What If... Wrestling's WORST Era Never Happened

This year's WrestleMania 40 would have ran at around 25-hours long were it not for the events of 2020/21.

That may be pushing it a touch, but the point stands that WWE would likely have showed no signs of stopping their never-ending 'Show of Shows' in a non-COVID world.

It was the fact they realised sitting through eight hours of agonisingly quiet WrestleMania action in one night was going to be a tough task for even the most passionate sports entertainment fan that forced them to go for the Wrestle Kingdom 14 approach of splitting WrestleMania 36 into two-nights.

And it was the reaction to those far easier to digest chunks of 'Mania which kicked off the new era of two-night extravaganzas, a formula which has ensured crowds remain hot throughout the duration of the event and given the stars involved more time to shine.

Speaking of that rather peculiar anything but 'Grandest Stage of Them All' in 2020, that event and others around that time being shoved into that tiny building because of the pandemic had quite the impact on many a performer's paths, too.

Had Drew McIntyre's big WWE Championship moment played out in front of a packed Raymond James Stadium as planned and not a crowd-less PC, the Scotsman likely doesn't go on to produce some of the finest work of his entire career as a gloriously bitter soul frustrated about the biggest moment of his wrestling life being ruined.

Roman Reigns understandably deciding to take a step away from the business to protect his family during this volatile time also opened the door for Braun Strowman to win his first-ever world championship at 'Mania 36, something you have to imagine wouldn't have been on the cards if 'The Big Dog' was still booked to collide with Goldberg over the Universal Championship.

And it was Reigns' call to back away from the business for a spell which set the stage for one of the most important characters of the modern wrestling age to strut into the game.

Rather than wrecking everyone and leaving before kicking off a Bloodline Saga that would fire the industry to new heights, the former Shield man is probably just continuing on as a bland, divisive, vest-wearing chosen one without the pandemic giving him the time to rethink his gimmick on the sidelines.

Perhaps his cousin Jey Uso isn't given the opportunity to begin his own intriguing journey towards becoming a main event player without Roman and his family dominating the top of the card and taking things into a more "cinematic" space either as WWE shifted from the dull PC to the slight improvement that was the LED-screen-and-cheer.wav-stuffed ThunderDome.

And while that particular setting would ultimately go down as a symbol of the often soulless vibes felt when taking in a piece of sports entertainment that didn't involve stars like The Bloodline or Bayley & Sasha Banks, the same could not be said for another venue that would have never become as precious a place without the time of no capacity crowds...

Just a matter of months into its existence, a white hot AEW found itself having to adapt to a situation no one could have ever saw coming within the company's first year.

Rather than understandably losing a lot of the momentum they'd generated from those electric first few months tearing it up, though, Tony Khan and the gang continued to do all they could to leave their fans' jaws hitting the floor as they eventually turned Daily's Place into their home for much of the pandemic.

It was during this time when Jon Moxley truly evolved into the heart and soul of AEW as their world champ. The Elite's own saga continued to add more incredibly captivating chapters. The late, great Brodie Lee and the Dark Order became weekly highlights. Sting made his monumental debut. Thunder Rosa and Britt Baker beat the life out of one another. Kenny Omega began his epic title collecting reign.

And while AEW would have no doubt continued to create modern magic regardless of the location, there was just something so special and welcoming about switching on your TV to Daily's Place during this otherwise frequently distressing period.

Put simply, Daily's Place doesn't become the nostalgic home of AEW without this Jacksonville era of bringing much-needed smiles to beaten down faces, does it?

Daily's Place also ended up being the backdrop of many a WWE-to-AEW jump during this pandemic era of wrasslin'. And some of those jumps wouldn't have even been possible without the former company choosing to tighten their purse strings in response to COVID.

Miro and The Good Brothers showing up on AEW programming down the road doesn't happen without WWE releasing them during the shocking cutting spree known as Black Wednesday. The same can be said of Matt Cardona, too, with the former Zack Ryder's hugely successful independent scene stint probably not becoming a thing if he different suffer the blessing in disguise that was that April 2020 release.

One thing that fans were robbed of during this dreadful spell, though, was the euphoric sound that typically meets one of these surprising debuts, with the likes of Matt Hardy, Brodie Lee, and FTR actually getting the thunderous pops their arrivals could have produced in a non-pandemic universe.

And that wasn't the only thing All Elite viewers had unfairly taken away from them in the 2020/21 era.

A fascinating Elite vs. The Inner Circle first-ever Blood & Guts war was eventually scrapped due to COVID concerns, meaning the world would have got a chance to see Cody Rhodes gushing the red stuff inside of AEW's own WarGames structure if wrestling's worst-ever period never happened.

But as unthinkable as it may have seemed when living through what often felt like the darkest of spells for the business, the era nobody ever wanted was actually perhaps the best thing that could have ever happened for wrestling...