What If...Part 5

“What If” is back! I wrote part four almost four months ago and here is part five. Click HERE if you want to read part one, part two, part three, and part four.

What if Mick Foley didn’t leave his job as a Smackdown announcer after only 15 episodes?

[Writer's Note: This was written before Mick Foley returned to the WWE in November.]

In 2008, Mick Foley returned to the WWE but not as a wrestler. He returned as a Smackdown announcer. Foley wrote in his Countdown to Lockdown book, “I’d been asked about announcing several years before and had dismissed it fairly quickly, thinking that working that closely with Vince [McMahon] could drive me crazy, and knowing I had several options outside wrestling to explode. By April 2008, I’d been exploring those options for years and had yet to find a legitimate second career.”  Foley made his WWE announcing debut at Backlash on April 27, 2008. Right away, Foley realized he loved being a WWE announcer.

Foley wrote in Countdown to Lockdown,

“For those first several weeks, I was ecstatic, thinking I’d found a viable new career—something I could do for the next ten years, maybe more.”

Remember this was in 2008 so Foley was expecting his stint as a WWE announcer to last until at least 2018. However, Foley’s announcing career ended before the end of the 2008. What happened was that Vince would often yell at Foley through Foley’s headsets during Smackdown broadcasts and Vince would use inappropriate language. Foley didn’t like that so on August 1, 2008, Edge put Foley through a table and that was the last time we have seen him near a WWE ring.

So what if Mick Foley learned to deal with Vince’s anger issues or what if Vince treated Foley with more respect? Assuming Foley meant it when he wrote that he wanted to be a WWE announcer for at least ten years, Foley would still be a Smackdown announcer right now. That would possibly mean that Booker T would not be a Smackdown announcer right now. Of course it would also mean Foley would have never joined TNA but I do not want to focus on how this would have affected TNA. I’m disappointed that Foley’s announcing career was so short because Foley is my second favorite WWE Superstar of all-time and I’m sure we would have seen at least one Foley WWE match in the last three years.

What if Hulk Hogan was healthy enough to wrestle at Wrestlemania 25?

Hulk Hogan wrote a book called My Life Outside the Ring in 2009 and in that book, he wrote that Vince McMahon wanted Hogan to appear at WrestleMania 25. However, Hogan was not healthy enough to appear at WrestleMania 25. 

Hogan wrote,

“As April approached, a string of ongoing back surgeries kept me from even entertaining the possibility of hitting that ring. Doctors finally discovered that the bottom of my spine is shaped like a J now—the result of 20 years of dropping the leg drop on my opponents, landing full-weight on my left butt cheek. I was really disappointed. I felt miserable about it. I wanted to be able to make that choice myself and not have it dictated by doctors.”

Hogan wrote in his book that it was probably a good thing that his back prevented him from doing WrestleMania 25 because Hogan wrote that wrestling was part of his old life and it was time to focus on his new life. However in 2010 after the book was published, Hogan joined TNA so we now know that wrestling is still part of his life. Therefore I think if he was healthy enough, there was a very good chance that Hogan would have agreed to be at WrestleMania 25. 

If Hogan appeared at WrestleMania 25, what would his role have been? Would he have been in a match? If he was going to be in a match, who would his opponent be? If the plan was for Hogan to be in a match, I think it’s likely that he would have faced Chris Jericho. That year, Jericho was insulting the WWE Legends. I think McMahon’s first plan was for Jericho to face Hogan and plan B was Jericho facing Roddy Piper, Ricky Steamboat, and Jimmy “Superfly” Snuka. If Hogan did face Jericho, that probably means that Steamboat wouldn’t have faced Jericho at Backlash in late April 2009. I did a little bit of research and I found out that Hogan was also rumored to face either Stone Cold or John Cena. I think either one of those two opponents would have a great opponent for Hogan but I think Hogan vs. Jericho would have been the most likely match. What if Hogan had a match with Jericho, Cena, or Stone Cold and the match was great? What if people enjoyed seeing Hogan at WrestleMania 25? Would we have seen Hogan return to the WWE full-time like he has returned to TNA full-time? I think Hogan likes TNA because the tapings are close to his home but maybe Hogan would have made occasional WWE appearances like Stone Cold does. It would have been interesting to what the last few years of Hogan’s career would have looked like if he was able to appear at WrestleMania 25. Maybe he would still end up going to TNA but maybe not.  

What if the Daniel Bryan tie-choking incident never happened?

On June 7, 2010, the Nexus beat up John Cena during his match with CM Punk on RAW. The incident was known as the Nexus Invasion. During the Invasion, Nexus member Daniel Bryan choked ring announcer Justin Roberts with his tie. Daniel Bryan was released from the WWE after that and the Nexus said that he decided to leave the group. Two months later, Daniel Bryan made his WWE return at SummerSlam. Since his return, Daniel Bryan has won the United States Championship and held it for 176 days. He also became the 2011 Smackdown Money in the Bank winner.

When Daniel Bryan got released after he choked Roberts with his tie, I thought it was something Daniel Bryan would regret for the rest of his career. Instead, it might have been one of the best things to happen to him.

Take a look at what the other seven original Nexus members have done in the WWE since the Nexus Invasion:

Wade Barrett- His biggest accomplishment was winning the Intercontinental Champion and Wade held on to it for 89 days. Wade has had a few WWE Championship matches and several Pay-Per-View matches, but he really hasn’t accomplished much in the WWE so far.

David Otunga- He is a two-time WWE Tag Team Champion, but he has very few accomplishments other than that.

Justin Gabriel and Heath Slater- These two have won the Tag Team Championships three times and appeared in the 2011 Smackdown Money in the Bank match. However, neither of them have any success as single stars.

Darren Young, Skip Sheffield, and Michael Tarver- All three of them have not won a WWE championship and all of them currently do not have an active role on Smackdown or RAW. Tarver was released from the WWE on June 13, 2011. Young is a contestant on NXT Redemption. Sheffield has been recovering from injuries. He broke his ankle at a WWE house show on August 18, 2010. 

The other seven original Nexus members have not been as successful as Daniel Bryan. Maybe Daniel Bryan would have still emerged as the most successful Nexus member even if he didn’t pre-maturely leave the group but things have turned out great for Daniel Bryan ever since he left the Nexus. 

What if Chris Jericho never met Lance Storm?

Chris Jericho wrote in his first book that when he was 19 years old, he attended the Hart Brother's Pro Wrestling Camp. Jericho decided he wanted to be a professional wrestler and he thought that attending the camp would get him closer to his dream. Jericho wrote that when he arrived at the camp, everybody he saw were out-of-shape and didn’t seem to be taking the camp seriously. They were attending the camp for fun so they could pretend to be wrestlers for a few weeks but Jericho was there because he wanted a career in pro wrestling. Then Jericho saw Lance Storm and Storm was the only person other than Jericho who was in great shape and really wanted to be a professional wrestler. Jericho and Storm worked together a lot during the camp and Jericho has said that if he didn’t meet Storm and if Storm didn’t meet Jericho, neither one of them would have become a successful pro wrestler.

When I first read that Jericho thought he would be nothing without Storm, I thought Jericho was wrong. I was thinking, “Jericho is one of the greatest wrestlers of all-time! He would have found his way into the WWE even without Lance Storm.” Then I put myself in Jericho’s shoes and realized he was right. What if I really wanted to be a circus clown so I attended clown camp? Then when I got there, what if I noticed that everybody there was there just to have fun and I was the only one who was seriously thinking about being a clown for real? Or what if it went to astronaut camp and I was the only one that really wanted to be an astronaut? I think I would have been embarrassed. I’m trying to convince myself that this camp can get me closer to my dream and everybody else are having fun while I’m being very serious. The camp would have been miserable for Jericho if Storm wasn’t there. He would have been working with other campers who had no desire to have a career as a pro wrestler. Jericho needed to hang out with someone who was chasing the same dream Jericho was chasing and it really helped get Jericho to where he is today. So what if Jericho didn’t meet Lance Storm? Jericho has many talents and one of them is singing so I think Jericho would probably be a full-time singer like he is now. With all of his focus completely on singing, maybe he would have been a huge rock star by now with several Grammy awards.

Maybe Jericho was wrong about needing Lance Storm to become a pro wrestler. Maybe Jericho would have continued to try to be a wrestler even if he didn’t meet Storm. Or maybe not.  Jericho is a smart guy and had a few other career options (including working in the media as a broadcaster or a writer) so maybe he would have decided to put his pursuit of a wrestling career on hold to make sure he had a Plan B and then never again try to become a wrestler.  Fortunately, he did meet Lance Storm and he’s not wrestling right now, but hopefully he will re-join the WWE in the near future.

What if Hade Vansen was not released before his WWE debut?

On December 12, 2008, something weird happened during a WWE Smackdown broadcast. In the middle of the show, Smackdown started experiencing technical difficulties and then a man who I had never seen before in the WWE appeared on the TV screen. The man started talking and when he was finished, the TV screen cut back to Smackdown. Below is the video of that bizarre incident.

That vignette frightened me a little bit because I wasn’t sure if it was real or not. This happened before I was an internet wrestling fan so I didn’t immediately check the wrestling sites to find out who he was. At first, I thought it was something the WWE did and I was thinking that they did a really good job making me believe that it was real. So I waited for the mysterious man to show up on Smackdown again but he never did. Then I started thinking the incident WAS real because why would the WWE do a vignette about a guy and then never show the guy again? To be honest, I thought he was some guy who hacked into the Smackdown broadcast or something like that. For years, I never knew the details about that incident until just about a week ago when I decided to do some research about it. What I found out is that the mysterious guy’s name is Hade Vansen and he was a former WWE talent, not a hacker. Based on the research I did on him, the rumors were that he was going to feud with the Undertaker but Vince McMahon didn’t want an unproven developmental talent in a major feud with the Undertaker. I also read a rumor that Vince saw Vansen backstage during a Smackdown event and decided Vansen was too small. Vansen is 5 feet 11 inches tall and weighs 220 pounds. Vansen was released on January 9, 2009.

The Vansen vignette that aired on that Smackdown episode was amazing. Like I said, it felt real. I assume Vansen was referring to the Undertaker in his promo but when I first saw it, I thought it might have been real so I got scared when he said, “Your annihilation will not be in vain” because I thought he was referring to the human population. I really thought he was some kind of terrorist who somehow hacked into the WWE Smackdown broadcast and revealed his plans of destroying the planet.  I eventually realized it wasn’t a real threat because nothing happened but I still was confused about it until I just recently researched it. I realize now that if it was real, it would have been a huge news story but I still wanted to know what the hell that was. I started wondering if I imagined it or maybe I was the only one who saw it so that’s why I decided to research it after years of curiosity and finally find out the details behind that mysterious Smackdown interruption. It’s good thing I’m an IWC fan now so the WWE can’t trick me with that shit anymore. If I wasn’t an IWC fan, maybe the 2-21-11 vignette would have frightened me.

What if Vansen wasn’t released? What if Vansen actually made his official WWE debut? I think he would have been an interesting guy. I loved the dark storylines the WWE used to do and this would have been very dark I think. It’s too bad the WWE didn’t give Vansen a chance because I love that vignette and I would have loved to see what Vansen’s gimmick would have looked like.

I hope you enjoyed What If Part 5. I’m not sure right now if there will be a part 6. I probably will write part 6 someday but you might have to wait a few more months for it. If I do write a part 6, it will be a "Future What If" with What Ifs that haven't happened yet (for example, "What if The Rock or Cena gets injured before their WrestleMania match?). I will be starting a new column soon. I have a lot of wrestling matches on DVD. I made a list of every WWE, WCW, and ECW match I have on DVD and my list ended up with 379 matches. I want to review some of them so I will create a new column called "Random Wrestling Match Review". Each match on my list has a number. I will randomly select a number using a random number generator and that number will decide which match I review. I have already randomly selected my first match and I hope to review that match this weekend.