WWE Reportedly Planned Incest Storylines During Linda McMahon Tenure As CEO

World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) reportedly had plans to use incest as a plot point at least three times during Senate candidate Linda McMahon’s time as CEO of the company.

Linda McMahon served as WWE CEO from 1997-2009. Her husband, Vince McMahon, turned his father’s fledgling wrestling enterprise into the dominant brand in the business.

WWE recently announced that it was shelving some of its “edgier” content from its digital platforms, part of a response to WWE storylines being used to attack McMahon in her Connecticut Senate race.

STEPHANIE MCMAHON

A 2006 DVD called McMahon has an interview with Stephanie McMahon, daughter of Linda and Vince McMahon and current Executive Vice President of Creative for WWE.

For a time, Stephanie McMahon was a part of the WWE Raw program and when she found out she was pregnant, she says she and her father discussed how to integrate it into a WWE storyline.

In her interview she claims that Vince McMahon proposed revealing that the child she was carrying was a result of she and her father having sex. Stephanie McMahon says she rejected the storyline, explaining that “I don’t know who would find entertainment in a storyline like that.”

When she turned him down, Stephanie McMahon says Vince proposed revealing that her brother, Shane, was the father of the child. This proposal was also reportedly rejected.

KEN SHAMROCK & ALICIA WEBB

In an interview, former WWE wrestler Ken Shamrock said that WWE planned a storyline hinting at incest between himself and Alicia Webb, who at the time was playing the character Ryan Shamrock — his sister. Shamrock said that he declined to do it, because he “really thought that was something that really would affect my children.” He claims that Vince McMahon “was a little upset with me” for declining to do the storyline.

Shamrock alleges that in retaliation for refusing to do the incest story, he was scripted to lose matches “for three months straight after that.”

Shamrock wrestled in WWE from 1997-1999.

KATARINA WATERS & PAUL BURCHILL

Former wrestler Katarina Waters, who wrestled in WWE under the name Katie Lea Burchill, alleges that plans had been made for an incest-based storyline between her and Paul Burchill, who was supposed to have been her brother.

In an interview, Waters said that “I can’t exactly remember who (came up with the idea), it was put to us by one of the agents and honestly, I thought it was a great idea.”

She said the storyline was scrapped when WWE decided to change the show’s content to be compliant with the “TV-PG” rating.

Waters: “Any incest angle that has been on any kind of television had amazing ratings as people are fascinated by anything that is a little taboo. I thought we were lucky to have a storyline that would have been a little ‘on the edge’ but unfortunately, with the whole PG thing, it got nixed.”

Paul Burchill appears to corroborate the claim in an interview, noting that, “They debuted us with huge plans for us, but they went PG two weeks later.”

A 2008 report from the Wrestling Observer Newsletter referred to the planned Burchill storyline and noted: “Vince McMahon has given his approval for a storyline involving incest.”