10 Worst WWE Booking Decisions Of The '90s (Year-By-Year)

Shawn’s WWE Championship run in 1996 was a difficult time. Sure, in-ring, HBK could do no wrong, delivering belter main events. However, the company still struggled mightily against WCW’s soaring popularity thanks to the nWo angle. Part of the problem with Shawn and WWE was that the crowds were starting to cheer more for cool heels and morally ambiguous characters. HBK, however, was still a clean-cut, hand-slapping babyface who would make fierce comebacks and overcome the heels. This sort of formula was losing favor, and it played a part in the crowd turning on Shawn by late-1996.

Perhaps they could have reversed their fortune if they went with one of their original plans for SummerSlam in Shawn’s match with Vader for the title. Originally, Vader was scheduled to either have a rematch with Shawn at Survivor Series, or win the belt at SummerSlam, and set up a story where Shawn would redeem himself and win the title back in his hometown of San Antonio.

However, Shawn was not a fan of Vader’s stiffness, and cut the program short. Thus, he beat Vader clean at SummerSlam, and continued his floundering reign, taking away a credible future opponent. Perhaps if Shawn was more of a team player and let Vader have his belt, his own fortunes with the crowd would have been reversed, and WCW wouldn’t have whipped them so hard throughout ‘96 and ‘97.