If you could change 3 events/moments in WWE history what would they be and why?

[dashing]

one each from the Hogan era, Attitude Era and PG era.

Give the Million Dollar Man or Rowdy Roddy Piper a title run. Both superb heels, great ring work and mic skills from both and it's a travesty either of these guys never got a run in the late 80s or 90s. Sgt Slaughter got a run for crying out loud! The heel on these guys would have been immense and would have lead to great matches against the likes of Savage, Hogan, and also with lengthy runs could have elevated younger guys a lot sooner to the main event frame, guys like Bret Hart or the British Bulldog. Since then Vince has realized it is important to push heels and put belts on them and as a result I believe that for all it's faults that the product is much better and more interesting than in the 80s and early 90s.

I wouldn't have allowed the Montreal Screwjob to happen at all. If I were Vince and I had to go back on my contract with one of my employees I would have done my upmost to give Bret a proper and respectful send off. He was the superstar who filled that gap between the Hogan years and the Attitude era and for that he deserved respect. So yeah I would have insisted he lose the title on Raw to Michaels the night after the Survivor Series, or perhaps even allow him to forfeit the title in a Bret Hart special the next night on Raw.
With this scenario there probably would have been no bad blood and Bret would probably return a few years later when WCW get bought out. You can also say that Owen's death may never have happened too...

re-establish a cruiserweight division in the WWE I was watching that "Rise and Fall of WCW dvd earlier, and I remembered just how great WCW was in it's heyday and for me it wasn't because of the big stars, it was because of the likes of a young Rey Mysterio, Dean Malenko, Jericho, Benoit, Ultimo Dragon and many many more. It was like nothing I had ever seen before, brilliant high flying moves, incredible reversals, limbs contorted into painful submissions by these young guys. When these guys begin to get over with the fans, push them into the upper midcard and main event scene. This would also work in the PG era as I don't ever remember these guys being brutal in any way. You've got guys like Evan Bourne and Justin Gabriel, bring in a few more from Japan, Mexico, wherever and you've got yourself a good core for a division. You don't need to write incredibly in depth storylines for this division either, just let the wrestlers do the talking in the ring initially and then push them later with promos, mic time and storylines if they're in ring ability connects with the fans.

 

[LSN80]

Im going to go with more recent events that didnt sit well with me. Im by no means saying these were the 3 worst things ever done booking wise or other within the company, or even the past five years, but they were really bad decisions nonetheless.

1. Putting the title on The Great Khali- He's up there as one of the worst champions EVER. Look, you work in a company where your largest demographic speak English, and your champion doesn't? And that's only secondary to his wrestling ability, as he had some of the worst "main events" in history while he was the champion. I loved when Batista took the title off of him, and I hate Batista.

2. Letting Kurt Angle go- I know he was at a difficult point in his life, and he probably wasn't the easiest guy to work with at the time. There was a time HBK wasn't either. He could still be with the company, working the HBk schedule, and adding a TON to the product. I like TNA, but he's already done all he can do there. The matches he could have with the likes of Bryan, Morrison, Ziggler, Kofi, Swagger, and Del Rio, among others, would be epic.

3. Making Ezekiel Jackson the final ECW Champion- Jackson wouldn't have lasted 5 weeks in the original ECW, let alone become ECW champion. Christian could have thrived there, and he was by far the best champion of the new ECW. If youre going to slaughter its memory and get rid of it, at least give it a feel good moment to go out with by a wrestler who could have thrived there.

 

[rge2010]

Deaths aside....

Letting Bret Hart leave - In hindsight WWE survived without him and followed a new direction but I really wish he had of stuck around. Owen would probably of been alive and Bret wouldnt of suffered his concussion in WCW. Bret still had a good 4/5 years in him. More matches with HBK and Austin. A WWE match with Chris Benoit and a programme with Kurt Angle would of been superb.

The Invasion - As already stated on numerous occasions, this was a let down, although I didnt really mind the invasion angle. It was interesting and better than anything else going on at the time. Bischoff to run things and star power like Goldberg, Steiner, Nash, Hogan, Hall...these all entered WWE waters after the angle took place.

Ignoring the Tag Division - 8 years ago we had Edge & Christian, The Hardys, The Dudleys, Los Guerreros, Le Ressistance, Worlds Greatest Tag Team...we also had some good pairings like RVD/Kane, Jericho/Chrsitian, Rey/RVD. Now we have nobody of any worth. Its a sad time for the Tag Division and has being in decline a while. Only MNM are worth mentioning the last 5 years.

 

[The Mark of Zur-En-Arrh]

Booker T vs Edge would have been good, and could have gone on till WM 18,

An actual fued over something wrestling related would have been far better than the 'Fighting over shampoo' angle we actually got. Edge v Booker at Mania was still pretty good though.

As for my 3:

Kane to win the World Title when he was already IC and Tag Champion

There's a small handful of guys who've ever held the World Title and a second title at the same time. NOBODY has ever held three titles at once in WWE. Kane arguably was in the best shape of his career between 2001 and 2003, and was putting on awesome matches. Imagine if THAT Kane was getting the title run the current Kane is getting, and how much more of an impact player Kane could be now, instead of the Kane we actuall have, getting a long title reign as a reward for loyalty.

First time ever occurrance of a Triple Champion, AND a decent run for Kane who we know based on his current work, can carry the strap with credibility, but no instead it was just another win for HHH during the 'HHH never loses' era.

Booker T to win the WHC at WM19

Oh look another instance where the only thing preventing this outcome was HHH.

Booker T, the man made to look like the best WCW had to offer during the Invasion angle, is then made to look like a complete moron for the next two years. He's shit on by Rocky, tags with Goldust, gets beaten up by the new NWO and Evolution every other week and then finally gets a shot at HHH at WM. He even goes over HHH a couple fo times before that. He puts on possibly the best match of his WWE career at the time, and loses......

He then spends the next 4 years in mid-card limbo until they finally have him win KOTR and he can finally wear the belt that his old gimmick used to rely on.

Again, think how much more impact and relevance Booker would have had if he'd won the World Title earlier in his career.

Angle shouldn't have won the WWE title from Show a mere month after Show ended Lesnar's undefeated streak

When Show won the WCW Title back when he was the Giant, did he lose it in a ridiculously short pace of time? Ya know, like EVERY single WWE World title reign he's had? (except ECW title but i'm not counting that).

- Replaces Austin at SSeries when Austin got hit by a car, beats Rock and HHH. Loses it on Raw to HHH about 6 weeks later.
- Beats Lesnar at SSeries and then loses it to Angle at the following PPV.

Big Show has had numerous occassions where he's flattened big guys and ME main stays over and over.

Lesnar went flying off the stage, and i'm pretty sure both Kane and Taker have taken some huge bumps courtesy of Show. He then defeated Brock Lesnar for the WWE title (with a slight distraction from Heyman) and a month later lost it to Angle, thanks to Lesnar.

Personally, i'd have had Show as the champion for at least twice that long. Considering how many classic moments Lesnar and Show gave us during Lesnar's tenure, PPV ME's seemed like no brainers. But no, Show decided to start beating up Taker instead once the Lesnar/Angle fued got rolling and we had that stupid handicap match at Mania instead.

Honourable mentions

Foley/HHH HIAC i'd have had at Mania. Loads of people will say 'Mania's supposed to have a happy ending', well, that Mania didn't have a happy ending anyway did it? So it's have made no difference.

Christian should have had a few more title shots given to him before he jumped ship. I don't know how they couldn't consider him ME material after his stunning fued with Jericho in 2004.

Christian should have won MiTB at Mania 25. Punk didn't need to win 2 years running.

Not have Orton turn face for a grand total of 6 weeks only to have him turn heel again, following his pathetic first title reign.

Not give the title to Khali. Actually fuck that, never even hire Khali.

Not bother renewing Mark Henry's contract.

Not firing Muhammed Hassan just because of the London bombings. Actually wait for people to complain instead of just assuming we'll be offended, because let's face it, no one in the UK would have cared.

Edge's first title run last more than a month.

Not waste most of MVPs first run on Fat Hardy.

Replace Mysterio/Orton/Angle at Mania 22 with something worth watching.

 

[kingofkings1984]

1) Keep the WCW as a seperate brand after it was purchased. I dont know all the legal ramblings over if this could of happend or not but i think it may of been possible to keep WCW running all its scheduled shows/storylines whilst under the WWE umbrella. I know they'd lost their tv deal at the point of WWE's purchase but Vinnie could of easily used either Heat/Smackdown's slot on tv and keep at least Nitro going. hell, they even turned RAW into Nitro for two weeks (at least) on the row where Booker T faced Buff Bagwell and then DDP if memory serves, so they must of toy'ed with the idea. Yes, it would of been the worst kept secret in pro-wrestling history as with the innernet an all everyone would know that Vince owned the WCW brand. but we could of had random run in and apperances on each other show, all scripted of course, but still kept as MAJOR angles. similar to the rumours of Hall & Nash being plants by Vince when they turned up on Nitro. I can see Austin on Nitro now as i type doing some sort of 'stunning' rampage! This could of worked and gets me all angry as a fan that it never now looking back.
The angle could of went on to this very day. Vince must of known that eventually the big WCW stars paycheques were gonna run out and that they would need work at some point. I just think squashing the whole Nitro/WCW brand was an ego trip for Vinnie Mc and his family as if to say "i did it, i won the (monday night) wars" but come on, we the fans suffered through the awkward 'invasion' angle. WCW's input never truly began until Flair's return!

2) Orton losing the World Heavyweight title so quickly I am a huge Trips fan but even this title change had me puzzled. Sort of a two in one answer this as kicking Orton out of Evolution was also a bad call! Orton was definately the hottest thing going in 2004 and havin him lose the belt so quickly was the worst case of momentum kill ive ever seen.

3) Flair v Hogan Mania 8

Everyone seems to think this was the planned match-up for this event so i'll go along with it as if its was true. These two did indeed face each other at MSG events so at least they did face each other ON wwe turf, just a shame it wasnt a mania moment. Not sure if the true reason it never happened was because neither man would put the other over but they could of at least done a 'run in' finish much like the actual Hogan-Justice match. Still, the Flair-Savage bout was epic at least. My booking would of had Flair beat Hogan via figure four pass out, similar to the Flair v Savage finish later that year, Hulkamania would be dead (he was semi-retiring anyway) and we could still of seen Macho face Naitch at wembley stadium @ summerslam instead of the ultimate puke!

 

[Xemmy]

1. Owen Hart Tragedy. Sexy pick of the day for a reason.

2. The Rock leaving. Simple. He was valuable. Sold. There was absolutely nothing wrong with his body. He just up and left. It wasn't good for business for one, but it also real bugs me that he doesn't give back to the industry AT ALL. Like he's above it now or something.

3. Hulk Hogan as Undisputed WWE Champion. The man can't wrestle. Should have gone to someone more deserving, and Hulk Hogan hasn't been main event material since the 90s.

 

[Kitten Cutter]

I'm going to list 3 other things besides Eddie Guerrero, Owen Hart and Chris Benoit, because those are life changes I would make in general. Those deaths along with every other tragic premature death of a professional wrestler I think we all can agree we'd change in a heartbeat if we had the chance.

These are more storyline changes than life changes:

1. The Fingerpoke of Doom would have NEVER happened - The 2nd worst moment in WCW history would be erased from the history book. Hogan wouldn't come back from his fake retirement to lay one finger on Kevin Nash, and thereby destroying the credibility of the WCW title, Kevin Nash, Sting and Nitro. Hogan either would have faced Nash for the first time, or Goldberg would have gotten his rematch rather being arrested for a false sexual harassment case.

2. David Arquette would NEVER have won the WCW title - The worst moment in WCW would also be erased. Arquette, as nice a guy as he was, didn't deserve to be champion (he himself said that) and never would have given Russo the chance to completely crush the value the WCW title.

3. We would have NEVER heard of Katie Vick - The worst moment on RAW, which was one of only two things I've ever changed the channel on wrestling (the GI Bro tenure being the other), would never have happened. If you don't know what that was, you're a lucky person.

 

[Hollywood Naitch]

1. The botched Invasion

This was potentially the biggest storyline in wrestling history, where WCW and then ECW wrestlers invaded the programming of the WWF, leading to inter-promotional matches, some of which we never thought we would see. There were so many dream matches that wrestling fans wanted to see, and after Vince bought out WCW and ECW, here was the opportunity to do it. The ratings would have been huge!

However, alot of the big name WCW wrestlers had contracts which were not yet expired and therefore could not appear in the WWF until they ran out, but Vince decided to run with the Invasion style storyline anyway, filling out the numbers by including ECW as well. So instead of Goldberg, Nash, Hogan, Hall, Mysterio, Hart, Steiner, Luger, Vicious etc we got Booker T and DDP as the only 2 genuine SUPERSTARS from WCW, as well as little known wrestlers like Stasiak, Palumbo and Kidman who the fans didnt really give a shit about.

If I had been booking the invasion, I would have waited until the top WCW wrestlers were available (the nWo, Steiner and Mysterio would join WWE fairly quickly after this anyway), and then go all out rather than the half-assed job they did. I would not book Angle and Austin to switch sides and would make WCW a credible thread to the WWE, making them take over Monday Night Raw, renaming it Nitro and make it really look like the WWE was in danger of being destroyed.

Eventually, WWE would win but imagine the "Inaugral Brawl" with REAL stars involved....

Steve Austin, Undertaker, The Rock, Kurt Angle and Triple H vs Goldberg, Hollywood Hogan, Sting, Kevin Nash and Diamond Dallas Page.....awesome


2. The nWo Invasion

I do love a good invasion storyline!! This one would only be a possibility if the WCW invasion was fucked up, as under my booking Hogan, Nash etc would already be in the WWE so this wouldnt work otherwise...

Anyway...I loved the idea of the nWo coming into the WWE as a "poison", hired by Vince to destroy his creation, as he could not bare to see Ric Flair destroy it. However, as with the WCW invasion, this was a half-hearted attempt at a potentially awesome storyline

I would have resisted the temptation to turn Hogan back into the red/yellow after his wrestlemania match with The Rock..who cares if Hogan got cheered, the fans loved the nWo in WCW anyway (remember Scott Halls surverys? They always got cheered). Again, the nWo would have to have been booked as dominant, taking control of the show as they did in WCW, to give the angle some creativity. I would have loved to have seen "NWO" get sprayed over the classic WWE winged eagle title belt, it would have been an iconic image.

I think some of the former nWo members from WCW would have made good additions to the team of Hogan,Nash and Hall but I would have also have booked Big Show as a WWE turncoat, as he was a former nWo member back in the day. Maybe Benoit too, I think he could have played a good role in the faction. I would definately not have put Shawn Michaels in the nWo though....for one reason....

If Shawn was capable of coming back then I would have reformed D-Generation X to fight off the nWo. HHH and HBK back together would have been massive for the ratings on its own but putting the 2 biggest factions of the last 15 years against each other in a dream feud would be a guaranteed money making feud.


3. The Montreal Screwjob

I would have allowed Bret to drop the title the night after Survivor Series 97, as he requested. As wrong as I think Bret was for refusing to do the job for Michaels, he DID have creative control in his contract and it was his right to drop the belt to Shamrock on Raw like he wanted to. Bret had been so loyal to the WWE for so many years that I think its wrong that Vince said he could not trust him not to do the same as Alundra Blayze and drop the belt in the trash on Nitro. Yes she did it with the womens title, but come on...this is BRET FUCKING HART... an incredibly loyal man.

If Montreal had never happened then the bitterness that Bret has kept inside him for 15 years would not have been there. Hell, we would probably have seen him back in a WWE ring at some point, definately much sooner than 2010. It was a very sad situation that 2 great wrestlers like Michaels and Hart could not co-exist, and I would have loved to see Ken Shamrock as World Champion, I have always wondered how he would do with a title run

 

[jacdnwarrior]

1. Re-sign Bret Hart instead of letting him go to WCW

This one action caused a regrettable chain of events that led to the death of Owen, the premature end of Bret's career by Goldberg, and the pain to the Hart family both Owen's wife and children as well as his brothers and sisters.

2. Stop Hulk Hogan's from starring in his own movies.

Think of the hours of painful suffering that could have been stopped by just telling Hogan he can't act and to stick to wrestling.

3. Stop Benoit and the countless number of premature deaths of wrestlers, referees and managers.

Think of the number of entertainers we've lost. Far too many to count.

 

[Dyno Kid]

1) Stop Vince from buying the company from his dad. He turned the WWF into a goofey cartoonish gimmick federation that was an insult to fan's intelligence. He also ushered in the "Steroid Era" that resulted in so many guys dying before the age of 45.

2) Would have kept the WWWF title on Billy Graham for a little longer run.

3) Never would have brought back Bret Hart. It played out poorly and it wasn't like fans were asking for it.

 

[mikeyboy]

The Owen Hart and Benoit tragidies are by far the two events that i would want to change. Hart died right when his carrer was really getting ready to take off , we will never know what could have been. With Benoit we lost one of the greatest wrestlers ever and will always be rememberd more for the crime he comitted instead of his wrestling ability , more than that 2 innocent people lost their lives , tragic doesnt even begin to describe it. And just because it was sooo fucking disgusting the whole Katie Vick storyline , i dont really think that needs to be elaborated on, sick , absolutally sick.