A lot of these are just fan guesses because Wrestling storylines are constantly changing and original storylines rarely are acknowledged by the creative staff, but what the hell...
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ECW
- After watching a tape of Último Dragón, Paul Heyman wanted to bring him into ECW. While he was unable to get Ultimo Dragon, he did look into bringing over Dragon's opponent from the tape, Lion Heart. Of course, Lion Heart would adopt the name Chris Jericho, and his performance in ECW eventually caught the eye of WCW, who was happy to sign him when he left ECW, and when he became even more credible as a WCW star, WWF took notice as well, and when he went to WWF, he became one of its biggest stars.
- Kurt Angle, fresh from his gold medal win at the 1996 Summer Olympics, signed with ECW in 1996 to work a program with Taz, but he quit the company after the infamous angle in which Raven and his Nest literally crucified The Sandman.
- After Shane Douglas turned face in ECW in early 1999, Paul Heyman booked an angle to have Douglas form a face version of the Triple Threat. Tommy Dreamer's acceptance of Douglas's offer of alliance was the first part of the formation. The second part would've been Jerry Lynn allying with Dreamer and Douglas. But Shane ended up having a contract dispute with Paul Heyman, and ended up leaving ECW, thus stopping the angle cold.
- A new interview revealed that ECW would have taken the WWE's place on USA after the latter left for TNN/Spike TV in the year 2000 with on Vince's blessing and Universal Music as a minority owner. However, after losing WWE, the #1 brand in wrestling to Spike, USA head Barry Diller felt that ECW would be a step down and nixed the deal.
- Shane McMahon also planned on having WWF buying ECW in the summer of 2000 and keep it alive as a separate business. However, Vince declined. Considering that ECW was way beyond the point of financial insolvency by then (and was only able to keep the lights on at all because Heyman wasn't paying his wrestlers) and had one of the worst rosters in recent memorynote , and Vince ended up buying it from the bankruptcy at a fraction of what he would have paid anyway, this ended up being a wise move.
- Shane also wanted Vince to buy UFC, which became Hilarious in Hindsight when UFC bought WWE in 2023.
- Had ECW gotten the pay-per-view royalties they were owed, Heyman would have considered a deal for an afternoon show with Fox Sports Net (similar to TNA's later deal for iMPACT!) with the possibility of either later going to FX, FOX, or back into syndication.
Impact Wrestling
- What if Jeff Jarrett never holds up Vince McMahon for more money to put over Chyna (Jarrett's contract expired the day before, but he was Intercontinental Champion)note and doesn't get blackballed for two decades? There's a good chance he goes back to the WWF after WCW folds, and if he's already employed, then he and his father have no reason to start TNA. Had Jarrett's contract expired a day later (or Vince taken the Intercontinental belt off him a day earlier, or just asked him to put over pretty much anyone else), the #2 wrestling promotion for most of the last 20 years would likely never have existed.
- Spike TV briefly considered giving TNA a timeslot for an all-knockouts show. This was at a time when the Gail Kim vs. Awesome Kong feud was drawing the highest quarter-hour ratings on Impact, so who knows what might have happened with a weekly program dedicated completely to the knockouts?
- With each passing interview, Paul Heyman makes TNA fans (and even WWE fans who want the company to have competition, feeling like its current monopoly has caused them to become complacent) more and more wistful every time an interviewer asks him what it would be like if he did sign and book for TNA back in 2010. His goal: take the company public in two years by cutting everyone over 40 save one for name value, book around the newer talent, plus outright STEAL Daniel Bryan after his firing and make him an unstoppable submission machine with an eventual showdown with Kurt Angle. Every time a plan is mentioned, thousands of wrestling fans weep.note
- Jim Ross was also rumored to run to TNA when his contract expired in April 2010.
- Injuries kept Hogan from entering TNA in 2004, which would have had him feuding with Jeff Jarrett for the NWA Championship at the inaugural Victory Road.
- Shortly before his death, Curt Hennig was considered as a possible contender for Jeff Jarrett's NWA World title.
- "Macho Man" Randy Savage's surprise appearance at TNA's first Sunday pay-per-view was going to lead to a feud with Jeff Jarrett. However, Hulk Hogan (not knowing that Savage was scheduled to appear) decided to visit backstage since he lives nearby. As soon as Savage saw Hogan, he immediately cancelled all future appearances, save for a tag-team match at the next PPV, and TNA had to scramble to even salvage that.
- Around the time Jeff Jarrett left TNA in 2013, he and Toby Keith attempted to buy back the company from the Carters. Keith almost got the deal through, but Bob Carter then demanded that they keep Dixie on as president, allow her to keep some power in the company, and allow her to remain an on-screen character. Keith backed away after hearing that and the deal fell through.
- A short time later Billy Corgan of The Smashing Pumpkins joined TNA's creative team and would later be named president of the company. Corgan tried buying a stake in the company but TNA believed this payment (of $2.7 million) to be a loan rather than a sale. Corgan sued, but in the end current owners Anthem Sports & Entertainment were ruled to be their largest creditor and got control of the company, Anthem and Corgan later reached a settlement. He'd later purchase all the IPs of the National Wrestling Alliance and runs it as a studio wrestling promotion, with a show on YouTube.
- John Rich of Big & Rich fame had also expressed interest in buying TNA at one point, though for whatever reason the talks never really went anywhere. NASCAR diver/announcer Hermie Sadler (who promoted small shows in North Carolina and had appeared on TNA programming in the past) was also rumored to be putting together a group to buy the company, but again, this went nowhere.
- In an interview from January 2009, Drake Younger mentions optimistically that Jon Moxley had a tryout with TNA. Moxley instead signed to WWE, and a couple years later showed up on TV as Dean Ambrose, the mouthpiece of The Shield, along the way scoring the US Championship. After the Shield broke up, he became one of the most popular wrestlers on the roster (arguably the most popular after Daniel Bryan), winning the Intercontinental Championship, working numerous main event-level programs and then winning the Money in the Bank ladder match and cashing in the briefcase the same night to become WWE World Heavyweight Champion. One wonders what would've become of him had he been hired by TNA instead. Strangely enough, by 2014, both Younger and Moxley were signed to WWE.
- Similar to Moxley, Tyler Black was offered a deal from TNA but Matt Sydal convinced him to sign with WWE instead. Black would also end up as a member of said stable, became a Tag Team Champion, and, after breaking up said stable by repeating his Sell-Out history, would win the 2014 Money in the Bank Ladder Match, cash it in during the main event of WrestleMania 31 and become WWE World Heavyweight Champion. It was probably the best move of his career, especially considering how TNA is now a sinking ship. For added irony, he and the aforementioned Moxley would become each other's primary Arch-Enemy for their WWE careers, both in developmental and on the main roster. In fact, Black was the one Moxley cashed in on to win his first world title (after Black had won it from said stable's third member Roman Reigns).
- In 2016, TNA was in talks with Jeff Jarrett that would have resulted in the debut of MASADA and the return of Teddy Hart. But MASADA getting drunk and Hart letting one of his cats out led to arrests that killed the deal.
Ring of Honor
- Ring of Honor may have never existed, as RF Video's original plan was to simply sell tapes of CZW, rather than go through the trouble of creating their own promotion. However, the CZW deal was so hard to close that All Pro Wrestling had already done two "King Of Indies" events, and after seeing one of them, Feinstein decided he wanted something like that instead.
- ROH would have likely remained an invitational super indie the way its offshoot SHIMMER did, if not for two incidents: Ric Flair no-showing an event, leading to the adoption of formal contracts, and more importantly, the Rob Feinstein scandal that led to them cutting ties with RF Video and having to drastically change their business model to 1) make up for the lack of a media distributor and 2) regain the goodwill of all the other wrestling companies they would have been inviting talent from.
- During his time in ROH, Jim Cornette saw a talent at a mediocre Indy show that he compared to a young Barry Windham and invited him to a tryout camp with the company. The young man did a tryout match, but due to multiple factors, including his opponent not being in the best condition and bringing the match quality down, the change in bookers from Adam Pearce to Delirious, and the Sinclair sale going through, he was unable to sign him. Ultimately, he ended up in the WWE, was put in a tag team, and Scott Dawson of The Revival was born.
- Believe it or not, Killer Kross (with Scarlett Bordeaux) were considered to compete for ROH in Supercard of Honor 2022, until Tony Khan bought the promotion.
CHIKARA
- The angle involving Die Bruderschaft des Kreuzes had to be rebooked when BDK leader Claudio Castagnoli was signed by WWE as Antonio Cesaro. To a lesser extent, there was the abrupt removal of Lince Dorado and Daizee Haze from the BDK (Lince was fired, Daizee had an undisclosed health issuenote that caused her to quit), and whatever it was that caused Pinkie Sanchez to go from upper-midcarder to rarely-utilized jobber.
- During the angle where the promotion was closed for a calendar year, a few of the wrestlers ended up leaving the promotion. The most notable of these was Tim Donst. Donst was last seen in one of the "Ashes Of" videos, where he was working at a Furnishing/Remodeling store and heavily implied to be either drugged, brainwashed, or both. Based on things he had said before the shutdown, fans were guessing that he'd somehow figured out, or at least gotten a lot of information on, the situation with Titor Conglomerate. Almost everything in Chikara builds up to something and Donst was a main eventer, so it's likely that Chikara had plans for Donst that will never come to fruition.
AWA
- In general, what would've happened if Vince Jr. had honored his father's wishes to respect the territory system and not raided the American Wrestling Association of its top talent?
- Jesse Ventura was one of the top stars, and was being positioned for a world title run. But after Hulk Hogan was fired by Vince Sr., he signed with the AWA and almost immediately took Ventura's spot. How would a company fare when resting on Ventura's shoulders?
- Related, but in spite of Hogan instantly getting over with the AWA audience, Verne Gagne kept booking him in one Dusty Finish title match after another. Hogan got frustrated and went back to the WWF after Vince Jr. bought the company from his father. Would Vince have been able to go national if Gagne had been willing to pull the trigger on Hogan and give him the belt? (See the WWE page for more.)
Other
- WrestleCrap's "Rewriting the Book" is an entire section of Fan Fiction devoted to What Could Have Been. With the notable difference from Real Life that, in those stories, the booking is actually quite good, though stretching of credulity considering the egos and competence of many of the people involved. Among the most notable and likely examples are "What If Barry Windham didn't join The Four Horsemen?" (a continued face run for Windham, the Horsemen inducting a returning Eddie Gilbert until the group falls apart later that year, and Gilbert forming his own heel stable based on the old UWF, including "Dr. Death" Steve Williams, Ron Simmons, and Rick Steiner), and "What If Randy Savage Had Won His Retirement Match?" (Savage's heel run continues, he recaptures the world title, only to find himself facing Ric Flair with the roles reversed, with Flair as the good guy).
- Dwayne Johnson, better known as "The Rock", considered running for President as a Republican in the 2008 election.
- What if Magnum T.A. (who was arguably the biggest babyface in Jim Crockett Promotions at the time of his career-ending car accident) not had his career cut so short? Magnum was apparently booked to win the NWA World Title from Ric Flair at the 1986 Starrcade (NWA/WCW's WrestleMania). Would Sting still have gotten to where he got in the same time span with a healthy Magnum still around? Also, would Jim Crockett still had been forced to sell out to Ted Turner in the same time span despite Magnum still being a top draw?
- At the time of his accident, Magnum was feuding with Nikita Koloff. Like Magnum, Koloff's career is an example of What Could Have Been. In 1988, he took a year off from the ring to care for his dying wife. In 1992, a neck injury would result in Nikita's premature retirement.
- Hulk Hogan was trained by wrestler Hiro Matsuda, and was apparently possessed of actual skill in the ring if his matches in Japan are any indication, especially one 1993 match which saw Hogan pull an Enzugiri on the Great Muta of all people. Hogan states in his first autobiography Hollywood Hulk Hogan that in the US under Vince Sr. he was told to wrestle like a generic power wrestler, and this followed him throughout his in-ring career for the rest of his days in the US, to the point that when he got to WCW, it was so ingrained into wrestling fans to assume Hogan got by only on "mediocre" wrestling skills and an assload of charisma that he never bothered to show off what he could really do this side of the Pacific. One has to wonder how things would have been different if Hogan had been able to use his in-ring skills AND the charisma he was so well known for in the US. Interestingly, shortly before his return to the WWF under Vince Jr. he came within a hair's breadth of becoming NWA world champion by going to a draw with Harley Race for the belt just a month, give or take, before the first Starrcade. More questions to haunt the fans on what could have been.
- The Big Van Vader gimmick had originally been intended for Jim Hellwig, better known as Ultimate Warrior. He turned it down (presumably because he didn't like working in Japan), and the man we know as Vader today, Leon White, got the job. Jim Cornette explains
why this worked out best for everyone.
Cornette: "Warrior probably would have bombed out of New Japan and him and Inoki probably would have had a knife fight, within months. So instead he goes to work for Vince, whose promotion is tailor-made for pushing a guy with... that level of talent, let's say. So he prospered, Vince prospered, Inoki prospered, Leon prospered... If the Warrior would have taken that one spot none of those people would have made any money."
- Speaking of Cornette, in this clip from his podcast he talks about how he thinks things would have worked out had Smoky Mountain Wrestling been able to hold on a little longer and still be around for the boom period started by the New World Order and "Stone Cold" Steve Austin (the promotion folded in December 1995). Shortly after he started SMW he tried to bring in Ric Flair, who had just left WCW, to do one match a month for $10,000 in cash a pop. This was actually Rick Rubin's idea, as he was a silent partner in SMW and a huge Flair fan. Flair seriously considered it, but elected to sign with the WWF, who wouldn't let him work for anyone else on his off days. Flair came back with a counter-offer to Cornette: join him in the WWF as his manager, "The Kentucky Colonel". Cornette declined, not wanting to work for anyone but himself at that moment and really not wanting to work for the WWF (of course he went there went SMW closed anyway, for lack of any other option), as Vince McMahon was notorious for giving his managers low payoffs and nothing to really do but stand there at ringside.
- The Xcitement Wrestling Federation was a company founded to be the PG alternative to the WWF near the end of the Invasion. The fed would have predated TNA as the new challenger to the WWE's monopoly with a mix of WWF, WCW & ECW stars including Hulk Hogan and had Sable as the heel CEO, Roddy Piper as the babyface commissioner, Gene Okerlund as the interviewer and commentary by Tony Schiavone and Jerry Lawler. Networks were excited about the mix of the roster... that is until many of their talents were poached by WWE, notably Lawler's return to commentary after divorcing the wife whose firing caused him to leave the first time in February 2001 and Hogan who returned for the first time since August 1993 as part of the short-lived revival of the nWo.
- In World Class Championship Wrestling, there were plans to have Gino Hernandez do a Heel–Face Turn and be managed by Sunshine. Hernandez and Sunshine would then feud with Hollywood John Tatum and his manager, Missy Hyatt. Unfortunately, Hernandez's fatal cocaine overdose in 1986 prevented that scenario from ever happening.
- Broken!Matt Hardy and Brother Nero's "expedition for gold", which would have seen them Walking the Earth in search of Tag Team Title belts, was cut short at Ring of Honor when the Fight Network owners Anthem threatened any network running any ROH pay per views with Broken Matt (though only Dish caved). The whole thing was supposed to attract more attention to and regain good will for Impact Wrestling but Matt Hardy wasn't willing to let Anthem trademark his work.note
- WWE wanted to buy World Wonder Ring ST★RDOM and incorporate it into NXT Japan, but the owners decided to sell to New Japan Pro-Wrestling parent company Bushiroad instead.
- Had the UFC found mainstream success a decade earlier, one has to wonder how many of wrestling's legendary tough guys like the Steiner Brothers, the Barbarian, or Haku would've been tempted to try out MMA while they were still in their physical prime. Haku in particular was even invited to join the UFC, however, he declined because he didn't think his cardiovascular conditioning was good enough.
