What if HHH took over 10 years ago?

[wildojinx]

Let's say Vince suddenly got disillusioned with the business by 2014 and allowed HHH to take over. Would he be doing better or worse than he's currrently doing?

[Chiral]

My first thought is pretty much the NXT scene of that time getting bumped up to the main shows, with Zayn/Owens/Balor/Gargano/Ciampa/Cole and co being major players and the overall vibe of the shows being much like NXT and the Takeovers, with lots of big emotional matches, tag teams and women's wrestling getting a massive focus and rebuilding those divisions, leading to a very hype decade until the Karrion Kross push starts and deflates the excitement.

[This Player Hating Mothman]

Apr 16, 2024 13:48:32 GMT -5 Chiral said:

My first thought is pretty much the NXT scene of that time getting bumped up to the main shows, with Zayn/Owens/Balor/Gargano/Ciampa/Cole and co being major players and the overall vibe of the shows being much like NXT and the Takeovers, with lots of big emotional matches, tag teams and women's wrestling getting a massive focus and rebuilding those divisions, leading to a very hype decade until the Karrion Kross push starts and deflates the excitement.

Karrion Kross main roster world title run kills the territory

[XIII]

Wasn’t he still active at the time….if so it would have been him with an interminably long NWA style HEEEEEEEEEEEAT title reign

[Jindrak Mark]

Even if Vince stepped aside as full-time booker as long as he owned the company he could always change any little thing whenever he wanted, whether it was what was being built towards or not. And he likely wouldn't have allowed his guys like Dunn to get booted. He had to be forced out completely.

If HHH actually has full power though then I think Roman turns heel around 2016-17. Undisputed Era on the main roster getting a Bloodline-like push. HHH v Ciampa happens at a big PPV. He might try give Gargano a big push but I don't think he's cut out to headline on the main roster. Sami moves up the card years earlier. Seth has a couple more world title reigns. The Horsewomen stuff mostly stays the same although hopefully in 2016 he'd let Becky or Sasha get one of those big PPV wins over Charlotte (RR, WM, HIAC). The WWE and AEW rosters today could look very different based on the people who chose to sign/leave based on Vince/HHH.

[FALLOUT Goldashausen #BLM]

There still weren't a ton of big-money alternatives out there other than NJPW and, to a lesser extent, ROH and TNA/Impact. Part of me thinks H may have been more keen to rest on his laurels.

I don't *think* we'd have the same boom period we'd have today, but I could be wrong. It seemed like the entire industry was in "NEW BOOM PERIOD" mode after the Bryan title win. Perhaps NJPW gets super hot, perhaps ROH becomes AEW-esque and starts booking bigger arenas, perhaps Punk decides not to go into hiatus and eventually work UFC, who knows.

Who's to say, though. I'd like to think that without Hunter's NXT, and the stars that it made on a mainstream level, that the industry doesn't become as healthy as it does today.

Maybe, in Alternative Boom Period 2014, ROH and NJPW go on basic cable and wrestlers like Adam Cole, Shinsuke Nakamura, Prince Devitt and Kevin Steen get mega-over without NXT.

I'd like to think Impact would still be making the same mistakes it made around that time (e.g. Global Force takeover) but you'd certainly see a healther industry overall. Maybe promotions like Dragon Gate USA or EVOLVE capitalize on Sinclair Broadcasting's own questionable decision-making with ROH? Or would Hunter scoop up all their talent anyway and just hot-shot many of them to the main roster?

Good post. It really made me think, as you could see 😎

[The Legendary Ring Troll {BLM}]

He wasn’t quite ready yet. He needed more time to become the Paul Levesque everyone is rallying behind.

[TWERKIN' MAGGLE]

Finn Balor would be a huge star.

[krozor]

If he's running everything, not just creative, I think there's a very good chance the company ends up in decent trouble. HHH was spending money on the Performance center, regularly signing guys to point at, and by 2018 you have Hunter giving his power point in front of his map where he's laying out plans for NXT Europe, NXT Japan, NXT South America, NXT India, NXT Middle East and at least three new, full Performance Centers built around the globe. He had his whole Risk board planned out where he was certain he could just take over every territory on the planet on WWE's regular business plans and financial models.

Tellingly, in 2019, Vince goes out and gets Nick Khan to come in and negotiate the big $400M+ TV rights deal with NBC, and Khan is brought in as the new Chief Revenue Officer the very next year. I think there's a very, very good case to be made that without Khan making the 2019 deal happen and coming in to scale back, they are nowhere near in the place they are to survive the pandemic era the way they did.

That leaves you with HHH potentially going head-to-head with AEW with deeper pockets, doing an (at the time, at least) better job of NXT's super-indy fed concept, and then we're one disastrous HHH vs. Karrion Kross main event at Wrestlemania 37 from the company literally folding, with Raymond James Stadium sinking into hell and swallowing everyone alive.

[DrBackflipsHoffman]

Apr 16, 2024 13:55:39 GMT -5 XIII said:

Wasn’t he still active at the time….if so it would have been him with an interminably long NWA style HEEEEEEEEEEEAT title reign

it'd be this, easily. Other choices are flights of fancy. If HHH is possible then HHH will happen.

[Bo Rida]

The nxt related comments are interesting because he had a blank slate there and I'm not sure it would have translated to the main roster. He's always been in thrall of big names and I can't imagine him moving them out the way. That includes himself.

Would the women's revolution have worked on raw with Nattie and Kaitlyn as the cornerstones? It needed Paige, Emma and Summer to shine away from the main roster spotlight to kick-start things.
That being underwhelming would make many things very different.

I think Cody would stay and remain a mid card fixture, maybe occasional main eventer. More Ziggler level. Which obviously has big effects elsewhere.

I also suspect he'd do something dumb like push Brodus Clay as world champion and be too stubborn to change course.