Anyone got any cool �what if� scenarios to discuss? - Page 2

**Tom Guycott** · 03-28-2023, 12:44 AM

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** · 03-28-2023, 04:38 AM

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.

03-28-2023, 12:44 AM	#41
Tom Guycott I W C DEEZ NUTZ! Posts: 10,137	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.

03-28-2023, 04:38 AM	#42
Sting Fan Blander Than Ever Posts: 3,091	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.