10 Gimmick Ideas WWE Were Right To Turn Down

6. 'Illegitimate Son' (Batista)

Prepare to get dark real quick.

Batista told Chris Jericho on his 'Talk Is Jericho' podcast in 2014 that one idea for his formative run in WWE crossed the desk of Vince McMahon and ended up in the bin. It's not surprising when you learn what it was writers wanted; they planned to make big Dave an illegitimate child born when his mother was raped.

Yes, nothing screams 'family friendly WWE action' like sitting kids down in front of SmackDown reruns each weekend to hear how one of the roster was mentally scarred by traumatic events. Said rape would be used to explain why Batista was so quiet (thus giving him an excuse to work on promos slowly), distant and moody.

The very words Batista used to explain the pitch? "Rape child". What a lovely idea, eh? Far be it from this writer to generalise, but no WWE creative team member would've been able to handle such a gritty subject sensitively in 2002. In fact, they'd struggle now...not that it'd come up in conversation.