8. A Debut At The 2002 Royal Rumble
First things first, this would obviously require Sting not to show up for several months. WCW was purchased in March of 2001, and the Royal Rumble was a full ten months later. That's a small price to pay, because the thing that makes this entry fun is the 2002 Royal Rumble's city of origin. The event took place in Atlanta, Georgia. Atlanta, of course, was the home and headquarters of WCW. The pop that Sting would have received as he showed up as a surprise entrant in the Rumble would be incredible. The biggest problem with this scenario is Triple H. If you recall, his triumphant return from a career-threatening quad tear was at the 2002 Royal Rumble. If Sting showed up, would you have Sting win it and save Triple H's return for another time? Would you still have Triple H win, but have Sting get eliminated through nefarious means by someone, setting up his WrestleMania feud? In that second case, would the crowd have been upset that Sting didn't win, putting a damper on Triple H's feel-good return story? That's the kind of variable that makes doing these types of things fun. Another fun option for Sting wouldn't even have him in the Rumble at all. At the event, Vince McMahon faced Ric Flair in a Street Fight. It would have been fun for Vince to attempt the final blow on Flair, only for the lights to go out, and when they came back on, Sting was standing behind him. As the crowd goes ballistic, Sting could hit Vince with a Scorpion Death Drop and then disappear again. Of course,
that would tie-in to Vince bringing the nWo back the following month, which would probably end up changing the WrestleMania 18 card a lot. We could really be here for a while just discussing the implications of this one thing, so we'll move on before we end up getting carried away.