What if WCW was never sold to Vince McMahon?
After WCW lost the Monday Night Wars to the WWF, they started losing ratings, losing money, and eventually AOL Time Warner, who owned WCW, decided to sell the company. The man they sold it to was Vince McMahon for a reported price of $3 million. The WWF were able to eliminate their only main competition and were able to acquire many of the former WCW Superstars. What if WCW didn’t go out of business or at least sold the company to someone other than McMahon? Would they still be around today? Would Hulk Hogan ever return to the WWE? Would Ric Flair ever return to the WWE? Let’s assume that all of the WCW Superstars never left WCW and stayed with the company until they retired. We would have never got to see Hulk Hogan vs. The Rock at Wrestlemania 18. We would have never gotten to see Ric Flair vs. Shawn Michaels at Wrestlemania 24. Booker T might not be a Smackdown announcer right now. It also means we would have never seen the Invasion storyline but I didn’t witness it as it happened so I won’t go into that. Maybe WCW’s existence wouldn’t affect the WWE much. After all, TNA is basically WCW 2.0 with Eric Bischoff and Hulk Hogan and the WWE is killing them in the ratings. However, I can’t help but wonder if things would be any different right now if WCW was never sold.
What if The Rock stayed away from Hollywood?
I started watching the WWF right around Wrestlemania 15. Right away, my favorite WWF Superstar was The Rock. Then around 2001 or 2002, I stopped watching the WWF/E. I can’t remember the exact reason I stopped watching but The Rock’s lack of appearances might have been a factor. Right around 2001 is when The Rock stopped being a full-time WWF Superstar and started appearing in movies. The Rock first appeared in The Mummy Returns and then starred in The Scorpion King. I remember The Rock missing a lot time from the WWE for both movies. Without The Rock there all of the time, I guess the WWF started getting boring for me. By 2003, I had completely stopped watching the WWE and The Rock finally left the WWE for good to focus on a career in Hollywood. He had a match in 2004 at Wrestlemania 20 and has made a few WWE appearances via satellite during his time away from the WWE but The Rock’s recent stint with the WWE this year has been really his first return to the WWE since 2003. It’s amazing to see The Rock embarrass the rest of the WWE Superstars on the mic despite being gone for eight years!
I can’t help but think what would have happened if The Rock didn’t become a Hollywood actor. What if The Rock never left the WWE? What if he still made movies but came back in-between movies like John Cena does? The Rock revealed on facebook in late January 2011 why he left the WWE. The Rock said, “I left the WWE because I had succeeded in accomplishing every goal I set to achieve….I achieved these goals in the WWE at 30 years old and decided then to HUMBLY and QUIETLY step away and retire...and set my sights on another goal...a childhood dream...Hollywood.” According to The Rock, his goals were to become the youngest WWE World Champion, help set box office, attendance, and PPV buy rate records, become “the most entertaining and electrifying performer the WWE had ever seen or will ever see again”, take the brass ring of the WWE “and take it places it had never gone before...to trailblaze...to break new ground...to achieve unprecedented greatness for not only for myself and the fans to enjoy...but for the business of professional wrestling itself and the WWE.” In my opinion, The Rock did accomplish every goal he set for himself. I can see why The Rock felt there was nothing left to accomplish. He was a nine time WWE World Champion. He appeared in several important Wrestlemania events. What was left for him to do for him to prove he is one of the greatest WWE Superstars of all-time? Despite a relatively short WWE career, The Rock had a hall of fame career. That said, The Rock may have thought there was nothing left for him to accomplish but there was. If he stayed, he would have been in several great feuds he had never been in before. His feuds with Triple H, Chris Jericho, Stone Cold, Kurt Angle, and Mankind were great. However, if he stayed, we definitely would have already seen John Cena vs. The Rock. We probably would have seen The Rock vs. Shawn Michaels or The Rock vs. Ric Flair. Would we have seen The Rock vs. Randy Orton or The Rock vs. CM Punk or The Rock vs. Rey Mysterio or The Rock vs. Batista or The Rock vs. Edge? I could go on and on and on discussing all of the great feuds The Rock could have had. Those feuds would have been great.
Maybe it’s good that The Rock did stay away. The Rock left on top. If he stayed, maybe the fans would have gotten tired of him. Maybe the PG Era would have really ruined his character. Guys like Stone Cold and The Rock can’t do the same things they did in the Attitude Era. This is the PG Era now. Look at the last DX run. It was fun to watch for nostalgic purposes but they just weren’t as edgy and entertaining as they were in the past. Maybe the PG Era would have ruined The Rock…..or maybe not. We are still in the PG Era and when The Rock returned to the WWE this year, he really doesn’t seem to be acting that much different than he was eight years ago. Surprisingly, all of his catchphrases are still being used. Maybe The Rock would have survived in the PG Era. It’s too bad The Rock had to leave the WWE because I think the ratings would definitely be higher right now if The Rock was appearing on Monday Night RAW every week.
What if Chris Jericho didn’t help convince Vince McMahon to book a Money in the Bank match at Wrestlemania 21?
I like reading books written by WWE Superstars but you already knew that (if you didn’t already know that, read part three of this series). One of the most recent books I read was Chris Jericho’s Undisputed. Like seemingly all WWE books, Jericho revealed an interesting nugget that I never knew about that discussed the debut of the Money in the Bank match. The Money in the Bank match is basically a ladder match featuring several superstars trying to climb a ladder to grab a briefcase above the ring. Inside the briefcase is a contract that guarantees a WWE World Championship match at any time for one year. According to Jericho, Vince McMahon decided to not feature the Money in the Bank match at Wrestlemania 21 as originally planned. Jericho said that McMahon decided instead there was going to be a Triple Threat Submission match between Jericho, Edge, and Chris Benoit. Jericho didn’t like McMahon’s change of plans. Jericho wrote, “I hated the idea as I thought…that the Money in the Bank was much more exciting and better for all involved. The rest of the guys agreed and we scheduled a meeting with Vince and Stephanie to convince them to stick with the MIB; to their credit they heard us out and agreed. Everyone was glad they did, because the match was a staggering spectacle that came close to stealing the show.” The match featured Jericho, Edge, Benoit, Shelton Benjamin, Christian and Kane. There have been many more MitB matches since then but many people believe that the Wrestlemania 21 match was the best MitB match so far.
What if Jericho didn’t help schedule a meeting with the McMahons? What if the match stayed as a three-way submission match? First of all, the match would have probably been won by Jericho or Benoit because according to Jericho, Edge didn’t have a submission hold. What would have happened to Edge? Edge was the one who won the MitB match at Wrestlemania 21 and he later won his first WWE Championship after he cashed his contract. No MitB match at Wrestlemania 21 means no contract for Edge so when would we have seen Edge win the championship? I’m sure we would have seen a MitB match eventually but what if McMahon never revisited the concept? It seems like a long shot because it was a really good idea but it’s possible I guess. CM Punk won the World Heavyweight Championship twice because of MitB and the only reason he regained his title for a third time was because Jeff Hardy was leaving the company. Would CM Punk be a former World Champion right now if MitB didn’t exist? How about The Miz or Jack Swagger? Their only World Championship reigns have come via the Money in the Bank match. Would either of them be calling themselves a former champion without MitB? Assuming MitB would have made its debut at Wrestlemania 22, the person who would have suffered the most as a result of there not being a MitB match at Wrestlemania 21 was Edge. Like I said, without the MitB match, Edge doesn’t become WWE Champion at the 2006 New Year’s Resolution Pay Per View. He also likely loses the submission match scheduled for Wrestlemania 21 because he didn’t have a submission hold. The MitB match was the official start of Edge’s hall of fame push. I assume he would have had won multiple titles without the MitB match but we’ll never know for sure. It’s a good thing Jericho helped book the MitB match at Wrestlemania 21. Edge’s career might have turned out differently if he didn’t.
I hope you enjoyed part four. I might write a part five in the near future but if not, I hope you liked this “What If” series.
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