20 Shocking WWE Plans You Won’t Believe
Some ideas are best left in the trash...
Professional wrestling would be nothing without storylines. Great matches remain the sport’s bread and butter, but they’d be half as exciting without a strong build between two compelling characters. At its heart, wrestling is an athletic storytelling medium, and its narratives are just as important as its competitive aspects.
Everything you see on WWE television is devised by the creative team and rubber-stamped by Vince McMahon. Sometimes, it produces magic like the legendary Stone Cold vs. Mr. McMahon feud, or the Hulk Hogan/Randy Savage/Miss Elizabeth triangle. Other times? Oh boy…
Unfortunately, WWE’s creative team are responsible for some of the most cringeworthy ideas to ever hit mainstream television. Latter day WCW might hold the benchmark in this department, but WWE’s track record is blemished by terrible ideas like Katie Vick, Mae Young birthing a hand, and Chavo Guerrero’s reinvention as Kerwin White.
These angles show WWE at their absolute worst, but their cutting room floor is a minefield of shocking idea that never made it to television. As outlined in our book, Shocking Wrestling Plans You Won’t Believe Almost Happened, WWE have aired some of the most embarrassingly bad angles in wrestling history, but their list of scrapped ideas is a real horror show.
Who knows what the company would look like if some of these brainwaves had ever come to fruition. Here are 20 shocking WWE plans you won’t believe.
20. Mark Jindrak In Evolution
Evolution are one of the last truly great WWE stables. Triple H, Ric Flair, Randy Orton, and Batista represented several generations of wrestling excellence, and at the peak of their powers, they were utterly dominant. There was a period of time where Evolution held all of Raw’s titles (the Tag Team, Intercontinental, and World Heavyweight Championships) and while Flair and Triple H were already established megastars, the group was the making of Orton and Batista.
It could have been oh so different had WWE followed through with their original idea, though: Mark Jindrak was originally pegged for Batista’s spot as Evolution’s Arn Anderson-esque enforcer. WWE went so far as to shoot a number of vignettes with Jindrak in the group, but the former WCW Tag Team Champion was pulled without explanation.
Jindrak has since revealed that he “wasn’t ready” for the spot, and that it was “his to lose” and he “dropped the ball.” It worked to his detriment: Jindrak was released from WWE after a meagre four-year run largely spent propping up the midcard, while Batista became a multi-time world champion and surefire Hall of Fame inductee. Jindrak has since forged a strong career for himself in Mexico, but he must be kicking himself that the Evolution run never came to pass.