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What are your biggest What Ifs in wrestling?

  • 07-09-2021 11:27pm
    #1
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 7,537 ✭✭✭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.

    Tagged:


Comments

  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 39,487 ✭✭✭✭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



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,203 ✭✭✭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? :)



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 61,272 ✭✭✭✭Agent Coulson


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



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 22,412 ✭✭✭✭endacl


    What if wrestling were real?



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 7,360 ✭✭✭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?



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  • Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 12,853 Mod ✭✭✭✭riffmongous


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



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,511 ✭✭✭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?



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 48,990 ✭✭✭✭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.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 4,604 ✭✭✭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.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,302 ✭✭✭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 .



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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 3,881 ✭✭✭Pentecost


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



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 12,038 ✭✭✭✭PopePalpatine


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



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,350 ✭✭✭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).



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 29,565 ✭✭✭✭CastorTroy


    What if Benoit had gotten help?



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 7,537 ✭✭✭KKkitty


    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.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 7,537 ✭✭✭KKkitty


    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?



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,095 ✭✭✭Ohmeha


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



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 12,038 ✭✭✭✭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.



  • Moderators, Social & Fun Moderators, Sports Moderators Posts: 53,860 Mod ✭✭✭✭Necro




  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 29,565 ✭✭✭✭CastorTroy


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



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  • Posts: 13,688 ✭✭✭✭ Lizbeth Careful Self-confidence


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



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 7,537 ✭✭✭KKkitty


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



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 11,082 ✭✭✭✭chopperbyrne


    The Steiners would still be undefeated tag champs.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,908 ✭✭✭passatman86


    What if this song wasnt made

    Actually it doesn't matter




  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,819 ✭✭✭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



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,819 ✭✭✭BalcombeSt4




  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,819 ✭✭✭BalcombeSt4


    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.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 11,218 ✭✭✭✭B.A._Baracus


    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.



  • Posts: 13,688 ✭✭✭✭ Lizbeth Careful Self-confidence


    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.



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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 40,698 ✭✭✭✭Itssoeasy


    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.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 8,492 ✭✭✭brianregan09


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



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 5,357 ✭✭✭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.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 48,990 ✭✭✭✭Lithium93_


    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.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 61,272 ✭✭✭✭Agent Coulson


    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.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 14,519 ✭✭✭✭briany


    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.



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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,553 ✭✭✭Blue_Dabadee


    What if Dennis Stamp was actually booked.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 11,082 ✭✭✭✭chopperbyrne


    What if TBS never merged with Time Warner?



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 11,218 ✭✭✭✭B.A._Baracus


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



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 39,487 ✭✭✭✭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



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 40,698 ✭✭✭✭Itssoeasy


    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.



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