Once bitten and twice shy. Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me. There are so many clichés that wrestling fans have had to speak over the years about how they feel about WWE’s execution of storylines and angles – sometimes there is a perfectly executed idea that leads to a great payoff as a fan, but unfortunately this is more of an exception than the rule. Usually, proposed storylines end up in two categories; first, there may be a drool-worthy idea that would be amazing if executed properly, but it does not come to fruition for one reason or another, such as backstage politics for instance. Second, an idea may seem like a good one at a time, but retrospectively turns out absolutely awful. Or, there is the unfortunate circumstance of an idea seeming terrible from the get-go, but someone decides to green-light it anyways leading to a catastrophe of an angle. While wrestling fans always hope each idea brought onto television is the “best of the best”, that is not always reality. Sometimes we wish that those left on the cutting room floor are the ones presented to us instead.

Wrestling fans have earned the right to be skeptical over the years, and here are some prime reasons why – here are 10 Times WWE Said No To Great Ideas And 10 Ideas We Wish They'd Said No To.

20 Great Idea: CM Punk Winning The Extreme Elimination Chamber

Oh, to think about what could have been – the reboot of ECW showed some promise as a third brand for WWE, but that all came tumbling down during the first ECW-branded pay-per-view since WWE took it over. The December to Dismember event held the unfortunate record of having the lowest buyrate for an event in WWE history. The advertised main event of the “Extreme Elimination Chamber” was a let-down as fan favorites like CM Punk and Rob Van Dam were quickly eliminated. This was not supposed to be the initial idea for this event.

Originally, Paul Heyman was supposed to be much more involved with the booking and execution of the event to give it more of an ECW atmosphere, but was pushed aside by Vince McMahon.

Heyman’s idea was to have CM Punk win the match due to his growing popularity with the fans, but McMahon was adamant that the ECW Championship be won by Bobby Lashley.

Who knows if Punk being given “the ball” this early in his WWE career would have made him much more pleased with his time with the company.

19 Should've Said No: Katie Vick

For any wrestling fan who started watching WWE after 2002, consider yourselves lucky as that means you would not have come into contact with Katie Vick. Who is Katie Vick, you ask? Well, she is only a reference to the most poorly received WWE angle of all time, who is a woman that Kane allegedly dated at one point and was involved in a tragic car accident with her. Triple H – being the despicable man that he is – brought this up during their feud for the World Heavyweight Championship (since they apparently needed something else to fight about).

As more layers of the story began to unfold, Triple H revealed that Kane had slept with Katie Vick prior to her passing, but insinuated that “the deed” took place only after the accident, and even went as far as to film a video dressed as Kane to reenact the incident.

The angle was critically panned and deemed ridiculously offensive, and has been erased from WWE’s Network, but we all hope that it was erased from our memories as wrestling fans.

18 Great Idea: Raven, 7 Deadly Sins

Despite being a main-eventer and multi-time World Champion during his time in ECW, Raven only had one question during his WWE run – What About Raven? More specifically, what about Raven’s ideas?

Raven began a storyline on Sunday Night Heat surrounding the seven deadly sins of pride, greed, lust, envy, gluttony, wrath and sloth as a reference to the Brad Pitt film Se7en.

Raven’s dedication and attention to detail during the angle showed that he was fully invested in the story and ready to give it his all, but ultimately it was deemed that it was “not over enough” by WWE Management, and the plug was pulled shortly after it began. Knowing that historically when Raven fully dedicates himself to an angle that it has the possibility to really take off -such as his years-long feud with Tommy Dreamer in ECW – it is a shame that we never got to see this fully play out.

17 Should've Said No: Al Wilson/Dawn Marie

Well, we can’t pretend that we would say no if we were in Al Wilson’s shoes if we were asked to participate in this debacle of a storyline since it means that he got to stand with Dawn Marie in his underwear, but the unfortunate part is this storyline is an absolute stain WWE’s record since it was so awfully done. Without getting too far down the rabbit hole, Dawn Marie took it upon herself to seduce Torrie Wilson’s 'real life' father as a means of psychological warfare against Torrie, and took it so far as to marry him live on SmackDown. However this “fairy tale” does not have a happy ending, as Al Wilson ended up deceased by the end after suffering a heart attack during his honeymoon with Dawn due to the “rigorous action”.

As a result of her essentially killing her father, this led to the first ever (and hopefully last) Step-Mother vs. Step-Daughter match at Royal Rumble 2003. Hopefully WWE has learned from their mistakes and will not be going down this road again.

16 Great Idea: Booker T Winning At WrestleMania XIX

When wrestling storylines begin to inject elements of racism, it's hardly ever a good idea, especially if there is no payoff where the “bad guy” gets his comeuppance. Knowing how the psychology of professional wrestling works, conventional wisdom says that during the feud when Triple H stated “people like Booker T” could never become World Champion, you'd have thought the endgame would be Booker winning the title.

These statements obviously annoyed fans and caused Triple H’s status as a heel to reach a new level of hatred.

Fans couldn't wait to see Booker T overcome the adversity he had faced going into the championship match, but he did not prevail. Booker T was allegedly supposed to win this match, but the decision was switched for unknown reasons prior to the event, leading to speculation that Triple H had utilized his political stroke to ensure he retained the championship, but wrestling fans know the original idea would have been a much better payoff.

15 Should've Said No: Hornswoggle as GM

Speaking of payoff, it seems that sometimes WWE doesn't know how to properly end their angles in order to properly provide satisfaction after sitting through the entire angle. After over a year of RAW being controlled by the “anonymous General Manager”, who would communicate by blinking the lights in the arena and sending an e-mail to a laptop near the announcer’s desk, fans were anxiously waiting for them to be revealed.

Numerous names were speculated as to who the GM would be – some thought that it would be a past WWE Hall of Famer like “Stone Cold” Steve Austin or Shawn Michaels, while others thought that it would be a way to help boost a new star but when it was finally revealed to be Hornswoggle, it was a gigantic disappointment.

According to a former WWE writer, Vince McMahon viewed that fans had “moved on” from this storyline, and therefore did not care who the General Manager was, leading for it to eventually fall onto Hornswoggle without much thought put into the process.

14 Great Idea: Dark Adam Rose

Don’t be a lemon! Well, it appears that WWE Management were very “sour” on some ideas that Adam Rose had pitched them during his time in WWE before he was released as they did not feel that he had the acting chops to pull off a new character. Following his infamous feud with a member of his Rosebuds – yes, I am referring to the gigantic stuffed bunny.

Adam Rose proposed the idea that his character begin removing himself as a party-guy, and become a much darker character who despised everything Rose stood for, much closer to his original Leo Kruger character he started with in NXT.

The Kruger character was that of a stone-cold hunter who stalked his “prey” and was much more popular with fans than the Adam Rose character, but his ideas were rejected and he was instead put in the unpopular Social Outcasts stable prior to his release. Sorry Rose, but apparently not everyone saw money in this idea like the rest of us.

13 Should've Said No: Muhammad Hassan's "Attack"

Some say that this angle was ill-timed, and others say it was just bad taste. I am of the thought it was both, and should never have left the writers room. Despite being a taped program that could have been edited, WWE ran an angle between Muhammad Hassan and The Undertaker, which involved men in ski-masks armed with various weapons appearing to attack The Undertaker after he had a match with Hassan’s manager Daivari. Hassan would “summon” the men after praying at the top of the ramp, and then they would proceed to beat up The Undertaker as a group before fleeing the scene.

This incident would garner national media attention and multiple networks would call for the Hassan character to be removed from television because the segment was aired after news of the London terrorist bombings broke in 2005, with many people saying the angle was aired in poor taste. Someone should have thought twice about airing this angle and instead should have thought about the sensitivity around the subject.

12 Great Idea: Mordecai vs Undertaker

Let me start by saying that while the concept of the Mordecai character was excellent, the execution of it due to the ability of the wrestler portraying him was poor, but I am still very disappointed that this angle never got the opportunity to take place due to Kevin Fertig being released by WWE.

The thought of a religious-zealot type character who portrayed the “light” feuding with WWE’s most popular “Deadman” character The Undertaker in a battle was intriguing and fans couldn't wait to see them square off in a battle of Light versus Dark.

Ultimately, this would not come to be as WWE Management did not have enough confidence in Mordecai’s abilities as he was sent back down to WWE’s developmental territory before the angle could come to fruition. If WWE really did want to create this epic battle, they could have spent some more time developing Fertig prior to him being brought up to the main roster, but instead they had to kibosh the entire angle.

11 Should've Said No: Hulk Hogan Waltzing In To Win The Title From Yokokzuna

Without sounding too outlandish, the WWE Championship landscape in the early '90s featured a lot of “cockroaches” – no matter how many times you pushed someone away from the championship, they always found a way back. Enter Hulk Hogan, who could just not stay away from WWE Championship opportunities if his life depended on it. During the main event of WrestleMania IX of Bret Hart versus Yokozuna, Bret Hart ended up losing the championship to Yokozuna, setting Yoko up for a great career as a top-level heel.

However, this was until Hulk Hogan arrived after the match ended to challenge Yokozuna to a Championship match which he ultimately won, which only served to take the steam out of Yokozuna’s engine as a heel and put the attention on Hogan, who at this time was already an aging star in the eyes of the fans. Despite Hogan’s political pull in the company at the time, someone, i.e. Vince, should've had the foresight to shut this situation down before it occurred.

10 Great Idea: Orton Breaking the Streak

I may be in the minority here, but I feel Randy Orton should've been the one to break the legendary streak back at WrestleMania 21. The Undertaker’s WrestleMania streak should've been used to build up a young wrestler into absolute superstardom instead of being broken by Brock Lesnar who was already a top-tier star on his own.

The story between Orton and Taker leading into their match was a perfect storm – everyone was fully invested in the program, and Orton would have come off like a huge star.

Instead, it took him several years to reach the status he has now, but WWE really needed a sure-fire main eventer throughout the mid-2000s, which they could have had in Randy Orton. After big names like The Rock and Stone Cold Steve Austin were completely gone, WWE needed bankable stars to carry the company and could have had one if they had let Orton defeat The Undertaker, like Taker had initially pitched.

9 Should've Said No: Romance Between Paul and Katie Lea Burchill

Remember when I mentioned that when racism is interjected into wrestling it's never a good idea? Well, the same thing goes for incest – it should just be left out of wrestling altogether. Well, unfortunately there are members of WWE Management that don't feel that way, and green-lit a relationship between Paul Burchill and his on-screen sister Katie Lea Burchill. When sharing the screen together, Paul and Katie were asked to insinuate that they were in a relationship together, despite being brother and sister in character.

The angle itself served little purpose other than to gross out fans who did not tune in to such nonsense, but it went ahead anyway and hints were continually dropped that they were romantically involved. I'm not sure if someone eventually came to their senses, but this angle was eventually dropped – unfortunately, the damage was done and neither wrestler would end up gaining their footing in WWE, which was a direct result of being a part of this angle.

8 Great Idea: Briscoes Are Not Cosmetically Pleasing

The Briscoe Brothers are one of the best tag teams on the face of the Earth – real life brothers Mark and Jay Briscoe have won the coveted Ring of Honor Tag Team Championships more than any team in history, and have been a focal point across the independent wrestling scene for a number of years. However, when someone had the great idea to give them a tryout match with WWE, conversations with the promotion did not go any further than that tryout match. Why would one of the best tag teams in the world not pass their WWE tryout match, you ask?

According to the Briscoes themselves, they weren't considered to be “cosmetically pleasing” enough for WWE to entertain signing them to the roster.

Yes, the best tag team in the world are a little hairy and missing a couple of teeth, but they are still the best tag team in the world! And not for nothing, but I don’t think that wrestlers like Bray Wyatt or Brock Lesnar will be winning any Brad Pitt look-a-like contests anytime soon either.

7 Should've Said No: The Worst Gimmick Of The Attitude Era

Seriously, there are two incest storylines in WWE history? You better believe it. During a short period in 1999, Charles Warrington (also known as Chaz and Mosh during his time in WWE) was given the character of Beaver Cleavage, a man-child with references to the 1960s television show Leave it to Beaver. The character itself is not what's considered to be an awful idea but the inclusion of Beaver’s mother, a voluptuous woman played by Canadian bodybuilder Marianna Komlos, who was constantly at his side, gave the storyline a very eerie feeling.

The pair were constantly exchanging suggestive remarks designed to give off a feeling that they had a romantic relationship, and the angle was severely panned by critics and fans to the point that it only lasted a couple of weeks. The real question is – how did it even leave the creative room?

6 Great Idea: Bullet Club Reunion

Not since the nWo has there been a wrestling faction outside of WWE that has garnered so much attention in the wrestling world – The Bullet Club has taken the independent wrestling world by storm without any backing of the WWE wrestling machine. With former members AJ Styles, Finn Balor (formerly known as Prince Devitt), Karl Anderson and Luke (Doc) Gallows now in WWE, it seemed that stars were aligning for the group the be featured in WWE.

This idea was particularly evident when Styles and Balor were set to face off at this past year’s SummerSlam event, so the idea was pitched to form the group under the WWE banner.

Ultimately, this idea was nixed and has been turned into a “watered down” version of the group as The Balor Club, not featuring AJ Styles who was once a leader of the Bullet Club in New Japan Pro Wrestling. With a sure-fire, money-making idea directly in front of them, WWE decided to go a different route and I will never understand why.

5 Should've Said No: Fake Diesel/Razor Ramon

I know that the saying is that imitation is the most sincere form of flattery, but I think this case is the exception to the rule. After Kevin Nash and Scott Hall defected to WCW in the mid-1990s, the WWE did not want to leave behind all the work that had been put into establishing both of their characters of Diesel and Razor Ramon, so what did they do? Well, they hired wrestlers to continue working as them in their characters, without actually using either Nash or Hall. Fans began to critically pan the storyline, which was a clear attempt to “stick it” to Nash and Hall for leaving the WWE behind for their main competition. The “fake” wrestlers worked as a tag team for several months, but the entire ordeal was never received well by fans, and has come to be known as one of wrestling’s greatest blunders.

4 Great Idea: Nexus Winning Against Team WWE

Such a missed opportunity – in 2009, the Nexus group of invaders from the first season of the NXT reality show were on absolute fire. Not since the nWo had an invading group of wrestlers from another “organization” garnered so much attention from their debut on television. With so much attention on the entire storyline, surely WWE would attempt to continue it as long as possible by having the Nexus win their SummerSlam match against a group of WWE wrestlers? Well, apparently not.

“Team WWE” ended up winning their first match against the Nexus group, after John Cena allegedly pushed to change the storyline’s ending and have the group lose.

During an episode of Talk is Jericho with Chris Jericho interviewing Edge, they both confirmed that this occurred and voiced their opinion on what a mistake it was. I have to agree, as it fully took the air out of The Nexus’ sails.

3 Bad Idea: Trump vs Rosie

We have already discovered that when wrestling mixes itself with ideas about incest or racism it is a bad idea – I think we can also add politics to this list. In attempting to capitalize on the public feud between Donald Trump and Rosie O’Donnell, WWE aired a highly publicized segment featuring two look-a-likes arguing and bickering live on RAW. How did this angle go over? You guessed it – just like a fart in church. Live crowds booed the angle since it had no place in a wrestling ring, and the entire thing just felt like it did not belong. While this went over absolutely terribly with fans in 2010, can you imagine how it would have played out if WWE tried to pull a stunt like this in 2018? I sincerely hope that they learned their lesson with things like this.

2 Great Idea: Cena Heel Turn

The holy grail of great ideas that never came to be – picture Hulk Hogan turning heel by joining the nWo in 1996, but multiply it by a thousand, and you would have the level of insanity that would occur if John Cena turned heel at multiple points in his career. Perhaps the most perennial good guy in WWE history, John Cena has not had a heel run during his career since a brief period in 2003 before he started gaining immense popularity with the fans. Since that point, Cena has been portrayed as the ultimate good guy, so there is no possible way that he could turn his back on all of his fans, right?

According to WWE insiders, it has been proposed and shot down numerous times - apparently even by Cena himself – multiple times throughout his career.

Some examples of this were during his feuds with CM Punk and The Rock, but each time the trigger has not been pulled. Has WWE missed the boat on this, or are they still waiting for the right time to catch all their fans by surprise? I hope that they do not wait too long, because Cena is not getting any younger.

1 Bad Idea: The Invasion

Let me leave you with this thought – what if WWE had waited to pull the trigger on The Invasion storyline until well after both WCW and ECW had closed their doors? Or, what if the feud had actually revolved around the competing wrestlers and companies, and much less on the McMahons? Better yet, what if the storyline had gone on for much longer than three months, leading to a gigantic payoff that wrestling fans had been waiting years for?

Unfortunately, all of these questions will remain as “what ifs” because WWE decided to hot-shot the biggest potential storyline in the history of professional wrestling, leading to them fully dropping the ball with The Invasion. The angle could have been a huge success if there were more bankable stars from WCW, such as Hogan, Sting or Flair, but instead we got the likes of Shawn Stasiak and Bill DeMott. The Invasion itself is not a bad idea, but fans will always remember it as such a wasted opportunity.