What If Triple H Was King Of The Ring In 1996?

[LillaThrilla]

Triple H was originally booked to win King Of The Ring in 1996, but his involvement with the Kliq in the Madison Square Garden Incident caused him to be punished and depushed.

Instead of King Helmsley, we got Stone Cold Steve Austin and Austin 3:16.

How would things have turned out for Triple H and Austin if things had gone as originally planned?

[psz]

You know, normally I say that "Things wouldn't have changed much".... BUT


I don't think Austin 3:16 would have had HALF the weight (We can assume that the comment would have still been made in the semi-finals), and we'd have probably had "The Game" a lot sooner.

I still think Austin would have been big, but I think HHH would probably have another 2-3 title reigns, and The Attitude Era would been known for HHH and The Rock more than anything.

[ultramagnus]

Interesting, but may not have had all that much impact. I always thought the WWF was crowded for upper card heels in 1996.

In some ways, this could have ended up worse for Triple H. Depends on what they would have done with him. Would they have placed him into Austin's feud with Bret Hart? I don't know. Or maybe they would have hot-shot him into a title match with Michaels at SummerSlam? He would have surely lost that match, and then possibly sunk back to the midcard.

Another thing that changed the course of the WWF in 1996 was the fact that the Ultimate Warrior didn't last. Was their plan all along to move Vader into a feud with HBK at SummerSlam? Or did they originally want to run a Vader/Warrior program for SummerSlam and then maybe move Vader into a feud with Michaels for the Royal Rumble?

So back to the previous point, we can assume that Triple H would have been moved into the program with Bret Hart, and maybe Austin would have gotten into a program with Brian Pillman. I'm not sure a Triple H/Bret program would have resulted in the great feud and WrestleMania match that we actually got.

At the end of the day, I don't think it would have changed much for Austin. Who knows what would have happened with Triple H? I personally think it probably helped him.

I think another question worth asking is: What if Triple H had never done the Kliq Curtain Call? Would that have changed his trajectory?

[LillaThrilla]

Jun 24, 2010 19:02:20 GMT -5 ultramagnus said:

I think another question worth asking is: What if Triple H had never done the Kliq Curtain Call? Would that have changed his trajectory?

MSG Incident = Kliq Curtain Call.

Though maybe HBK receives punishment if it's just him, Hall, and Nash since there is no HHH to scapegoat punish? Or maybe it hurts the HBK-HHH friendship if HHH decides not to risk career punishment while HBK does? Though really given the Kliq's alledged stroke with Vince I would think they figured they would get away with doing it without any punishment.

Side note: Waltman (1-2-3 Kid at the time) only missed participating in the group hug because he was injured? Or is my memory fuzzy...

[ultramagnus]

Ah. I overlooked the mention of it in the original post.

[Crpls]

Another thing that changed the course of the WWF in 1996 was the fact that the Ultimate Warrior didn't last. Was their plan all along to move Vader into a feud with HBK at SummerSlam? Or did they originally want to run a Vader/Warrior program for SummerSlam and then maybe move Vader into a feud with Michaels for the Royal Rumble?

The original plan was always for Vader to beat HBK at SummerSlam. Then HBK threw a fit and yeah, didn't happen. Vader was pretty much fucked from then on.

[ultramagnus]

Yeah, that was the end of Vader. Dumbass move by Michaels, because he could've come back and won it back at WrestleMania.

But maybe he was afraid that Bret or Undertaker would get that spot instead.