25 biggest pro wrestling ‘what ifs’ of the past 25 years

1. What if Vince McMahon goes to jail?

This has to take the top spot, doesn’t it? Would I have been able to talk about the majority of these things had Vince McMahon actually gone to jail for distributing anabolic steroids to his wrestlers in the mid-90s?

For those unfamiliar with what happened, the gist of it is that Vince was federally indicted by a grand jury for making his guys take steroids, which he, by his own admission, had taken himself in the 1980s. Numerous wrestlers were called in to testify, the biggest of whom was Hulk Hogan, who was supposed to be the smoking gun. As the case went to trial, Vince had to give control of the company to his wife, Linda, and there was a real chance that he was going to go to jail for a long time.

However, Hogan testified that Vince had never told him to take steroids or had ever given him steroids, which essentially killed the case. There was not enough evidence to convict and Vince was acquitted in 1994, which may have been one of the worst times for WWE. The company was in a transitional period and even with Linda’s amazing business sense, I really don’t think WWE survives without Vince at the helm. If something like this were to happen now, it wouldn’t be an issue. Triple H and Stephanie would run things and there’s no problems there. The timing was everything here.

In 1994, Hulk Hogan had signed with WCW and they were looking to really make things interesting. They would debut in prime time the following year to officially kick off the Monday Night War and even if WWE had made it to that point, I don’t think there’s any scenario in which that company survives. Luckily for everyone, Vince resumed his day-to-day duties and everything played out as it did.

Next: 20 worst world title changes in wrestling history

Do you have any “what if” scenarios you want us to know about? Is there something you think deserves to be on this list that I missed? Feel free to join in the conversation in the comments section below.