History WhatCouldHaveBeen / WWE

* Whether baseless speculation or not, following Wrestling/WrestleMania 34 and the critically-acclaimed performance of UFC legend Creator/RondaRousey in her first pro wrestling match, many believed that her and Wrestling/CharlotteFlair would face off in the main event of Wrestling/WrestleMania 35, the first time that female performers would ever close out the show of shows. However, Wrestling/BeckyLynch got massively over in the summer of 2018 following a heel turn on Flair, reaching levels of popularity not seen in WWE since [[Wrestling/BryanDanielson Daniel Bryan]] in 2013-14 and arguably even Wrestling/StoneColdSteveAustin in 1997-98. The meteoric rise of Lynch secured her a spot alongside Rousey and Flair in the WM 35 main event for the Raw Women's Championship.

* Cena's injury in 2008 unfortunately put an end to 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 AffectionateParody of thug culture to HipHop [[GuileHero Guile Heroes]] but also rerailed Cena's character by bringing back shades of [[PrettyFlyForAWhiteGuy Doctor of Thuganomics]]. Plus the idea of a mixed race HipHop group was so awesome, it [[RescuedFromTheScrappyHeap rescued Cena from the Scrappy heap]] '''''without''' turning him heel''.

* Wrestling/{{Aliyah}} pitched her character as a BellyDancer to acknowledge her Arab heritage. As shown on ''Breaking Ground'', her first rehearsal with it in front of the roster bombed. Although she used it twice on TV, it was quietly dropped.

* After the blockbuster main event match at [=WrestleMania=] 12, the original plan was for Wrestling/BretHart and Wrestling/ShawnMichaels to have a rematch at [=WrestleMania=] 13 with Shawn planned to dropped the WWE championship back to the hitman. However Shawn "lost his smile" and faked a knee injury and vacated the title. Bret Hart instead faced Stone Cold Steve Austin along with their famous [FaceHeelDoubleTurn double turn] which elevated Steve Austin to eventual face of the company and the WWE championship was instead contested by Sid and The Undertaker

* The plan for Wrestling/CMPunk was for him to face Seth Rollins for his World Heavyweight Championship at Wrestling/WrestleMania 40 but during the 2024 Men's Rumble got injured taking a Future Shock DDT from Wrestling/DrewMcIntyre which would end up tearing his right tricep. On the Raw after the Royal Rumble, CM Punk announced he would unfortunately not be on the Wrestling/WrestleMania 40 card due to this injury requiring surgery and not being able to recover in time for it.
* Bronson reed was scheduled to appear in the men's chamber match at Elimination Chamber Perth, however his wife entered labor early and would give birth to his child before the PPV. He ended up losing his qualifiying match to Bobby Lashley on the Feburary 12th episode of Raw

Over the years, many Wrestling/{{WWE}} story arcs and events have been dropped or altered due to injuries, disputes with and between the wrestlers, executive meddling and various other reasons.

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* As revealed by Mandy Rose herself on Threads with McKenzie Mitchelle, she revealed that at''[=WrestleMania=]'' 35 she would have faced Asuka for the Smackdown Women's Championship and win the title there.

* The plan for Wrestling/CMPunk was for him to face Seth Rollins for his World Heavyweight Championship at Wrestling/WrestleMania 40 but during the 2024 Men's Rumble got injured taking a Future Shock DDT from Drew McIntyre which would end up tearing his right tricep. On the Raw after the Royal Rumble, CM Punk announced he would unfortunately not be on the WrestleMania 40 card due to this injury requiring surgery and not being able to recover in time for WrestleMania.

* Wes Lee was pulled from the Deadline 2023 card on the NXT before Deadline due to a back injury that gave him numbness in his legs and it requiring surgery to fix with a recovery time of 8-12 months. It would have been assumed that if he was healthy he would have beat Wrestling/DominikMysterio to win the North American Championship. Wes Lee was replaced by Dragon Lee with Lee winning the title instead

* Wrestling/BrockLesnar was scheduled to make his return at the 2024 Royal Rumble after losing to Cody Rhodes at Wrestling/SummerSlam 2023 before being removed from the show due to being heavily implicated in Wrestling/VinceMcMahon's latest lawsuit that caused Vince to leave the company to defend himself and retire from TKO entirely less than 24 hours before showtime. Bron Breakker was made into his last minute replacement and made his main roster debut in the 2024 Men's Rumble at number 20.

* Bron Breakker made his main roster debut in the 2024 Men's Rumble at number 20. The reason for this is that Bron Breakker was actually a last minute replacement for Wrestling/BrockLesnar who was scheduled to make his return to the WWE after losing to Cody Rhodes at Wrestling/SummerSlam 2023. However Brock Lesnar has been heavily implied to be involved in the real life Wrestling/VinceMcMahon lawsuit that caused Vince to leave the company to defend himself and retire from TKO entirely.

* Wes Lee was pulled from the Deadline 2023 card on the NXT before Deadline due to a back injury that gave him numbness in his legs and it requiring surgery to fix. It would have been assumed that if he was healthy he would have beat Wrestling/DominikMysterio to win the North American Championship. Wes Lee was replaced by Dragon Lee with Lee winning the title instead

* Wes Lee was pulled from the Deadline 2023 card at the last minute due to a back injury that gave him numbness in his legs and it requiring surgery to fix. It would have been assumed that if he was healthy he would have beat Wrestling/DominikMysterio to win the North American Championship. Wes Lee was replaced by Dragon Lee with Lee winning the title instead

* If Wrestling/MustafaAli hadn't been released from his contract before his NXT North American Championship match, he would've won it from Wrestling/DominikMysterio, instead Trick Williams was the one to take the title.

* Bron Breakker made his main roster debut in the 2024 Men's Rumble at number 20. The reason for this is that Bron Breakker was actually a last minute replacement for Wrestling/BrockLesnar who was scheduled to make his return to the WWE after losing to Cody Rhodes at SummerSlam 2023. However Brock Lesnar has been heavily implied to be involved in the real life Vince McMahon lawsuit that caused Vince to leave the company to defend himself and retire from TKO entirely.
** If it was believed that Bron Breakker did that everything Brock Lesnar was supposed to do including getting eliminated by Dominik Mysterio, Brock Lesnar was planned to have a match with Dominik Mysterio at Elimination Chamber Perth which would have eventually led to a match with Gunther at WrestleMania 40 for the Intercontinental Championship

* WWE almost signed Wrestling/NewJack. Although his tryout match with Val Venis was really short and lackluster, his promo skills impressed Wrestling/VinceMcMahon and he was well-liked in the locker room. Due to the inevitable {{Bowdlerization}} and Vince's concern that New Jack would seriously hurt someone, it didn't happen.