Storylines and feuds are crucial to keeping the WWE product vibrant and unique all the time, as Vince McMahon has employed many promising creative minds to keep on improving his product.

WWE’s creative writers work hard in trying to create interesting storylines. They have to be original and capable of attractive to the fans. It’s difficult for even the most brilliant of minds to come up with compelling stories consistently, and that’s why WWE sporadically looks elsewhere for inspiration.

While much of WWE storylines are their own, there are some memorable ones which were inspired by other promotions.

Vince may be prideful to state that WWE produces original content all the time, he has tweaked some storylines which were invented by his competitors. While WWE are clever in altering or mixing up the storylines to make it seem original, proper wrestling fans knew otherwise.

Much before WWE, other prominent promotions created and utilized some storylines which later became famous at the much more popular WWE. On the other hand, there are some really poor storylines which have been all WWE’s doing in the past. It’s almost like they’re experts at writing their own bad angles that hamper their reputation even more.

Certain WWE angles in the past angered fans and hampered their product because of how bad they were. They’ve even recycled intriguing storylines from other promotions to try and make their own content more exciting. Here we’ll look at 10 storylines from other promotion WWE used and 10 bad angles that are all their own.

20 Storyline: Ryback’s Undefeated Streak

After being repackaged as a dominant babyface following his work with The Nexus, Ryback looked unstoppable. He’d take part in short squash matches, in which he’d destroy his opponents and earn popularity.

He attained quite the impressive undefeated streak, defeating many opponents before his 38-man undefeated streak ended at the hands of CM Punk. In reality, WWE tried using WCW’s method of pushing Goldberg on Ryback. The fans soon caught up to that and mocked the Big Guy by chanting “Goldberg” in his matches, but he was not even close to being over as the top WCW guy. WWE’s attempt at making Ryback the new Goldberg failed miserably and forced them to head into a new direction.

19 Bad Angle: Brock Lesnar and Zach Gowen

The Brock Lesnar vs. Zach Gowen storyline on SmackDown was definitely uncomfortable to watch, because of how badly WWE aimed to make Gown look.

So during Lesnar’s dominant run on SmackDown , WWE tried gaining heel heat on him by having the Beast pummel Zach Gowen. This resulted in a match on SmackDown, where Gowen’s mother was front row. Lesnar mocked Gowen in front of his own mother.

In the end, Lesnar would hit Gowen with an F-5 into the steel post. This cheap way for trying to gain heat on Lesnar was tasteless from WWE, and left many feeling uncomfortable following this  angle.

18 Storyline: Ted DiBiase “Buys” WWE Championship

During the peak of his career, Ted DiBiase sought to prove that money can literally buy everything as he aimed to buy the WWE Championship from Hulk Hogan. The Hulkster, being the righteous babyface he was, disagreed to do so after which DiBiase hired Andre the Giant to take it off him.

Andre defeated The Hulkster for the title, hence letting DiBiase buy it from him. However, this brilliant storyline wasn’t WWE’s originally as it had been done a few years prior somewhere else. At Georgia Championship Wrestling, Larry Zbyszko had also bought the National Heavyweight Championship in 1983 from Tim Brooks for $25,000. WWE had just recycled that with DiBiase, which was impressive nonetheless.

17 Bad Angle: Little People’s Court

Hornswoggle tried becoming a part of D-Generation X in 2009, but Shawn Michaels and Triple H wouldn’t allow it. In the storyline, Hornswoggle was irate at being kicked out so embarrassingly and demanded justice in the “Little People’s Court.”

That was a court underneath the ring, where the “little people” like Hornswoggle lived and even operated a place of justice. On an episode of Raw, Triple H and Michaels went to the court, only to be bothered by the “little people.”

This  was quite a poor angle for WWE to go with.

16 Storyline: The Jinder Mahal Push

Many fans were left bewildered when Jinder Mahal won the WWE Championship, after having spent much of his career in WWE as an irrelevant lower to mid-card wrestler.

Mahal was repackaged as this “Modern Day Maharaja” and pushed strongly, but it was only to get more attention from the audience in India. However, WWE was inspired to push him after seeing how Impact Wrestling’s plan with Mahabeli Shera increased their popularity.

Shera was pushed strongly on Impact a few years prior to Mahal, winning big-time feuds and becoming a fan favorite. While his push didn’t culminate in a World Title run, it increased Impact’s popularity in India, which inspired WWE to push Mahal in turn.

15 Bad Angle: “Miss WrestleMania” Battle Royal

In what was a monumental occasion celebrating the Women in WWE history, the company set-up a “Miss WrestleMania” Battle Royal at WrestleMania XXV. It involved WWE female stars from present and past, with many prominent women fighting for the prestigious crown.

However, Santino Marella also competed in it dressing as his “sister,” Santina Marella. The match itself was decent, but the result was disappointing. Santina ended up being crowned “Miss WrestleMania” by eliminating Beth Phoenix.

This angle was an extremely disrespectful one towards the women who fought so hard for WWE. They completely tarnished the reputation of many great female stars. Thankfully, that has changed

14 Storyline: The Nexus

The Nexus felt like a breath of fresh air for WWE, when the “rookies” from NXT united to take down the Superstars of the main roster. The Nexus took out everything in their path initially, including some prominent members of the roster.

However, The Nexus storyline wasn’t created by WWE.

In fact, it initially took place at Ring of Honor in 2004, when “Generation Next” did the same thing. Led by Alex Shelley and accompanied with guys like Roderick Strong, Austin Aries, and Jack Evans, these four undermined rookies took out many top guys in ROH.

WWE had been inspired by Generation Next’s breakthrough and booked The Nexus accordingly on the main roster.

13 Bad Angle: DDP and The Undertaker's Wife

When WWE signed Diamond Dallas Page from WCW, many fans thought they had attained a promising main event star who could thrive in the rival promotion.

Vince McMahon, however, had other plans. The WWE Chairman’s booking of Page was extremely poor; he was made to debut a follwer of The Undertaker’s wife, Sara. This angle was extremely disappointing, as WWE completely ruined DDP’s image upon debuting in the company.

This angle of DDP didn’t do any good, and he got buried instantly after entering the company. WWE had tried to do something different in having DDP in such a manner, but in return, they completely wasted a golden opportunity to have him work as a prominent babyface. One who could have soared to the top if properly booked.

12 Storyline: Kevin Owens And Sami Zayn Trolling

Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn might have seemed like foes for life, but WWE swerved everyone by having Zayn unite with Owens last year. The pair said that they joined forced because of the mistreatment from the authority figures. Both Superstars began to act sarcastically on SmackDown.

This storyline, however, was originally used in Evolve, one of WWE’s closest Independent partners. Much before Owens and Zayn, ACH and Ethan Page were united at Evolve due to poor treatment from the authority figures. They started ruining matches, acting like trolls and went all-out in disrespecting their bosses.

hile “The Troll Boyz” couldn’t last for long, it was their impact which inspired WWE to go a similar direction with Owens and Zayn at SmackDown.

11 Bad Angle: The Imposter Kane

There was a time when WWE decided to throw a curveball at Kane. when an Imposter came out of nowhere to terrorize The Big Red Machine. The imposter was a former shadow of Kane, a masked man, which he was in the Attitude Era.

He got the better of Kane for quite a bit of time before the real Big Red Machine finally got the better of him, literally throwing the imposter out of WWE. While one can understand WWE aiming to show Kane’s past demons coming back to haunt him, this angle was poorly executed.

It was hilarious, yet weird, watching two Kanes fight each other. The angle didn’t sit well with fans, who just couldn’t buy into the Impostor Kane angle.

10 Storyline: The Wyatt Family Compound Showdown

The Wyatt Family were at full strength in 2016 after Braun Strowman started working as their “muscle.” They got entangled in a feud with The New Day and when things got really heated, WWE booked them to face off at The Wyatt Compound.

They had a really weird match, which was full of bizarre takes and thrills, which wasn’t anything like WWE. That’s because it wasn’t WWE who originated it. Also, they were actually inspired by the Final Deletion match from Impact.

After much success of the entertaining match between the Hardys, WWE looked to imitate that match with their own resources. It didn't work, as The Wyatt Compound match was nothing close to being as entertaining as Hardy’s. The angle simply felt extremely forced, too.

9 Bad Angle: Hornswoggle As Cruiserweight Champion

The original Cruiserweight Division produced some entertaining matches on SmackDown quite consistently. However, things started souring up in the division towards the end of its original run.

WWE went with the decision of having Hornswoggle win the Cruiserweight Championship sneakily in a match. Hornswoggle wasn’t even a wrestler, but won the title and completely devalued the championship.

He would keep the championship for a few weeks keep finding ways to defend, as fans got completely turned off from the division because of his title reign. Hornswoggle’s run with the title ended soon after. But the damage had been done, as the terrible booking led to this championship losing its value and relevance.

8 Storyline: Seth Rollins As Dual Champion

Seth Rollins was on top of the world in 2015, when he was flying high as the snarky WWE Champion - with the chance of becoming dual champion at SummerSlam. Rollins faced John Cena in a winner-take-all match, with both the WWE and United States titles on the line.

Thanks to interference from SummerSlam host Jom Stewart, The Architect won the match. He became the first ever superstar to hold the US Championship and WWE Championship at the same time.

However, this storyline was actually inspired from Ring of Honor. ROH made Jay Lethal a dual champion in 2015, by having him win both the ROH and World Television Championship. WWE was inspired by Lethal’s impressive run and did the same with Rollins, who did great wonders as a dual champion for a short time.

7 Bad Angle: The Invasion

The Invasion angle had the potential of being a slobber-knocker for WWE, who in turn wasted a promising angle by riddling it with terrible booking decisions.

When it was announced that ECW and WCW competitors had united to defeat WWE, many felt it could make for a very interesting rivalry between the McMahons and the wrestlers.

However, WCW nor ECW had any prominent “top stars” and felt weak. On top of that, WWE’s poor 50-50 booking and rushing of the angle didn’t do it any good. The Invasion angle never seemed that smart, because of WWE’s questionable booking decisions along with the predictable outcome. It ended up being an extremely underwhelming angle, which let down many fan, believing something great would take off..

6 Storyline: Vince McMahon As The Evil Boss

WWE was struggling in the ratings battle with WCW in the Monday Night War during the late ‘90s, and they something special to turn things around.

So Vince McMahon decided to take a page out of Eric Bischoff’s book and after the controversial Montreal Screwjob, he became WWE’s main heel. Much like Bischoff in WCW, McMahon would avidly take part in storylines and often be the bad guy the fans loved to hate.

Bischoff was originally the prominent evil boss in pro wrestling, who acted poorly with babyfaces in WWE. Vince took inspiration from his character and bettered it, resulting in the creation of an iconic character whose feud with Steve Austin enabled WWE to win the Monday Night War.

5 Bad Angle: Kevin Owens Afraid Of Heights

Kevin Owens was turned into a mockery of his own self before being sidelined due to an injury and throughout the summer, he was involved in some bad storylines. Owens got ragdolled around by Braun Strowman for quite some time, after failing to win the Money in the Bank briefcase.

During all of this, another angle WWE created was none other than Owens’ fear of heights.

He suddenly developed an explicit fear of heights and couldn’t climb up ladders or jump off high angles. This is the same guy who is infamous for making hard leaps, and even tried that against Shane McMahon at the 2017 Hell in a Cell pay-per-view. This made no sense whatsoever.

4 Storyline: Kane’s Dual Personality

During his time as part of the Authority, Corporate Kane was more prominently featured in WWE. However, things started to change when Kane started portraying both the Big Red Machine and Corporate Kane during Seth Rollins’ reign as WWE Champion.

Kane was livid with Rollins’ antics and wanted to teach him a lesson, often appearing as the Masked Kane to face him, while also retaining his corporate figure. This was actually inspired by TNA’s storyline in which they interchanged between Abyss and his “brother” Joseph Park.

The characters were the same person and while Abyss was destructive, Park was extremely timid. Kane’s dual personality storyline was actually quite humorous, and a decent adaptation of Abyss’ one.

3 Bad Angle: Perry Saturn’s Moppy

Perry Saturn was never that bigin WWE, unable to transition after impressing as mid-carder for WCW. Saturn got frustrated with his lower position in WWE.

After enhancement talent Mike Bell stiffed him during a match, Saturn lost his wits and started to legitimately club him. Saturn was then placed in a silly angle, where he became infatuated with a mop and started calling it “Moppy.”

Saturn was made to look bad by hanging around with his mop, and this angle did him nothing for him. While Saturn had some quality moments with it, the angle was bad. Mission accomplished for WWE in punishing Saturn’s mistakes.

2 Storyline: The Summer Of Punk

The Summer of Punk is one of the most ingenious storylines WWE has come up with in the “PG Era.”

When Punk’s WWE contract was coming up at Money in the Bank 2011, he delivered great promo and swore to walk away with the WWE Championship, with a plan to head to the indies. The fans were hooked to see what Punk would do next with his “shoots,” but not many knew that the storyline was actually used elsewhere.

In 2005, CM Punk had a similar storyline at Ring of Honor, where he tried to leave for WWE with the ROH Championship. Here, WWE gave Punk the storyline to a wider audience and let Punk run wild with it.

1 Bad Angle: Fake Razor Ramon And Diesel

WWE has the reputation for being petty at times, but they took that to a new level in 1996 -- following the departures of Razor Ramon and Diesel.

After they both moved to WCW, WWE aimed to embarrass Deisel and Ramon by having Jim Ross introduce their impostors. This was a major surprise of the fans, who who simply presumed they had left WWE for good.

However, it was revealed to be a bad joke and that JR had faked their return in order to agitate the fans. Ramon and Diesel were portrayed by other wrestlers and it was used as an angle to turn Ross heel. The storyline turned out to be a complete bust, to say the least.