What if... ?

Here's three "what if's?" from WWF/E history.

What if Rick Rude hadn't of left in 1990?
Would he have stayed in the title picture? Would he have got the nod over Slaughter at the Rumble? Would he have become jobber to the stars? Would he have avoided the 1992 cull? (lol)

What if Shawn Michaels hadn't have got injured?
What would've happened to DX? Would HHH have been delayed in his rise to the top, or would Shawn staying helped him get there over Austin? Would he have continued for as long as he did in the 2000's? Would he be as regarded as highly as he is considered now?

What if Kennedy hadn't have got fired?
Would he have been given a lengthy title run? Would Randy Orton have become face? Would CM Punk have become one of the big three?

Discuss.

I think if Shawn hadn't have got injured he would have left DX anyway shortly after WM14. I would imagine he would have turned face, won the tag belts with Austin and had a rematch at Summerslam 98 (taking Takers' spot).

If the plan was always for Survivor Series to be laid out the way it was, I think Shawn would have been the one to turn heel, win the title, then become the corporate champion. Him being able to compete would have held back The Rock in my opinion.

I think the path Triple H was on would have went pretty much as it did even with Shawn around, he may have won the title even sooner. I also don't think Austin would have been affected by any of this, his star was too big at this time.

How would he have turned face? Only a few months previously he had solidified his role as number one heel from a certain screw job. Why would they have rushed to turn him face so soon? Would turning him face have not have hurt Austin's rise? And then why would they turn him heel again only 6 months later? That's Big Show territory!

I think he would have been turned face because Vince was turning into the number 1 heel on the roster, and took most of the fall for Montreal.

The reason he would have turned heel again is because he would have wanted his hands on the belt, and I don't think they would want him going over Austin as a face. A Shawn & McMahon faction would have been Vinces' wet dream.

I get ya. Put him in face/heel limbo to get both Vince and Austin over.
And they can play on Shawn's real life character of just being out for himself. "Love me or hate me, I'll do whatever suits Shawn Michaels best"

Yes thats my point.

You should also remember that The Rock turned face then back to heel in 3 months. Things made sense back then, so I have no doubt they would have made it work.

Yeah true. They certainly picked up the pace compared to what it was a few years prior to Attitude. Some wrestlers didn't know where they were... like poor Brian Adams: is he a dominatrix? no he's a surfer, no he's Anti American, no he's served hard time, no he's a biker, no he's in nWo, no he's the Kiss Demon, no he's part of Kronik, no, he's dead.

What if Rude didn't leave in 1990

Hmmm, well personally I don't think it would have had any major impact on the business, I loved Rick Rude, what a jack-ass he was, a great heel but I don't believe he was ever considered to be a big star, he was used to put Warrior over in his first major TV feud as the World Champion, having worked with him for 4 months the year previous I don't think Rude would have stayed in the title picture, for no other reason than to keep the Championship scene fresh.

Having looked like a legitimate threat to Warrior though I could see him possibly having a short feud with Hogan but I don't feel there was too much space left for Rude, if he stuck around through 91/92 he could have feud with Sid Justice, Jake Roberts, The Undertaker and even World Champion Randy Savage but while I really liked him I never felt he was ever positioned in a place where he'd be a loss to the company, I believe he most certainly would have been sacked in late 92 along with Warrior and Bulldog.

What if Shawn didn't get injured? Wow this is a really interesting one, the rumours that Shawn didn't wanna drop the belt at Mania are complete BS mainly because he knew he was going to be on the sidelines after Mania, he only worked so he could drop the title (and for the big main event payday of course) if Shawn wasn't injured then I'm struggling to think of how he'd recover so quickly from losing and being knocked out by Tyson to position himself as the #1 contender.

I'm sure he could have made it work tho so let's say it still played out, do I think it'd have held back Hunter? No I don't, while HHH became the new leader of DX, DX became an upper midcard faction instead of a Main Event faction so with Shawn still involved I think it would have had no adverse effect on HHH, I also think with the way the 98 screw-job played out, DX along with Vince could have turned on Shawn and screwed him instead of screwing Mankind to allow Rock to win.

I don't think it would have held Rock back so much as I think it might not have given Mankind that avenue to succeed.

I don't think Michaels would be alive today if he didn't get injured, that period of his life changed him, whether people liked him or not is irrelevent, he changed his ways nad probably saved his own life.

What if Kennedy hadn't been fired? Hmmm I'm not really sure about this, by the time they finally fired Kennedy he was well and truly down the pecking order, Jeff Hardy and CM Punk had well and truly passed him and you could say Christian was also higher above him in the pecking order, I don't think by the time he was released they had enough faith in him to carry the title like an Orton or a Cena, his time was 2007 and for one reason or another that was a major botch from all involved

This is a very good thread by the way, and I'm shocked a lot more have not chipped in.

Agree with Kay Fabe on Shawn, anyone who knows me on this forum knows I'm a massive Michaels mark and that injury definitely saved his life. His drug taking would of got worse and worse and would of eventually led him down a road similar to Scott Hall of that I'm sure.

I would like to add one more what if (if that is okay with Kid)

what if Nash, Hall, Hogan, Goldberg, Sting, Flair, Steiner etc. were involved in the invasion storyline, would Austin and Angle of switched sides still? Would it of been booked any better? What would the line up for the final match looked like?

I for one would of loved to of seen teams of Nash, Hall, Hogan, Sting and Goldberg vs The Rock, SCSA, Taker, Kane, Y2J/Angle

cheers for your answers guys.

i pretty much agree with rude. i don't think he would have disappeared into mid card anonymity, but i think his time as a world title contender had come on gone, as was the nature of heels in that time. maybe, maybe he would've been used to enhance bret hart instead of curt hennig, which would've kept kerry von erich around the upper mid card for a bit longer. although kerry's problems didn't help his status.

shawn being forced into a four year break certainly helped his longevity. time will tell whether the abuse he put his body through will come back to bite him. i've always believed that his sabbatical helped put him on the "greatest of all time" pedestal. see, i don't regard him that highly. he's a great, but not the greatest. he made the best of a weak roster at his peak, and stuck around on another weak roster during his comeback. just my opinion.

the other "what if". now that's an invasion angle i would've loved to have seen.
it probably would've still gone wrong because vince has always had issues of pushing top guys from the other federation, more using them to put over his own guys. contractual issues aside, that was one of the reasons those guys didn't make the switch at the buy out. with the depth of those stars those, i think they could've stuck with wwf vs wcw rather than the dodgy switches. wwf would've still won. how they'd do that i'm not sure. i'd suspect the wcw faction would break down into a nWo/wcw split. then nash would've torn his quad and the whole thing would've gone down the pan anyways.

assuming they had contracts for longer than a year, it may have postponed the call ups of brock lesnar, john cena and batista whilst they made the most of the career twilights of the wcw guys. i think most of those names would've been FE'd come 2004.

kennedy? don't care, not my era. i just wanted to include something for everyone.

I agree with gaffer about Kennedy, I think is firing came long after he'd been anywhere near close to becoming a star. He could have perhaps regained it with a more sustained run but I think the WWE wouldn't have been prepared to give him a big push. He's pretty one-dimensional anyway, having failed to have a single piece of character development since he debuted, I imagine he'd have quickly fallen down the pecking order if he reached the top anyway.

I don't think Randy Orton's face turn was a result of Kennedy leaving though, I think it had more to do with the losses of Undertaker and Triple H to semi-retirement, Edge to full retirement, Jeff Hardy to his stupidity, Batista quitting, Rey Mysterio's ongoing injuries etc. that led to the need for another big face.