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Continuing with the smaller What Ifs- one of the newer What Ifs with potential coming from the last few years: 

 

-What if WWE picked the jobber originally booked in late-January 2008?  Colin Delaney was the third choice to be the jobber in ECW, and got a short WWE run out of it before being released in mid-2008. The first choice: Brodie Lee/Luke Harper (who, assuming that he does get the shot that time- presumably has the same career in 2008 and is long gone before the Wyatt Family formation.)

I'm finding it hard to imagine Luke Harper in that role, as the whipping boy, just because of the massive difference in size between him and Delaney. I mean the whole thing with Delaney is that he was tiny compared to the guys he was up against, even Shelton Benjamin would have towered over him. Where as Harper looks a lot more like he can hold his own against guys like Kane & The Great Khali so it'd presumably have meant a lot less sympathy for him, which is what put the whole angle over if I remember right. On the other hand, it'd have made the heel turn way more interesting. And from that perspective he could probably have hung around. But in the long-term I'm glad it didn't go that way, 4 more years on the indies before going to Florida just meant he was a lot better & more experienced, & he got to come in with a gimmick which has really worked.

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I remember having a copy of this issue.  I'll have to dig in my closet and see if it's still there.

 

The speculation was that if the Von Erichs had all lived then World Class would never have gone under.  It might have stuck around for a bit longer with their star power but would have been absorbed by the NWA/WCW eventually.

So is the magazine unaware that the Von Erichs dying wasn't a work?

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What if New Japan had gone with Jim Hellwig (their second choice) for the Big Van Vader gimmick instead of Leon White?

 

What if Bobby Shane survived the plane crash and had a long, successful career? Remember, Jerry Lawler was the King because Shane "loaned the crown" to him.

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To add onto the "What if the MSG Incident Never happened", you could just drop that down to "What if Triple H was still booked to win KotR that year" and not punished down (if he really was).  And what if Austin doesn't have that "Dissection of Jake Roberts" KotR final match along with *that* Austin 3:16 Promo?  You could argue that that entire 25-30 minute run is what finally turned the corner on Austin with the fans.

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The Magnum accident post was supposed to be quoted here. I have no idea why it didn't.

 

I've always wondered about this one as well, and I actually think the course of WWF may have been just as altered as the NWA in this scenario. Magnum obviously wins the strap, and feuds with Flair for a while over it. After that, though, I think there's more heels at the top of the card getting shots - without the accident, Dusty doesn't feel the need to turn Nikita, and that feud rekindles, with Nikita maybe getting a short run with the belt. At that point, when Luger comes in, he stays a heel rather than teaming up with Windham, and maybe he gets a run with the belt as well. I also don't think Sting gets his push nearly as early, if at all.

With all these new heels at the top of the card, Flair is slowly phased out, and heads north with Arn and Tully. From there - does WWF run Hogan/Flair? If they do, do Savage, Warrior and Slaughter ever get their runs? Is DiBiase ever a main event guy? There's so many possibilities opened up by that.

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Well if Arn and Tully (and Flair) don't leave until late 1988 like they actually did, Savage would still have gotten his run.

 

It would have been cool to see the Horsemen in the WWF in 1989. They could have had Bobby Heenan bring them in. Curt Hennig could have been in the role of Ole/Luger/Windham if they wanted.

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JR or Tony are promoted instead of Bischoff?

 

I REALLY hate to say it, but WCW wouldn't have took off like it did. It would've remained a Southern wrestling company that would've died out like the territories before it. Schiavone and Ross would've stuck to what made NWA/WCW great no doubt, but let's be real- Bischoff had the business savvy and acumen that neither of those two did, and I doubt either of those two would've had the mitigated gall to do half the shit that Bischoff did during the Monday Night Wars. Hell, the Monday Night Wars might not even have existed, they would've probably stuck with WCW Saturday Night as the flagship show.

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Along the lines of the Magnum T.A. what if...what if Brian Pillman hadn't died when he did?  How big of a role would he have played in the Attitude Era?

 

You know, I always wondered what the blowoff match would look like between Pillman and Goldust. I mean, would we still have Goldust going all weird?

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JR or Tony are promoted instead of Bischoff?

I REALLY hate to say it, but WCW wouldn't have took off like it did. It would've remained a Southern wrestling company that would've died out like the territories before it. Schiavone and Ross would've stuck to what made NWA/WCW great no doubt, but let's be real- Bischoff had the business savvy and acumen that neither of those two did, and I doubt either of those two would've had the mitigated gall to do half the shit that Bischoff did during the Monday Night Wars. Hell, the Monday Night Wars might not even have existed, they would've probably stuck with WCW Saturday Night as the flagship show.

Except Bischoff's business savvy has since been exposed as a fraud. He did what he did because Turner got a bug up his ass and wanted to be a legit competitor to Vince and opened the checkbook. Its what ended uo killing WCW in the long run. That and no one expected the nWo to be as big as it was. Shit, until that angle, Nitro was workinh about as well as Monday Night Impact did.

And Bischoff's new format removed jobber matches, which isn't really a good thing long run.

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What if ... 

 

Ring Ka King Season 2?

 

When last we left RKK, the devilish forces of RDX (with the aid of Isiah Cash) had stolen all the championship belts (and wings?) of all of the RKK champions.  Angela Love had married a midget with super strength much to the sadness of Romeo Rapta.  Jwala had turned to the forces of good (kind of) but got his ass kicked in the process.  Maha Veera had won the title with a win over Sir Brutus Magnus.  Barood was still winless but totally awesome.  

 

So... on to Season 2!

 

The RDX is disbanded due to a 'winner takes all' contest between American Business Man Jeff Jarrett and a random RKK star chosen from the roster pool.  Baarood wins the raffle and wins the match in a Mikey Whipwreck moment.  He goes on to lose a lot more but he is always remembered as the guy who finished the RDX.

 

With the RDX split up, the RDX Lawyer takes on the managerial role over Abyss and Scott Steiner who continue to be a rampaging force of nature winning back the tag belts from the Bollywood Boys.  The RDX lawyer continues to be overwhelmed by his charges and is always at his wit's end.  Eventually Maha Veera and Matt Morgan try to super team up to put a stop to it but Morgan turns on Veera to get 'his' title back.

 

Morgan does not succeed in getting Veera's title.  No one does until Season 3.  Veera is your Hulk Hogan folks... make with the deals.  He goes through Magnus and American Adonis in the interim.  

 

Deadly Danda works a body guard gimmick for Romeo Rapta keeping all the womens off his boy.  Throw Romeo a Cruiserweight Wings Championship because why not?

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Well if Arn and Tully (and Flair) don't leave until late 1988 like they actually did, Savage would still have gotten his run.

 

That's my mistake - I literally double-checked everything else to make sure I had the timeline right before I posted that.

 

I still think Slaughter gets left out in this scenario, unless they were to go from Hogan to Flair to Warrior, keeping everything in line. I'm not sure Flair/Warrior has the same drawing power as a Hogan/Flair rematch, though.

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What if Antonio Inoki hadn't lost influence and been forced out of New Japan in the mid-00's?  The company was a mess financially and in-ring by the time they rid themselves of Inoki?

 

What if Hogan had never signed with WCW?  (a couple better in-ring years, but the company dies sooner?)

 

What if Kobashi ends his epic NOAH title run by dropping the belt to Jun Akiyama as originally planned?  Akiyama probably could have carried the company.  Rikio could not, and his title run was the start of a long downward spiral for NOAH?

 

What if ROH makes it to December 2008 with Gabe still involved, and Punk, Joe, Danielson, etc. still working primarily for the company?

 

What if Sting signs with the WWF in the early 90's and gets the same type of push that WCW gave him?

 

What if Sting signs with WWE some time around 1998-2001?

 

What if Turner never sells?  Or, better yet, Turner sells to Time Warner and instead of deciding they don't want wrestling, Time Warner decides to sweep out the Bischoff/Russo management structure and brings in people to both book the company and make it cost effective?

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What if Antonio Inoki hadn't lost influence and been forced out of New Japan in the mid-00's?  The company was a mess financially and in-ring by the time they rid themselves of Inoki?

 

What if Hogan had never signed with WCW?  (a couple better in-ring years, but the company dies sooner?)

 

What if Kobashi ends his epic NOAH title run by dropping the belt to Jun Akiyama as originally planned?  Akiyama probably could have carried the company.  Rikio could not, and his title run was the start of a long downward spiral for NOAH?

 

What if ROH makes it to December 2008 with Gabe still involved, and Punk, Joe, Danielson, etc. still working primarily for the company?

 

What if Sting signs with the WWF in the early 90's and gets the same type of push that WCW gave him?

 

What if Sting signs with WWE some time around 1998-2001?

 

What if Turner never sells?  Or, better yet?  Turner sells to Time Warner and instead of deciding they don't want wrestling, Time Warner decides to sweep out the Bischoff/Russo management structure and brings in people to both book the company and make it cost effective?

 

1) I don't even wanna think of it because we have the most awesome New Japan era nowadays :)

 

2) You nailed it. Basically, Hogan's name value brought WCW money, even though the product in-ring sucked shit for a bit until Bischoff brought in the cruiserweights.

 

3) Could he? Akiyama rules don't get me wrong, but he's just as long in the tooth as Kobashi

 

4) ROH fans would turn against the company for pushing the same old guys, and Adam Cole and Elgin would be midcard enhancement talent.

 

5) Remember that thread I made about WWE turning popular heels into intolerable babyfaces? He would've fallen into that category had he signed with the WWF.

 

6) I don't know about all those other years, but it makes your head explode when you think about how much coin WWE could've made had he signed with them in 2001. And the dream matches!!!

 

7) TNA would never have been a thought

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JR or Tony are promoted instead of Bischoff?

I REALLY hate to say it, but WCW wouldn't have took off like it did. It would've remained a Southern wrestling company that would've died out like the territories before it. Schiavone and Ross would've stuck to what made NWA/WCW great no doubt, but let's be real- Bischoff had the business savvy and acumen that neither of those two did, and I doubt either of those two would've had the mitigated gall to do half the shit that Bischoff did during the Monday Night Wars. Hell, the Monday Night Wars might not even have existed, they would've probably stuck with WCW Saturday Night as the flagship show.

Except Bischoff's business savvy has since been exposed as a fraud. He did what he did because Turner got a bug up his ass and wanted to be a legit competitor to Vince and opened the checkbook. Its what ended uo killing WCW in the long run. That and no one expected the nWo to be as big as it was. Shit, until that angle, Nitro was workinh about as well as Monday Night Impact did.

And Bischoff's new format removed jobber matches, which isn't really a good thing long run.

 

 

I would also argue that there's a market for a Southern-style promotion. The same market that likes Duck Dynasty would probably cotton to a promotion that looked like WCW in 1992. WCW might not ever get as big as it did, but I do think there is a large, untapped market that would absolutely love something that was still booked like '92 WCW or, if a promoter wanted to go a slightly different direction in running a Southern-style promotion, Memphis in the '80s.

 

This is what has always confused me about TNA. Instead of being a far worse late '90s WWE, they should try to be a mid '80s JCP or Memphis tribute promotion. 

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If Vince goes to jail, you probably would have seen Memphis North with Jerry Jarrett in charge of things. Wasn't he brought in as an insurance policy should that same scenario had happened?

 

Weren't they already kinda turning into North Memphis at this point, with all the USWA and Smoky Mountain talent that appeared and got pushed there? And when I say North Memphis, I mean the actual hood too, with all the backstage fights and overweight rappers (Men On A Mission) running around.

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How I've always imagined some "what if they hadn't died" scenarios:

 

Owen Hart: Would've hung around for a couple more years until his contract ran out, having gotten a couple more tag and/or IC title reigns. May have gone to WCW for a breif time but wouldn't have done anything of note. Would have come back for a bit in the mid-2000s and had a good 1 or 2 year long run on Smackdown before retiring again.

 

Brian Pillman: After the feud with Goldust, would've been put in a tag team to help his ankle (wasn't it still really fucked up even when he started wrestling again?). Would've held the tag titles with Owen for a bit, but would work pretty sparsely for the next 2 years serving primarily as either an announcer or manager. Would have eventually started wrestling again and would be decent but still a shell of what he was pre-accident. No main event pushes or anything. Would have popped up in the early days of TNA but not done anything special.

 

Eddie Guerrero: Sadly I don't think Eddie would have ever held the world (or wwe) title again. He would have gotten a couple of pushes toward it but would primarily have served in the role Mysterio has been in the past few years: great worker who you can easily enough elevate if you need to, but won't suffer from feuding with a mid-carder or being in a tag team for a while. I think he would have been retired by now. Vickie would never have become an on-air character. Chavo would pretty much end up exactly where he is now.

 

Kerry Von Erich: Would have worked in the GWF until it folded, showed up in NWA/WCW at some point for a short run but would not return to WWE ever. Even if the drugs hadn't killed him, they still ruined him. Him living might have been able to save Chris though.

 

Bruiser Brody: I don't think he ever would have worked for Vince, but I think he would have kept going in japan for years, showed up in WCW during the Sting vs Cactus/Abdullah angle and returned to WCW for a while once Bischoff started giving out contracts to any remotely recognizable name that didn't work for Vince. He and Abby would also have worked a ton of US indys against each other well past their primes.

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JR or Tony are promoted instead of Bischoff?

I REALLY hate to say it, but WCW wouldn't have took off like it did. It would've remained a Southern wrestling company that would've died out like the territories before it. Schiavone and Ross would've stuck to what made NWA/WCW great no doubt, but let's be real- Bischoff had the business savvy and acumen that neither of those two did, and I doubt either of those two would've had the mitigated gall to do half the shit that Bischoff did during the Monday Night Wars. Hell, the Monday Night Wars might not even have existed, they would've probably stuck with WCW Saturday Night as the flagship show.

Except Bischoff's business savvy has since been exposed as a fraud. He did what he did because Turner got a bug up his ass and wanted to be a legit competitor to Vince and opened the checkbook. Its what ended uo killing WCW in the long run. That and no one expected the nWo to be as big as it was. Shit, until that angle, Nitro was workinh about as well as Monday Night Impact did.

And Bischoff's new format removed jobber matches, which isn't really a good thing long run.

 

True, although Nitro's ratings were very comparable to Raw until the nWo angle and then Nitro took over. It's not like Raw was killing Nitro every week until the summer of 96.

 

Had Ross gotten Bischoff's job, I wonder if Turner still pushes to legitimately compete with Vince even though WCW presumably wouldn't have signed Hogan (I don't see JR bending over backwards to try to sign Hogan like Bischoff did).

 

I 100% agree that removing jobber matches hurt things in the long run. I miss the days when everyone got to squash people, not just the Rybacks and Goldbergs of the world.

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How I've always imagined some "what if they hadn't died" scenarios:

 

Eddie Guerrero: Sadly I don't think Eddie would have ever held the world (or wwe) title again. He would have gotten a couple of pushes toward it but would primarily have served in the role Mysterio has been in the past few years: great worker who you can easily enough elevate if you need to, but won't suffer from feuding with a mid-carder or being in a tag team for a while. I think he would have been retired by now. Vickie would never have become an on-air character. Chavo would pretty much end up exactly where he is now.

 

Eddie was apparently booked to win the title at the Smackdown taping after they found him.

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