6 Times Wrestling History Was Almost COMPLETELY Different

4. Sting Is The Third Man

Hulk Hogan turns heel in 1996 and absolutely everything changes in professional wrestling in the United States forever.

This isn't really up for debate or discussion - Hogan was a theoretical boon for World Championship Wrestling in July 1994, with box office receipts to prove it, but the notion of Hulkamania was dying on its a*se by December. WCW fans saw through an act they'd never particularly cared for when it was on the other channel anyway, and weren't necessarily charmed by the way his friends' arrivals had changed the undercard too. Not that this hugely mattered to Eric Bischoff at the time. Hogan was a bigger picture signing, and the vision 'Easy E' had was absolutely massive. Hogan was the closest a struggling industry still had to a household name, and though Vince McMahon's trick in the 1980s was to make WWE the shorthand for all wrestling, it wasn't so ingrained amongst a diminished audience that a young cocksure Bischoff didn't think he could come for the crown. He was right, too.

Less than a month after the aforementioned anointing of Stone Cold Steve Austin as King Of The Ring, the WCW gaffer proved himself just as worthy of a throne when he convinced Hogan to turn heel and completely reboot himself as the leader of the New World Order with new arrivals Scott Hall and Kevin Nash. It took a lot for the biggest star the industry has ever produced to make the switch though, and per all reports (including some that have bean angrily debunked by Bischoff himself because they happened to allude to other names in the weeks prior), Sting was the safety bet for shocking the world if Hogan balked last minute. 

WCW loses twice here really - not only does 'The Stinger' simply not have the shock value of Hulk in the spot, and then also can't be the company's potential saviour over a the 18 months that follow. The lack of a mid-'90s boom for one company might have seriously dampened the prospect of one for another, or even created the general need for introspection. "Attitude" might have borrowed liberally from things happening in ECW, but whether he was willing to admit it or not, Vince McMahon needed the competition out-performing him to light a fear to even steal those concepts in the first place.