10 Biggest "What If" Scenarios In WWE History
With a few small changes, WWE would be in a vastly different place.
More than any other sport, professional wrestling is defined by individual moments. Great matches and storylines are important, but it’s incidents like Hogan slamming Andre at WrestleMania and Stone Cold turning heel in Texas that endure in the memory and keep the sport rolling.
Wrestling history is a series of iconic moments sewn together by an ensemble cast, and for better or worse, WWE’s long-term fortunes are held in-place by their most iconic flashpoints. Things could have turned out oh-so-differently with even the slightest tweak, however, and had these moments not transpired as they did, wrestling would be unrecognisable in 2016.
Dealing with hypotheticals is always tricky. The tiniest difference can often set forth an unpredictable chain of events that can change a timeline immeasurably. Still, there are a number of historical WWE moments that stand-out as pivotal in the company’s development, and the company stand as an industry-dominating monopoly because of them.
But what if things were different? What if the set of circumstances that brought WWE to this point hadn’t gone the way they did? What if certain superstars didn’t climb the ranks, and the McMahons were never able to run their competitors out of business? What if WWE had chosen to go down a different route with their biggest moments?
From seemingly minor details with far-reaching consequences to some of wrestling’s most famous moments, here are the 10 biggest “what if?” scenarios in WWE history.
10. What If Roman Reigns Hadn't Joined The Shield?
What If Roman Reigns Hadn’t Joined The Shield?
A lot of juicy details came out in the wake of CM Punk’s WWE departure. His verbal shredding of the WWE hierarchy took centre stage, but among his tirades was the suggestion that The Shield was his idea, and if Punk had his way, Roman Reigns wouldn’t have been involved.
Kassius Ohno (or Chris Hero) was pegged as the original third member, but Vince McMahon and Triple H shot the idea down. Reigns was installed alongside Seth Rollins and Dean Ambrose, and went on to use The Shield’s dissolution as a platform towards inheriting John Cena’s role as the company’s “chosen one.”
Everyone knows how that one panned out. Reigns remains an incredibly unpopular babyface, and a man whose presence only complicates Raw’s muddy main event scene. WWE persist with his push, however, and although they’ve seemingly tried everything to get the poor guy over, they haven’t swayed their course. Reigns is still WWE’s preferred top guy, and that’s not changing anytime soon.
How would things have looked with Ohno in his place? It’s likely that WWE would have called-up Reigns shortly afterwards anyway, but it’s tough to see him reaching such heights without The Shield’s popularity. Ohno, meanwhile, was eventually released for failing to control his weight issues, and is currently one of the most celebrated acts on the US indie scene. A world-class wrestler with excellent microphone skills, he’d likely find himself in the same spot as Rollins and Ambrose had he kept his problems in-check.