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Anybody who follows backstage WWE news will know that the creative process behind the company's on-screen product can be very chaotic at times.
Not only does WWE have over 20 writers on its creative team, but Superstars have also been known to pitch ideas for their own characters.
Brock Lesnar, for example, showed up shortly before SummerSlam 2018 and suggested a different finish to the main event. Vince McMahon agreed with his idea, meaning major changes had to be made on the day of the show.
Now, while a WWE Superstar like Lesnar has the backstage power to make suggestions like that, other men and women on the roster have not been so fortunate, and some have even seen their own ideas given to one of their colleagues.
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In this article, let’s take a look at five WWE Superstars whose ideas were allegedly stolen.
#5 Luke Gallows’ WWE idea was allegedly stolen
Former WWE Superstar Luke Gallows revealed on his Talk’n Shop podcast in July 2020 that he and Big Cass once pitched an idea to Vince McMahon that would have seen Gallows and Karl Anderson trap Cass in a car while they beat up his tag team partner, Enzo Amore.
McMahon responded by saying the idea was “awesome”, but the WWE Chairman then decided that the storyline development was better suited for two singles Superstars instead.
“[Vince McMahon said] ‘Great, great, I love it, awesome.’ We saw a very similar idea used on RAW the following week with two singles guys. That's what happens when you go in there and they're not looking to use you in that light. It happens a lot.” [H/T Fightful]
Gallows added that McMahon does not want people to pitch ideas to him if he does not view them as one of his featured Superstars.
As an example, the former WWE RAW Tag Team Champion claimed that McMahon wanted AJ Styles in his office during The Phenomenal One’s association with The Club/The O.C., but he did not necessarily want to hear what Gallows and Anderson had to say.
#4 Lana accused WWE of stealing her ideas
Lana took to Twitter after the 2019 WWE Money in the Bank pay-per-view to reveal that one of the ideas that she pitched had been given to someone else.
In a tweet that has since been deleted, she also claimed that as many as 10 of her ideas were used in other people’s WWE storylines in 2018-19.
“I love watching shows and seeing stories I wrote and pitched given to other people. This might be the 10th time this has happened in the past year.... good to know I’m really creative that my ideas are given to others.”
Although Lana went on to take part in a long-term storyline with Rusev and Bobby Lashley later in 2019, The Ravishing Russian was not being used on WWE television around the time of WWE Money in the Bank.
Lana never revealed who used her idea on the WWE Money in the Bank show. However, it is worth noting that she competed in the previous year’s WWE Money in the Bank ladder match, so there is a chance that one of her rejected 2018 ideas ended up being used by someone else in 2019.
#3 Abraham Washington accused WWE of stealing his ideas
In February 2020, former WWE Superstar Abraham Washington accused the company of using his gimmick ideas for Seth Rollins and Bray Wyatt.
At the time, Rollins was just beginning to establish himself as The Monday Night Messiah on RAW, while the Firefly Fun House version of Wyatt’s WWE character debuted a newscast segment on SmackDown.
Speaking on the High Spot Podcast, Washington mentioned that he had performed as similar characters to Rollins and Wyatt under the name Reverend Jeremiah Constantine in his videos on YouTube.
“It just upsets me the fact that you can’t even acknowledge me and that you’re taking from my stuff, especially with the Seth stuff, the Monday Night Messiah. I’m pretty sure they got that from my promos. Then they had Bray Wyatt doing the newscast thing, you know, which I’m doing right now, so it’s just like eh whatever.” [H/T Bodyslam]
Washington, who was fired by WWE in 2012, also revealed that his videos were passed on to a lead writer in WWE after he asked someone in the company to take a look at his in-character work.
#2 Tyler Reks accused John Cena of stealing Curt Hawkins’ WWE idea
Speaking to Lewis Nicholls in May 2020, former WWE Superstar Tyler Reks recalled the time that his former tag team partner, Curt Hawkins, came up with an idea that would have seen them try to sneak back into WWE arenas after getting kayfabe fired.
Reks and Hawkins presented the idea to John Cena, who told them that he would show footage of their storyline suggestion to Vince McMahon on the WWE Chairman’s private jet if they put it on a DVD.
Even though the up-and-coming duo went along with Cena’s advice, they soon realized that their idea was being used for another tag team – The Miz and R-Truth – instead of them.
According to Reks, Cena said the storyline with Miz and Truth was “something totally different” to what they had pitched on the DVD.
However, as the weeks progressed and it became clear that Miz and Truth’s segments were almost identical to what Hawkins pitched, Reks claimed Cena admitted to him that the idea was stolen.
#1 Paul Burchill’s WWE ideas were allegedly stolen
Chris Jericho has often said on his Talk Is Jericho podcast that the term “Fandangoed” is used backstage in WWE when an established Superstar is booked in a storyline with somebody who they do not want to face.
That term is in reference to the 2013 storyline between Jericho and the debuting Fandango, who defeated his experienced opponent in what turned out to be the biggest upset of WrestleMania 29
Several years earlier, another backstage term – “Burchilled” – was used by WWE Superstars whenever somebody’s pitch was given to another member of the roster.
This began in the mid-2000s when Paul Burchill used to suggest storylines to WWE’s decision-makers, only to find out that his ideas were often given to someone else.
Burchill told Final Bell Radio in 2011 that he once wanted to compete in a multi-title mixed tag team match during his time in WWE, but the idea was used with Santino Marella and Beth Phoenix instead.
“I'd pitched the idea to do the first ever combined titles ladder match. Me and Katie [Lea] against Mickie [James] and Kofi [Kingston] in a free-for-all ladder match. Whoever wins the belt, their [team] wins the belt. They kinda went with that idea, but with someone else.” [H/T Wrestling Inc.]
Burchill left WWE in 2010 due to frustrations that he had with the way that his character was being booked.
