What are your biggest What Ifs in wrestling?

KKkitty

Inspired by a Twitter thread so I thought I'd throw it over here. Mine has to be what if Owen Hart never died. His death was such a shock. Would have loved to see him inducted into the Hall of Fame but that will never happen.

PTH2009

What If

HBK/Undertaker/Triple H/Stone Cold (insert any past big name) went to WCW

The Montreal Screwjob never happened

Wrestlemania 1 was a failure

Eddie Guerrero never died

artvanderlay

What if Lesnar didn't quit WWE in 2004?

What if Triple H didn't hook up with Stephanie?

What if The Shockmaster didn't fall through that wall? :)

Agent Coulson

What if Vince never met his father for the first time when he was 12 and stayed living with his grandmother.

endacl

What if wrestling were real?

El Gato De Negocios

What if the Rocks Hollywood career didnt take off?

What if Austin hadn't been dropped on his head by Owen?

riffmongous

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117861801#Comment_117861801

What if Hogan's Hollywood career hadn't been such a flop

NITRO95

What if Iron Shiek took Vernes money and shot on and broke Hogans leg at MSG?

What if Gedo never became NJPW booker?

What if Hogan had returned to WWF in late 97/early 98?

What if Tony Khan had never became an Observer subscriber?

What if Vince was found guilty and went to prison after the steroid trial?

Lithium93_

What if Hogan never snitched to Vince about Jesse Ventura's unionization attempts?

What if it were WWE who went out of business on March 26th 2001, instead of WCW.

JeffKenna

Biggest what if for me was if the Montreal Screwjob didn't happen. Next day was their first time beating WCW in the ratings and it lead to the "Mr. McMahon" character. No Mr. McMahon versus Stone Cold...changes everything.

Lewis_Benson

What if goldberg hadn't have smashed up his arm on that limo window, there were big plans afoot there.

What if hogan never turned heel?

What if hogan never went to WCW in 94?

What if Sting was the 3rd man?

What if warrior had been pushed more during his title reign?

What if undertaker never went to the Biker gimmick?

What if he never went back to the dead man?

What if WWF had been able to buy out the contracts of Nash, goldberg etc earlier .

Pentecost

What if Cena had been released before he started doing his rap gimmick?

PopePalpatine

What if Hogan didn't **** up Wrestlemania IX (even more)?

OneEightSeven

What if Austin never turned heel at Wrestlemania 2001 and insulted the fans' intelligence by joining forces with his arch nemeses Vince McMahon and HHH? I would have continued watching WWF instead of cutting out wrestling from my life completely two weeks later (apart from a few episodes during the Invasion angle, but it was so rubbish I didn't last long).

CastorTroy

What if Benoit had gotten help?

KKkitty

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117870107#Comment_117870107

That never made sense to me. When he came out and gave the stunner to so many ECW/WCW guys to help the WWE the pop was phenomenal. Why have him turn heel? Vince and whoever was in creative at the time really didn't have a clue back then.

KKkitty

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117870347#Comment_117870347

Him killing himself was horrendous but killing Nancy and Daniel was beyond heartbreaking. Another What If is if his brain was damaged did Eddie's untimely death flip a deadly switch?

Ohmeha

What if Taker had jobbed in one of his first 10 Wrestlemanias and the streak never happened?

PopePalpatine

One just popped into my head now from the time I was the most engaged with WWE - what if Cena lost at Unforgiven 2006 and got shipped off to SmackDown? I can't really see anyone stepping into his top babyface role on Raw. Off the top of my head, there's Jeff Hardy, who lost what I remember being a lacklustre IC match with Johnny Nitro which just seemed to drag on. OTOH, there could be some real life tension with Edge that they could play off.

Then there's DX, fresh off a gruelling Hell in a Cell handicap match. Rewind nearly half a year, a heel Triple H failed to beat Cena for the title. Putting them in the title picture just seems a bit messy, because a breakup would be almost certain. The reactions would generally either be, "Oh great, Trips is heel again. He only just had a face turn!" or "What the hell Shawn, what would Jesus do?!" The prospect of HBK becoming desperate in the "last chance saloon" of his career intrigues me, but it kind of feels like a cheap version of his WM26 angle with far lower stakes.

Necro

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117870646#Comment_117870646

Hehehe back then 🤣

They still don't have the foggiest

CastorTroy

What if Nexus beat John Cena and basically were more like a Shield type faction, instead of a Spirit Squad.

What if Mike Tyson refused WWE's offer in 1998.

KKkitty

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117874168#Comment_117874168

"Creative" in WWE seems like they put talent into some random generator at this stage 😂 Could explain a lot.

chopperbyrne

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117861614#Comment_117861614

The Steiners would still be undefeated tag champs.

passatman86

What if this song wasnt made

Actually it doesn't matter

https://youtu.be/VAag-nlCJQ0

BalcombeSt4

What if Flair hadn't left WWF in 1993

What if Shawn never lost his smile in February 1997

What if Shawn had been a active wrestler in 1998 - 2001

What if New Jack joined WWE or WCW

What if Sunny didn't get so badly f cked on drugs in her prime

What if Heenan & Cornette had more time together in WWF

What if Jesse Ventura became President & Linda Vice President

BalcombeSt4

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117903726#Comment_117903726

Money Inc would buy the titles of them.

BalcombeSt4

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117873630#Comment_117873630

Giant Gonzales came the closest to beating him, would be funny if it was a holds barred match and he ruined the streak, Taker only won by DQ.

B.A._Baracus

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117861481#Comment_117861481

Interesting what if's .... Only my two cents but i'd say:

1, If HBK/Undertaker/Triple H/Stone Cold went to wcw.

I say Undertaker would have been lost in the shuffle and potentially a failure. He couldn't have been the undertaker. So it would have been a knockoff gimmick. Biker gimmick could have worked? but that would have been a few years before maybe the taker even came up with the idea. Hogan had creative control so it was always going to be the Hollywood Hogan show with his mates. Same goes for Michaels too. Hogan would have tried to keep him in the mid/upper card. Stone Cold would have never gone back I reckon. Getting fired from WCW put him on the path to becoming a huge star. His bread was buttered in WWE and likely didnt forget being fired and told "you cant make money with black trunks" lol. Triple H was also in WCW and wouldnt go back too. WWE were making him a star.

2, The Montreal Screwjob never happened

Bret would have gotten his way and dropped the title on the following Raw. WCW would have handled him the same I feel.

3, WrestleMania 1 was a failure.

An interesting question. Don't think anyone would really know. Sure Vince says he bet the farm on it (Did he really?) Am sure he could have tried again in 1987 or 1988 for another big show. But the landscape would be totally different. Would Vince has still pushed Hogan as the star or found someone else? Really is an interesting question.

4, Eddie never died.

Eddie was 35 when he died right? Probably would have wrestled for another 5-7 years or something like that. He had some charisma so he probably would have been an on screen persona surely after his retirement.

One I've been thinking...what if Bruno didn't have that 8 year run with the WWWF title?

I don't think anyone who wasn't around could ever appreciate just how big he was and how important to WWE he was.

It was Bruno that catapulted wrestling to the masses in the north-east and was the foundation that WWWF/E was built upon. Without that larger than life superhero to cheer on, would the fans have turned up in their frenzied masses? If the title was being passed around between wrestlers during the time I don't think wrestling would have captured the imagination in the same way.

Others have carried/saved the company at various points over the decades but, in my opinion, there would not be a WWE to save without that Bruno run.

Itssoeasy

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118232881#Comment_118232881

If Bruno hadn’t been as big a success as he was then vince McMahon wouldn’t be known, which is why vince didn’t bend over backwards to keep him onside in the late 1980s when the relationship soured for years until the HOF induction. Without Bruno there would be no WWE today end of story.

some very very interesting what if though lads.

my what if is what if ric flair had come in to wwf in march 2001 instead of the night after survivor series 2001 ? I think having Ric flair who was synonymous with WCW since it’s start would have given so much more juice to a storyline that many wrestling fans have been dying to see. No offense to Shane McMahon but he was no Ric Flair.

brianregan09

I think the Eddie one changes everything because with him alive benoit doesn't do what he did either

The White Wolf

Doing this purely age related....if WWE went all in on Punk in 2011 I don't think there would be an AEW today.

Instead of investing fully in "the one" that they had from the Indies they stockpiled the lot of them with no particular plan.

When you think about it it was Punk's rage at WWE that fuelled the fans that fuelled AEW.

Lithium93_

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118233994#Comment_118233994

Just to spin off from this. I think, if memory serves correctly, you could also figure Zack Ryder & his Long Island Iced Z VLOG/subsequent push/rise in popularity into this line of thinking too. He was onto something with Long Island Iced Z; but was ultimately **** canned by higher ups cause THEY didn't think of it first.

The Bucks clearly saw what Ryder was doing, ran with it and that was the start of BEING THE ELITE.

Agent Coulson

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118234087#Comment_118234087

To spin off from this if you are looking Vlogs etc what if Colt hadn’t started The Art of Wresting and shown there was money to be made out of wrestling pods would Conrad have gotten into the podcast business which in turn brought Brother Love back into prominence and got him a job back in the WWE today with what looks like more power than he ever had before.

Punk also would also never would have been on the pod with Colt and their friendship with still be there.

briany

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118233955#Comment_118233955

Totally. Eddie was Chris's rock. Chris's murders/suicide changed wrestling a lot. The media scrutiny which it brought on WWE forced it to go in a much safer, family-friendly direction.

Blue_Dabadee

What if Dennis Stamp was actually booked.

chopperbyrne

What if TBS never merged with Time Warner?

B.A._Baracus

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118270424#Comment_118270424

.... you mean the 1996 deal? Or the AOL merger?

PTH2009

if 'Sting was WWF/WWE' and Undertaker was WCW' back in the 90s

Don't think WCW creative would of been strong enough with the Undertaker character compared to what WWF done. Vince maybe would of kept surfer Sting in place longer and crow Sting might never of happened

Itssoeasy

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118233955#Comment_118233955

If Eddie lives then rey doesn’t get the title win, at mania at least, although had Eddie lived I can see him dropping it to rey.

I think Benoit was going to do some messed up **** at some point unfortunately.