101 Shocking Wrestling Plans You Won't Believe Almost Happened
52. Paul & Katie Lea Burchill Love One Another (Ahem!)
Shiver me timbers! Ex-pirate Paul Burchill was nearly turned into someone who had the hots for his own kayfabe sister in 2008. Together, Paul and Katie Lea were packaged together as a double act on WWE TV, but the company stopped short of having them profess some awkward love for one another onscreen.
No joke, that was in the works for them.
Announcers did get the ball rolling on this by dropping little hints along the way. They said that Paul and Katie Lea were closer than most siblings could ever dream to be. They also used the word "love" like an extra 0 was added onto their monthly salary each time it was uttered. That, rather shockingly, was going to lead to incest.
The pair would huff and puff but fail to blow any houses down before one last ditch attempt to reframe them occurred on the doomed ECW brand in 2009-2010. The Burchills were rethought as 'The Ripper' (Paul) and 'The Beautiful Nightmare' (Katie) and tried to earn extreme contracts before WWE gave up the duo entirely.
Both can be relieved that they weren't cast as brother and sister who erm...got up to extra curricular activities in hotel rooms on the road in between dates for Raw and SmackDown. Yes, wrestling is effectively acting, but this would've been cringeworthy and WWE couldn't have handled it delicately or with the nuance of movies/other TV shows.
Perhaps playing a cheap wrestling version of Johnny Depp in Pirates Of The Caribbean wasn't the worst thing in the world for Paul.