It seems as though no ones really testing the Butterfly Effect theory fully.
Someone said what if Bischoff never fired Stone Cold, the response being he would remain a mid carder.
But what else? Whats the rest of the effect?
I'm not too sober right now and can't remember the era completely, so I'm not really sure how it would continue to play out. Who would Shawn have dropped the title to instead cuz of his back injury? Would Shawn have gotten the back injury? The Undertaker/Shawn feud may never have happened had Stone Cold not come to the WWF.
I'd like to think things would be completely different. Bret wouldn't have been turned heel so soon. Shawn wouldn't have been the champ following Survivor Series because
Bret wouldn't have lost the title. Maybe Pillman still showed up, though and wasn't
quite as broken down. Got pushed to the Main Event instead of Austin and breaks out
as a star? Bret turns heel to feud with Pillman, maybe refusing to wrestle the young
up and comer as he's not in Bret's league or something equally as douchey.Pillman wins the Rumble and WrestleMania XII, instead of Stone Cold vs. Michaels with Tyson as a special enforcer, is Bret Hart vs. Pillman with Evan Holyfield. Attitude era doesn't
get quite the push it needs without Austin as Pillman doesn't go quite as far as Austin cuz he doesn't know what he can get away with here (while Austin obviously built on
breaking the rules and Pillman followed up on that, IRL).
What happens from here? With Bret staying, Shawn leaves to WCW and joins the nWo as the leader, and its not as big as Hogan. Turns out Hart vs. Pillman with Holyfield doesn't have the wow factor that brought in the casuals like Austin vs. Michaels with Tyson. WWF doesn't rebound. Turner starts losing money earlier cuz the nWo angle bombs without Hogan. WWF continues its downward spiral without the breakout star of Austin and the Tyson/DX angle. ECW, meanwhile, continues to grow as their stars aren't raided by the failing two. The new millennium begins with Turner selling off WCW for cheap and ECW with a national deal on USA. WWF lost its TV deal in 1999 and ECW picked up the deal moving from TNN.
Come 2004, WWF is at TNA levels, utilizing mostly old WCW stars. ECW, while large and on USA getting solid 2's in the ratings, still never reaches what real life WWF
reached cuz the boom never took place without its two biggest angles. Fast forward to
2010, WWF, still retaining its initials because it never became big enough for the
Wildlife Fund to care, is partnered with Spike TV with fairly large stars like Samoa Joe,
Daniel Bryan and CM Punk. ECW, meanwhile, is has coasted through the first decade
and Kurt Angle, Rob Van Dam, Brock Lesnar, Mike Knox and Yoshihiro Tajiri are its
biggest stars.
UFC is just starting to really pick up steam, as it doesn't get the "wow"
factor of Brock Lesnar winning the title. Meanwhile, Flex Kavana is a HUGE star in
Japan.
EDIT:
Thinking about it, Daniel Bryan doesn't fit. If Shawn went to WCW and the nWo angle
bombed, he doesn't get the back injury, he doesn't open the wrestling school, Daniel
Bryan never learns to wrestle and is managing a Comic Book store (nerd!). So...lets
instead say that...umm...Chavo Guerrero is a multi time World champion. ECW champion, even, that ECW recently let go cuz he's too old and can't go anymore, but since he's an ECW castoff, WWF picked him up immediately!
Of course, John Morrison, The Miz, Josh Matthews and Skip Sheffield never entered wrestling, either. Gotta remember that.