Changing the past: Re-book a Wrestlemania

[Poop Master Flex]

Since we are getting ready for the biggest event of the year I have been catching up on some of my old wrestlemanias.

I was watching Wrestlemania 8 in particular and I thought they fumbled the ball majorly, they could have had an amazing Wrestlemania that year and although it wasn't bad, it wasn't great either. Then I got to thinking, what could have changed that Wrestlemania to make it better.

This thread asks a simple question: What was a Wrestlemania that you thought could have been better and what would you have done to make it better:

There is only 1 rule for any match changes:
1) You can only use wrestlers that were on the WWE roster at the time of that particular Wrestlemania so wrestlers like Sting cannot be used.

Like I mentioned before if there was 1 wrestlemania I would have changed it would have been Wrestlemania 8. Here's what I would have done differently.

Main Event:

1) Hogan vs Flair for the title - This one is the most obvious, it was the match everyone wanted to see and to this day it didn't make much sense not to have it. Even if it wasn't well recieved at some house shows it would have been at Wrestlemania. The match has wrestlemania all over it and should have been the main attraction.

2)Savage vs Sid - Personally I would have much rather seen this than Hogan vs Sid. Savage would have given Sid a much better match and considering they both play the psychotic card so well the program leading up to the match could have been something special.

3) LOD vs Money Inc. for the tag titles - LOD lost the titles to money inc. before this match so the program would have made sense. Not only that WM8 was the debut of Paul Ellering and he could have added an extra element to the match.

4) Piper vs Hart for the IC title - this is one match I wouldn't have changed, it was a solid match and the program was booked pretty solid as well. No reason to change it.

5) Taker vs. Jake Roberts - I was thinking of making it Warrior vs. Taker but I thought Jake was a better fit at the time, so I'll leave this one alone.

6) Shawn Michaels vs. Owen Hart - This would have been an awesome match for a Wrestlemania. Michaels was just getting established as a singles star and I think him and Owen would have torn the house down.

7) El Matador vs. The Model - Here's just a good, technically sound match. Both had history together, feuded a lot a few years before and really the match itself would have made lots of sense.

8) Battle Royal with the rest of the guys and Tatanka wins - Battle Royals are always good for a filler and it never hurts guys but always helps the winner. Tatanka needed a push at the time and it would have been a good way for him to get a victory and keep the momentum going.

9) Papa Shango vs. The returning Ultimate Warrior - wouldn't have been a great match but the crowd would have ate it up because the warrior came back. Why not have him squash Shango in 30 seconds, at that time Papa Shango was a nobody anyways (really why was this guy part of the main event)

Anyways thats what I would have done. How about everyone else, whats a mania you would like to change and what would you do to make it better. All responses are welcome.

 

[Decarow]

For the most part, I'm happy with how past Manias have turned out.

However, there is one thing I'd change. I would put Rock vs Hogan as the closer for WrestleMania 18. Even Jericho and HHH agree. However Vince wanted the title match last.

 

[rko57]

WM22

1) Tag Team Titles-Kane and Big Show vs Carlito and Chris Masters
A pretty good opener that got the crowd going and I woulda kept it

2) MITB-RVD vs. Shelton Benjamin vs. Matt Hardy vs. Ric Flair vs. Finlay vs. Mark Henry
Wouda taken out Lashley and replaced him with Henry so we didn't have that terrible casket match. RVD still wins

3) Bobby Lashley vs. JBL
Coulda kept the program going into WM22 and had a good match with Lashley winning

4) United States Championship-Chris Benoit vs. Booker T
Match 7 should have happened at Mania and been a proper way to end the feud. Benoit wins with the cross face

5) Womens Championship-Trish Stratus vs. Mickie James
A great womens match that I woulda kept on the card

6) Hardcore Match-Edge vs. Mick Foley
Another great match that should stay the same

7) World Heavyweight Championship-Randy Orton vs. Rey Mysterio
Such a good personal feud that shoulda have finished at Mania with Rey still winning

8)No Holds Barred-Shawn Michaels vs. Mr McMahon
Also woulda kept the same as the other matches

9) The Undertaker vs. Kurt Angle
What a great match these two had a No Way Out and it should have happened at Mania with Taker coming out on top, maybe the same finish just with Taker winning

10) WWE Championship-John Cena vs. Triple H
What a great way to end the PPV. Still have Cena winning

 

[WarMachineUSA]

I like the WM 22 lineup that you had there, but I would make three changes.

Title vs. Title
Big Show and Kane vs. MNM (Mercury, Nitro, and Melina)

Reason: MNM had been a fixture on the Smackdown main event scene and should have been on the card. Big Show and Kane win of course.

MITB
RVD vs. Shelton Benjamin vs. Carlito vs. Chris Masters vs. Mark Henry vs. Bobby Lashley vs. Matt Hardy vs. Finlay

Reason: make it an 8 man. that number is ideal for MITB. plus, it allows Angle to fight Taker and gets Carlito and Masters on the card. It would still be 4 raw guys and 4 smackdown guys. RVD wins.

Ric Flair vs. JBL

Reason: This feud would have been a nice interpromotional feud. Both guys come out in Limos and JBL could try and claim he's the longest reigning champ in Smackdown history and now he wants a piece of the man with the most championship reigns. Plus, they hinted a feud in the backstage segment between the two of them at Mania 21.

Everything else looks legit. Agreed on Benoit and Booker.

 

[WarMachineUSA]

The entire Mania 25 card should have been redone. I mean, come on. This is the best card for the 25th Anniversary of WrestleMania?

Here's what I would do.

Make the PPV 5 hours like Mania 20. 25th Anniversaries are often more important than 20th anniversaries are anyway.

United States Championship
MVP def. Vladimir Kozlov to become new champion

Reason: Kozlov was built up all Fall and then forgotten. MVP wears red,white and blue, so it's only fitting that he takes the US title off of a Russian guy that everybody hates.

Money in the Bank Ladder Match
Christian def. R-Truth, Finlay, Kofi Kingston, Shelton Benjamin, Mark Henry, Kane and Umaga

Reason: Nothing much changes here, other than getting Truth and Umaga on the card. Oh yea, have Christian win so that he can cash in on Edge. Punk back to back? get creative.

WWE Unified Tag Team Championship Triple Threat Match
Cody Rhodes & Ted DiBiase def. John Morrison & The Miz and Carlito & Primo to unify the World Tag Team Championship and WWE Tag Team Championship

Reason: Rhodes and DiBiase should have been on the card and the tag titles should have been unified at Mania instead of on the pre-show.

Intercontinental Championship
CM Punk def. John “Bradshaw” Layfield to become new champion

Reason: Punk lost his title and then never got a rematch.

Extreme Rules Match
Jeff Hardy def. Matt Hardy

Reason: Leave it how it is.

ECW Championship
Tommy Dreamer def. Jack Swagger to become new champion

Reason: Dreamer was going to retire. give him his moment and make the title be defended.

Trish Stratus won the 25 Diva Battle Royal

Reason: anybody besides "Santina Marella"

Edge def. Big Show (Vickie Guerrero was special guest referee)

Reason: Cena was thrown into this feud for no reason whatsoever other than that there was nothing for him. just make it one-on-one. winner gets Vickie

Chris Jericho def. Rey Mysterio

Reason: they had a great feud after Mania. start it off at Mania and it's even better.

World Heavyweight Championship
John Cena def. Batista to retain

Reason: Batista came back the day after Mania. they could easily have built a program with him and Cena without having Batista wrestle much. Face vs. Face until after Mania when Batista turns heel. This allows Cena to face Taker at Mania 26, Batista can take on Sheamus because that could have been good, and have Triple H fight HBK in a Retirement vs. WWE Championship match in the Main Event.

The Undertaker def. Shawn Michaels

Reason: LEAVE IT. BEST WRESTLING MATCH I HAVE EVER SEEN.

WWE Championship
Triple H def. Randy Orton to retain

Reason: build up was good, but the match really lacked. just some tweaks in the match and it would be better.

 

[dansaint]

Wrestlemania 6
SkyDome
Toronto, Canada

Opening Match:
Rick Martel vs KoKo B. Ware. Keep original finish. Martel wins. Martel was being pushed as a strong heel.

Demolition vs Colossal Connection (Andre and Haku) for the Tag titles. Keep original finish and have Demolition recapture the tag belts. Andre was on his last legs and this was a great way for him to go out...as a face.

Earthquake vs Hercules. Keep finish. Earthquake was still a strong heel and I believe was just coming off of a good feud with Hogan that ended at SummerSlam.

Brutus Beefcake vs Mr. Perfect. My first change. I would have had Perfect win. Maybe have Genius take Brutus' barber bag...gets his attention and Perfect hits the Perfect Plex for the win. Perfect should have won this one to continue to build his resume.

Roddy Piper vs Bad News Brown. Originally ended in a double countout...and I can understand that with some of the real life animosity they had in this match (Piper panting half his body black to show he had "soul")...but I'd of have Piper win by Countout or by DQ after Brown either leaves in frustration or attacks the ref when the ref is stepping in to break.

Hart Foundation vs Bolshiviks. No change. Hart's in a total squash.

Barbarian vs Tito Santana. No change. Barbarian with the win. They were trying to push Barbarian as a legit singles guy at the time.

Dusty Rhodes and Sapphire vs Randy Savage and Sensational Sherri. Elizabeth joined Dusty and Sapphire in their corner and lead to the Polkadot Connection to get the victory. Made sense and wouldn't change it.

Orient Express vs Rockers. These two had some fantastic tag matches. Orient Express won this match by countout. I'd of changed it and had the Rockers go over to further their push toward a tag team title bout with the new champs, Demolition.

Jim Duggan vs Dino Bravo. Duggan won this match but I'd of had Dino Bravo go over and continue this feud. Maybe do a flag match (US Flag vs Quebec Flag) or something later down the road.

Ted Dibiase vs Jake Roberts for the Million Dollar Title. Dibiase won by countout but I'd of had maybe Dibiase win by DQ or Jake win by DQ. Several ways to go about it.

Bossman vs Akeem. No change...Boss Man wins. Boss Man was mega over around this time.

Rick Rude vs Jimmy Snuka. No change. Rude wins.

Hulk Hogan vs Ultimate Warrior. Title for title. Part of me says have Hogan continue with the belt...but another part says keep the match the way it was and have Warrior claim title. I'm still torn on this but I'd say keep it the same and let the Warrior era begin.

 

[Mr. HD]

I recently started re-watching The Attitude Era and WrestleMania jumps out to me. There's just a few things I would've re-done.


The Intercontinental Championship Match between Road Dogg, Goldust, Ken Shamrock, & Val Venis.

Reason: Road Dogg never had any engagement with Ryan Shamrock and this whole storyline pretty much started over Ryan to begin with. I still don't understand why they didn't leave Billy Gunn in this match cause he started screwing around with Ryan too.


The Hardcore Championship Match between Billy Gunn, Al Snow, & Hardcore Holly.

Reason: Same with the above match. These three didn't have the history like Road Dogg, Snow, & Holly had. Also, Road Dogg and Al Snow never really "finished" their feud and it made no sense to give Gunn the Hardcore. They messed up the flow of both those title matches.


Tag Team Championship Match.

Jarrett & Owen should've had better opponents heading into this show. I mean Debra received the Blood Bath on RAW and they played it off like it didn't happen. I would've had Jarrett & Owen defend against The Brood, Public Enemy, and D-Lo Brown and a partner of his choosing.



Women's Championship.

Reason: Sable vs Tori didn't get as much hype as it did and Tori attacked Luna weeks before. I guess she was just gonna take that beating then. I would've thrown in Luna, making it a Triple Threat and having Nicole Bass eliminate both of them in the end.


But, that's about it.

 

[Austinfan87]

i would redo wrestlemania 18 in a heartbeat. That wm was such a huge dissapointment to me. I would have made the matches like this

Stone Cold vs Hulk Hogan
The Rock vs Scott Hall but have a huge build up
HHH vs Brock Lesnar for the WWE Championship( i thought brock should have won the rumble and hhh win the title at the rumble or on raw before wrestlemania)
Undertaker vs Kevin Nash(they shoulda turned taker face for this and also if nash didnt get injured)

the rest i had no problem with but those matches would have made it the greatest WM of all time...but of course when wwe has something good they screw it up IE invasion

 

[Austinfan87]

im just remembering that brock might have not been in wwe yet so they should have had face HHH vs a face Kurt Angle for the title instead of jericho ...no interference and just have them put on a epic battle .. coulda been awesome

 

[BC1978]

Main Event Title vs. Title

Hulk Hogan (WWF Champion) vs. Ric Flair (World Champion) w/ Curt Hennig & Bobby Hennan

Hogan wins both titles unifying them and showing that the WWF is better than the NWA/WCW. During the ME - Lugar would come out during the ME and would try to get involved in the match only to be beaten down by the returning Warrior.

After the match Flair would create the WWF version of the Horsemen with Flair, Lugar, Dibiase, & Rotundo (if available Arn Anderson replacing Rotundo) during the corse of the Horsemen/Hennan Family they'd constantly go through a 4th or 5th guy... Lugar, Sid, Perfect, and HBK.

As for all you Flair fans... I'd book a rematch where Hogan once again defeats Flair on a SNME. Then Flair would get a 3rd rematch at KOTR (debuting 1 year early) and he'd beat Hogan for the title after the Special Guest Ref. and newest Horseman Sid Justice Power bombs Hogan and puts him out of action until Summerslam

Roddy Piper (IC Title) vs. Bret Hart - Hitman wins.

No 1 Contender Match
Sid Justice vs. Randy Savage - Savage wins by Countout after Papa Shango attacks both men

Money Inc. (Champions) w/ Curt Hennig & Bobby Hennan vs. Legion of Doom & Paul Ellering - LOD wins the titles in there return match.

Jake Roberts vs. Undertaker - Taker with the W.

HBK vs. Tito Santana - HBK

Owen Hart & Bulldog vs. Skinner & Berzerker - The Harts get the W

The Natural Disasters vs. The Nasty Boys

20 Man Battle Royal with the winner getting a IC Title Shot (won by the Mountie) - the rest of the roster.


Rick Martel vs. Tatanka

Background of the Main Event

I would have had Flair challenge Hogan on day 1 on his arrival to the WWF. Hogan would have accepted and then Jack Tunney would come out and spoil it. Announcing that Hogans title was not on the line because Flair had to earn a title shot in the WWF.

Hogan would then tell Flair they could do it without the titles... Flair tells Hogan No Chance.... During this time the WWF starts releasing a poll of its top 10 contenders and we see Flair start climbing the poll.

Hogan wrestles Undertaker at SS and loses the belt after Flair gets involved. Flair then boasts how he has Hogans number and he knows how to beat him.

During the rematch of Hogan vs. Undertaker... Flair just sits back and watches while Hogan regains his title.

When the Royal Rumble comes around Hogan is still the Champ and he faces the Undertaker in a rematch. Flair wins the Royal Rumble and becomes the number 1 contender and Hogan beats Undertaker to retain. After the match Flair beats down Hogan and Jack Tunney announces that Flair is the number 1 contender and will get a match at Mania. Flair even agrees to put his title on the line in a unification match.