What could have been...

[Cvaldezjr04]

This is my first thread, so if this has been done before, please forgive me and do what ever is necessary.

So here goes, now I was watching some old Raw videos from late '97 and all throughout '98. I got to thinking just how much different things would have been if the Montreal Screwjob hadn't happened; and if Bret would have been allowed to beat Shawn Michaels in Montreal. I, personally, don't think it would have been all that bad. I honestly think that Shawn Michaels could have beaten Bret on another day, another time, possibly at IYH-DX or the Royal Rumble in 1998. Now I know Bret was on his way to WCW at that time. BUT...here goes the real cause of this thread. I believe Vince could have gotten a little more out of Bret before letting him go to WCW. Picture this, Bret beats Shawn Michaels at Survivor Series 1997, Bret/Shawn Feud continues to In Your House - DX, Where Shawn defeats him for the WWF Title (Undertaker Runs in and screws Bret - Revenge for Bret winning at Summerslam). Could set up a casket match between Taker/Bret at Royal Rumble where Kane then comes and screws Taker, lights him on fire, etc..just like it happened with Shawn/Taker. Austin wins the royal rumble. Next night Bret comes out claiming he should get the title shot at mania against Shawn, blah blah...Austin comes out and says no, he won the rumble so the shot's his. These 2 brawl, Shawn's laughin his ass off at both of them. Slaughter would then come out and announce a triple threat match at Wrestlemania 14 for the WWF Title..Shawn/Bret/Austin.

These 3, at the time, were the absolute biggest names in the WWF. Imagine Austin going over both Shawn and Bret at Wrestlemania. No need for the lisp talking Tyson, just 3 of the biggest names in WWF. I definitely think this could have been better then what actually happened at WM 14.

So what do you think??? Am I completely dillusional? does any of this make sense?? could this have been good?

 

[nWo 4 LIFE]

what u dont understand montreal screwjob happened becuase if bret hart beat hbk bret wouldve gone to wcw with the wwe championship and they would throw it out live like shane douglas did

 

[Henhouse]

I'm sure he gets that, this is a hypothetical thread dude.

I don't know if that would have happened, and I actually think things would have been worse for WWE had Bret Hart stayed, cause of the money he was taking out of WWE with that huge contract and the fact that he and Shawn just weren't getting along. Who knows is Shawn or Bret would have made it to Wrestlemania. Shawn Michaels said in his book he was thinking of leaving for WCW.

 

[The Hardcore Kid]

I think WrestleMania 14 was perfect how it was. Tyson got the WWF the mainstream exposure that Vince desperately needed at the time. I think in Bischoff's book he even mentions that that was when he really started to notice the WWF was becoming a serious competitor to WCW. So while anyone would have loved to see Bret in WWF for a while longer, WM14 was perfect the way it was.

 

[ShawnBronald]

I'm sure he gets that, this is a hypothetical thread dude.

I don't think he gets that, though. The following night (Monday) was supposed to be Bret's last date with the company. He had already agreed to a deal with WCW.

Basically, the way it was supposed to go down was that Bret would defeat Shawn at Survivor Series, then either forfeit the belt the next night on Raw or lose a rematch against Shawn. Vince decided at the last moment it was too risky and wanted Shawn to win it on PPV. The problem was he had already gone over the finish with Bret and gave him his word that it would go down like that - Bret going over on Shawn at Survivor Series.

So, after reading the OP's comments, I'm not sure he's aware of this. He's got plans of Bret continuing with the company way past his current deal. And keep in mind, the reason Bret didn't resign with WWF was because Vince didn't feel he was worth the money he was asking, let alone the money Bischoff was offering. Vince actually told Bret to sign the deal with WCW.

 

[FlairFan2003]

"Basically, the way it was supposed to go down was that Bret would defeat Shawn at Survivor Series, then either forfeit the belt the next night on Raw or lose a rematch against Shawn. Vince decided at the last moment it was too risky and wanted Shawn to win it on PPV. The problem was he had already gone over the finish with Bret and gave him his word that it would go down like that - Bret going over on Shawn at Survivor Series."

McMahon was afraid of Brett possibly screwing with the WWE Title, he had told Brett he wasn't worth the money he wanted, he wouldn't match Bischoff's offer, and remember McMahon is the guy who spent a month parading the giant gold WCW Championship Belt on all his TV programs in 1991 proclaiming the arrival of the "International Wrestling Star" who was "The Real World's Champion", bigger than WWE Champ Hulk Hogan. That belt, unmistakeble as "Ric Flair's belt" was on WWE TV a month before he was, the result of a contractual dispute unresolved between WCW and Flair at the time of his departure. Flair was all too happy to mail the belt to McMahon after WCW told him he wasn't worth as much money and he should look elsewhere, even though he had turned down multiple offers from WWE before and had been perhaps their most loyal performer up to that point. Basically, McMahon knew Hart had been as loyal to him as Flair had been to WCW and he had sent him away in a similair way, would Hart, if offered enough extra cash, embarrass his title the way he had the WCW Title ? McMahon was afraid because he had already done this himself and was worried WCW would pay him back.

Funny story on the Flair Belt, WCW sued, got an injunction in late 1991 to keep the big gold belt off TV, but eventually had to pay Flair several thousand dollars to return the belt to them. WWE claimed they were "digitally distorting" Flair's belt when he appeared on TV although fans at live shows noticed he was wearing a WWE Tag Title belt as his "Real World's Champion" trophy. The whole storyline was dropped when he won the Royal Rumble and won the actual WWE Championship.

 

[Cvaldezjr04]

ShawnBronald - this thread was completely hypothetical. What this was about was IF Vince and bret would have agreed to a longer deal with WWF. I totally get everything that happened and how it happened. This was simply hypothetical, which is why its called what COULD have been.... IF bret hart would have stayed, IF vince and bret would have worked out something out, if only for another year, this is all IF. This is strictly hypothetical - If a move to WCW weren't even in the picture.

 

[Psyclone]

"Basically, the way it was supposed to go down was that Bret would defeat Shawn at Survivor Series, then either forfeit the belt the next night on Raw or lose a rematch against Shawn. Vince decided at the last moment it was too risky and wanted Shawn to win it on PPV. The problem was he had already gone over the finish with Bret and gave him his word that it would go down like that - Bret going over on Shawn at Survivor Series."

McMahon was afraid of Brett possibly screwing with the WWE Title, he had told Brett he wasn't worth the money he wanted, he wouldn't match Bischoff's offer, and remember McMahon is the guy who spent a month parading the giant gold WCW Championship Belt on all his TV programs in 1991 proclaiming the arrival of the "International Wrestling Star" who was "The Real World's Champion", bigger than WWE Champ Hulk Hogan. That belt, unmistakeble as "Ric Flair's belt" was on WWE TV a month before he was, the result of a contractual dispute unresolved between WCW and Flair at the time of his departure. Flair was all too happy to mail the belt to McMahon after WCW told him he wasn't worth as much money and he should look elsewhere, even though he had turned down multiple offers from WWE before and had been perhaps their most loyal performer up to that point. Basically, McMahon knew Hart had been as loyal to him as Flair had been to WCW and he had sent him away in a similair way, would Hart, if offered enough extra cash, embarrass his title the way he had the WCW Title ? McMahon was afraid because he had already done this himself and was worried WCW would pay him back.

Funny story on the Flair Belt, WCW sued, got an injunction in late 1991 to keep the big gold belt off TV, but eventually had to pay Flair several thousand dollars to return the belt to them. WWE claimed they were "digitally distorting" Flair's belt when he appeared on TV although fans at live shows noticed he was wearing a WWE Tag Title belt as his "Real World's Champion" trophy. The whole storyline was dropped when he won the Royal Rumble and won the actual WWE Championship.

Wrong.. It was the NWA belt that Ric had... Ric was the NWA champion at the time, but was not the WCW champion as they had introduced the WCW championship belt as ric mentioned in his biography.. You are right in saying that it was atag belt however.


As to the original post as others have mentioned it was a tough circumstance as yes bret's deal was expiring (although I think it was a few weeks from survivor series) and he did not want to lose it to shawn for various reasons. (I've read both shawn's and bret's autobiography, as well as others who have detailed what went on at this time..)

Bret had creative control in his contract for his final few months and used that to change the match (which had been planned to let shawn win) to change it to a DQ so shawn wouldn't lose while in Canada. He would have lost to Foley or Stone Cold if given his choice the next night or next week at raw... Based on Shawn's biography however it was Half vince's half HHH/Shawn's idea to make sure that he didnt screw the company by appearing (as Alundra Blaze did) on WCW TV with the WWF championship belt and throw it in the garbage.. Basically Vince/Shawn/HHH were afraid that with a few extra hundred thousand/million dollars Bret would do the same... Therefore they enacted the screwjob..

Regardless, If the screwjob didn't happen (Hypothetically..) Let's say Bret does say goodbye to the WWE (He had already signed with WCW so he wasn't going to have a series of matches before leaving so throw that away..) The match goes to a DQ, and bret somehow states hes leaving the title behind... a tournament is held to crown a champion and Steve Austin and HBK both are the finalists... Steve ends up winning (similar to what happened..) except this time theres no antagonist (Like "Mr Mcmahon") to rebel against... Theres no Tyson in the corner... Theres nothing like that.. Basically you get stone cold as champion, but without the authority figure to rebel against and the angle probably ends up falling flat.

However with this possibility, Shawn probably doesnt face taker in the casket match and thus doesn't end up with the busted back and thus doesn't need to take the years off he did..

However if that's the case he also doesn't become born again, and again becomes the pain in the ass that he was in the early/late nineties (as he even stated in his biography..) WCW still begins to fail, but they might utilize Bret in a better role than as a guest ref in his first match...

Then again who the hell knows.. its hypothetical