unhappy with his SummerSlam payoff.

4. Paul Heyman manages Chris Benoit

After sitting out for a year following major neck surgery, WWE wanted to bring Chris Benoit back with a bang.

As good as The Rabid Wolverine was between the ropes, it’s fair to say that his work on the microphone was a few shades inferior to his technique when it came to suplexes and submissions.

WWE’s solution to this was going to be to pair Benoit up with Paul Heyman, who had been off television and working behind-the-scenes following the culmination of the Invasion storyline.

Heyman was all set to return alongside the Canadian Crippler, when fate intervened.

According to Heyman, a conversation with Vince McMahon ended up convincing his boss to take him away from Benoit and put him with a debuting Brock Lesnar instead.

Heyman had been gushing about the Next Big Thing to the Chairman after producing some of his non-televised dark matches and fully believed he was going to be a major, main event player for the promotion.

McMahon observed their locker room rapport and made the call to go with them as an act, much to the delight of the former ECW head honcho, who knew working with Lesnar would be money.

3. Kevin Nash the anonymous Raw General Manager

The Anonymous Raw General Manager storyline was infuriating to sit through and, to make matters worse, had one of the biggest ‘wet fart’ payoffs we can ever recall.

The Hornswoggle reveal was a bad punchline for a joke that wasn’t funny in the first place, but that wasn’t the original plan.

According to former WWE writer Kevin Eck, the Anonymous Raw GM was actually going to be someone big and sexy. Mr. Big Sexy himself; Kevin Nash!

The idea was that following an investigation, someone would twig that the emails were being sent from the WWE production truck.

When they opened the door, Nash would be sitting there wearing a wizard’s hat – a sly nod to his previous life in WCW as Oz.

It would be said that his anonymity was in place for so long because he had been working for TNA during that time.

None of this happened, of course, nor did a planned run for Hornswoggle as an English-accented heel manager after he was outed.

2. Stephanie McMahon/Chris Jericho affair

This one is not so much a ‘cancelled’ storyline as much as it is a pitch that could have been good and given a feud some much-needed heat heading into the biggest show of the year.

Chris Jericho proposed that, in order to spice up his rivalry with Triple H in early 2002, it be revealed Y2J was having an affair with Hunter’s wife Stephanie McMahon.

Jericho’s idea revolved around him trying to convince The Game that Steph had committed adultery with Rob Van Dam, only for the ponytailed man in bed with the Billion Dollar Princess to be outed as none other than the Undisputed Champion himself.

The bad news for Jericho was that Vince McMahon thought Triple H would already suspect his wife was cheating, while Hunter didn’t believe his character would be dumb enough to get cheated on.

What we ended up getting was Chris and Steph as ‘business associates’ and Jericho being reduced to the third wheel in a storyline that ought to have been centred around his title and not the champ trying to clean up dog mess.

1. Muhammad Hassan becomes World Heavyweight Champion

Muhammad Hassan’s WWE career may have only lasted eight months but he managed to pack an awful lot into such a relatively short span of time.

Hassan worked with a who’s who of legends, including pay-per-view matches with the likes of Shawn Michaels, Hulk Hogan and The Undertaker.

WWE were clearly high on Hassan’s potential and, according to various sources, planned on going all the way with him. Had things not turned out differently, Hassan was slated to defeat Batista and bag the World Heavyweight Title at SummerSlam 2005.

Not only would he have beaten The Animal in his hometown (and the nation’s capital) of Washington DC, but the victory would also make him the youngest world champion in WWE history, beating the record set by Randy Orton a year prior.

Sadly for Marc Copani (the man who played Hassan), his career effectively came to a sudden end due to a lamentable terrorist-themed angle that aired on the same day as the London Bombings.

Hassan hasn’t even been mentioned by WWE since, but he came tantalisingly close to writing his name in the history books and having a run as one of the faces of the company.