What If... Wrestling's WORST Era Never Happened
Wrestling was never the same after its WORST era...
The first few months of the fateful year known as 2020 were already quite an experience within the wrestling bubble.
Tetsuya Naito held both the IWGP Intercontinental and Heavyweight Championships as Wrestle Kingdom 14 concluded. NXT took over Blackpool again. A 'Rated "R" Superstar' sensationally came back from retirement at the Royal Rumble. WWE pulverised 'Da Fiend' via 'Da Man' in Saudi Arabia. AEW produced one of the greatest pay-per-views in their history in that year's Revolution - one which boasted that Young Bucks vs. Omega & Hangman showdown. And Shayna Baszler dominated the Elimination Chamber.
Headlines were made, tears were shed for a variety of reasons, and the emergence of a real alternative in North America had pumped some much-needed energy into the business.
Then the entire world changed in March, didn't it?
The global pandemic forced much of the planet to suddenly lock itself down, with this leaving the likes of WWE and AEW strangely producing their shows in front of an audience of zero.
An already intensely bleak period was made that little more gloomy by the surreal visual of larger than life performers beating the crap out of one another inside of echoey venues, with only the sound of a few excitable commentators and bodies smacking against one another breaking up the deafening silence.
Episodes were taped in chunks, the biggest show of the year went down inside of an empty warehouse, and the industry was left to navigate new COVID protocols put in place to try and ensure the safety of everyone doing their jobs in front of and behind the camera. Though it did take WWE a few months to finally introduce a full testing system after initially just opting to temperature check their workers and have them fill in questionnaires for a time.
It was a strange, scary, and (the word of that period) unprecedented era, and one that is largely considered that absolute worst in wrestling history.
Though the business did still offer a few glorious hours of escapism here and there during a terrifying time in human history, much of the content was devoid of energy, a ton of stars understandably took some time away from wrestling, and even the admirable attempts to get creative in this unexpected scenario often didn't come close to replacing the feeling of thousands roaring on at the action.
COVID-19 gripping the planet ultimately altered not just the business as a whole, and many of the promotions within it, it also massively affected the lives and careers of many a gifted performer - for better and for worse.
What if that dreaded virus didn't rapidly spread across continents, then? And the pandemic didn't completely flip the wrestling landscape upside down throughout 2020 and a sizeable chunk of 2021?
Well, along with viewers likely not being exposed to odd karaoke contests and the eventual constant hum of piped-in audience reactions, there's a strong chance one of the most spectacular stipulations of modern times wouldn't have found its way into the universe either...