What if Booker T did win the title at WM19?

[wildojinx]

Pretty much everyone agrees that Booker T should have won the belt at Wrestlemania 19, but if he did win, what would happen after? Does HHH regain the belt at the next PPV? Does he turn heel and eventually get squashed by Goldberg?

[Timeless Hayterade]

A couple of successful defenses before ultimately dropping it back to Triple H in time for Aitch's feud with Goldberg.

[Deleted]

Drops it back to H the very next night

[illiniman88]

HHH regains next night on raw

[Thunderbolt]

A whole lot less complaining on the internet.

[Hit Girl]

He'd turn heel and reveal that he's taking orders from the genius mastermind HHH.

[Celexa Bliss 54]

Maybe the Hell in a Cell at Bad Blood is Triple H vs. Booker? Real talk though, Trips probably gets it back at Backlash so they can run the Nash feud for the title.

[Cyno]

That was prime Reign of Terror Triple H so he probably would've had like a month long reign before losing it back to him. But at least we wouldn't have had the whole image of "guy using racially coded language to put down black athlete wins match anyway."

[OVO 40 hunched over like he 80]

It would've softened up the blow from the racist promos that were done.

[chronocross]

I figure he would have had at least a month, maybe 2 before Trips regained the title from him.

[BoomPeriod]

new boom period

[Deleted]

He probably would've dropped it back to him at Backlash.

[Feyrhausen]

The sad thing is that Booker T didnt even really need to win the title. He could have just been another challenger who gets beaten by the heel. Until they decided to get racial with the whole thing. You go there, then Booker needs to win.

But even then, give him the title, he loses it back at Backlash.

[Venti]

I really feel like Booker T and Kane could have been the two huge Raw stars of 02/03 after Rock and Austin left. Maybe not on their level, but those guys were still hot and over.
& Trips went over both of them.

As someone who was a kid back then, everyone else I knew was a Kane mark, and Booker T had the skill and charisma of a top dude imo.

I like Triple H, but his sudden urge to be an 80s NWA heel turned off a ton of people and made lots of great wrestlers look like losers. At least he put over Batista..

2000 Attitude era heel HHH>>> 2003 "I'm suddenly Ric Flair" heel HHH lmao

[crowley1986]

May 26, 2019 15:21:58 GMT -5 Feyrhausen said:

The sad thing is that Booker T didnt even really need to win the title. He could have just been another challenger who gets beaten by the heel. Until they decided to get racial with the whole thing. You go there, then Booker needs to win.

But even then, give him the title, he loses it back at Backlash.

I think their hand was forced as it as Steiner initially to get the 3rd match where he finally wins the title until they realised he couldn't go anymore...Nash wasn't ready, hbk had been done and was busy with jericho and I think Booker was them covering the gaps till Nash was back

And around the time, the word was  Booker was considering in retiring in early 2003 and I think they were hesitant in giving him a title run (before the era of giving everyone some title reign)

[cabbageboy]

I dunno, maybe if WWE hadn't buried Rob Van Dam by 2003 he would have been that answer on top. As far as Booker goes, to me he was just never a serious top guy. He would be a tag champ or my U.S./IC level guy, but he's just not consistently great enough to be a world champion. That said, he did need to win at WM 19 after the angle with HHH. It ultimately changes nothing either way since HHH regains soon after to set up the Goldberg feud.

[Feyrhausen]

May 26, 2019 17:00:55 GMT -5 crowley1986 said:

May 26, 2019 15:21:58 GMT -5 Feyrhausen said:

The sad thing is that Booker T didnt even really need to win the title. He could have just been another challenger who gets beaten by the heel. Until they decided to get racial with the whole thing. You go there, then Booker needs to win.

But even then, give him the title, he loses it back at Backlash.

I think their hand was forced as it as Steiner initially to get the 3rd match where he finally wins the title until they realised he couldn't go anymore...Nash wasn't ready, hbk had been done and was busy with jericho and I think Booker was them covering the gaps till Nash was back

And around the time, the word was  Booker was considering in retiring in early 2003 and I think they were hesitant in giving him a title run (before the era of giving everyone some title reign)

Their hand was forced as far as Booker T as a challenger, just not forced to give him the title. If they hadnt done a racial angle there would be nowhere near the amount of bad feelings over Booker losing. But they went there so there was really nowhere else to go except Booker beating the nasty racist. But WWE went there too.

[chronocross]

I think if they just stuck with Booker being a former WCW champion and that he was a big fish in a small pond that the loss would not have been such a big deal.

["Gizzark" Mike Wronglevenay]

He would lose it back to Triple H a month later, and it would be mildly less infamous.

[spagett]

May 26, 2019 14:42:26 GMT -5 Thunderbolt said:

A whole lot less complaining on the internet.

Yeah, damn smarks complaining about a storyline where the racist wins in the end.