Shawn Michaels in WCW

[jasn88cubs]

I read in Shawn Michaels book, that he was interested in joining WCW in late 96. He was unhappy and wanted to be with his buddies Hall and Nash. Vince talked him out of it though and of course Shawn stayed.

But what if Shawn had joined WCW? Would he have went with the NWO? Would that have been the final nail in teh coffin for WWF?

I mean No Shawn likely means no DX, HHH might have never gotten over. Bret likely stays with WWF and feuds majorly with Stone Cold

But of course would everything would have went well at WCW? Having Hall, Nash, Hogan, and Michaels together is alot of egos.

 

[obamartins]

The following announcement is brought to you by nWoWolfpac4LifeTV...

I already knew but i recently read about Shawn Micheals wanting to join WCW to be with his buddies Kevin Nash & Scott Hall while doing research for my video "Kevin Nash was NOT the lowest drawing WWF Champion in history" looking through my plethora of Newstletters.

It went something along the lines of "Shawn Micheals has made enquiries regarding WCW but why remains a mystery since he has a 4 year deal with the WWF". This was either in 1996 or 1997, i don't recall.

So it's pointless speculating because it was never going to happen, because by the time The Outsiders popped WCW by engaging the marks as cool heels from the WWF who were invading (afterwhich Hulk Hogan would jump on bandwagon), Shawn Micheals had commited himself to the WWF & the only way he would've been able to join WCW is if Vince McMahon gave him his release which was never going to happen.

On a side note the day Bret Hart ripped out Shawn Micheals hair (the same day Kevin Nash slapped the piss out of Rowdy Roddy Piper backstage at Nitro aswell) HBK left the building & said he was heading to the location where Nitro was being held...he never did.

...The proceeding announcement has been brought to you by the maker of videos such as "Finger Poke of Doom DID NOT KILL WCW", "Vanilla Midget Tribute" & "WWE Continues To Ruin Everything (badly edited)"

 

[123NewChamp]

Good Question.

I will start off saying that Shawn Michaels staying loyal to WWE was one of the most loyal moves in the wrestling business. It really speaks volumes of his career and contributions to the business. Shawn Michaels would've not ever been as great as he was if he would've went to WCW. Look you already had Sting, Lex Luger, The Giant, DDP, The 4 Horsemen, The Steiner Brothers, as well as Harlem Heat. And if you would've put him in the NWO, it was the kliq all over again. Him, Hall, and Nash, plus Hogan. Then Add the Macho Man, Vicious and Delicious, Pac, Ted, and Vincent. That would've been so much star power. And Hogan bout held the WHC For a little over a year and barely defending it. And also, people left WWE because of the Kliq and politics. So 9 times out of 10 he would've ran folks away from WCW. But the say so was a little different. Shawn wouldn't had a huge say so like he did in WWE, bc he was Vince's golden boy, and his biggest star. So he was of value. Shawn wouldn't of been of great value to WCW.

And as for Triple H, Triple H would've been fired after the MSG Kayfabe incident in April of 1996. He was supposed to have won the 1996 King of the Ring, but instead got buried that year. So basicially there would've been no DX, no NAO, No Feuds with Cactus Jack, No Evolution, No 10+ Title Reigns no Stephanie McMahon Helmsley, No COO, No Inheritance of the business no nothing. Shawn put Triple H on the Map and Triple H took it and ran with it.

So Shawn's Move to stick with WWE no doubt left him to be without a doubt the greatest WWE No Wrestler of all time. It wouldn't of happened if he would've went to WCW.

 

[berlinbrawler]

I usually stay away from all the might-have-been-speculations, but this is something I, too pondered when I read Shawn's book.

Had Shawn left for WCW I would see every party involved lose. The WWF would lose because they could ill-afford to part ways with Shawn. If for no other reason they desperately needed someone to carry the ball until Stone Cold was good and ready.

But it's more than that. Shawn and Triple H formed DX and were a vital part in forming the Attitude Era. Eliminate DX from that time period and you pretty much got Stone Cold doing ALL the lifting by himself.
Triple H's ascend to the top would have looked very differently. Without him boldly experimenting and pushing limits in DX his career would have looked very differently. Who knows if he would have ever moved beyond being a snotty aristocrat. Would Chyna ever have come to the WWE? Could even be that Triple H would have never managed to get into the boss' daughter's panties and wouldn't that be a shame?

Then there's Shawn. Boy would he have been miserable at WCW. Yes, he'd be with his buddies Hall and Nash again. But he'd also be dealing with Hogan being the Creative Control King and Bischoff and the rest of the WCW brass not knowing what the hell they were doing. The lack of creative direction in WCW would drive Shawn insane.
Would Shawn have become WCW champion? Probably. After all he was hanging with Hall and Nash. But he'd probably also lose that belt to the Legdrop of Doom (if not the Fingerpoke of Doom) or to a 40+ year old Roddy Piper or David Arquette or someone else who couldn't wrestle a lick. Add to that WCW's tendency to keep TV matches at 4 minutes or less and you got yourself a recipe for one miserable heartbreak kid.

Shawn wouldn't have suffered his near-career-ending back injury. That's good, right? Wrong! The injury was a blessing in disguise. Shawn at that time sorely needed that 4 year sabbatical to heal physically and especially mentally. Without that forced break, he would have just gone on and on, destroying himself. And WCW, of course, would have just let him. Remember Scott Hall portraying a stumbling drunk because, well, that's what he was? Yup. That could have been Shawn, too. WCW probably would have given them their tag team titles.

And then there's Bret. Would he have left the WWF if Shawn hadn't been there. Hard to say. Fact is Vince couldn't afford to pay Bret's contract. He was pushing Bret to leave. Without shawn, though, would Vince still have done that or would Vince hang on to Bret no matter what? But let's assume Vince still needed to get rid off Bret. After all, business without HBK would be even worse. There's just no way he could afford Bret's contract.
So Bret leaves for WCW as well. I'm assuming there would be no Montreal Screwjob. Bret would drop the belt to Steve Austin or the Undertaker. Given all the information I have (Shawn's book, Bret's book, plenty of interviews and DVDs including the Bret-Shawn Greatest Rivalries DVDs) I'm guessing that if it had been anyone other than Shawn, Vince would have successfully convinced Bret to drop the belt at Survivor Series.

... And then Bret and Shawn are free to go at it again at WCW, making both their lifes and everyone else's miserable.

...

In the end WCW would go under just like it did in the real world. WCW wasn't so much crushed by the competition so much as that their product's quality simply sucked and they got canned for low ratings. WWF didn't defeat WCW, they outlasted them. WCW self-destructed and Shawn Michaels wouldn't have made any difference whatsoever, safe for perhaps a handful of nice PPV matches.

Shawn would probably have died of a drug overdose before the age of 40 or he would be where Scott Hall is right now.

Would the WWE still be here? Probably. Vince is a survivor. But it wouldn't be the same and it wouldn't have reached the heights it did.
The WWF's survival was a close enough call as it was. Take out DX (and what it meant for Triple H), and, more importantly, take out the Montreal Screwjob creating Vince McMahon the (arguably) greatest villain of all time. What's left? Stone Cold. What would Stone Cold have been without Mr. McMahon? Enough to keep the company alive, but only just.

These days we're witnessing a very mediocre product. Had Shawn left for WCW we would have been there a lot sooner.


....... At least that's my take on this.

 

[thedon2001]

i remember reading so many rumors during that time of Shawn wanting to leave that every night on Nitro i was expecting him to show up. WCW was building the NWO as ex WWE employees, from hall and nash to hogan and savage, dibiase, x-pac, virgil, beefcake, mr perfect, scott steiner, etc. From hand gestures to comments from both sides i was really hoping to see HBK show up.

People aren't giving it enough thought. HBK's departure from the WWE could of had a serious domino effect. HBK's real life personality during that time along with on the screen character greatly impacted the direction of the WWE. If Shawn wasn't such a D*** during those years it's quite possibly we would have never seen a DX or a feud with Bret, which may never have led to Vince screwing Bret and ultimately creating the evil Boss character. To continue, where would that have brought Austin? Would Steve still be the ringmaster? Lord knows.

I'm not giving credit to Shawn for the attitude era, Austin or Mcmahon's character, Bret's departure or even WCW's collapse, but illustrating that if certain things didn't happen the way they did the wrestling world may be completely different today. We may not even have wrestling. Everything had to happen for a reason. Now there's no doubt Shawn would of had an impact upon his WCW entrance and we could have seen some great matches with Flair, Arn, Benoit, Savage, and of course Sting. For how long would Shawn have impacted WCW?, no one knows, but during those years while the WWE was getting pummeled in ratings I always thought that if WCW got WWE's golden boy (at that time Shawn was Vince's guy) that the WWF(E) wouldn't be able to catch up, but who knows.

Either way in hindsight i'm glad it worked out the way it did.

 

[xavyer]

Interesting topic, but first thing first, i think that Shawn Michales most likely would have never been as big in WCW as he was in the WWE, not because he's not talented, because he definitly is, but because of WCW's booking, Bret Hart was big in the WWE, but he never had that success in WCW, they had him follow the NWO, and in the WWE he was a leader of a faction, and they would have blown it with him in WCW, and as someone said, everything happens for a reason, and i disagree with the fact that if Shawn would have gone to WCW that the WWE would have died and that a lot of superstars wouldn't had have the success they did, in my opinion, that's debatable, a lot of people thought that when Hogan left the WWE that it was going to sink, that didn't happen, and also a lot of people thought that when Bret Hart left, that the WWE was going south, that didn't happen, if Shawn would have gone to WCW, Vince would have figured something out, ok, i agree that DX probably wouldn't have existed, but something else could have hapened, i think that Triple H still would have been a success, is just that it could have taken a little longer, and some of the other superstars could have gotten a bigger push, but on a personal note, i'm happy with the fact that Shawn Michaels didn't go to WCW........

 

[HatchetMan84]

I myself have wondered about it many times. I believe had Shawn left for WCW, number one I believe his back injury would have still happened, but it could have been better or worse. People forget that by the time Shawn got injured in 1998, he had been wrestling hurt for quite some time. Shawn's book claims that he started getting nagging injuries around 1997. He was basically wrestling on a broken down body that badly needed a break so something terrible was going to happen, drug use or injury wise.

Number two the WCW wouldn't know how to appropriatley use a guy like HBK. Consider that Bret Hart was sorely mis-used. Bret Hart, according to Vince was a guy that a company could build an entire company around, and they didn't know how to use Bret. Shawn would have fared no better than the Hitman. What I do wonder is if Shawn was still active at the time that WWF bought WCW, what kind of part would he play in the Invasion angle and imagine the great matches he could have had in 2001.

I doubt Shawn would still be going in 2001 in this scenario because injury or drugs would have probably taken him out for good...

 

[THTRobtaylor]

Assuming Shawn left when the others did, I would say that the NWO would not have had as big an impact. Shawn and Hogan would have rubbed each other up the wrong way and Hogan would have used his control to squash Shawn at the earliest chance.

Trapped on a long deal and going nowhere, Shawn's drug use would have intensified and sadly, I think he'd have passed around the time Pillman did. Bischoff would not have let him go out of spite and I think he'd have ended up OD'ing or worse. By many accounts he was pretty close at times in the WWF when he was on top, so in WCW, things not going well... forget about it.

Pessimistic maybe, but things do happen for a reason, Shawn in WCW was a recipie for disaster!

 

[louis TMDK]

I just read about this in Power Slam magazine and it said that Micheals asked for a release from his contract in May 1997 and again shortly after June 9 1997 after reportly getting into a genuine backstage fight with Bret Hart. Vince McMahon asked Shawn why he wanted to leave and Shawn admitted that he wished to go to WCW. With four years remaining on his contract Vince said no, and Shawn realising there was nothing he could do never raised the subject again. I'm quoting this in part from Power Slam magazine so this is just something that I read, so take it for what it is worth.

 

[FlairFan2003]

Bischoff would have screwed it up. His biggest failing was his inability to control the egos of Nash & Hogan and make moves that were best for his company. Add HBK in the mix and it only gets worse. The divided locker room (Kliq over here, Hogan & Bisc over here, Flair/Sting over here, DDP trying to allign with whoever had the power, Savage bouncing between Team Flair & Team Hogan) - the backstage wars would have been much better than the onscreen product.

McMahon, for whatever faults he has, has shown in the end he'll force guys to "do whats best for the business" - Bischoff never had control of Hogan & Nash, adding HBK would have made it worse.

Also, WCW did nothing for Scott Hall's drug issues, WWE helped Shawn, without them he may well be dead.

 

[HBsam31]

I agree with most everyone else that WCW would not have known how to use HBK. He would have floundered like Bret Hart. His drug issues probably would have not been resolved either. Then you have no DX, no Mr. McMahon character due to there being no screwjob, and who knows Austin may have taken a lot longer to get super over. It would have affected so many things, and worst of all HBK may not be with us today.

 

[MINISTRYrising]

I agree with all of you. it would have been a bad thing if shawn had gone to wcw. it would have ment that hbk and scott hall would be on the road together again. which would mean's things would have got completely out of control and there would have been nobody there to stop it. Both shawn and scott would have both turned up dead in some hotel room before the monday night wars even got started.

 

[IT Factor]

HBK going to WCW was something not even Eric Bischoff could've screwed up. Shawn was easily considered one of the best in-ring competitors, even in 1996 when he was considering the jump. He had alot of recognition and name value and more importantly, more marketability[which Bischoff loved]. Which was why WCW failed miserably with Bret Hart, because they couldn't figure out how to market him. Shawn didn't have that problem and it would've been an instant momentum shifting move that might've been the final nail in WWF's coffin[for the Monday Night Wars].

Looking back in retrospect, it was a smart move for HBK to stay with WWF. He made a hall-of-fame career and he had the possibility of failure in WCW[like so many others]. In WWF, you had DX and other memorable moments from HBK that may not have been mirrored in WCW. It's fun to imagine what might have been but Michaels in WCW was not to be and it was better for his career anyway.