Anyone got any cool “what if” scenarios to discuss?

[Mr. Nerfect]

Wrestling sucks, so I like to tease myself with ways it could have gone down a different path. Feel free to discuss the usual culprits, but I’m particularly interested in weird little forks that don’t often get discussed.

[Mr. Nerfect]

One I’ve been thinking about lately after listening to a podcast on the Montreal Screwjob, is what could have happened if Owen, Ken Shamrock, Rick Rude, Davey Boy, Neidhart and Mick Foley had left the WWF with Bret after the screwjob. Owen, Shamrock and Foley are the ones I’m particularly interested in.

Shamrock could have ended up with the streak gimmick before Goldberg, which would have greatly impacted history (and not necessarily for the better). I could see Hogan playing games with Bret and putting over Owen and not Bret (ala Flair/Arn). We wouldn’t get the Foley bump off the cell. We might get him doing something crazy against Sting, Nash or Hall to draw attention to WCW. Foley is probably one of the greatest carpenters ever, so it would be interesting to see who he helped get to the next level in 1998/1999 WCW.

[Lock Jaw]

What if Val Venis won the world title?

[#1-norm-fan]

There’s the pitch…

[Lock Jaw]

I always wonder what would have happened if Christian, the more talented of the duo, got the same push and respect that Edge got.....

[Bad News Gertner]

What if : Ric Flair jumps to the WWF in 86 like he was rumored.

[Seanny One Ball]

What if Right To Censor had been given more time…

I loved it.
I was old enough to get it, and I was angry when it ended.
It is an eternally relevant idea.

[Seanny One Ball]

What if D’Lo had been rewarded for his brilliance instead of released?!
My favourite undercarder of all time… throwing titles at him and they kept him as a card builder.

He should have had a World Title based on theme tune alone.

[Seanny One Ball]

D’Lo was probably my actual favourite of all time to be honest.
He still rules.

[Mr. Nerfect]

I wish RTC had stayed together until at least Judgment Day, because I would have loved to have seen Steven Richards do a promo for it like a preacher predicting the end. Throw Taker & Kane against all four male members or something.

I sometimes revisit 2001 and what it could have been with a few tweaks and either with WCW existing outside WWF, or Vince having a steady hand with it and sticking to WWF storylines for 2001.

[Mr. Nerfect]

D’Lo Brown is a guy that was there for quite a bit longer than he was relevant, a lot like the RTC guys. Would have been cool to see him get some refocus in 2001, 2002, etc.

Bull Buchanan is probably my guilty pleasure wrestler. I enjoyed watching him do that leaping clothesline too much as a kid. Gerty shared a match he had as one-half of Armageddon on either a Jakked or Shotgun, and he and Sniper did my childhood fantasy double-team move — a back body drop into a powerbomb.

I could have gone for a D’Lo Brown/Bull Buchanan tag team at some point. They might have done that in All Japan or something lol.

[xrodmuc316]

What if Evil Vito kept doing Thinking Differently threads? Those were awesome!

[Mr. Nerfect]

What if Val Venis won the world title?

Going back and watching Val, he was really dry when he was getting his push. The Val I loved really put it together when he was too bald and the gimmicks were past it. There may have been something more to the Chief Morley gimmick in 2003, but his pushes in 1998-2000 didn’t really work anywhere but the mid-card.

I do wonder what would have happened if Adam Copeland & Sean Morley had been brought in as a tag team in 1998. Where does that leave Christian? Does that create more opportunities for a Morley, or does it just weigh down Edge?

[Mr. Nerfect]

What if : Ric Flair jumps to the WWF in 86 like he was rumored.

That’d be huge. The ramifications to the NWA and JCP would have been immense. Where do you think they go for their next champion and where to put focus?

Flair in the WWF then would be surreal in retrospect. Flair’s there for WrestleMania III. Do they plug him in with Roddy Piper? Ricky Steamboat? Huge.

[Supreme Olajuwon]

This isn’t my idea but I like it so I’m taking it. If Johnny B. Badd doesn’t feud with Diamond Dallas Page over the WCW Television Championship in 1995, there never would have been a Women’s Revolution.

Discuss…

[Mr. Nerfect]

I guess the thinking is that if Marc Mero doesn’t take Sable to the WWF, Vince never works out tits and ass draw? I think he would have gotten there another way.

[Seanny One Ball]

We never got to see Sherri’s boobs

[Seanny One Ball]

Anybody got a clip of this back body drop/powerbomb double team move?
I feel like I have to see that before I die.

[Evil Vito]

What if Regal hadn't been suspended in 2008.

He's said that, while he doesn't know for sure, he doesn't believe they were ever planning on putting the title on him. But man, that heel GM run was so good for a while. A genuinely detestable heel.

Plus Triple H was close with him so who knows, maybe strings could've been pulled to get Regal the honor of being the first British World champion before he inevitably dropped it to Hunter or whoever.

[Mr. Nerfect]

I remember thinking it only made sense to put the WWE Title on Regal via abuse of power, but I don’t think they would have done it.

[XL]

I thought the World Heavyweight Championship was on Raw at the time? Regal with the Big Gold belt would have been a look.

[Bad News Gertner]

Anybody got a clip of this back body drop/powerbomb double team move?
I feel like I have to see that before I die.

Won't let me embedd but here's the match


https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=wfvFwCyb14A&t=18s&pp=ygUXYXJtYWdlZGRvbiB2cyBxdWViZWNlcnM%3D

[xrodmuc316]

What if Tiny Khan melts down and breaks whatever NDA they all signed when Cody left? Because it is coming :lol:

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr"><a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/WWESyracuse?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#WWESyracuse</a> is ELECTRIC for <a href="https://twitter.com/CodyRhodes?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@CodyRhodes</a>!! <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/WWERaw?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#WWERaw</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/WrestleMania?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#WrestleMania</a> <a href="https://t.co/bFEo4bVZdh">pic.twitter.com/bFEo4bVZdh</a></p>&mdash; WWE (@WWE) <a href="https://twitter.com/WWE/status/1632202688023633923?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 5, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

[Ol Dirty Dastard]

Great contribution fuckrod.

[Ol Dirty Dastard]

What if Shawn doesn't lose his smile?

[xrodmuc316]

Great contribution fuckrod.

Cody is over and embarrassing Tiny every time he walks out. Tiny will meltdown, so "What If" he violates the NDA? Does Cody get a massive payday? Does Cody then get to reveal all? Does Tiny cry in public?

Seems like a "What If" with a lot of depth, so thank you, it is a great contribution!

[Seanny One Ball]

Please stop calling him Tiny.
It offends my sensibilities.

[Seanny One Ball]

What if Shawn doesn't lose his smile?


What if he had a stroke that gave him a permanent smile?
I’d watch it.

[Mr. Nerfect]

Tony Khan has a meltdown and Jeff Jarrett runs the company.

[XL]

Great contribution fuckrod.

Hey now!

xrod has to get this weird Tony Khan obsession out of his system somewhere. What do you expect him to do, use one of the other 4 or 5 threads almost dedicated to it!?!?

Your post is borderline discriminatory.

[Verbose Minch]

Cody Rhodes goes an entire promo without "muh daddy"

[Bad News Gertner]

That’d be huge. The ramifications to the NWA and JCP would have been immense. Where do you think they go for their next champion and where to put focus?

Flair in the WWF then would be surreal in retrospect. Flair’s there for WrestleMania III. Do they plug him in with Roddy Piper? Ricky Steamboat? Huge.

I wonder if JCP goes after Kerry Von Erich. Windham probably gets a large push

Flair coming in eliminates the Orndorff vs Hogan feud and potentially the Andre v Hogan feud.

[Mr. Nerfect]

My mind went to Windham getting a huge push. Crazy to think about Andre/Hogan going away. Is that just because you’d think the logical plan would be to go with Hogan/Flair at Mania 3? I can see a universe where Hogan gets Andre and Flair gets Piper. Flair retires him and goes with Hogan after that.

[Bad News Gertner]

I guess it would depend on when Flair comes into the WWF.

IIRC it was August of 86.

Piper vs Flair would be an awesome idea.

I just don't know if Flair comes into the WWF at that time without promise of a Hogan run out of the gate.

Piper vs Adonis was a bit of a dud at the box office so I wonder how well Flair and Piper would do

[Helmsphere]

What if The Hurricane actually got a Solid push after pinning The Rock.

[Stu Hart]

What if Katie Vick is still alive?

[Mr. Nerfect]

She’d be signed to AEW and treated as a legend.

[Mr. Nerfect]

What if Hogan sees something in Steve Austin and he never goes to the WWF because he’s figured in. Austin is there when the nWo debut.

[Tom Guycott]

What if Hogan sees something in Steve Austin and he never goes to the WWF because he’s figured in. Austin is there when the nWo debut.

"Naw, baby, that'th fo' thumbudy elth."

Besides, if it were Hogan seeing something in Austin, it just means he'd be groomed as another proverbial giant for him to slay. Short run, bad ending.

[Mr. Nerfect]

I think Austin would have still left at some point, because the politics would have become too thick. Even if he had gotten hot, say, opposite the nWo — that would have clashed with the intended direction.

Maybe Bischoff string Austin along with more money for a while. I think the game would eventually be up though.

[Tom Guycott]

Wrestling what-ifs are funny in that they're mostly about egos and timing. One small change anywhere could have lasting repercussions everywhere. Even seemingly innocuous changes.

You could go to something like the MSG Curtain Call: what if they didn't? The whole complexion of WWE changes just by HHH winning KotR as planned. As critical as I am of Hunter, he actually wasn't ready for that step up yet and fans wouldn't have taken to it at all. Also has the ripple effect of no D-X. Maybe something like it with another person who was in HHH's spot on the card or "in the doghouse" for a different reason, but they don't work as well with Shawn. Or maybe they work better than HHH, who knows?

My usual go-to about shit gimmicks is what if instead of Undertaker, Mark Calloway was the recipient of the Duke "The Dumpster" gimmick? That shit was doomed to fail for anyone to be "dude that hangs off the back of a garbage truck and that's the whole character". Mark would've been fired, whoever became Undertaker prob'ly would have been fired. There's no unintentional WrestleMania streak. No Kane. No HiaC with Foley which, for good and ill, is a big moment in wrestling history. Hell, for a good while, nobody for Foley to match off against, since his biggest feud was with Undertaker. Foley might have not had the opportunity to shine in WWE without that.

If WCW pushed Steve Austin like they supposedly promised, even assuming it worked and he became the biggest thing they had since Sting and well ahead of Goldberg, there'd be no ECW run, no Ringmaster, no KotR (which again goes back to HHH being punished - who would be the guy taking his place if Steve wasn't in WWE?), no heat with Jake Roberts in the moment which means not Austin 3:16, etc... who would then be the breakout star of this era without Austin at that time and place?

There's a lot of moving parts one action or inaction could change: a guy who didn't get a shot getting a run. Another guy elsewhere who didn't get the chance he otherwise did. Some interactions that went sideways at particular territories never happen. Other ones do. Someone who becomes a star gets run of by some asshole at an indy show early in his career who he never would have met otherwise.

[Sting Fan]

Its kind of hard to know with some of the "What if such and such stayed/left WCW" stuff now as true history is so lost to revisionist nowadays.

Almost everyone of that era is a WWE guy now and to listen to them always were despite taking a WCW pay cheque as WCW isnt here to keep flicking the legends a pay cheque now.

Austins Podcast, or at least his free classic ones seems to be riddled with ex WCW guys desperate to sing WWE praises seemingly in hopes of one last cheque.