10 Wrestlers Who Nearly Defected During The Monday Night Wars

7. British Bulldog (1996)

Yes, Davey Boy Smith did defect from WWF to WCW after the Montreal Screwjob €“ and then jumped back to WWF nearly two years later. But the British Bulldog very nearly had one of the most significant defections of them all in 1996, when he almost jumped to WCW to become the fourth member of the New World Order. Bulldog was battling Shawn Michaels unsuccessfully for the WWF Championship in 1996, so he was peaking as a main-event-level star just as the nWo was beginning its ascent. The story goes that Davey Boy had agreed to be fourth member of the renegade group, but he instead signed a new contract with the WWF on the day he was supposed to jump. In line with that thinking, look at who the fourth member actually was €“ The Giant €“ and when he joined €“ just three weeks after the nWo screwed Giant out of the WCW World Championship. It just didn€™t make sense from a storyline perspective. By staying with WWF for another year, Bulldog would with tag team gold with Owen Hart and become the inaugural European Champion, and he of course was part of the reformed Hart Foundation that dominated WWF in 1997. So it wasn€™t all bad to stay that extra year, but had he jumped then, Davey Boy Smith would have been an early member in one of the most influential groups in wrestling history.