12 Biggest "What If" Scenarios In WWE WrestleMania History
3. WrestleMania IV: What If DiBiase Wins The Tournament?
Fun fact: Heels winning the main event of WrestleMania used to be completely taboo. No heel won the final match at Mania until Triple H at WrestleMania 2000 (16). Since then, it’s become much more commonplace.
But way back at WrestleMania IV, there was a very real possibility that “Million Dollar Man” Ted DiBiase could walk out of the event as WWF Champion. He and “Macho Man” Randy Savage made it to the finals of the 14-man tournament for the vacant title, which Savage won.
Stories have persisted that DiBiase was at one point slated to win the tournament and finally capture the title he had attempted to purchase at the Main Event a couple months earlier.
Had that happened, WWF would have looked a lot different. Would DiBiase have been a long-term heel champion (which hadn’t happened since Superstar Billy Graham a decade earlier)? Or would he have been a transitional champ to get the belt on Macho Man soon after Mania (perhaps at a Saturday Night’s Main Event or SummerSlam)?
Clearly, Savage – and possibly Hulk Hogan – would have been chasing the title. Would that have meant that the Mega Powers would never have formed to face the Mega Bucks at SummerSlam that year? And would that have nullified the Hogan/Savage split the following winter that gave way to the WrestleMania V main event? Would Savage even have captured the world title in 1988, or would Hogan have been the one to dethrone DiBiase?
A lot of critical WWF history would have changed had Million Dollar Man walked out of WrestleMania IV with the world title, as Savage’s reign led to some major events during a hot period for the company.