Would Bulldog do better in 1999 if Owen was alive?

[msc]

Sadly, no. I think Owen's death sped up Bulldog's, as the loss just sent him heavier into his drug addictions. But he was a regular recreational drug user/addict since the 80s, he'd over used steroids for at least that long too, and after the trapdoor incident in WCW, he was hooked on painkillers (and it was those that really sped up his death most of all).

If you want to change Davey Boy's tragedy, you have to stop that 1998 WCW run in its entirety, likely, and also the One Night Only result.

[celtics543]

The interesting part of this question is the following two hypotheticals

1. If Davey never went to WCW and just stayed with WWE after Bret got screwed. He and Owen could be together still and he never hurts himself on Warrior's trapdoor which helps his drug problems not progress so far.

2. Let's say in this timeline Bret never gets concussed by Goldberg. If Davey and Owen are still in the WWE, does Bret comeback much earlier and actually wrestle? By 2000 when his contract would be expiring Shawn was gone, Owen and Davey are still there, and his buddies Austin, Rock, and Taker are leading the locker room.

In another world out there Bret Hart makes a big return during the invasion as the leader of WCW. Who hates Vince more than Bret and would want to put him out of business? It would have been a cool addition to the story and maybe made the whole thing go on longer. The nWo comes back in 2002, Bret reforms the Hart Foundation to battle them. Just so many possibilities if you have Bret, Owen, and Davey in 2001 and 2002 WWF/E.

On the topic of Davey though, he was best as a third guy in the group or the power half of a tag team. No matter what the circumstances he wasn't going to be a top star.

[msc]

The most interesting point of diversion in all of this is what if Shawn Michaels DID go to WCW in 1996 after all. No Shawn/Bret, no need for Montreal, no need to push Bret out of the company, more chance of Austin getting his title win over Bret, Bulldog stays in WWE, Bret's there to look after his friends, Owen stays in an upper mid card important spot so no Blue Blazer stunts, Bret's in WWE so no concussion vs Goldberg?

The downside to all of that is, it may have saved Owen's life, but we'd have probably lost Shawn Michaels to his drug habit in WCW instead.

[DZ: WF Legacy]

A reunited Owen/Bulldog duo in '99 with the new tag division would've been pretty cool. I would've marked hard for it seeing as how they were my favorite two years prior. But yeah, unfortunately Bulldog was a damn mess for a variety of reasons, the trapdoor thing not helping matters, so it was only a matter of time either way for the guy.