How much would the course of wrestling have changed if original plans went ahead?

[Ben Rodrigues]

I was thinking earlier about how lucky the WWF/E was with the events that surrounded Wrestlemania 13. If Shawn Michaels never pulled the infamous “lost my smile” speech and vacated the title, we would have never gotten the match that established the soon to be arguably biggest name in the history of wrestling – Stone Cold Steve Austin.

Sure the lead up to Wrestlemania 13 was one big mess, and with the exception of the Submission Match, there was nothing too special. But the events that followed like the Bret Hart heel turn and the fans really getting behind Steve Austin among other things, really catapulted the Attitude era.

If they had gone with the original Michaels/Hart rematch for the WWF Championship, how would the WWF/E been affected in the short term and long term?

[The One]

I totally disagree. We would never have gotten the Sid Shit Pants story...(don't point out it wasn't WrestleMania, I don't care, I heard Mania and until you can give me the event, it was Mania)

Plus Austin/Hart Submission was great, but by no means, there wasn't a whole lot McMahon & Co could have done to stop Austin from blowing up. No matter how it happened, Austin's Attitude Era was comming one way or another.

[Morgan]

I have another question related to the title. what if Triple H hadn't gotten the quad injury. I could be wrong but weren't the WWF planning to do Triple H/ Austin throughout the summer of 2001? If so the invasion wouldn't have happened until much later and by then who knows who they could have had signed. In addition we might never have had the draft split and the WWE would be much different.

In addition if he hadn't got injured, maybe Triple H wouldn't be so damned determined to be the top guy without letting others through.

[Pepsi Man]

I have another question related to the title. what if Triple H hadn't gotten the quad injury. I could be wrong but weren't the WWF planning to do Triple H/ Austin throughout the summer of 2001? If so the invasion wouldn't have happened until much later and by then who knows who they could have had signed. In addition we might never have had the draft split and the WWE would be much different.

In addition if he hadn't got injured, maybe Triple H wouldn't be so damned determined to be the top guy without letting others through.
I'm sure the invasion still would've happened as planned. If anything, either Steve would've stayed on the WWF side, with Hunter joining the alliance (which would make perfect sense, since Stephanie, his wife, "owned ECW"), or Hunter would've turned babyface sooner, as he represented the WWF in its quest against the Alliance.

(Then there's the route of putting two people from the same side against each other, much like X-Pac going against Tajiri and later, Jericho taking on The Rock.)

[Morgan]

I'm sure the invasion still would've happened as planned. If anything, either Steve would've stayed on the WWF side, with Hunter joining the alliance (which would make perfect sense, since Stephanie, his wife, "owned ECW"), or Hunter would've turned babyface sooner, as he represented the WWF in its quest against the Alliance.

(Then there's the route of putting two people from the same side against each other, much like X-Pac going against Tajiri and later, Jericho taking on The Rock.)

Makes sense. Still... :-\

[The One]

The biggest question of "What if original plans went ahead..." for me will always be Montreal. Without Montreal, Vince McMahon would have never become Mr. McMahon. Mr.McMahon wouldn't have been there to complete the biggest fued of all time. While Austin's popularity would have continued to rise, think of difference it would have made. No Corperation, no outlaw fighting the boss, it would have just been a popular superstar drinking beer (kind of in the same way I see Cena, mega over with nothing to do).

Also, just to throw a current one out there, what is Matt Hardy never got injured. He and Kane would have carried the fued out to completion with Lita ending on whoevers side. No Snitsky. Hell from what I understand, it was during Matt's injury that Lita fucked Edge, so maybe that would have never happened. And right now Matt would still be the Lower-Midcarder that he is, Edge would be struggling to get over as a heel with his Mr. MITB, Lita would still be worthless, and I wouldn't have to hear anyone compare Hardy to Austin.

[Chavo Classic]

The bigger question remains, what if Triple H wasn't unloved as a child and dropped repeatedly on his head?

Would he still have this inflated sense of self worth and ego, and still want to compensate for his obvious homosexuality and feelings of insecurity by injecting line after line of steroids into his body just so he can squash every wrestler who ever dreamed?

What if?

[The One]

What if the storyline with Stephanie marrying Test went along...

Think of the what if in that sentance, because it wasn't until the McMahon-Helmsly Era that Paul more or less dumped Chyna and got with Steph, and I think it was because of how much time they were spending together at work that they started to date...so think about what if that never happened.

[Chavo Classic]

You could say that immeadiately after that, it started going wrong, but I'd disagree. That happened a good 15 months before Wrestlemania 17 - which was the peak of the WWE's popularity and the height of the Attitude era.

But in terms of starting HHH's head rolling in the wrong direction, and beginning the neptoism era rather than the attitude era, then you've got a point

[The One]

Disagree about your timr frame though agree with the statment. For me, WrestleMania X-Seven with Austin joining McMahon, that was their version of Fonzie jumping the shark. There was absolutly NOTHING they could do anymore. The shock value for fans was gone, their hero died, and Rock went off to do movies one week later. Not to mention that within the comming month Austin would join Hunter (his biggest wrestling rival at the time) and then Hunter would be injured two months later. I mean, through actions of their own and unforseen problems, they were fucked the day after WrestleMania X-Seven. The whole 15 months before thing would mean that the peak came at Royal Rumble 2000 (which was a good event) but definatly not the peak.

[Xero]

What if Hogan never went to WCW? What if he stayed with the WWF, or if he just flat out retired back in 1994? The nWo would have never come about, thus DX and the Attitude era would never have had such a HUGE impact. Sure, Hall and Nash could have come in as the Outsiders, but I don't think that the nWo would have lasted as long as it did without Hogan.

For that matter, what if Paul Heyman was hired by the WWF and Shane Douglas never threw down the NWA championship? What if ECW stayed as 'Eastern Championship Wrestling'? The Attitude era surely wouldn't have happened if that were the case. I'm sure that even if ECW didn't exist, the business would have changed, maybe not to the extremes that it did, but it would come close, but much later, around 2000-2001.

[Chavo Classic]

I thought the wedding happened 2 months before the 2000 Rumlbe, and therefore, 15 months before Mania 17?

Good point about the Rock though, after Mania he went off to Holywood to film the Scorpion King and never really came back full time. Looks like he was well and truely biten by the <s> sell out </s> acting bug.