6 Times Wrestling History Was Almost COMPLETELY Different
The moments where everything ALMOST changed, featuring Stone Cold Steve Austin, the nWo & CM Punk
Everybody wants to believe that every good wrestling development or payoff is result of several careful weeks/months of storyboarding, not least because Triple H and others like him will tell you that at every possible opportunity.
WWE Unreal on Netflix is the latest and perhaps most detailed reveal of how the sausage is (occasionally) made, but every former head honcho from Eric Bischoff, Jim Cornette, Vince Russo to Jerry Jarrett, Bill Watts and the late Dusty Rhodes have spoken at length in shoot interviews, podcasts and/or long-form Q&As about how all your favourite memories came as result of their meticulous brilliance.
But this is the case less often than you might realise, or they might want you to realise. Injuries happen. Wrestlers leave. Wrestlers stay, but politic their way into something at the last minute. It's a workplace hazard, very occasionally a workplace benefit, but always one of the many reminders that wrestling isn't really a functioning workplace. The best of the best laid plans are the best the business gets - think Bret Hart/Steve Austin at WrestleMania 13 with months of build to the double turn that finally occurred during the match itself, or CM Punk and Eddie Kingston turning a backstage shoulder-check into one of the greatest promo/match one-two punches in wrestling history - but the butterfly effect had things been tweaked even slightly might have robbed us of these iconic moments.
In Austin's case, it happened quite a lot...
6. Steve Austin Vs Mr...Monsoon?
As soon as the aforementioned classic between Stone Cold Steve Austin and Bret Hart at WrestleMania 13 had concluded, there could be no doubt that a new babyface megastar was born. The new babyface megastar. The good guy who definitionally wasn't a good guy, but at long last fit the profile of the performer mid-1990s fans had been searching for much of the decade.
It being WWE though, lies are still told about the nature of his rise, even beyond the absolute whoppers relating to the push that supposedly materialised after his King Of The Ring 1996 win. Austin's ascent was meteoric, but it wasn't without certain hurdles, unique side quests, and an incredible amount of happenstance that merged the absolute worst luck with the absolute best. It didn't start the night after he coined a catchphrase that saved an entire country, and even when it kicked off in earnest a year later, there were still kinks to iron out.
Austin lost nothing when he lost to Bret at the 'Show Of Shows', and fans let WWE know every single week. He was the guy that drove the ratings spikes, the guy that drew the loudest reactions in buildings that were growing in numbers, the guy they couldn't get enough of. The Guy. But a guy in many segments needs many enemies. Bret Hart had The British Bulldog, Owen Hart, Jim Neidhart and Brian Pillman as his goons in a revived Hart Foundation to supply Steve with warm bodies to drop with red hot Stunners, but Austin had no problem doing the same to his allies in this brand new turf war. He wasn't mates with Shawn Michaels or Ken Shamrock or The Legion Of Doom or - jesus christ, son - The Patriot just because they had common enemies. Mid-babyface-turn Mick Foley actively campaigned to be his friend and still took a kicking until Dude Love forged the oddest of odd couples with "Ol Steve-O". He was out-of-control, and before Vince McMahon took the headset off to take the the spot as the guy to do something about that, all eyes turned to who else but President Gorilla Monsoon.
The pair had a couple of absolutely electric exchanges together that signified the changing times. As early as January, Austin got his famous "you call yourself a gorilla but you're out here hee-hawing like a jackass" line off for a pop back when nobody scored points on Monsoon. By April, he was a weekly headache for a kayfabe front office still represented by the legendary announcer. It was interesting to watch the booking work out where the line was with Austin's anti-authority stance, and how they didn't allow him to truly cross it until Gorilla (by then not somebody who could be physically involved) was out of the way. By the time he was taking out Titan Suits in the fall (itself a necessity due to a neck injury sustained at SummerSlam), it was Sgt Slaughter and Vince McMahon as Commissioner and Owner respectively that took the bumps.