12 Biggest "What If" Scenarios In WWE WrestleMania History
4. WrestleMania 14: What If HBK Can’t Go?
“Stone Cold” Steve Austin reached the mountaintop in 1998 by defeating WWF Champion Shawn Michaels at WrestleMania 14, kicking off a new era for the company.
There long has been a story about Michaels threatening to not drop the title to Austin, though HBK has said that he was posturing to keep people on their toes and not seriously considering shooting to the Rattlesnake.
However, there was a more serious issue at play heading into WrestleMania. At the Royal Rumble, Michaels defended his title against the Undertaker in a casket match. HBK took a tumble outside and landed on the casket with his lower back, wrecking several discs and hobbling him. In fact, Michaels would not wrestle again until he faced Austin at Mania, and then promptly retired from the ring for four years. The pain was etched on Shawn’s face throughout that match.
But what if Michaels couldn’t compete at WrestleMania 14? He barely gutted it out to do the honors, but he could have just as easily been too incapacitated to wrestle. In that situation, do you strip him of the title and do a tournament to crown a new champion at Mania, with Austin getting a bye as the Royal Rumble winner? Who would he have faced? Undertaker? Triple H (who wasn’t yet a main event player)? Mankind?
And would that have diminished Austin’s victory? Fans were rabid to see him win, but his feud with D-Generation X – and the inclusion of Mike Tyson – was a major component of Mania that year. A last-minute change due to an injured HBK could have thrown all of that off.
Austin was going to be an industry-defining star no matter what, but he wouldn’t have gotten off on the same footing had he beat a last-minute replacement for a vacant title. The bigger impact might have been on WWF itself, as losing Michaels as champ and potentially Tyson as special enforcer could have dampened enthusiasm for WrestleMania. There would have had to be a lot of pivoting and contingency plans quickly put into place to shore up the event and the moment itself.