...How differently do you feel his championship reign would have gone that year?
Let's say he defeats The Rock cleanly at Wrestlemania X-7 without Vince's help. The Rock leaves, and from there you have Undertaker, Kane, Jericho and Benoit on the babyface side of things, and HHH, Kurt Angle, and Big Show on the heel side of them. Feel free to pretend the Invasion storyline never happened too, if you wish. How do you think his title reign would have panned out?
For me, this is it:
Backlash - fights and beats Triple H. I know they supposedly settled things for good at No Way Out 2001, but that was different. It was merely a personal rivalry then, whereas now the championship is on the line, and Hunter would obviously feel that his victory over Austin at No Way Out should grant him a fair shot at it. Austin goes over HHH here, end of story.
Judgment Day/King Of The Ring - I feel that whoever Austin feuds with here, the rivalry should last over two PPVs instead of one. I wanna go with Chris Benoit turning heel and getting ultra-aggressive on Austin like he did with The Rock a year before (especially since he and Austin did have a couple of great matches during this period anyway), but he had only just turned babyface early in the year, so reverting back to being a heel against so quickly may not have been a wise idea. If not Benoit, have Undertaker go heel much earlier than he did and feud with Austin for two months instead (although that has a "been there, done that" feeling to it. I'd want this reign of Austin's to be as fresh as possible.)
Fully Loaded (let's pretend the Invasion never happens) - Booker T. still interferes in the KOTR main event the same way he did, and then later cuts a promo saying that because WCW is out of business and he can no longer be the WCW World Heavyweight Champion (remembering that he was the last champion WCW had before it went under), he's gonna take the title from Austin and become WWF Champion instead. Fitting that these two should meet at the July PPV considering it was same month exactly a year earlier that Booker won his first world title in WCW. Maybe even have a faux unification match where Booker carries around the WCW belt saying that he's still a real world's champion until Austin beats him and proves he's the better man. Austin wins.
Summerslam/Unforgiven/No Mercy - And here comes the Kurt Angle feud, only with Austin as the face and Angle as the heel. They fight one-on-one at the first two PPVs, and if you want, you can still add in RVD (who will have already debut on the show by then anyway) as the wildcard and still make it a triple-threat match at No Mercy.
Survivor Series - Either the long-awaited Austin versus Rock rematch from WM 17, or the triple-threat match between Austin/Rock/HHH that we never got two years earlier and that we should have got at some point. Austin wins.
Vengeance - Austin loses one-on-one to a freshly turned Chris Jericho, who gets the accolade of ending what would be a nearly year-long title reign by that point. It's pretty the same from here (except without the quad injury, HHH turning babyface, winning the Rumble and defeating Jericho for the belt at Mania isn't quite as organic and likely doesn't happen at all, but I don't want to fantasy book up to that point.)
The only thing I might change about all of this is that the Austin/Rock match goes down at Summerslam instead, followed by two Austin/Angle singles matches at Unforgiven and No Mercy, and then the Austin/Rock/HHH triple-threat match at Survivor Series.
Anywho, what about you?
Let's say he defeats The Rock cleanly at Wrestlemania X-7 without Vince's help. The Rock leaves, and from there you have Undertaker, Kane, Jericho and Benoit on the babyface side of things, and HHH, Kurt Angle, and Big Show on the heel side of them. Feel free to pretend the Invasion storyline never happened too, if you wish. How do you think his title reign would have panned out?
For me, this is it:
Backlash - fights and beats Triple H. I know they supposedly settled things for good at No Way Out 2001, but that was different. It was merely a personal rivalry then, whereas now the championship is on the line, and Hunter would obviously feel that his victory over Austin at No Way Out should grant him a fair shot at it. Austin goes over HHH here, end of story.
Judgment Day/King Of The Ring - I feel that whoever Austin feuds with here, the rivalry should last over two PPVs instead of one. I wanna go with Chris Benoit turning heel and getting ultra-aggressive on Austin like he did with The Rock a year before (especially since he and Austin did have a couple of great matches during this period anyway), but he had only just turned babyface early in the year, so reverting back to being a heel against so quickly may not have been a wise idea. If not Benoit, have Undertaker go heel much earlier than he did and feud with Austin for two months instead (although that has a "been there, done that" feeling to it. I'd want this reign of Austin's to be as fresh as possible.)
Fully Loaded (let's pretend the Invasion never happens) - Booker T. still interferes in the KOTR main event the same way he did, and then later cuts a promo saying that because WCW is out of business and he can no longer be the WCW World Heavyweight Champion (remembering that he was the last champion WCW had before it went under), he's gonna take the title from Austin and become WWF Champion instead. Fitting that these two should meet at the July PPV considering it was same month exactly a year earlier that Booker won his first world title in WCW. Maybe even have a faux unification match where Booker carries around the WCW belt saying that he's still a real world's champion until Austin beats him and proves he's the better man. Austin wins.
Summerslam/Unforgiven/No Mercy - And here comes the Kurt Angle feud, only with Austin as the face and Angle as the heel. They fight one-on-one at the first two PPVs, and if you want, you can still add in RVD (who will have already debut on the show by then anyway) as the wildcard and still make it a triple-threat match at No Mercy.
Survivor Series - Either the long-awaited Austin versus Rock rematch from WM 17, or the triple-threat match between Austin/Rock/HHH that we never got two years earlier and that we should have got at some point. Austin wins.
Vengeance - Austin loses one-on-one to a freshly turned Chris Jericho, who gets the accolade of ending what would be a nearly year-long title reign by that point. It's pretty the same from here (except without the quad injury, HHH turning babyface, winning the Rumble and defeating Jericho for the belt at Mania isn't quite as organic and likely doesn't happen at all, but I don't want to fantasy book up to that point.)
The only thing I might change about all of this is that the Austin/Rock match goes down at Summerslam instead, followed by two Austin/Angle singles matches at Unforgiven and No Mercy, and then the Austin/Rock/HHH triple-threat match at Survivor Series.
Anywho, what about you?