Booker Note: I'm trying to hopefully incorporate the What if scenarios from the TV tropes weblink provided on this site.
tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/WhatCouldHaveBeen/WweIn doing so, it'll be interesting to see where this thing goes.
Future Notes:
- Put Jimmy Snuka & Kerry Von Erich over as Main Eventers.
- Sign Bob Backlund as soon as he becomes available. Have him take Hogan's spot as top guy.
- Bring Bruno Sammartino out of retirement for a match with Hogan.
- Hogan vs Andre @ WM3 as originally scheduled but with Bruno Sammartino being used to put over Andre and having Andre easily eliminate Hogan from a nationally televised battle royal shortly before WrestleMania.
- Summer of 1987, Start a 2 year feud between The Rockers & The Hart Foundation.
- Savage wins IC title @ WM4, Dibiase wins WWF title @ WM4.
- The Rockers split up in December 1991. Both become singles competitors.
- Sign Mark Caloway & Jim Nord as soon as they're available. Debut both at Survivor Series of the same year.
- Debut Mark Caloway as The Undertaker, make Brother Love his manager.
- In late 1991, the Ultimate Warrior feuds with Jake Roberts.
- the Ultimate Warrior vs The Undertaker @ WrestleMania VIII.
- At Royal Rumble 1992, have the first high-profile Bret Hart-Shawn Michaels match.
- Push both Jannetty & Michaels to the Main Event.
- In 93, Center product around Canadian & Mexican wrestlers. Main Event pushes: Tito Santana, Bret Hart, Owen Hart, Jim Neidhart, etc.
- Switch Bryan Clark & Steve Austin's gimmick. Bryan Clark - The Ringmaster in 93, Steve Austin - Adam Bomb in 95.
- Madusa (Alundra Blayze) wins Women's title in Dec 93.
- Owen Hart wins WWF Championship in July 94 from Bret Hart in a Lumberjack Match at a house show due to interference from Jim "The Anvil" Neidhart.
- Owen vs Bret in a cage match at SummerSlam 94 for WWF Title.
- in 1994, sign Bull Nakano to face off against Blayze, and the two would engage in a heated rivalry that lasted throughout the rest of the year.
- In 1995, sign Rhonda Singh, bringing her in as vicious yet comedic heel Bertha Faye, the trailer trash girlfriend of Dr. Harvey Wippleman (sign too if he isn't already there).
- Faye vs Bull feud for 95.
- At Survivor Series 1995, bring in more women from AJW (Sakie Hasegawa, Chaparita ASARI, Kyoko Inoue, Aja Kong, Tomoko Watanabe and Lioness Asuka) with the intention of building Aja Kong up as Blayze's next challenger, as she picked up wins over the next few weeks on Monday Night Raw and was scheduled to face Blayze for the belt at the 1996 Royal Rumble.
- Owen was supposed to get "The Game" gimmick instead of Triple H in 96. Owen's tag team with Jeff Jarrett (with Debra as manager) was also going to be christened Talent & Attitude. T & A.
- Triple H wins KotR 96, not Austin.
- Bret vs Austin, WM 96 & 97 w/ Bret dropping title in 97.
- Sable manages The Undertaker in 97.
- October 5, 1997, In Your House: Badd Blood PPV, Brian Pillman steals Goldust's wife, Terri Runnels. Terri Runnels manages Brian Pillman after.
- Mankind vs Triple H - Cage Match - Summerslam 97.
- 1997 Survivor Series - HBK def Hart, WWF Title.
- Ken Shamrock to reveal a sexual relationship with his (on-screen) sister Ryan Shamrock.
- Austin, Rock, and Mankind - WWF Title - WrestleMania XV 98
- In 1998, the WWF had planned to give Luna Vachon a reign as WWF Women's Champion.
- In late 98, sign Malia Hosaka to training contract. Pair her w/ Kai-En-Tai in 99.
- boxing match - Triple H vs Mike Tyson - WM99.
- Push Malia Hosaka in summer 99 to a women's title match under a "Rocky" gimmick.
- Push The Public Enemy in 99.
- Chyna wins the WWE title at SummerSlam 1999.
- In 99, have Test turn heel, join D-Generation X, and leave Stephanie at the altar.
- In early 2000, make Malia Hosaka be Essa Rios' manager.
- Middle of 2000, Steph runs off with Kurt, both turning Heel while HHH turned face.
- Rock/Hogan is the main event of WrestleMania 18. - What if WrestleMania X8 main event was Austin vs. Hogan? Scott Hall was supposed to beat "Stone Cold" Steve Austin in their WrestleMania X8 match.
- Jericho/Triple H WrestleMania feud was originally going to be about Jericho having an affair with Stephanie to stick it to Triple H.
- AJ Styles signed in 2002.
- Shawn Michaels - SummerSlam 2002 - against Triple H.
- WWE almost signed New Jack. Although his tryout match with Val Venis was really short and lackluster, his promo skills impressed Vince McMahon and he was well-liked in the locker room.
- "American Bad Ass," gimmick change for The Undertaker. Switch back @ WM20.
- HHH turns face and restarts his feud with a heel Austin. No Evolution faction.
- Jericho feuded with Austin for the WWF Title at that year's King of the Ring,
- while Triple H feuded with Benoit for the Intercontinental Title.
- After the buyout of WCW (or JCP), Raw planned to become WCW's show while SmackDown would be WWE's show.
- big plans for Marianna Komlos as a wrestler.
- the main event of No Way Out would have actually been simular to last year: an 8-Man Tag with The Radicals vs. DX.
- After the Invasion Angle came to an end, the WWF Championship and the World Championship (formerly the WCW Championship) were unified into the Undisputed WWF Championship at Vengeance. Angle was meant to be the first Undisputed WWF Champion.
- If the writers hadn't pissed off Austin with a last-minute Raw booking in the King of the Ring tournament against Brock Lesnar that would have helped neither of them, he would have continued feuding with Eddie Guerrero.
- Before becoming Brock Lesnar's manager, Paul Heyman was set to become Chris Benoit's.
- The execrable Katie Vick angle was supposed to bring Scott Vick aka Sick Boy (a talented jobber-to-the-stars from Raven's Flock that WCW never utilized) into WWE. The reason was Katie Vick was named as such was because Scott would have been brought under his real-life name as Katie's kayfabe brother.
- Mark "Marco Corleone" Jindrak creates Evolution instead of Triple H. What if John Cena joined Evolution instead of Randy Orton?
- In October 2004, WWE began grooming Stacy Keibler for a reign as WWE Women's Champion. Stacy was extremely popular but had very little talent as an in-ring performer so WWE had Molly Holly put her over three weeks in row to build up some buzz on her. Stacy was booked to win the Fulfill Your Fantasy Battle Royal at Taboo Tuesday 2004 and become champion.
- Brock Lesnar reprised his feud with The Undertaker, now back as the "Original Deadman".
- Heidenreich's first gimmick would have been Baron von Bava, a 1940s frozen Nazi soldier thawed out in the present day, with Paul Heyman (who is Jewish and whose mother is a Holocaust survivor) as his heel manager.
- Kenzo Suzuki's first gimmick would have been Hirohito, an apologist for Imperial Japan who had taken the name of the late Japanese emperor and would swear to make America pay for defeating Japan in World War II.
- Create Tag Team w/ Bava & Hirohito managed by Paul Heyman.
- According to Hulk Hogan, his feud with Shawn Michaels that went into SummerSlam of 2005 was originally planned to last for at least 2 more Pay-Per-Views, with Shawn Michaels winning the 2nd one and a 3rd one building up for who the better wrestler was. One of them was going to be a Steel Cage Match. Hogan also hinted that this could be one of the major possibilities as to why Shawn Michaels oversold all of Hogan's moves in such an over-the-top fashion.
- John Cena turns heel after his rise to the main event in 2005 during his first feud against The Rock at WrestleMania XXVII.
- Mick Foley gets Samoa Joe AND CM Punk signed to company in 2005.
- Similarly to the Owen Hart/WWF Championship example mentioned above, Eddie Guerrero was booked to win the World Heavyweight Championship in a Triple Threat Match involving an injured then-champion Batista & Randy Orton.
- Booker T wins the World Heavyweight Championship from Triple H at WrestleMania XIX.
- The Undertaker's original match at WrestleMania 21 was going to be for him to face a newcomer named Mordecai, a heel religious zealot who punished wrestlers for sinning. It was revealed that both wrestlers and even Vince McMahon himself agreed for the two of them to feud for the majority of 2004.
- Randy Orton was supposed to win the World Heavyweight Championship at WrestleMania 22.
- Eddie Guerrero was booked to have a match at WrestleMania 22 vs. Shawn Michaels, built up in a similar way to Michaels' match against Chris Jericho at WrestleMania XIX.
- WWE had Chavo as their first choice for the main event push that was part of the infamous, widely-panned "Eddiesploitation" angle instead of Rey Mysterio.
- According to Kurt Angle, he was considered to end Undertaker's streak at WrestleMania 22 in a match for the World Heavyweight Championship instead of at No Way Out 2006. Undertaker was willing to take the loss because he hadn't had a 5-Star WrestleMania match and the writing team was willing to do it to keep Angle looking strong as champion. If this had happened, would Rey Mysterio Jr have gained the World Heavyweight Championship during the Eddiesploitation angle?
- The Miz forms "Reality Check" with the late Matt Cappotelli. Tag Team.
- In 2006, after Stephanie McMahon gave birth to her child, there was planned to be an incest angle where Vince was revealed to be the father.
- Edge wins the TLC match vs John Cena at Unforgiven 2006, giving Edge the title and the feud.
- Cena goes back to SmackDown, and turns heel to refresh his character (restarting his feuds with Kurt Angle, from opposite roles, and Rey Mysterio Jr. while possibly aligning with Randy Orton and starting his feud with Batista years early).
- Booker T wins the World Heavyweight Championship from Triple H at WrestleMania XIX.
- The Undertaker's original match at WrestleMania 21 was going to be for him to face a newcomer named Mordecai, a heel religious zealot who punished wrestlers for sinning. It was revealed that both wrestlers and even Vince McMahon himself agreed for the two of them to feud for the majority of 2004.
- Randy Orton was supposed to win the World Heavyweight Championship at WrestleMania 22.
- The record for youngest World Heavyweight Champion belongs to Muhammad Hassan, who was 23 when he faced Undertaker for the #1 Contendership. He won the match, and beat Batista at Summerslam, beating Randy Orton's record by more than 8 months.
- Mr. Kennedy was supposed to be Vince's illegitimate son. This was going to be the original angle for the "Who Killed Vince McMahon?" angle. The "murderer" was supposed to be revealed as Linda McMahon, who would be arrested at that show. Some weeks after the funeral, which would have included Vince's real-life older brother Roderick McMahon II and his kids, there was supposed to be an "aired will reading" by Mr. McMahon himself wherein he would leave the entire WWE in the hands of his "illegitimate son" Mr. Kennedy. This was meant to turn Kennedy into a massive heel and give him a mega-push to the championship. At that point, Stephanie McMahon and Triple H were going to reveal their kayfabe-second, consensual marriage - based on their real one - that would entitle Triple H to combat Mr. Kennedy for the right to own the WWE, culminating in a feud that would push all the way to the main event of that year's WrestleMania. After THAT was finished, in which Triple H would win back control of the company from Kennedy, Vince was meant to come back and reveal that he'd faked the whole thing and setup Linda to take the fall so that way he could give everything to his "true son."
- Another WWE signee would be Steve Corino. After leaving ECW for WCW, Corino was released after the WWF bought the latter. Six years later, he wrestled a couple tryout matches and was offered a contract.
- After Rey Misterio Jr, Paul London and Dean Malenko all pushed the issue, WWE offered Místico a contract in 2007. WWE persisted though and eventually got him as Sin Cara.
- When The Undertaker suffered a Game-Breaking Injury in 2007, Mr. Kennedy used his Money in the Bank contract and capture the World Heavyweight title.
- As for Chris Benoit himself, he would have become the new focal point of ECW by winning the title at Vengeance and feuding with CM Punk, building Punk up similar to his feud with MVP.
- in 2008 Cena formed a blossoming faction with Cryme Tyme called Cryme Tyme Cenation (or CTC) for short. Not only did Cryme Tyme level up in stature going from an Affectionate Parody of thug culture to Hip-Hop Guile Heroes but also rerailed Cena's character by bringing back shades of Doctor of Thuganomics. Plus the idea of a mixed race Hip-Hop group was so awesome, it rescued Cena from the Scrappy heap without turning him heel.
- Kane remasked in 2008 when he carried around a burlap sack asking "Is he alive or dead?"
- William Regal was receiving a major push for the WWE title in 2008.
- Christian was the one behind Jeff Hardy's "accidents" in late 2008.
- Jeff Hardy kept the Intercontinental Championship going into WrestleMania 24 and won the Money in the Bank ladder match. He cashed in at Armageddon later that year.
- Edge was also considered to break the Streak during the time of WrestleMania XXIV.
- In December 2008, a vignette was shown for Hade Vansen, a British wrestler with a gimmick described as being similar to the "Fallen Angel" persona of Christopher Daniels. Vansen himself said that this was supposed to lead to him sending "X-Men style mutants" after The Undertaker week after week, eventually culminating in a match between the two men, possibly at WrestleMania XXV.
- Chris Jericho wrestles against Hall of Famers Greg Valentine, Jimmy Snuka, and Roddy Piper at WrestleMania 25.
- What if Shawn Michaels had defeated the Undertaker at WrestleMania 26 and not retired? Shawn would have a career resurgence after a Face–Heel Turn, beating both John Cena and Edge for their respective World Titles and unified both belts. Edge would have retired afterwards and Shawn would dub himself "The Career-Ender". A wedge is driven between Shawn and Triple H, with DX disbanding. This would all come to a head at WrestleMania 28, with Triple H defeating Shawn in a Unified Title vs Career match. After the match, the lights would go out, and the Undertaker (clad in white), proceeded to drag HBK to Hell.
- The SummerSlam 2010 main event pitting Team WWE vs The Nexus (wins).
- switch Survivor Series PPV in 2010 with WCW's War Games.
- Matt Hardy's feud with Drew McIntyre was supposed to have Matt use a Twitter campaign to rehire McIntyre so he could face him.
- Kevin Nash revealed as the anonymous Raw GM in summer 2010. The reveal would have the emails being traced to the production truck and when instigated, Nash would be sitting with wizard's hat as a nod towards his old WCW "Oz" gimmick.
- TLC 2010's card originally contained a Chairs match with Alberto Del Rio and Rey Mysterio & The World title TLC match with Kane and Edge.
- Had Kharma been able to continue her WWE run in 2011, she would have torn through the entire Divas division, killing bitches dead one-by-one, saving Kelly Kelly for last to use as bait to lure then-champion Beth Phoenix. Beth would then have rallied the girls against Kharma as she did the show before the pregnancy announcement.
- There has also been talk that WWE's plans were for Kelly to turn heel and be revealed as the one who brought Kharma in, with Kelly winning the Divas Championship thanks to her.
- Kane started a feud with Rey Mysterio in December 2011.
- Had Edge not retired, one of the possibilities for a feud post-WrestleMania XXVII for him would had been Christian turning on him. Also, if Edge never retired, he would have retained the title.
- Sting was approached to wrestle the Undertaker at WrestleMania XXVII. There were apparently plans to have Wade Barrett vs. Undertaker at WrestleMania XXVII quite early on, which appears to be evidenced by the rather sudden beatdown by The Nexus upon the Undertaker at Bragging Rights 2010. To add to the Undertaker's history with WrestleMania XXVII's matches, the original plan was for Undertaker to fight Brock Lesnar as well.
- What if Daniel Bryan didn't get "fired" from the WWE and stayed in The Nexus?
- Wade Barrett was originally scheduled to win the SmackDown MITB contract in 2011.
- Wade Barrett cashed in successfully on Big Show at TLC.
- CM Punk's feud with Kevin Nash would have revealed that John Laurinaitis was the one to put the hit out on Punk by sending a text message to Nash to attack Punk (instead of Nash sending a text message to himself), in an attempt to drive out COO Triple H and take over the company.
- Brodus Clay's Funkasaurus gimmick actually had a link between the monster heel promos and his current form. Clay would have debuted (OK, returned, but the WWE pretended that he never appeared on WWE television before) the monster heel gimmick but would turn on Laurinaitis (for stalling his debut for so long) and later debut the dancing gimmick.
- the team of Awesome Truth would have won the Tag Team Titles following Survivor Series.
- In 2012, WWE was building towards a Chris Jericho vs. Randy Orton match for the No Way Out PPV.
- The Shield were originally booked to lose their six-man tag team match at Elimination Chamber 2013 against John Cena, Sheamus, and Ryback.
- Wade Barrett was the winner of the 2013 MITB contract for the World Heavyweight title.
- The Undertaker and Kane team up against The Shield for SummerSlam 2013.
- When The Undertaker was to defend The Streak against CM Punk at WrestleMania 29, WWE originally wanted to do something with Punk's manager Paul Heyman going up against Taker's longtime manager Paul Bearer.
- Swagger vs del Rio at WrestleMania 29 for the World Heavyweight title, with the former being booked to win. Wade Barrett cashed in his Money in the Bank briefcase on Raw the next night.
- Jack Swagger almost came back as a babyface with Sgt. Slaughter as his manager.
- Antonio Cesaro aligned with Zeb Colter and formed a mini-stable.
- In 2013 Fandango was part of the Magic Mike inspired male stripper gimmick that Curt Hawkins and Tyler Reks used.
- Los Matadores were gonna debut as heels without El Torito.
- CM Punk faced Kane at Elimination Chamber 2014 and later Triple H at WrestleMania XXX. Punk also faced Triple H at WrestleMania 28. Daniel Bryan would have faced a heel Sheamus for a third time @ M30. Batista was to have a rematch vs. Bryan for the title at Extreme Rules.
- The Rock was planned to have a match with Brock Lesnar at WrestleMania XXX. John Cena vs The Undertaker @ WM30.
- Sheamus was first slated to win the MITB contract as a face, with the idea that it would be an unexpected outcome, and with plans in place for a slow-burn heel turn.
- Bryan's title defense at MITB 2014 was scheduled to be a Stretcher match against Kane.
- Daniel Bryan vs Brock Lesnar @ SummerSlam 2014. John Cena was United States Champion.
- Hideo Itami (best known elsewhere by his real name Kenta Kobayashi, or simply KENTA) signed with the company in 2014 to a great deal of hype, and asserted his goal of becoming NXT Champion in his debut promo at NXT TakeOver: Fatal 4-Way in September.
- The following May, Itami was booked in a #1 contender's Triple Threat match with Finn Bálor and Tyler Breeze. The original plan was for Itami to win the Triple Threat match and defeat then-champion Kevin Owens at The Beast in the East in Tokyo, Japan.
- The pre-show of Hell in a Cell 2015 was to feature a tag team match pitting Dean Ambrose and Randy Orton against Braun Strowman and Luke Harper.
- Brock Lesnar was originally scheduled to face Bray Wyatt at WrestleMania 32. Chris Jericho was originally scheduled to face Ambrose at Mania.
- Roman Reigns kept the WWE World Championship past the Brand Split and brought the senior title to Raw. The WWE Universal Championship would have ended up on SmackDown with AJ Styles as the first champion. Finn Bálor on the other hand, would have had his first feud vs. Chris Jericho.
- Later at Money in the Bank 2016, Reigns and Rollins would have not only feuded also double turned, turning Rollins face which eventually happened with his feud with Triple H and turning Reigns heel which would have solved his character problems in ways that they never could with Cena.
- Cody Rhodes remained Stardust but had bleached blond hair just like his older brother Goldust. He also had plans on separating his personas after the brand split, appearing as Stardust on Raw and as Cody Rhodes on SmackDown Live.
- After the second brand split in 2016, vignettes began airing on SmackDown Live promoting the return of Shelton Benjamin.
- Paige won the Divas Championship over AJ Lee on her very first night on the main roster (the Raw after WrestleMania XXX, no less), the world's eyes were on her and she was ready to be the Diva of Tomorrow. The Raw after Survivor Series, she would return along with Mandy Rose and Sonya Deville as the new faction Absolution. It was rumored that Paige would have entered the first women's Royal Rumble and won, facing Asuka, who would've been holding the Raw Women's Championship going into the event instead of challenging SmackDown's at the event.
- WWE Universal Champ, Finn Bálor was originally scheduled to face Kevin Owens at Clash of Champions that September, as well as a Triple Threat Hell in a Cell match against Owens and Chris Jericho in October.
- Itami beginning a feud with Austin Aries at TakeOver: Brooklyn II in August 2016. He was then entered into the Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic with Kota Ibushi.
- in late 2016, Chris Jericho challenged Kevin Owens for the Universal title at the Royal Rumble, and won. Jericho defended against Brock Lesnar at Fastlane. Goldberg beat Jericho @ WM.
- The Miz defended the IC title at Mania against a debuting Shinsuke Nakamura.
- Nox (then under her previous ring name of Nixon Newell) was originally scheduled as one of the 32 women to compete in the inaugural Mae Young Classic in 2017.
- AJ Styles would have lost the WWE Championship to The Undertaker at the Royal Rumble, who would've lost it back to Styles in the Elimination Chamber match after being eliminated by John Cena, thus setting up a long-awaited Taker/Cena match for Mania.
- Randy Orton was always slated to win the Rumble match, but he would've turned on Bray Wyatt to win, setting up a match between the two men seven weeks earlier at Elimination Chamber. Orton would've gone on to challenge Styles for the WWE title at Mania.
- In the weeks after WrestleMania 33, Rusev (who had been injured) began demanding a WWE Championship match against champion Randy Orton at Money in the Bank. Jinder Mahal wins the title from Orton at Backlash.
- Itami finally received his NXT title opportunity at TakeOver: Chicago in 2017 in a losing effort to Bobby Roode. After competing in his final televised NXT match against Aleister Black at TakeOver: Brooklyn III, he was moved to the 205 Live roster, where he would remain until asking for his release from WWE in January 2019.
- Bayley ended up winning a Triple Threat match against Alicia Fox and Emma and a singles match against Nia Jax to earn the title opportunity against Bliss. Bayley would be victorious at SummerSlam, only to lose the title back to Bliss eight days later.
- The main event was to feature the reunited Shield in a handicap TLC match at TLC. Finn Bálor assumed his Demon persona and face Wyatt.
- AJ Styles wins the WWE Championship less than a month later.
- On "Stone Cold" Steve Austin's podcast, Tommy Dreamer mentioned that he had worked out a deal for Abyss to come to WWE, and they were even considering him as an opponent for The Undertaker at WrestleMania.
- The December 11, 2017 episode of Raw was originally supposed to feature a Drew Gulak vs. Rich Swann match to determine the #1 contender to Enzo Amore's Cruiserweight Championship.
- Remember in 2017 when Raw ran a bunch of ads promoting that Emma was going to become "Emmalina", which lasted for several months? The plan was to repackage Emma as a Sable-esque sexpot character.
- Cruiserweight title match between Amore and Alexander scheduled for the Royal Rumble.
- The Forgotten Sons seemingly made their NXT TV debut at the tapings in Atlanta in February 2018, declaring their participation in the Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic.
- Reportedly, there was a house show event in which the Forgotten Sons were joined by Lacey Evans dressed in similar attire to them, implying that she would join them.
- AJ Styles defends against John Cena at WrestleMania 34.
- Moustache Mountain competed in the 2018 Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic.
- Bobby Fish & Kyle O'Reilly vs Strong & Dunne @ TakeOver: New Orleans in the finals of the Dusty Classic. Strong turns on Dunne in that match to join The Undisputed Era.
- After returning from injury in April 2018, Big Cass seemed in line for a big push, immediately being entered into a feud with newly-cleared Daniel Bryan, and making it to the final two of the Greatest Royal Rumble match. On SmackDown, Cass brought a little person dressed as Daniel Bryan into the ring.
- Moustache Mountain ended up winning the NXT Tag titles in June at the 2nd United Kingdom Championship Tournament from O'Reilly and Strong, and the pair of teams went on to have one of the best tag team rivalries in recent memory in WWE, their second match even receiving the coveted five-star rating from Dave Meltzer.
- In 2018, Asuka - at the time on a massive undefeated streak - started winning matches via armbar, with the obvious plan being building her towards a feud with the incoming Ronda Rousey. These plans went so far as for Asuka to win the women's Royal Rumble match and, after Rousey's official signing was announced and she came to the ring following the match, Asuka blew her off.
- During the middle of her undefeated run, someone realized that there actually was a woman employed by WWE who'd beaten her - trainer Sara Amato had several wins over Asuka dating back to their indy days as Kana and Sara Del Rey. There was talk of Amato coming out of retirement for a one-off with Asuka.
- Nox entered the 2nd Mae Young Classic in 2018, and made it to the quarterfinals, Nox was originally scheduled to win that match as well as her semi-final match with Io Shirai to earn a spot in the finals at the Evolution PPV. She also was strongly being considered to defeat Toni Storm in that match and win the tournament, no doubt setting her up for a push in NXT or NXT UK. It was later confirmed by Nox herself that she was meant to win and become the first NXT UK Women's Champion.
- In November 2018, vignettes for NXT Superstar Lars Sullivan's main roster debut began airing. Sullivan had been slated to begin a feud with John Cena, culminating in a match at WrestleMania 35. He eventually appeared on the Raw and SmackDown after that event, taking out both a retired Kurt Angle and the Hardy Boyz.
- The NXT North American title match between Johnny Gargano and The Velveteen Dream in early 2019 was taped, so that there could be no definitive spoilers about the match's outcome. After a celebration, Gargano put Dream in the Garga-No Escape, with Dream submitting and Gargano taking the title back with him, posing on the stage with Tommaso Ciampa as he did at the end of TakeOver: Phoenix.
- Mustafa Ali (not kofi) was scheduled to compete in the Elimination Chamber match for the WWE Championship in 2019.
- Roman Reigns def Brock Lesnar vs Braun Strowman @ Crown Jewel for the WWE Universal title.
- John Cena (NOT Bobby Lashley) was the first participant announced for the WWE World Cup @ Crown Jewel.
- Daniel Bryan was originally scheduled to challenge AJ Styles for the WWE Championship @ Crown Jewel.
- In the aftermath of the event, plans involved another Taker vs. Shawn fight, and Shawn taking on AJ Styles. Triple H vs. Batista, and Shane McMahon's Face–Heel Turn.
- The kickoff show for Fastlane 2019 originally was to feature a match between Rey Mysterio and Andrade.
- Less than two weeks away from WrestleMania 35, SmackDown was to feature a Fatal 4-Way match involving Carmella, Naomi, Mandy Rose and Sonya Deville to determine Asuka's challenger at WM 35; Deville would have won and challenged Asuka for the title.
- For the Kurt Angle vs. Baron Corbin match at WrestleMania 35, The Undertaker was supposed to return in his "American Badass" gimmick for the first time since Survivor Series 2003 to save Angle from a violent beatdown from Corbin following the match.
- After the Daniel Bryan-Kofi Kingston match at WrestleMania 35, Bryan was supposed to continue feuding with Kingston in a lead-up to a rematch for the WWE Championship at that year's Money in the Bank PPV. Bryan challenged Kingston for the title again on Raw in a losing effort, and he and right-hand man Erick Rowan became the SmackDown Tag Team Champions. Owens in turn was meant to face Kingston once more at Super ShowDown in Saudi Arabia.
- The main event of NXT TakeOver: Brooklyn 4 was to be new NXT Champion Tommaso Ciampa defending against former champion Aleister Black and best friend-turned-arch nemesis Johnny Gargano in a Triple Threat match.
- Ciampa vs. Gargano at TakeOver: New York
- Ciampa and Gargano had been called up in February and were reunited as a tag team, scoring multiple wins and mounting an undefeated streak on Raw and SmackDown.
- Royal Rumble 2019 was originally to feature Brock Lesnar defending the Universal Championship against Braun Strowman.
- Many have speculated that, due to their non-title win over Raw Tag Team Champions The Revival, #DIY would have likely challenged for the titles alongside Black and Ricochet in a Triple Threat match at Fastlane 2019.
- Cole was originally slated to be in a Triple Threat match for the NXT North American Championship against Dream and Riddle at TakeOver.
- Natalya turned against Ronda Rousey and gunned for her Raw Women's Championship.
- The Forgotten Sons debuted on SmackDown after WrestleMania 36 on April 2020 and were given a big push, being put in the title picture of the SmackDown Tag Team Championship. It was later reported that they were set to actually win the SmackDown Tag Team Championship from The New Day.
- Alexa Bliss vs SmackDown Women's Champion Bayley @ 2019's Extreme Rules PPV.
- For the Men's Money in the Bank ladder match in 2019, the original choices to win the briefcase were either Mustafa Ali or Drew McIntyre. When preparations for the PPV began, the plans were for Ali to win the match.
- According to a report by Fightful, the infamous no-contest result of the Hell in a Cell 2019 main event match was always set to end the way it did so that then-Universal Champion Seth Rollins and "The Fiend" Bray Wyatt could then have a rematch at Crown Jewel. What was also reported was that WWE planned for a double turn to take place with Rollins and Wyatt at Crown Jewel, with Rollins going heel and Wyatt officially turning face.
- The tag team of Bobby Roode and Dolph Ziggler challenged The New Day for the SmackDown Tag Team Championships at TLC: Tables, Ladders and Chairs 2019.
- In late 2019 into 2020, weird static interruptions began appearing on SmackDown. Finally, it came to a head on the go-home SmackDown before WrestleMania 36, when a mysterious person in a hoodie revealed themselves on the Titantron, showing footage of how Sonya Deville and Dolph Ziggler conspired to keep Mandy Rose away from Otis, leading to her abandoning both of them. The mystery figure popped up the next week, interrupting a Daniel Bryan match, and later one more time, teasing that a tag team would break up (presumably due a revelation made by the hacker), then was never heard from again. The hacker was supposed to be Mustafa Ali (already the most widely rumored candidate by fans, since the hacker had as a logo a ring of light similar to the one Ali wears on his wrestling gear), Ali, now the leader of the RETRIBUTION stable, admitted he was the SmackDown hacker and admitted he was doing so out of revenge for continually being passed over.
- The 2020 Men's Rumble was supposed to have been won by Roman Reigns and Shayna Baszler would win the Women's Rumble.
- Bayley was originally scheduled to defend her SmackDown Women's title in a Six-Pack Elimination Challenge @ WM.
- Rey Mysterio challenged for the United States Championship, given his non-title victory over then-champion Andrade on Raw.
- Andrade was originally scheduled to tag with Angel Garza and challenge the Street Profits for the Raw Tag Team titles.
- Roman Reigns was originally scheduled to challenge Goldberg for the Universal Championship.
- John Morrison and The Miz were originally planned to defend their SmackDown Tag Team titles in a Ladder match against The New Day and The Usos.
- The planned WrestleMania Women's and André the Giant Memorial Battle Royals were not scrapped.
- Still scheduled: the AJ Styles vs. The Undertaker and Bray Wyatt vs. John Cena matches.
- the BroserWeights would defend the NXT Tag Team titles against the Grizzled Young Veterans.
- Walter defended the NXT UK title against Finn Bálor.
- For Money in the Bank 2020, Shayna Baszler was originally slated to win the women's briefcase and eventually pick up her feud again with Becky Lynch, who would've defended the Raw Women's Championship at the event against Nia Jax.
- Kayden Carter was part of RETRIBUTION when they posed on the ring following SummerSlam and it seemed they would be a Gender-Equal Ensemble with 6 members.
- Mercedes Martinez was part of the group originally and was there when they cut their first promo as members of the RAW roster, with her character name later revealed to be RETALIATION.
- On the subject of Mandy Rose and Sonya Deville, originally their match at SummerSlam 2020 was billed as a hair vs. hair match, based on Sonya attacking Mandy and giving her a Traumatic Haircut weeks earlier.
- WWE signs the Motor City Machine Guns in 2020.
- On the December 4th, 2020 episode of SmackDown, Blake & Cutler, now clean shaven, returned to TV repackaged as King Corbin's new bodyguards. Ryker returned to TV on the December 14th RAW as the new associate of Elias, effectively marking the end of the group.
- On the March 5th, 2021 edition of SmackDown there was a backstage segment where Bayley was reading some ego-stroking tweets, allegedly from viewers, when she looked at one, without reading it aloud, reacted sadly to it and walked through the large door next to her without saying anything. This was not addressed the following week, as WWE apparently forgot they have more women on the roster than just Sasha Banks, Bianca Belair, Natalya, & Tamina so Bayley disappeared for weeks and when she returned following WrestleMania she was back to her Yosemite Sam-esque, egotistical self and it was never mentioned what that whole thing was about.
-
