10 Alternative Happy Endings To Universally Hated Wrestling Storylines
2. Booker T: From Convict To Geek
The Reality:
Triple H denounces Booker T, number one contender to his World Heavyweight Championship, as a convict with "nappy hair" ahead of their WrestleMania XIX marquee match. Booker is one of "those people," and thus undeserving of carrying the flagship brand as its hero. The racist cheap heat bit is despicable stuff, but it all becomes retrospectively palatable with the catharsis of Booker's eventual triumph...
...only, that doesn't happen; Triple H waits 23 seconds to successfully pin Booker with the Pedigree, thus reinforcing the very dubious idea that he is biologically superior to Booker. This isn't 2017 liberal hysteria reshaping the perception of history; this is the message delivered at the time - a feel-good wrestling story ending in pure nihilism, like the ending of South Park's Stanley's Cup - without the darkly comic irony.
The Alternative:
Booker T wins. This was the only logical conclusion to the story. The entire narrative thrust, in all its ugliness, is predicated on Booker's victory. When the ending did not materialise, neither did Booker as a babyface star. Put over as a babyface, Booker makes his company some money, and we are also spared the egotistical tedium that is Trips' "reign of terror".
We don't lose a win-win scenario because Triple H thinks he is as good as Ric Flair was in 1989.