I have been a wrestling fan long enough to see some the greatest performers, angles and storylines on WWE television – I have seen Shawn Michaels turn on Marty Jannetty to end The Rockers, I got to see Stone Cold Steve Austin hit Vince McMahon with a stunner and I was able to watch CM Punk drop a pipebomb on John Cena. However, for every single WrestleMania moment or star-studded performance, and for every feud between Stone Cold and The Rock or Triple H and Batista, there are some very questionable moments in WWE history.

It's not possible for WWE writers to knock it out of the park every single time, but the very least that professional wrestling fans can ask for is for a little bit of effort in each and every storyline that they put on television. Sometimes it appears that WWE writers have blind folded themselves and are throwing a dartboard at a wall full of storyline ideas, and are just giving them to random wrestlers. Actually, this may actually be an improvement based on some of the ones that are listed below here as we have dug up The Absolute Most Uninspired WWE Storyline Every Year Since 2000, and there are certainly some awful storylines in here that show how little thought has been put into them.

18 2000 - Jericho Spills Coffee on Kane

Ever wonder how to really get on the nerves of The Big Red Machine? Well, apparently all you need to do is remind him about how much he hates hot things, which is what Chris Jericho learned when he bumped into him backstage and spilled some hot coffee on him, which infuriated Kane to the point of them proceeding to have a months-long feud. There are so many things that these men could have feuded over – such as a contendership to an important Championship – but instead the only reason they were given was about Kane almost getting his spandex wet. While the fact that a split cup of java was enough to incite a rivalry between two wrestlers, it is even more ludicrous to think about considering the fact that it would be revealed only two years later that Kane’s story about being burned in a fire was an absolute farce.

17 2001 - Perry Saturn and Moppy vs. Terri and Raven

This entire ordeal was ridiculous on so many levels for all parties involved, which is especially upsetting considering the level of talent involved with some of the wrestlers. Let’s start from the beginning – apparently Perry Saturn received a few too many bumps on the head and began falling in love with a mop named Moppy, and chose her over Terri Runnels. As a way of getting back at Perry, Terri had Raven “mop-nap” Moppy, and lead her to a grizzly death inside of a wood chipper, leading to Saturn getting very sad, which ultimately culminated in a match between Saturn and Raven. Did you get all that?

It would be one thing if the two men were competing for Terri’s affections, but instead all of their fighting was over Saturn’s feelings for a mop with a face drawn on it.

Allegedly this gimmick was a punishment for Saturn shooting on a wrestler during a match on Sunday Night Heat, but we are not sure the punishment fit the crime given how ridiculous this all was.

16 2002 - Edge vs. Booker T - Shampoo Commercial

Here you have two future WWE World Champions who are house-hold names that the fans enjoy watching, slowly creeping towards the Grandest Stage of Them All and need something to feud over so they can have a great match at WrestleMania X8. Should they be feuding over the fact that they are both hungry wrestlers looking to obtain a main-event spot in the company? Or do they have a personal grudge against each other that requires they to fight inside of a Steel Cage that can hardly contain their animosity? No – instead, they were feuding over being cast in a Japanese shampoo commercial, which Booker was auditioning for but Edge stole from him. Yes, I am being entirely serious – both WWE Hall of Famers fought over having their hair featured in a commercial for shampoo.

15 2003 - Dawn Marie Loves Al Wilson

Love stories have always been a part of WWE programming, but for every Macho Man and Elizabeth love story, we get something as awful as Dawn Marie falling for Torrie Wilson’s father, Al. As a method of psychological warfare against Torrie, Dawn began to flirt with her father and ultimately ended up seducing him into marrying her.

Of course, this led to the aptly named Step Mother vs. Step Daughter match between Dawn and Torrie.

Add on to this that Al ended up passing away due to his honeymoon “activities” with Dawn causing him a heart attack, and you can see why this storyline seemed to be made up as it went along. While this feud did allow us to see Dawn Marie prancing around in her underwear, we must also remember that we had to endure Al Wilson in his underwear too.

14 2004 – Cena Gets Attacked Outside A Nightclub

Sometimes WWE just seem to throw things at the wall to see what sticks instead of approving storylines which make sense to progress a feud. While the feud between John Cena and Carlito should have been focused on the United States Championship, it ended up being focused on interactions between Carlito’s bodyguard Jesus and how he allegedly attacked Cena off-screen at a night club prior to a match with Carlito, and proceeded to stab him which put him in the hospital. Does this mean that WWE condones assault with a deadly weapon and did not intend on having him charged by the proper authorities? Jesus committed a crime when he attacked Cena, but WWE writers decided to ignore this and make it a featured part of the feud anyway. I bet these are the things that Cena would like to forget about when he looks back on his career.

13 2005 - JR and Dr. Heiney

WWE Management has been on a relentless pursuit for years to embarrass Jim Ross to the fullest extent, and they may have accomplished that during a segment which focused on making fun of Good ol’ JR having to take time off for a colonoscopy.

Following his routine procedure, JR was treated to watching an un-funny segment featuring his boss performing a procedure on him where he pulled multiple things out of Ross’ posterior.

Vince McMahon’s strange and juvenile sense of humor has been on display on WWE programming for years, and this is it directly on display in a very un-funny segment which was not befitting of Ross’ legacy in WWE. Sadly enough, this wouldn't be the last time WWE would try to poke fun at JR, even if every attempt has fallen flat.

12 2006 - Don’t Make Fun of Shelton’s Momma

How do we get one of our more premier athletes over with fans? Well, you could have him continue to perform in high-profile matches while defending his Intercontinental Championship while wrestling at a high level. Or, you could go down the route that WWE did with Shelton Benjamin in 2006 by pairing him with his over-bearing “Momma” who began to coach him and interfere in his matches. However, WWE realized quickly that this was a bad idea and that they wanted to abort the angle but were not sure of how to do it. Well, just like how The Simpsons got rid of Poochie from Itchy and Scratchy, they killed off the Momma character with a heart attack, and she was never heard from again. Shelton didn’t even seem to care very much as he went about his business after she left programming.

11 2007 - Jillian Jealous of Ashley Being A Cover Girl

Beginning in 1999 from Sable’s pictorial, there have been a multitude of women from WWE that graced the cover of Hugh Hefner's greatest creation, ranging from Chyna, Torrie Wilson and Maria Kanellis.

In 2007, Diva Search winner Ashley Massaro was one of the final “Divas” to pose for the magazine.

While this is great publicity for WWE, there was also a desire to incorporate this into a storyline to promote on television. The way that the brilliant brain trust of WWE writers chose to include this was for a wrestler who has never had interest in flaunting her body to magically become jealous of Ashley for her cover. While she was in WWE, Jillian Hall was never exactly used properly and this is a prime example of this as the storyline leaves very little to the imagination.

10 2008 - The Hell’s Gate Hold is Banned

During Teddy Long’s reign as SmackDown General Manager, two things were absolutely certain – he would find a way to take wrestlers that were feuding and place them in a tag team match (Playa!), and if The Undertaker used his Hell’s Gate submission hold during a match, he would find a way to point out that Vickie Guerrero once banned it from being used. While the storyline was initially an interesting one because it had never been done before, it was initially created in late 2006 which means that WWE had been using this storyline for over 16 months because they were not able to come up with anything more clever to have The Undertaker lose matches on television. 85% of the fan base had fully forgotten about this aspect of The Undertaker’s arsenal, so when it was constantly reintroduced over the course of 2008 they were understandably annoyed.

9 2009 - Chavo Can't Stand Hornswoggle

This is the feud that never ends – that is certainly what Chavo Guerrero was thinking in 2009 as he was placed in a never-ending cycle of matches against Hornswoggle with a wide-array of stipulations. Each week on RAW, the incredibly talented Chavo Guerrero (who had not received a proper push in WWE since his reign as ECW Champion in 2007) would be given a match against Hornswoggle with a ridiculous stipulation attached, such as wearing giant boxing gloves or being dressed as a cow, and would continuously lose to the pint-sized wrestler. The reason for these matches was due to a grudge that the various Special Guest Hosts had against Chavo due to his attitude, but all that the fans saw was a waste of a great talent each week on television, as there were many other things that Chavo could have been doing at this time.

8 2010 - Goldust Marries Aksana For Her Green Card

If it hasn’t already been said before, it's worth saying again – the original inception of NXT as a reality show featuring potential WWE wrestlers was an absolute disaster, especially during its later seasons. Unfortunately one of the worst examples of this took place during Season Three, which did feature some of WWE’s most popular females in AJ Lee and Kaitlyn, but also several less-than-stellar women wrestlers, including Aksana.

WWE did attempt to inject some storylines into the original NXT program, but did not put a lot of thought into the execution of them.

That was fully evident while Goldust and Aksana held a cringe-worthy wedding on NXT in an attempt for Aksana to gain resident status in the United States. Super uninspiring, and also poorly executed – good thing 2010 was not the year Donald Trump was not in WWE, otherwise he would have had a lot to say about this storyline!

7 2011 - Heel Michael Cole

It's a little weird that WWE seems to feel we want to see the announcers get involved in storylines and even go so far as to wrestle. But WWE really outdid themselves in 2011 when Michael Cole's character became a heel on commentary, to the point that it took away from the action and just left viewers feeling annoyed, and not entertained in the least. The story would devolve into Cole personally attacking Jerry Lawler, which led to the worst match in WrestleMania history. What should've been a quick Lawler squash win turned into a competitive, lengthy match, which Cole won by DQ, extending the feud another two months. From bringing out Lawler's real-life son to badmouth him, to once again insulting JR, this storyline had no redeeming qualities whatsoever.

6 2012 – Natalya Has Gas

In 2012, we did not have the vast landscape of female talent that it does currently – the roster was rather thin and consisted mainly of less-than-talented wrestlers such as Layla, Eve Torres and The Bella Twins. One of the only bright spots on the Women’s roster was Natalya, who has been with the company for over 10 years at this point. If you think that she is not getting recognized at this point in her career, you would cringe to remember what was going on in 2012. Instead of letting the immensely talented Natalya remain focused on her in-ring abilities and let that be the focus of her character, she was given the potty-humor storyline of her have uncontrollable flatulence. Is there any real reason for this other than the fact that Vince is a big fan of fart jokes? Not very likely.

5 2013 - Tensai Wears Lingerie

If there is one thing that Vince may like more than fart jokes and making fun of Jim Ross, it is embarrassing big-man wrestlers on his shows by making them dress in women’s clothes.

When Matt Bloom re-signed with WWE in 2011 after a lengthy run in Japan where he was able to shed his former WWE image, and attempted to return as the mysterious, Japanese powerhouse Tensai.

However, it appears that WWE Management had different plans on television for him as they quickly turned him into a joke and put him in silly situations. While Tensai could have been built as a big star, he was placed into lingerie during an episode of RAW in Las Vegas (as a result of the Raw Roulette wheel landing on Lingerie Match) and came out to the ring in an outfit reserved for Torrie Wilson.

4 2014 - Adam Rose vs The Bunny

While there is little sympathy in the wrestling world for how Adam Rose’s WWE career ended and how he has reacted following his release, you have to wonder exactly what WWE Management was thinking when they signed off on this storyline for him as it was ridiculous even for him. When WWE writers place you in a feud with a gigantic, white, stuffed bunny rabbit, it shows exactly how little they care about your character – and it should be even more evident when they have the Bunny win their feud! Rose showed some great prospect during his time in NXT with the Leo Krueger character, but he was not given the time of day when he made it to the main roster, and was only given absolute crap like this to work with.

3 2015 - Paige Bringing Up Charlotte's Deceased Brother

Even in an environment where WWE is supposed to be more conscious of the mistakes they've made in the past and to know when something is going too far, they still haven't learned from the past. When has it ever worked for the WWE to bring up a dead family member and have it come off as something essential (or tasteful) to a feud? During Charlotte and Paige's feud over the Divas Championship in 2015, Paige made a reference to Charlotte's deceased brother Reid Flair. It was very reminiscent of Randy Orton luring Rey Mysterio into a match by telling him his friend Eddie was in hell. So not only was it in bad taste, but it wasn't even a unique idea for WWE to use a deceased wrestler to try and advance a storyline.

2 2016 - Shane McMahon Has A Lockbox

Mystery in professional wrestling is a great thing as it can inspire fans to stay tuned in order to finally see the secret revealed, however there is nothing worse than being stuck with blue balls as a result of a secret never being revealed, which was exactly the case when Shane McMahon returned to WWE television and began feuding with his father, Vince McMahon.

In order to intimidate his father into giving him a shot at running WWE, he blackmailed his father with the contents of a locked box which contained some incriminating evidence against him.

While this sounded very intriguing, it has been two years since that point and we have not been made aware of what was inside of the box, which shows just how closely WWE writers are looking at storylines. Perhaps they were just hoping that fans were not paying attention, but we certainly were and still have a lot of questions.

1 2017 - Kurt Angle’s Son

It seems that someone on the WWE writing staff has been watching episodes of The Young and the Restless as it seems that the entire “Who is Kurt Angle’s Son” angle was inspired directly by a soap opera. The way that wrestling fans reacted to the storyline was indicative of how much thought that WWE writers put into the storyline, as it was completely ridiculous considering that Angle has had his public life on display for years and an illegitimate son would have certainly been uncovered years before. Considering that this feud is based off only a slight resemblance between the two men, you can tell that WWE writers were not exactly fully stimulated at the thought of this storyline.