Wrestling What Ifs

[ivpvideos]

I know Bret's whole deal is that he IS Canada. But I always thought it was a little unfair of him to pull the "my backyard" card on Vince. Calgary and Montreal are about as far apart as Arizona and Vermont. If Cena refused to drop the belt anywhere in New England, he'd be called selfish.

The problem was two fold. He was built up as a Canadian hero during that angle and losing clean on home turf would be damaging.

The other part was how much he despised HBK. I have a feeling if he was scheduled against someone he respected like Taker or Austin he wouldn't have tried to get it changed

[Tromatagon]

I just want to commend the use of "mercurial petty candyass" and you should too

[Kuetsar]

I woulda probably lost all interest in Rude if he hadn't gotten injured.  WCW seemed to be turning him face and he's one of those guys I would have zero interest in after a turn.

I know they could have turned him face, but he was one of those guys(like Steamboat), that should just be a face/heel and not turn.  If he doesn't get hurt, I imagine he goes back to the WWF around the NWO if not before. He was so great on the mic, he put most guys(everyone in the NWO except for Hogan) to shame. I'll just take a moment to imagine the four plus star matches between Rude and Hart, HBK, and Austin. . . 

[mco543]

The fans in the late 90's would've probably turned Rude face regardless of if he was supposed to or not.

[Ace]

Also, what if Cornette didn't pimp-slap Santino for giggling like a schoolgirl when The Boogeyman appeared in OVW?

 

Then CM Punk never gets called up.

[Happ Hazzard]

I've often heard people say that Savage shouldn't have won the title from Flair at WrestleMania 8, and the chase for the title should  have continued until SummerSlam. But what happens if Savage wins the title at SummerSlam? I would presume that Bret never wins the title in October, Yokozuna beats Savage for the title, then you get the Luger push which isn't derailed by the fans preferring Bret since Bret never had his main event run prior to this. So what happens after that? Luger wins the title and feuds with, who? Does Diesel still end up with the belt at the end of '94?

[Petey]

Who's ever said that Savage shouldn't have won the title at WrestleMania? I always thought the more prevailing alternative WrestleMania 8 reality was Flair beating Hogan at WM (like Hogan would be cool with that) and the actual Savage/Flair match and story being reserved for SummerSlam.

[Phantom Lord]

I think it's plausible that you could have had a DQ/Countout in the Flair/Savage match to keep the title on Flair. But since the show was a double main event and DQ was the ending for Hogan's match there's no way the WWF would have done a non-finish back then for both of the big matches.

 

Thinking of Rick Rude possibly wrestling again. Say Rude was able to wrestle around the time he was in ECW and still did everything he did leading up to the swerve where he suckered Tommy and Sandman into that beating in the steel cage. How would the ECW/WWF feud gone instead of it building to Lawler vs. Dreamer, it built to Rude vs. Dreamer.

 

I'm also thinking of the idea of Rude vs. The Sandman. That's one of those WTF kinda matches I would want to see.

[Thomas Bugg]

What if D-Lo Brown didn't botch that powerbomb? How would Droz' career have turned out?

[offspring515]

I doubt he ever would have risen above the midcard. His wrestling, his gimmick, his look, his interviews all screamed middle of the road.

[The Nature Boy]

Droz ends up released by mid-2000, does a brief ECW run in late 2000, picks up indy dates for a couple of years, does a random appearance in TNA in 2003 and retires by 2004. 

[GuerrillaMonsoon]

What if Vince doesn't feel the heat of the steroid trial, and doesn't end up getting rid of Warrior, Hogan and Bulldog?

What does the booking for 93 to 94 look like instead?

[Thomas Bugg]

Shawn Michaels left the World Wrestling Federation in 1993 when he got suspended for PED's. WCW had made inroads into trying to pick him up. What if he went down there rather than returning to the WWF? Who would Razor Ramon have had to defend the IC title against at Wrestlemania? Furthermore, what becomes of the legacy of the title around that time? And what about Shawn Michaels in WCW?

[BrianS81177]

No shortage of challengers for Razor at that time. They probably would have just thrown in someone like Martel or IRS. As for Michaels, I don't think he would have done too well in WCW. He'd have put on some awesome matches, probably held the U.S. title a couple times, been a tag champ once or twice and maybe gotten a world title shot on a clash of the champions but by the time WCW would have had him built up to being a main event Sting/Flair level guy Hogan would have come in and Michaels would fall right back down the card jobbing to Beefcake and Duggan along the way.

[HumanChessgame]

No shortage of challengers for Razor at that time. They probably would have just thrown in someone like Martel or IRS. As for Michaels, I don't think he would have done too well in WCW. He'd have put on some awesome matches, probably held the U.S. title a couple times, been a tag champ once or twice and maybe gotten a world title shot on a clash of the champions but by the time WCW would have had him built up to being a main event Sting/Flair level guy Hogan would have come in and Michaels would fall right back down the card jobbing to Beefcake and Duggan along the way.

 

Pretty much this.  I see him leaving around the same time and for similar reasons as Austin.  He undoubtedly would have gone back to the WWF at that point, but the question is whether or not they'd pick up where they had left off a few years previous in terms of their intentions to push him.  If he were motivated enough and the cards were right, I see him still having a similar career trajectory though with much less backstage clout.  DX and his role in the attitude era probably would still have come about, but the Kliq probably would not have been as big a force behind the scenes. 

 

I think a bigger question would be if he did leave in 93, what would have happened to Kevin Nash?  He had come in just a few months before Michaels got suspended, so there's the question of whether he would have gotten over enough in that time to get a singles push, or would he have just been another big guy someone like Bret overcomes at an In Your House the floats into obscurity like Isacc Yankem?

[kafkonia]

 

No shortage of challengers for Razor at that time. They probably would have just thrown in someone like Martel or IRS. As for Michaels, I don't think he would have done too well in WCW. He'd have put on some awesome matches, probably held the U.S. title a couple times, been a tag champ once or twice and maybe gotten a world title shot on a clash of the champions but by the time WCW would have had him built up to being a main event Sting/Flair level guy Hogan would have come in and Michaels would fall right back down the card jobbing to Beefcake and Duggan along the way.

 

Pretty much this.  I see him leaving around the same time and for similar reasons as Austin.  He undoubtedly would have gone back to the WWF at that point, but the question is whether or not they'd pick up where they had left off a few years previous in terms of their intentions to push him.  If he were motivated enough and the cards were right, I see him still having a similar career trajectory though with much less backstage clout.  DX and his role in the attitude era probably would still have come about, but the Kliq probably would not have been as big a force behind the scenes. 

I'm not sure there would have been an attitude era in this case. Michaels leaving in 93 probably means that Diesel (at least) doesn't become a big enough name for jumping ship to matter. No Diesel/Nash means no Outsiders - so the NWO probably doesn't happen, or at least not as dramatically.

 

Without the NWO, Nitro doesn't really pose a big threat to Raw, and without the competition, the WWE probably doesn't go the Attitude route.

[Petey]

I always thought WCW's ratings were neck and neck with WWE's and that when the nWo happened, that's when they took over. I think WCW was viewed as a threat the moment Nitro debuted.

 

[Spritenaut 32]

 

I always thought WCW's ratings were neck and neck with WWE's and that when the nWo happened, that's when they took over. I think WCW was viewed as a threat the moment Nitro debuted.

 

Yep, Raw and Nitro's ratings were fairly even from Nitro's debut in fall of '95 through May 1996.  Actually, Nitro won the week more often than not during that period.  Nitro dominated from June 1996 through the spring of 1998.  Raw didn't decisively start winning the ratings battle until '99.

[Brian Fowler]

The week before Foley won the belt was, I believe was WCW's last win.

[Petey]

Seems like the last time Nitro won was actually the night after Halloween Havoc 98.

[Brian Fowler]

Weird.  I always thought it was the "Mick Foley, that'll put asses in the seats" line that ended the war.

 

Oh well.

[Big Z]

Weird.  I always thought it was the "Mick Foley, that'll put asses in the seats" line that ended the war.

 

Oh well.

 

The same night that Foley wins, you had the finger poke of doom with Hogan/Nash. That was indeed game, set, match (though the final blow for me was Benoit, Eddie, Dean, and Saturn leaving).

[Brian Fowler]

That definitely is where WCW lost their last real advantage, the incredible difference in mid-card match quality.

[Jiji]

Speaking of which, Starrcade '97 is the most depressing WCW PPV ever. How do you fuck that up that badly? I forgot entirely about the Nash no show as he refused to do the job to Giant (give that man the book!) and Raven bailing on the Benoit match, sticking Saturn in his place. But, fuck, that main event!

[Thomas Bugg]

Yeah, but at least there was a solid opener with Malenko and Eddie.

 

And yeah, adding to your point of Starrcade's main event, Hogan fucked it up due to his massive ego.