6 Times Wrestling History Was Almost COMPLETELY Different

3. Cody Rhodes Never Leaves WWE

At WrestleMania 32, Zack Ryder became Intercontinental Champion in a result that existed mostly so he could take a picture with Scott Hall backstage that called back to a shot the two had got when young wrestling-obsessed Matt Cardona met then-titleholder Razor Ramon in 1994. It was a genuinely nice moment to create for the longstanding fan from a company that had never been more cynical; the picture was designed for social media numbers as anything else. The proof was in the pudding, which - to paraphrase Hall's friend Sean Waltman - "tasted like sh*t anyway" when Ryder lost the belt to The Miz just 24 hours later.

Ryder at least got to be the one holding gold aloft at the end of the heavy duty stunt bump exhibition that opened 2016's 'Show Of Shows'. Elsewhere, it was a relentless parade of compromises without the spoils of victory to show for it. Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn's hotly-anticipated singles showdown was punted to Payback in May in order to throw them both in here. Miz will fit anywhere on any WWE show, and in he slotted here for winning the belt for real the next night. Sin Cara and Dolph Ziggler were long cast with jobber-to-the-stars stones no matter how hard they worked, with this match as perfect evidence. Cody Rhodes' pyrrhic was to pay loving tribute to his late Father with a polka dot Stardust outfit.

It wasn't enough. It was his last WrestleMania until he returned to the company in the very same building, in the biggest wrestling story of the year, six years later. 

His WWE situation had become, fittingly, a nightmare. And it was one he couldn't simply just wake up from unless he took control of it, and everything else. Rhodes foretold of All Elite Wrestling, of finishing a story, of WrestleManias he truly believed he could headline, and just about everything else he wanted to achieve in wrestling in a backstage segment with future wife Brandi (interviewer "Eden Stiles"), noting how desperate he was to do away with the nostalgia obsession that had ripped through generations since the Attitude Era. "Old men walking, young men dying" was the most powerful and revealing line, and the one that signalled the beginning of the end. Had he not followed through, he wouldn't have been able to help Change The World...