What Would Have Happened If?

[theHeadliner]

This is an opinion/hypothetical scenario.

What if Shawn Michaels never hurt his back at the 1998 Royal Rumble and kept wrestling. How would he have handled the rise of both Steve Austin and the Rock? Do you think he would have put up even more of a fight against putting Austin over? Would he have tried to keep himself with the title or at the top of the card while Rock and Austin were ascending? How would he have politicked against Rock (who he was documented to have heat with) and other ascending wrestlers?

Finally, what kind of roll would his personal demons have played?

 

[Chopper]

Wow. That is a good one. On the demons part, I still think he would of become a Christian. That might be the Christian in me, I think anyone can be redeemed.
He would of still put over Austin at Mania and feuded with him a bit. Leaving a strange three way feud with Foley-Kane-Taker. DX would have become a powerhouse, with HHH eventually turning heel at Summerslam costing HBK the title. They would feud up to WM15 where the winner gets control of DX, HHH wins and DX crumbles. HBK becomes the commish and does anything in his power to screw HHH. Trips beats him for full control at Survivor Series 99 and ushers in the McMahon/Helmsley Era. HBK would step away quietly for a while until the Alliance angle where he would stand tall with WWE, take time off after SSeries 2001 and return to reunite DX with HHH.. then the heel turn and the rest is history.

 

[Nadeem Ahmad]

This is too tough to even think about. Maybe, after losing the title to Steve Austin, he would resume the feud with Undertaker. It was obvious that Kane had been used like a tool from then on, so maybe DX could have tricked him more, by faking and pretending to recruit him, and trying to take Undertaker out. I just couldn't see the rivalry between Undertaker and Shawn Michaels ending in the casket, especially with the huge ordeals they made, about nailling the coffin shut on him and his character.

Also, since Stone Cold was destined to be the face of the company, maybe he would have lost the championship to Shawn Michaels for less than a day, at King of the Ring, instead of to Kane, then have taken it back the next night on Raw is War, giving Shawn another reign with the belt, not that he needed it. Other possibilities, maybe thought of at the time, could have involved Shawn Michaels versus Mankind in a feud longer than a month, with Shawn taking the place of Kane again, who definitely didn't seem to be in the top three sections for sales or fans.

Edit:

Giving it a second thought, I wanted to expand a little bit. I found Stone Cold to be a very boring champion, and was even more apalled at that hideous tournament for the Deadly Games at Survivor Series, with the crappy Rocky Maivia winning it. If Undertaker and Kane, with the double pin on Stone Cold led to the title being vacated, maybe they could have planned to have done a mini-tournament with Kane, Undertaker, Shawn Michaels and Steve Austin instead, after Stone Cold still doing the non-count while refereeing Kane versus Undertaker for the vacant WWF Championship at In Your House: Judgment Day. It would be something similar along the lines of that smaller competition at WWF Vengeance 2001 with Kurt Angle, Chris Jericho, The Rock and Steve Austin. I know there is no way at the time, for people to plan it out, but it was a better theoretical scenario than what actually occured, with nearly SIXTEEN freaking lax bruisers competing on the show instead, with the likes of Gillberg, Steven Regal before he evolved into a technician in the ring, Big Boss Man, and even Jeff Jarrett involved for the championship.

Anyway, it would have been interesting to see if Shawn wanted to upstage Hulk Hogan and Bret Hart, or at least rival them in terms of numbered reigns with the title.

I am so glad, though, that The Rock and Shawn Michaels were not involved in a feud longer than one show (referring to WWF Smackdown! in August of 1999, with Shawn giving Rock the super kick). They wouldn't mesh together well, at all. Rock was way too overrated in the ring, as far as technical skills went, though without a doubt, he was probably among the most energetic and explosive wrestlers in the history of that industry. Even worse, the casual, smooth yet sassy talking Shawn Michaels, even trying to comprehend slang and urban attempts at the American language in the form of lame outbursts from The Rock, would have been nearly pointless. It is such a shame that Shawn didn't use more backstage power to hold Rocky down, while he was the Commissioner in 1999.

 

[THTRobtaylor]

Being brutally honest, it would not have ended well for Shawn. Even when he was out of the ring with the injury he was out of control on various substances, had he still been in there and on them you're looking at Eddie Guerrero by 2000.

One thing that would be different is Owen wouldn't have died. I have no doubts that Nash and Hall would have been back in WWE by early 99 so Owen would struggle to even get a place on the card, much less dropped from the rafters.

Pushes that wouldn't have happened - Mick Foley, Kane, Chris Jericho - These are guys that I could see Shawn and co not wanting to put over, particularly Jericho who would have been "too much like him".
Pushes that would have remained - Kurt Angle, Triple H, Brock Lesnar.

 

[HBsam31]

I agree with THTRobTaylor. The substance abuse would have got to Shawn. It has been noted that the time off is when Shawn found God and got clean. If he would have remained on the road I think we would have been looking at another wrestling tradgedy. I am not so sure Nash and Hall would have came back. There was just too much money in WCW for them. I agree also that Jericho would not have been pushed, and I could even see Angle's push getting stalled. Things kind of worked out for the best in this case.

 

[MrMojoRisin]

If HBK doesn't leave in 1998, he's dead in 2013. There was no way that guy was ever going to pull it all back together while he was on the road.

In the meantime, he would have continued as he was. Meaning he would have protected his spot at all costs, and done everything he could to keep down anyone he saw as a threat, or simply just to prove that he could. I doubt he could have done much to stop Austin by that point, but I think he absolutely could have derailed The Rock. It's been mentioned in the past that the Clique didn't like Rocky, and the Rock, while he had been starting to take off before Michaels hurt himself, it's worth noting that was just the early stages and the Rock character really didn't explode until after the back injury, and it became apparent that HBK wasn't going to be able to continue much longer.

A healthy, power mad Michaels would have done what he could to keep the threat of the Rock from taking over, and such was the control he seemed to have over McMahon at the time, there's a good chance he would have succeeded. Dwayne Johnson would have ended up getting buried until he was released, at which point he would have tried his hand in WCW. WCW, being what they were, never would have gotten a character like the Rock over, and Dwayne Johnson's life would have turned out very differently.

At least that's what I think.

 

[EastCoastFan]

VERY interesting "What if ..."

I think that between his pill-popping and his ego, I'd have to agree that if he hadn't left and gotten his head screwed on right, Shawn would have been dead by 2002, another casualty of the wrestling lifestyle like Eddie Guerrero or Brian Pillman.

 

[The Fabulous Rougeau's]

In a perfect world, things would have played out the same up to and at Mania XIV with the exception being Michaels would have been involved in the 8 man tag match at the February ppv instead of having Savio take his spot (wierdest substitution ever). After Mania, we would have Shawn continuing his fued with Austin for the next 2 ppv's in the matches that Mankind got. All the while Trips recruits nnew members to DX (Outlaws and X-Pac) while Shawn is obsessed over winning the title. Shawn would be portrayed as obsessive and all about himself while blaming the other members for his inability to win back the belt. After his 2nd rematch (May ppv) Trips, Outlaws, Pac and Chyna would have enough and kick Shawn out of the group. This would lead Shawn to fued with Trips and the rest of DX culminating in a match at SummerSlam between the two.

Its tough to say what would happen next because there have already been major changes made so who knows what the landscape of th company would look like after SummerSlam in this alternate reality. Generally speaking, after SummerSlam I would envision Shawn still a heel and one way things could go is that Shawn instead of Mankind is used by McMahon to be the next champ and at the Survivor Series ppv, if we still have the tournament it could be Shawn v Rock at the end and we get the same outcome with Shawn paying the role of Mankind.

This would lead Shawn down the Mankind's path and utimately lead him to becoming a face again and be involved in a back and fourth with Rock until its time for Rock and Austin at Mania XV.

 

[HatchetMan84]

I think that Shawn would have ended up like Dynamite Kid. Prior to the Royal Rumble 98, Shawn was already extremely banged up and had to resort to not only drugging himself for leisure, but just to get through the pain and be able to perform. He said it himself in his book.

RR was just the "big one" injury wise. If he hadn't gotten injured in January of 1998, I say he would have continued to work hurt, abuse pills, drugs, etc.. and he would probably have been dead by 2000. Of course that's just my guess, but if you look at guys like Scott Hall and Jake the Snake, they arguably abused much worse drugs for a far greater period of time, and they are still around, so Shawn's addiction could have went either way.

I say even if drugs didn't kill him no way would he still be wrestling by 2000, he was just broken down and literally falling apart. He would have never came back, and just ended up being bitter and hateful over his career. I will go on the record and say I feel his career from 2002 was far greater and more significant than his first run....

 

[Wald]

I agree with what has been said above, he probably would have ended up dead.

Vince only ever likes to have one guy as his main man, after Wrestlemania 14 that would obviously have been Austin. I think for a guy with the pride and the problems like HBK had back then that would have been a tough pill to swallow. He would effectively have been used as he was used when he returned, but the major difference would have been that at that time he wouldn't have been able to accept that.

Honestly I could see his abuse problems getting worse and worse to the point that Vince just releases him in 1999/2000 and he winds up in WCW to be be mis-used in the same way Bret Hart was mis-used.