Wrestling is constantly changing, adapting and evolving.
The industry has always been like this, and that is its beauty. Seismic changes like Vince McMahon who left Triple H King Of The Ring’s planned victory in 1996 (paving the way for Steve Austin’s first real push) and WCW unthinkably turning the heel of Hulk Hogan on same summer they are well documented, but … what about these? moments with stealthy butterfly effects?
The 10 examples given here will be obvious some astute fans out there, and yet they all have one thing in common: the history of WWE, WCW, AEW, and TNA was completely remodeled by them. It may not have been clear when they happened, but the future was traced before your eyes.
Sometimes even the people involved didn’t see it coming.
The humble executives who were fired led to revolutionary promotional start-ups elsewhere, Vince McMahon’s backstage anger instilled the appetite for something outside the WWE walls in a company legend, the returns failed inspired slogans of millions of dollars, an innocuous party changed the women’s struggle forever and more.
These are the most important moments of professional wrestling that no one noticed at the time.
That. shit. To sing.
“What?!” has affected hundreds of wrestlers who have innocently tried to make their way through WWE scripts since 2001. It’s a constant nuisance and the kind of slogan that makes people roll their eyes or get angry at crowds for listen to them even more than 20 years later.
Surprisingly, it all started because Christian didn’t answer his phone. Steve Austin was calling his friend, but the now AEW star did not answer or reply to text messages. So to be ad * ck, ‘Stone Cold’ left a long voice message that included a lot of, “What? What? WHAT !?” joke, and they both had a kick.
After that, a monster was born, and Austin brought him another large amount of cash in merchandise sales when he printed that lone word on a T-shirt. Who would have thought that Christian … not picking up his phone would lead to millions of dollars and countless irritated workers in WWE, AEW and beyond?