The Great Eight: Top Eight Wrestling ‘What Ifs?’

Looking back at how things could have been with only one change is a fun part of history. And that holds just as true for pro wrestling history. What if? is a game I used to play with my bandmate/wrestling friend. We’d spend hours talking about how things could have been different and thinking up interesting scenarios.

And growing up in the Monday Night War era, it is an era that is full of both big and small things, that could have huge ripples if they went down differently. And I love exercising my creative muscle with these kinds of creative puzzles. Figuring out how one piece affects everything else is a lot of fun. And I hope you all agree and join in with your own takes on the scenarios I rank, as well as some others I hadn’t thought of!

Plugs

I don’t use social media, but you can follow me on Spotify, where you’ll find playlists covering every decade from the 1950s to the 2000s. As well as several genre-specific playlists.

Disclaimer:

This is my list; if you don’t like it or have a different list, awesome! Please share your own list and opinions in the comments section. I welcome open discourse about this wacky art we all love. It is an art form, so it is subjective; we all have our opinions on it, and all of them are valid. So, if you want to share your thoughts and opinions, don’t insult others for their opinion. There is already enough negativity in the world; let’s not add to it. And with that, on to the list!

The List

Honorable Mentions:

Jim Crockett went under while Mid-South/UWF didn’t? CM Punk didn’t walk out of the WWE? Sting Joined the WWF in the 1980s? Vince McMahon lost the steroid trial? Vince McMahon went with Dusty Rhodes over Hulk Hogan?

8: Magnum T.A. didn’t have a car accident?

Magnum T.A. was supposed to be the NWA’s answer to Hulk Hogan, and before the car accident, I can see why. Magnum was good-looking, had a great body for the NWA audience, and did good work in the ring and on the mic. So, if he didn’t have to retire, would he have kept the NWA going? Hard to say. The NWA usually kept a heel at the top, with the face chasing them.

Making Magnum the face of the NWA would require them to switch that up. Flair and Magnum would be trading the belt back and forth. But eventually, we would need a longer run from Magnum to solidify him as THE guy. And that’s when we run into an issue. As much as Magnum was a talented wrestler. I don’t know if he is a guy who could be trusted to carry lesser opponents.

In the short term, he could have helped Jim Crockett stay in business longer. But in the end, I think we still see them sell to Turner. Magnum could have been a big part of the Monday Night War, though. He was only 27 when he was in the car accident, which was in 1986. So, he would be in his prime for feuds with Vader, Sting, Austin, Foley, and Luger. He could have also had a good feud with Hogan, both when he came in and again as a defender of WCW.

7: Stephanie McMahon never heard John Cena rap?

It’s been long documented that Cena was on the bubble when Stephanie McMahon heard him rapping on a European tour. And the rest is history. But what if that never happened? His push had stalled, and he was in danger of going back to OVW or getting cut. So, let’s go with him getting cut.

First, let’s examine what would be next for Cena. This was the era when TNA was quick to grab anyone who had any recent TV exposure on the WWE. So, most likely he signs with TNA. With more creative freedom, he could have started his rapping gimmick there. Would it have taken off the same? I feel like Cena’s work ethic means he would have found a way.

Cena would have been in a prime spot to be the top guy in TNA. He would still end up working with Kurt Angle. And we would have gotten some great feuds with AJ Styles, Sting, Samoa Joe (a prime Cena vs prime Joe? Sign me up), Bobby Roode, and James Storm. Being in TNA means he could have also shown up in AAA and NJPW. This is a universe where we could have seen IWGP Heavyweight Champion John Cena.

On the other side, the WWE would need to find another big star. Rock was going Hollywood, Austin was out, and Lesnar still walks out. Randy Orton and Batista are still the prime Big Names to push. But does the lack of John Cena leave room for Edge to rise to the top faster? Does Vince decide to take more risks on wrestlers? Guys like Wade Barrett, Carlito, and Chris Masters could have become WWE Champion at some point. And without Cena, does Orton ever reach the level he did? Would Batista still decide to leave? Of course, Cena leaving doesn’t end the WWE; it was too big to stop at that point. But it would be a very different scene without him.

6: Steve Austin stayed in WCW?

There are two very different routes that Austin staying in WCW does for him. And it hinges on whether Hogan joins WCW (more on that later). If Hogan doesn’t join, Austin is on track to break into the main event. Without the big ego of Hogan, Austin has no one to stop him. His natural talent, both in the ring and on the mic, would help to propel him up the card.

It would probably be another couple of years, but by 1997, Austin is a WCW World Champion. He also never gets spiked on that Tombstone, so he gets to wrestle his more technical style for much longer. Would he become Stone Cold? Maybe not in name, but that rough Texas Redneck was going to come out eventually. And that gimmick against the flashy Flair or Surfer Sting would put butts in seats. The fans siding with Austin over Sting could also still give us Crow Sting.

If Hogan does join? Austin would end up like DDP, kept in the midcard for a long time. Eventually getting a push when the company was dying. He would still be healthy enough to join the WWF in the buyout, or he could have already jumped ship and been in the position guys like Eddie Guerrero and Chris Jericho were in.

In the WWF, with no Austin, it gets a bit trickier. Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels are still going to butt heads, and you’d need someone to carry the torch. Does Rock get pushed even harder? Or do we see Mankind, Triple H, and Shamrock move up the card to replace Hart and Michaels?

5: WrestleMania failed?

Everyone knows that Vince McMahon leveraged everything in hopes that WrestleMania would succeed. And we all know that it did. But what if it didn’t? What if WrestleMania was a huge failure, and Vince lost everything? Well, first and foremost, the WWF has to end its expansion plans. McMahon would be forced to make massive cutbacks to stay in business.

A lot of the wrestlers he had picked up would end up free agents again. The WWF would have to go back to being a regional Northeastern company. And most importantly, if he failed to make a payment, Gorilla Monsoon would take over the company. Hogan’s presence as WWF Champion would be enough to keep audiences going to shows. But McMahon would be scrambling to find more ways to stay afloat.

Meanwhile, with the WWF weakened, Jim Crockett is free and clear to expand. Starrcade and the NWA were already established names, and he would only have to keep expanding their coverage. Picking up the TV spots that McMahon had to drop (if he could secure the funding to buy the spots, as McMahon did). He had the roster, and with an influx of recent WWF roster cuts, Crockett could create one of the best rosters in wrestling history. Eventually, McMahon would either be forced to sell, miss a payment, or go out of business completely. Would wrestling have such a big boom without the WWF? It’s possible. But it would look extremely different.

4: Bret Hart stayed in the WWF?

There are some interesting ripples that we can examine here. First, and most importantly, Owen Hart is still alive. If Bret stays, he would have pushed for a larger role for Owen, or at the very least talked him out of rappelling. Beyond that, if Bret stays, Shawn Michaels doesn’t. Michaels would have ended up joining his buddies in WCW. I feel like the power of the Kliq would have stood up to Hogan, and Hogan would have jumped back to the WWF.

But by then, he wouldn’t have the same ability to throw his weight around. Yes, he was the lead in two of the biggest booms in wrestling history. But WWF was no longer the place he had left. He wouldn’t be able to politick around Hart, Undertaker, and Austin. And Austin would be the one ruling at the top. Austin would be next in line. As he and Hart would have a rematch of their classic I Quit match. And Hart would pass the torch. But unlike Michaels, he would be able to stick around.

We wouldn’t need Mr. McMahon, because we would have Hart, the bastion of the old school, vs. Austin, the rebel paving the way forward. Hart could even take on a bit of a commissioner-type role, while still staying active. Think SmackDown GM, Kurt Angle. He would have the Hart Foundation as back-up, giving Austin his DX to fight off.

Triple H, Mankind, and The Rock would still have room to grow into main eventers. And Owen would eventually get over huge when he finally grows tired of the way Bret is running things. Bret also never gets the career-ending concussion, and he may be a less bitter man today.

3: Jerry Jarret bought WCW?

It’s common knowledge that Eric Bischoff had a deal in place to buy WCW (until the shows were dropped by AOL). It’s less common knowledge that Jerry Jarrett had secured a $70 million bid to buy WCW. (And yet AOL sold to McMahon for $2 million thanks to a former employee of Turner securing the deal for the WWF.) But what if Jarrett had succeeded in buying the company?

Well, first they had to find TV. And there are two options: USA had recently lost Raw to TNN, and FX was the rumored home for Bischoff’s WCW. FX was still a newer station, and while it had a route to broadcast television with Fox. I think the USA network, and its connection to NBC, would be a more attractive opportunity. The network liked having the WWF, and it boosted ratings for them. Being able to pick up another wrestling show, even a slightly damaged IP like WCW, for cheap would be hard to pass up.

What would the company look like, though? Many of the top talents would still have their AOL/Turner contracts. So, Jarrett would be rebuilding without any names who wanted to sit them out. So, I think we get a roster that looks like early TNA. At the top, you have Jeff Jarrett and Booker T. You might get Sting, DDP, and Flair to accept buyouts. I figure Sting would be more likely to go with Jarrett over McMahon, and Flair and Jarrett had a lot of history together.

With ECW going under, there is a chance they could also pick up Rob Van Dam to bolster the main event. Below that, you have most of the roster we had for the Invasion. Plus, an influx of talent from the independent scene. I could see them making plays for guys like Cena, Orton, and Joe. As well as TNA X Division staples like AJ Styles, Low-Ki, and even a young CM Punk. By the end of the year, it would be possible for them to pick up Eddie Guerrero (and help him get clean).

As long as they kept Russo and Bischoff away, there is a strong chance Jarrett’s WCW would survive. Also, with ECW going under, they could have picked up Gabe Sapolosky to run creative. Eventually, Bryan Danielson and Nigel McGuinness would be ready for the big leagues, and WCW would become a cross between TNA and ROH.

2: Hulk Hogan didn’t join WCW?

Now we circle back to Austin staying in WCW. If Hogan doesn’t go to WCW, he doesn’t bring his buddies with him either. I’d still like Savage to show up, but everyone else Hogan brought with him can stay away. With that opening up, we have a young and hungry roster, ready to take WCW to the top. Imagine 1996 WCW with the following roster: Austin, Brian Pillman, Cactus Jack, Dustin Rhodes, Alex Wright, Steven Regal, Jean Paul Levesque, Diamond Dallas Page, Eddie Guerrero, Rey Mysterio Jr., Sting, Randy Savage, Vader, Psicosis, Chris Jericho, and Dean Malenko.

That’s a stacked roster, and just the tip of the iceberg. With the right creative behind them, these guys didn’t need the nWo. They didn’t need Nash and Hall to boost ratings. They would be putting on bangers left and right and giving us the best wrestling on TV every week. I don’t know if they would have won the war, but they would have given Vince a hell of a fight. And with the fight being built off the back of great in-ring work, it wouldn’t have fallen apart so quickly.

Without Hogan and crew coming in with their egos, guys like Jericho and the Radicalz may have never jumped ship. They wouldn’t have the same roadblocks to the top. Meaning they wouldn’t be so willing to leave. And more interestingly, with WCW being more wrestling-focused. It could have been a more attractive prospect for Kurt Angle, especially after all the issues he had with ECW. And that could also lead to Brock Lesnar, Shelton Benjamin, and Charlie Haas all going to WCW as well. But more on that in a moment.

1: WCW won the Monday Night War?

The easy answer to this; Turner buys the WWF, but then still merges with AOL. WCW is still kicked off TBS and TNT, and wrestling enters a dark age. Where we have a rebirth of the territory system. With ROH and PWG being the top companies, we may get something like TNA.

But let’s create a less bleak scenario. Turner buys out the WWF, and that gives him access to some of the best wrestling minds in the business. Bischoff is put on the creative team but not leading it, and Russo is not brought over. Jim Ross leads a creative team of JJ Dillion, Jerry Jarret, Kevin Sullivan, and Eric Bischoff. I could see McMahon in this role as well, but I don’t think he would want to work for Turner. He probably just rides off into the sunset for a while.

Without the constraint of AOL-style contracts. Turner has access to all the top names. Austin, Rock, Undertaker, Triple H, and Kurt Angle. And depending on when this happens, we can also include names like Shawn Michaels, Bret Hart, Owen Hart, and Ken Shamrock. Of course, you can’t keep everyone, so I see cuts happening on both sides.

Guys from the midcard down would be expendable. And more interestingly, Turner wouldn’t feel as beholden to aging stars like Hogan. So, there is a chance Hogan balks at some creative decision and decides to sit out the rest of his contract. I think we end up with a main event of Goldberg, Guerrero, Triple H, Rock, Austin, Undertaker, Angle, Booker T, and Scott Steiner. Right under them, you have guys like DDP, Chris Kanyon, Rey Mysterio, Edge, Christian, Matt and Jeff Hardy, and Rob Van Dam.

Eventually, I see McMahon coming back and starting his version of TNA. He could use his connections to get some of the cast-off roster from the WCW/WWF merger. So, a Hogan-led company that is trying to cash in on the name of both men. And I don’t think they end up surviving. McMahon doesn’t seem like he’d be willing to put the younger and smaller independent guys over. And guys like Lesnar would have gone to WCW.

Preview:

Tune in next week when we cover the top eight SummerSlam Opening Matches!