Who do you put the WWE title on in 2004?

[The Rick Jericho]

Judging from the JBL thread, seems his title run didn't age well. So say it's May 2004, and Eddie wants to drop the title. Who do you give it to?

Rule out Cena because he wasn't ready yet. And they were saving him for Wrestlemania the next year.

[Celexa Bliss 54]

Big Show and Angle were both out of action due to injuries, so they'd be off the table as well. Looking at that list, honestly, Undertaker is the most solid option. Booker's heel turn was already ice cold at that point. Henry and Test were also injured. Regal was back but wouldn't wrestle until August. Benjamin, Hardy, RVD and Rey weren't even in the title's stratosphere. Flair wasn't winning a World Title. Orton was being groomed to beat Benoit and feud with Triple H. Kane, Michaels and Jericho could've been interesting choices, but moving Kane or Jericho would've messed up stories happening on Raw at the time. And Michaels was yet another person who was taking time off (for the birth of his daughter). Since they were teasing an Undertaker heel turn at the time anyway, he'd be the easiest option to take the title from Eddie. And you could've used him to run a power-struggle angle between Angle and Heyman. Heyman uses Taker as Champion for leverage with GM Angle, while Angle is happy to see the title be taken from his arch-nemesis Guerrero.

[Jindrak Mark]

I would have had Eddie drop it to a heel Jericho, bitter after being betrayed by Trish at Wrestlemania and being drafted to Smackdown. Jericho drops it to RVD at Summerslam. RVD gets a decent run until losing to Angle at Royal Rumble. The Angle/Cena match from No Way Out 2005 happens a month later at Wrestlemania instead. Cena wins his first world title from the guy he debuted against and its a way better match than the JBL one.

It means Angle/HBK doesn’t happen at Wrestlemania 21. I’d be fine waiting until 22 to do it though and doing without Vince/HBK and letting Rey win in a singles with Orton rather than the triple threat.

[chazraps]

The among most exciting prospects of the 2004 draft was the likelihood increased for RVD to win the belt.

Imagine the absolute main event banger Eddie and RVD could have had while JBL was still being built as a heel since they didn't quite perfect the character until No Mercy 2004.

Plus you still had the tension that RVD and Booker had at the week after draft night that could have been RVD's first feud along the way. Then the gaga of an RVD-Undertaker match at Summerslam or just have JBL feud with Taker without the title on the line as he's being built up to that point.

[thegame415]

Undertaker makes most sense.

Smackdown post WM 20 is blah.

[Oh Cry Me a Screwball]

Booker T

They should have ran with the angle where Booker T asserted that Smackdown was the B-show, but instead of doing the match on the first Smackdown following the draft, they build towards a PPV match, and make it very clear that Booker is saying this because he feels in his deluded mind that Smackdown can become the A-show if he is champ, so it's less about him burying Smackdown, and him just having an inflated ego.

This then sets up for RVD to take the title later on from his former tag partner on Raw, and you can use him as a transitional champion if the JBL experiment works well in the US title division.

[Jacy Derangement Syndrome]

Booker T should have killed Undertaker with Mama Sangre's voodoo salt and gotten a world title run

[Mozenrath]

JBL winning it was honestly a smart move, though I don't feel like he needed to be champion for as long as he did. Having the bully who rallied against latinos lose the title to Rey Mysterio might have been a fun upset.

That said, of all these options, Booker T would have been a good one, particularly if Sharmell was on the road with him and he'd been able to overcome the issues he'd had before of just being miserable while traveling that'd allegedly had him threatening retirement many times.

[ChitownKnight]

They could of had Eddie hold the title till Summerslam
And lose it to Angle, and then angle drops the title to Cena bringing everything full circle from his debut finally getting the big win over Angle and starting his title run.

Taker would of been a good choice too as a heel, but that would mean Cena broke the streak at mania 21

[Squirrel Master]

Other: THE TWENTY YEAR OLD KENNY

[David-Arquette was in WCW 2000]

Mar 20, 2022 20:03:48 GMT -5 Jindrak Mark said:

I would have had Eddie drop it to a heel Jericho, bitter after being betrayed by Trish at Wrestlemania and being drafted to Smackdown. Jericho drops it to RVD at Summerslam. RVD gets a decent run until losing to Angle at Royal Rumble. The Angle/Cena match from No Way Out 2005 happens a month later at Wrestlemania instead. Cena wins his first world title from the guy he debuted against and its a way better match than the JBL one.

It means Angle/HBK doesn’t happen at Wrestlemania 21. I’d be fine waiting until 22 to do it though and doing without Vince/HBK and letting Rey win in a singles with Orton rather than the triple threat.

Yes, a bitter, heel Jericho feuding with Eddie would be great. I'd have Jericho congratulating Eddie on winning the big one but kinda backhandedly "who'd have thought it?" bringing up Eddie not doing much in WCW. Jericho then saying he beat him to the punch by being the first ever undisputed champion, etc, etc.

The back and forth promos kinda write themselves and the matches would have been fantastic. Maybe have a small series of matches, with Jericho eventually winning the belt after a couple months. Then Jericho goes on to feud with RVD.

[Venti]

I still think Booker T from 02 to 04ish had all the potential to be a much bigger star than WWE let him be.
He had memorable catchphrases, charisma and mic skills, was already an established veteran, and great in the ring.

It's a damn shame they didn't let him get to that level imo.

So that's my pick.

[Instant Classic]

Chris Jericho moving from Raw would have been awesome. Eddie vs Chris would have been a great feud in 2004.

[Deleted]

Hardcore Holly, then I have him beat everyone.