cool arrow Posted February 19, 2014 Share Posted February 19, 2014 I still remember all the old newzboards being certain it was Mike Tyson. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Batou Posted February 19, 2014 Share Posted February 19, 2014 Shawn Michaels as the 3rd or 4th member of the nWo would have been amazing (either an amazing coup for WCW, or an amazing train wreck. Not sure which.) So many fascinating possibilities: -- Does the nWo angle become even hotter or does it burn itself out quicker? (I'd guess it does even better business) -- Do you still turn Hogan? (Probably. They were willing to turn him because his babyface act was getting tepid crowd responses by that point) -- Who wins the backstage power struggle? Can the Kliq and Hogan co-exist backstage? -- If they can't, is Hogan expendable? Does he try to go back to Vince? -- What becomes of Shawn if he doesn't suffer the injury in '98 and retire? He's said the injury led him to getting clean and being born again. Does he give up the drugs in WCW? (Probably not) -- For that matter, does he wrestle at a high level in WCW? Or does WCW sign another Davey Boy Smith (drugged out shell of himself) -- What about Sting? Do you still go the Crow Sting route? (probably. That had at least as little with Sting working more dates than his contract called for and WCW wanting to cut down his appearances to save some money) I wish this had happened. After Hogan came in, WCW kinda transitioned away from the workrate promotion they were in the early 90's, but there were would have been a lot of fresh matchups. HBK vs. babyface Flair would probably have been amazing. Surfer Sting vs, mid-90's heel HBK is one of my personal dream matches. And, if you still turn Hogan into Hollywood Hogan, you do heel Hollywood vs. face HBK somewhere down the line. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Petey Posted February 19, 2014 Share Posted February 19, 2014 I think WCW still does the Hogan heel turn, probably in the same or similar manner. Maybe Shawn's the 3rd man at the Bash and then Hogan returns in September and turns on WCW like The Giant did. Or maybe they still have Hogan as the 3rd man at the Bash and then the three guys spend the next month+ hyping a 4th man and it turns out to be Shawn instead of Giant arbitrarily turning on WCW and becoming the 4th man. I think the angle would have been hotter but for political reasons would have fizzled faster. Hogan would still be the center piece and I don't think Shawn would have enjoyed being in the Arn Anderson role for very long. It also would have diminished Hall and Nash a bit which probably wouldn't have sat well with them. Fun fantasy booking: Hogan's still the 3rd man at the Bash. nWo spends the next month+ hyping a 4th man for War Games which will shock the world. WCW suspects it's Sting. They still do the Fake Sting thing which leads to Sting evolving into Crow Sting. However, after real Sting cleans house and leaves... that's when Shawn walks out with an nWo shirt and is the actual 4th man. The nWo used the Fake Sting thing as a way to knock WCW in the meantime. I would keep the nWo to just those four guys until Waltman was available. Don't water it down with anyone else. I love Ted DiBiase as much as the next guy but he didn't really do much as an nWo member (not his fault, there were just so many people). And there was no use for Virgil. The only guy I'd probably add is Bischoff since he really was an awesome heel and the nWo having the WCW h\ead on their side was a neat twist. Sting is teased as being an nWo member like in real life, but joins WCW for good at Uncensored. They do Sting/Hogan at Great American Bash instead of Starrcade. Hogan loses a ridiculously overbooked match where HBK, Waltman, Hall and Nash all interfere but Sting still wins. Hogan blames the rest of the nWo for his loss and recruits three more of his own guys and kicks them out. Kliq turns face, nWo stays heel and you do a Kliq/nWo feud. Kliq vs. nWo at War Games. Hogan/HBK at Starrcade and I'd start to phase Hogan out after that. Politics would probably prevent it but oh well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cool arrow Posted February 19, 2014 Share Posted February 19, 2014 The question about how hard Shawn decides to work is intriguing. Does his ego make him try to outwork the luchadors? Or does the money make him get (relatively) lazy and fat like '93 Shawn? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Web Conn Posted February 19, 2014 Author Share Posted February 19, 2014 If Shawn was revealed as the third member of the nWo and not Hogan the nWo slowly but surely becomes just a bunch of guys maing gay jokes for 20 minutes to start Nitro every Monday. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GuerrillaMonsoon Posted February 20, 2014 Share Posted February 20, 2014 If Shawn's the third man, the impact is probably largely irrelevant given that its quite possibly the final nail in the WWF coffin. Who was around that Shawn would have been willing to drop the title to? Probably not Vader. Had things escalated with Bret to the point where he wouldn't have done the job for him had he come back? Does he do a Hogan Summerslam like job in putting over Ahmed, Warrior or Sid in a few seconds? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Petey Posted February 20, 2014 Share Posted February 20, 2014 Well Shawn was feuding with Davey Boy for May and June of '96 before starting his feud with Vader, so I think the timing of when he could leave would have determined who and when he'd drop the title. Vader would probably make the most sense from a WWF perspective, although Sid wouldn't surprise me since he and Shawn worked a lot together. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt D Posted February 20, 2014 Share Posted February 20, 2014 If Shawn's the third man, the impact is probably largely irrelevant given that its quite possibly the final nail in the WWF coffin. Who was around that Shawn would have been willing to drop the title to? Probably not Vader. Had things escalated with Bret to the point where he wouldn't have done the job for him had he come back? Does he do a Hogan Summerslam like job in putting over Ahmed, Warrior or Sid in a few seconds? Ron Simmons or Taker. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GuerrillaMonsoon Posted February 21, 2014 Share Posted February 21, 2014 Would have been awesome if Vince had only just gotten around to seeing Rocky 4 in 1996, and decided to try and make Faarooq into Apollo Creed, if only for the mental image of Faarooq making the Living In America entrance complete with Nerf helmet. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cool arrow Posted February 21, 2014 Share Posted February 21, 2014 What if Ric Flair had gone along with the Spartacus gimmick? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LooseCannon Posted February 21, 2014 Share Posted February 21, 2014 What if Shockmaster doesn't trip and fall and they go forward with him as a serious wrestler high on the card? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tromatagon Posted February 21, 2014 Share Posted February 21, 2014 They still let him get the win in that War Games match it was building to. That totally boggles my mind. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kuetsar Posted February 21, 2014 Share Posted February 21, 2014 They still let him get the win in that War Games match it was building to. That totally boggles my mind. Well Dusty was still booking right? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tromatagon Posted February 21, 2014 Share Posted February 21, 2014 "Gonna let Brolo get the win, if you weeeeeeell" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phantom Lord Posted February 22, 2014 Share Posted February 22, 2014 I'm still confused as to how Shockmaster went from guy in a sparkly storm trooper mask to big and bulky...yet loveable construction worker. Okay another what if that just came to my mind. For most of 1998, Shane Douglas was out with a broken arm yet still was ECW World Champion. What if Douglas was stipped of the title and they built it up a World Title Tournament with the winners facing at Heatwave 98. In essance we still get Taz vs. Bam Bam, but instead it's for the ECW World Title. Would it have mattered if Taz won the ECW Championship seven months earlier than he did (he won it in January 99). They could have at least built up that eventual Sabu/Taz third match that was the "unification" between the ECW and FTW Title's as huge World Title match rather than something that seemed run of a the mill even with the angle of Taz trying to break Sabu's neck. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Petey Posted February 22, 2014 Share Posted February 22, 2014 Not only a more meaningful Taz/Sabu match, but when Shane was healthy and ready to return, he could do the ol', "I'm the REAL World Champion. I was never beaten for the title." And that would have been a better angle heading into Taz/Shane Douglas. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
muhammedboehm Posted February 22, 2014 Share Posted February 22, 2014 So was reading the lolTNA wiki and a What if from there is..What if Paul Haymen had taken over TNA around Hard Justice 2010. Heres the part from lolTNA: Paul Heyman was in talks with TNA to join the company. However, he wanted full control of the company aspects, and wanted to get rid of all the veterans aside from one guy to stand out (if you're over 40 I'll rip your fucking head off) while building a younger, talented roster. Spike TV were fine with it, TNA was fine with it, but Dixie Carter was not due to her loyalty to these veterans as well as people who would be fired such as Vince Russo. The deal fell apart and TNA continued to go backwards instead of forwards. Heyman later let slip that he would've tried to steal Daniel Bryan Danielson away from WWE after Tiegate happened and build him up as an unstoppable submission machine for an eventual match with Kurt Angle. Your inner mark is now weeping for what might've been. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Petey Posted February 22, 2014 Share Posted February 22, 2014 Did Heyman himself ever actually confirm that? I know I heard Gabe Sapolsky say that he had heard from Paul that was the plan. I'm sure Gabe's telling the truth, I'm just curious if Paul ever commented on his plan(s). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lazlo Woodbine Posted February 22, 2014 Share Posted February 22, 2014 I've definitely heard Heyman talk about it in some interview or another. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spritenaut 32 Posted February 22, 2014 Share Posted February 22, 2014 The "build with younger guys" bit is intiguing. My kneejerk reaction is that it wouldn't work. But..... one of my favorite booking jobs ever is 2006-ish Ohio Valley Wrestling, which was booked by Heyman for a year. Heyman made a lot of guys look like future stars, and only one or two ever really got over after being called up to the main roster (Punk and Beth Phoenix). You can make a case for a few other guys, like Idol Stevens (who is currently on the main roster under the name "Damien Sandow"), but developmental was petty thin compared to Cornette's run a couple years earlier. Heyman pushed guys like Brent Albright. Johnny Jeter, and Matt Cappotelli heavily and made them look like big deals, only to see their careers flame out when they were later called up to the main roster. Here's a minor one: does Matt Cappotelli find any success iin the WWE if he doesn't get diagnosed with the brain tumor? He looked like a star under Heyman's booking, but so did Johnny Jeter and Paul Burchill. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
E.J. Posted February 22, 2014 Share Posted February 22, 2014 Maybe if he debuted right around the time Heyman was booking Smackdown, and even then he wouldn't be a singles guy. I could see him and Morrison as an underdog face tag-team on Smackdown, but I don't think he becomes a singles star. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cool arrow Posted February 22, 2014 Share Posted February 22, 2014 I doubt he'd make it to the main roster, but he probably would've had a decent run in TNA. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tromatagon Posted February 22, 2014 Share Posted February 22, 2014 Hd supposedly would have been in a tag team with Miz instead of Morrison. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BrianS81177 Posted February 22, 2014 Share Posted February 22, 2014 I think Burchill could've had a decent mid-card run if someone had actually bothered to get Vince to watch Pirates Of The Carribean. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thomas Bugg Posted February 22, 2014 Share Posted February 22, 2014 I read the earlier post where the McMemphis angle was brought up, and it brought up two Memphis what-if's in my head... 1) I read in a vintage Observer from 1991 that there were talks of doing a cross-promotional thing between the USWA and WCW where Lawler and Luger would headline the Mid-South Coliseum, with both titles on the line. Kind of like Lawler-Von Erich from AWA Super Clash III, except from all accounts Luger had his shit together. If I remember correctly, someone ran their big fucking mouth before the announcement was made and the whole deal fell through. What if Luger and Lawler had indeed had that match? Would it have done good business at the Coliseum? And remembering late 91 USWA under Jarrett and late 91 Jim Herd WCW, what could you see as an undercard? 2) What if in 1998 Doug Gilbert had just stuck to the script and not went all shoot-happy on the Saturday morning program? Would there still be a viable promotion in the Memphis area? It seems like a major crime to me that one of the areas that shaped what wrestling is today is reduced to having to wait until WWE or TNA make their way through the area for ANY pro wrestling. And before anyone hollers OVW or Nashville, I'm talking about the actual city and the surrounding area. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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