stro Posted December 28, 2015 Share Posted December 28, 2015 I'm positive that story is less "See how strict they are?" and more "I have so must testosterone, man, it's fucking crazy *metal hands*". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Nature Boy Posted December 28, 2015 Share Posted December 28, 2015 It also explains Regal's suspension. Of course, the Real Man's Man has higher T levels than everyone else. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BrianS81177 Posted December 31, 2015 Share Posted December 31, 2015 It also explains Regal's suspension. Of course, the Real Man's Man has higher T levels than everyone else. That's actually an interesting "What if" What if Regal hadn't been suspended then? How far would that push have gone? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stro Posted December 31, 2015 Share Posted December 31, 2015 A month or two reign as champion probably. He was already 40, with a beat down body, and wonky style that didn't mesh well with most people in WWE. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BrianS81177 Posted December 31, 2015 Share Posted December 31, 2015 Here's one that I ask because I don't follow puro that closely. What if All Japan, Wrestle 1 and Zero One merged into one company with one clear direction in mind? Would they have the star power to compete with NJPW? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tromatagon Posted December 31, 2015 Share Posted December 31, 2015 No Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SorceressKnight Posted December 31, 2015 Share Posted December 31, 2015 At this point, the only way a Japanese company could compete with New Japan would be if they were able to lock up a working arrangement with the WWE. Any other chance would fail. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BEN! Posted December 31, 2015 Share Posted December 31, 2015 It's not that Butch Reed no-showed and Honky filled in for him. Reed no-showed the show where the office first made the decision to switch the title over to him and when they couldn't find him that's when HTM swept in and talked them into giving him the title instead. Things were planned out a lot further ahead back then. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OSJ Posted January 3, 2016 Share Posted January 3, 2016 At this point, the only way a Japanese company could compete with New Japan would be if they were able to lock up a working arrangement with the WWE. Any other chance would fail. And even that would be a longshot. NJPW is just so stacked top to bottom that just a talent sharing with WWE wouldn't be enough, this hypothetical Japanese company would pretty much have to take on about 50% of the WWE's talent on a permanent basis and that might not even be enough to compete with NJPW. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SorceressKnight Posted January 4, 2016 Share Posted January 4, 2016 At this point, the only way a Japanese company could compete with New Japan would be if they were able to lock up a working arrangement with the WWE. Any other chance would fail. And even that would be a longshot. NJPW is just so stacked top to bottom that just a talent sharing with WWE wouldn't be enough, this hypothetical Japanese company would pretty much have to take on about 50% of the WWE's talent on a permanent basis and that might not even be enough to compete with NJPW. That might be a little bit much, simply because of how much gaijin talent are seen as on a higher level. Even midcard names in WWE get bandied about as potential big challengers, to the point even ROH names (nowhere near WWE) are assimilating due to the talent exchange there. Even if NJPW's stacked with big names, if WWE shared talent with this hypothetical Japanese company, all they would need is "we'll send you one top midcard name a tour, and we guarantee you a John Cena match on your big event" to actually have a chance. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Infinit Posted January 4, 2016 Share Posted January 4, 2016 Is there enough of All Japan left so theoretically if WWE sent over a rotating crew of mid carders/nxters and a main eventer or 2 per tour...they could put a dent on NJPW's dominance in Japan? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stro Posted January 4, 2016 Share Posted January 4, 2016 AJPW is selling like...250 tickets per show. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
caley Posted January 4, 2016 Share Posted January 4, 2016 Flipping through Bret Hart's biography recently and he mentions that in 1997, when he and Shawn were at the height of their off-air feud, Vince McMahon apologized to Bret for their hair-pulling "fight", acknowledged Michaels was out of control but that he was afraid to discipline him because he was worried he would jump to WCW with Hall and Nash. So, what if Michaels had jumped to WCW, and Hart had stayed. Would we still get the McMahon heel turn (Even before Montreal, there were seeds of it with Hart and McMahon getting into on-air shoving matches and the like) except against Hart, Hart and Austin, or maybe Hart aligning with McMahon against Austin? Would WCW have stayed ahead of WWE with the excitement generated by having Michaels there with Hall and Nash? Would this have hastened a Hogan face turn with Michaels taking over the NWO? Or would Michaels notoriously shitty attitude have further poisoned the already shitty attitude pervading WCW and just caused more trouble? Fun to think about. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jiji Posted January 4, 2016 Share Posted January 4, 2016 I cannot imagine how awful it would be to have HBK/Hall/Nash on one side and Hogan and his cronies on the other of a backstage bitchfest. WCW would have imploded in a year tops. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
clintthecrippler Posted January 4, 2016 Share Posted January 4, 2016 I think what happens to Shawn Michaels in WCW is exactly what happened to Bret Hart in WCW and what happened to Shawn when he ran into Hogan years later at Summerslam. Even alongside Nash and Hall, Shawn Michaels still gets steamrolled outside the ring by Hogan's manipulation, and ends up with an underwhelming run exactly like Bret. He gets thrown into critically underwhelming feuds, a few U.S. title runs, a token World Title run long after it would have had any impact, and a damaged brand due to not being protected by Vince's hype machine. Though in the end, he still comes back to WWE in 2002 thanks to his friendship with Hunter, and the last 14 years happens anyway. There's also a chance that with his drug habits being what they allegedly were at the time and in the toxic WCW environment, he ends up a high-profile wrestling industry casualty. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brysynner Posted January 4, 2016 Share Posted January 4, 2016 But without Shawn does Hunter rise to the levels he got to by 2002? If Shawn leaves in 1997, does Hunter just end up in the Owen Hart role of getting a brief title shot but then shoved down the card. I can't see him in a position to be the foil to Vince/Test and get hooked up with Stephanie. Also if Bret never leaves, do we ever get the goofy Blue Blazer gimmick back? Figuring out what WWF would look like if Bret stays and Shawn goes is more fun than figuring out that Hogan's contract trumps the Kliq being together and in the end they all put over Hulk. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
caley Posted January 4, 2016 Share Posted January 4, 2016 But without Shawn does Hunter rise to the levels he got to by 2002? If Shawn leaves in 1997, does Hunter just end up in the Owen Hart role of getting a brief title shot but then shoved down the card. I can't see him in a position to be the foil to Vince/Test and get hooked up with Stephanie. Also if Bret never leaves, do we ever get the goofy Blue Blazer gimmick back? Figuring out what WWF would look like if Bret stays and Shawn goes is more fun than figuring out that Hogan's contract trumps the Kliq being together and in the end they all put over Hulk. Hard to say, Hart claims that Triple H was on the booking committee/meetings all the way back in 1997. So obviously Vince was quite fond of him even then. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GuerrillaMonsoon Posted January 9, 2016 Share Posted January 9, 2016 Realistically the difference between where HHH was in mid 97 to where he was post Mania when Shawn left anyway is pretty minimal. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cwoy2j Posted January 10, 2016 Share Posted January 10, 2016 But without Shawn does Hunter rise to the levels he got to by 2002? If Shawn leaves in 1997, does Hunter just end up in the Owen Hart role of getting a brief title shot but then shoved down the card. I can't see him in a position to be the foil to Vince/Test and get hooked up with Stephanie. Also if Bret never leaves, do we ever get the goofy Blue Blazer gimmick back? Figuring out what WWF would look like if Bret stays and Shawn goes is more fun than figuring out that Hogan's contract trumps the Kliq being together and in the end they all put over Hulk. Hard to say, Hart claims that Triple H was on the booking committee/meetings all the way back in 1997. So obviously Vince was quite fond of him even then. I always thought it was strange that HHH was on the booking committee in 1997. He'd been wrestling for about 4 or 5 years at that point and hadn't done jackshit yet somehow he was calling shots and one of the guys who had Vince's ear. Today's equivalent of that would be like if they made somebody like David Otunga one of the head writers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Victator Posted January 11, 2016 Share Posted January 11, 2016 Flipping through Bret Hart's biography recently and he mentions that in 1997, when he and Shawn were at the height of their off-air feud, Vince McMahon apologized to Bret for their hair-pulling "fight", acknowledged Michaels was out of control but that he was afraid to discipline him because he was worried he would jump to WCW with Hall and Nash. So, what if Michaels had jumped to WCW, and Hart had stayed. Would we still get the McMahon heel turn (Even before Montreal, there were seeds of it with Hart and McMahon getting into on-air shoving matches and the like) except against Hart, Hart and Austin, or maybe Hart aligning with McMahon against Austin? Would WCW have stayed ahead of WWE with the excitement generated by having Michaels there with Hall and Nash? Would this have hastened a Hogan face turn with Michaels taking over the NWO? Or would Michaels notoriously shitty attitude have further poisoned the already shitty attitude pervading WCW and just caused more trouble? Fun to think about. WCW would catch Pneumonia while it was dying of cancer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BurningBeard Posted January 11, 2016 Share Posted January 11, 2016 If Michaels had gone to WCW I recon he'd be dead by now sad as that is and his run would have been very similar to Bret's run in regard to title runs and spinning of wheels Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HumanChessgame Posted January 11, 2016 Share Posted January 11, 2016 With all this discussion of Bret, I wonder what would have happened if during the time leading up to the Montreal Screwjob instead of going to WCW he just decided he had enough of the business in general and retired. If he had let management know he was done after losing the belt, would they have arranged a scenario where he just dropped it clean? He never did a whole hell of a lot in WCW so I can't see his lack of presence there making a difference on the landscape of WCW. Would he have eventually come back for a brief fairwell run sometime in the 00s? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Nature Boy Posted January 11, 2016 Share Posted January 11, 2016 With all this discussion of Bret, I wonder what would have happened if during the time leading up to the Montreal Screwjob instead of going to WCW he just decided he had enough of the business in general and retired. If he had let management know he was done after losing the belt, would they have arranged a scenario where he just dropped it clean? He never did a whole hell of a lot in WCW so I can't see his lack of presence there making a difference on the landscape of WCW. Would he have eventually come back for a brief fairwell run sometime in the 00s? I wonder what would've happened if Bret had decided to wrestle in Japan after 1997. Either way, I think that Vince convinces Bret to return in 2000 once finances have picked up and guys like Jericho, Benoit, Angle and Guerrero have been brought in. Since Owen might still be alive if Vince and Bret were still friends, Owen would also still be around. I'm not sure where Bret and Owen fit into the WWF in 2000 but I'm sure that something would've worked out. In any event, without Bret going to WCW, Vince would've just had him drop it clean to someone. The Montreal Screwjob was because Vince felt that there was a risk of Bret walking out on Nitro with the championship. Eliminate that risk and you get rid of the screwjob. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J.H. Posted January 11, 2016 Share Posted January 11, 2016 Get rid of that risk and Bret probably retains via Double DQ in order to set-up Bret/Austin for the title at Mania that year I'd bet James Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Nature Boy Posted January 11, 2016 Share Posted January 11, 2016 Get rid of that risk and Bret probably retains via Double DQ in order to set-up Bret/Austin for the title at Mania that year I'd bet James If Bret retires, I could definitely see him agreeing to put over Austin on the way out and sticking around until WrestleMania. Of course, by maybe a month or two after Mania, the WWF's fortunes would have started to turn around anyway so there's a chance that Bret is back in the WWF by early 1999, if not by the summer of 1998. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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