Considering that WWE a few months later put the belt on Sid I could have seen Warrior winning the belt sometime in 1996 had he been on his best behavior. Sid and Warrior were a couple of juiced up guys who couldn't wrestle a lick, but at least Warrior could cut a promo. Given a choice between the two as champion I would choose Warrior.

 

I don't know if Warrior would've held a title. Warrior was pretty unrelaible, and they were trying to get Shawn over as top guy at the time. Maybe they'd have feuded for the title at some point but I doubt Warrior would've held it.



I know Sid has fluffed a few promos, but when he was on form he was quite good.

 

Has anyone ever heard any truth to this rumour, or if WWE had any actual plans to put the belt on the Warrior at that time? Looking back, it honestly would not surprise me if WWE put together the advertisement up just to make Warrior look even worse to the fans on the DVD (because that DVD was just a complete burial as anyone who watched it knows). I still cannot see a point in which it looked like Warrior was being built to win the belt as quickly as July. He was scheduled to participate in a 6 man tag team match at the WWF International Incident pay per view, a match which would have had him team up with Shawn Michaels and Ahmed Johnson against Owen, Bulldog and Vader

If Warrior would've stayed he'll face HBK WWF title or Psycho Sid feud have SummerSlam 96 Warrior-Sid no.1 contenders match

 

Vader was in the picture too. Cornette said the plan was for Shawn to drop the title to Vader at Survivor Series then Shawn would win it back at the Rumble in his hometown. No mention of Warrior. But who knows, maybe Cornette is being selective in memory.

Sid was the backup after Shawn went pissy over Vader. Again no Warrior.
I liked the Warrior and was cool seeing him in 1996 but looking back now he didn't fit.

 

Possibly that was the plan. In reality Warrior not winning the title again could have been the best thing that could have ever happened.

 

Probably. If you look at the King of the Ring poster, he was the only one featured on it.

Looks like at the time, they were building him up to be their #1 star.

Understandably so, since I imagine that he is the one that they invested the most amount of money in.

 

Vince might have had plans to put it on him in late '96 if everything went according to plan, but it didn't. Warrior wasn't getting the same pops after the initial shock of him returning and he wasn't drawing any better than anyone else when he was on Raw. Then, he started to no show some shows. Needless to say, any plans they had of putting the belt on him later on were very short-lived. HBK was always going to have a longer than normal first title run.

 

Warrior defending the title in July against Vader is another example of WWE lies.

First of all, Warrior never missed a show until June 28. So unless they were going to waste a title change as big as HBK/Warrior on a house show or RAW taping, it couldn't have happened. The previous 2-3 monts of tours were based on Warrior, Ahmed and HBK working rotating members of Camp Cornette, leading to International Incident.

His PPV matches were against Goldust, Lawler and somebody else so Warrior winning the belt could have been Summerslam at the earliest. And his no shows had no effect on booking pre-June 28. Seems like WWE forgot what they did at that time and want to make it look like Warrior killed his title win, despite no logical reasoning to show Warrior would have been champion going into July.

If anything, International Incident could have planted the seeds for a Warrior title win. Or later than that, maybe Warrior would have been scheduled to win the number 1 contender battle royal in August that Ahmed Johnson won and it lead to a match at Summerslam.

But IMO, Warrior would never have been in position to go after the belt until after International Incident. His last match was 2-3 weeks before the PPV with him in the 6 man tag. And seeing as how International Incident was July 21, Warriors last match was June 28, unless they were doing it at a house show, I can't see how Warrior was going to defend against Vader in July.

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Finally someone with common sense

Doesn't make any sense to have that build up of HBKs first title win just to lose it in 3 months. Also, in HBK's book he said that Vince told him he was going to have a long title run. And back then, the standard world title run was 5 months. Wouldn't have made sense to have him lose it in almost half that time, especially when they were trying to make a new star. Plus, it's not like Warrior's return overtook WCW in the ratings.

Just because VKM says so doesnt mean it is written in Stone.

I was invovled in this discussion years ago on another wrestling forum, as far from what I can remember, one of the guys had and published the original poster of that show, and it was WWF Champion HBK vs Vader not WWF Champion Warrior vs Vader. So WWE obviously photoshopped that picture for unknown reasons

 

^Could he have won the title at In Your House International Incident in July, and then defended it against Vader in late July on a house show run?

That still works within the timeline.

Honestly, Michaels vs. Warrior sounds a lot more interesting than that six man tag match that ended up happening on IYH: International Incident.

 

Doesn't make any sense to have that build up of HBKs first title win just to lose it in 3 months. Also, in HBK's book he said that Vince told him he was going to have a long title run. And back then, the standard world title run was 5 months. Wouldn't have made sense to have him lose it in almost half that time, especially when they were trying to make a new star. Plus, it's not like Warrior's return overtook WCW in the ratings.

 

I think that this post is dead on the money:

I think the original plan (involving Warrior) was something like this:

- Warrior involved in 6-Man Tag team match at IYH
- HBK drops the belt to Vader at SummerSlam
- Warrior to face Bulldog at SummerSlam
- Warrior wins belt from Vader at Survivor Series

However, once Warrior left I think the plans changed to:

- Sid replaces Warrior in 6-man tag and Bulldog match at Summerslam
- HBK drops belt to Vader at SummerSlam (but was changed to Survivor Series)
- Vader drops belt back to HBK at Rumble
- Bret wins title from HBK at WrestleMania

But once HBK's dislike for Vader came or whatever, it became what it was.

This is what seems like possible scenarios based off of what i read and what was happening in the WWF in 1996.

 

WWF magazine was at the time hinting towards it for Survivor Series.

 

I remember in early 2004 WWE Magazine once predicted Shelton Benjamin to win a World title before Randy Orton, the magazine is always largely kayfabe. They edited this to make him look bad, the only thought they'd have given to putting the title on him is if he would have set the company on fire when he returned. Once that didn't happen, I'm sure things immediately soured between Warrior and Vince.

 

Gotta remember that when Warrior beat Hogan at WM 3, they planned on him carrying the WWF for at least 10 years and he could have if his work ethic wasn't so awful and he was a dick. For him to also squash HHH like that, you could see that's what they planned on.

 

If Warrior was to win at any point, it probably would have been at Survivor Series, but I really don't see where he fit in the WWF Title picture at the time.

I think that the WWF Title picture was very much in flux during HBK's reign and the beginning of the nWo that the only real decision that was made longterm had to have been Shawn winning the title back at the Rumble in San Antonio. They put a lot into the hype of that show. And I think Bret/Shawn was the likely WM13 main event that they had in the back of their heads the entire time.

I think Vader was the favorite to beat Shawn, but for whatever reason, Shawn didn't like him, so Sid was the one they went with. Maybe they were buddies from around the time of WM11 when Sid was Shawn's manager? Didn't read his book, don't know their relationship, but Sid seemed to overall be on the good side of the WWF at the time.

In Bret's book, he talked a lot about how Vince promised him a long run as champ then went back on it, and I expect he did the exact same thing with Shawn.

Now, Sid was a replacement for Warrior in the six-man at International Incident, but I don't think that automatically plugs Warrior into every role Sid had once Warrior left. I think it was more than likely that Shawn was either losing at SummerSlam or Survivor Series. I think Survivor Series was most likely, since that was in MSG and they always try to make their MSG PPVs special. Plus, by that point in Shawn's reign, he was getting booed by the MSG crowd, so they must have seen the writing on the wall, but still went forward with the second San Antonio title win.

Either way, I don't see Warrior fitting in there. It was either Sid or Vader the whole time. I suppose, since they did a Sid-UT main event, UT could have been switched out with Warrior giving him another title win, but that 1996 ad had to have been a mistake.

 

LOL, if Warrior won the Title, imagine douche bag 90s HBK's reaction, simply based off of what we know about his attitude.

 

For anyone who has watched the Self Destruction of the Ultimate Warrior DVD, they may remember a part in which the WWE are talking about the Warrior no showing dates in 1996. While they were showing advertisements for the Warrior at the time, one was showcased in which it had the Ultimate Warrior DEFENDING the WWF Championship against Vader at a show in July. If this was the case, it would signal that Shawn Michaels would have, at some stage, dropped the title to the Ultimate Warrior at some point before this time.

Has anyone ever heard any truth to this rumour, or if WWE had any actual plans to put the belt on the Warrior at that time? Looking back, it honestly would not surprise me if WWE put together the advertisement up just to make Warrior look even worse to the fans on the DVD (because that DVD was just a complete burial as anyone who watched it knows). I still cannot see a point in which it looked like Warrior was being built to win the belt as quickly as July. He was scheduled to participate in a 6 man tag team match at the WWF International Incident pay per view, a match which would have had him team up with Shawn Michaels and Ahmed Johnson against Owen, Bulldog and Vader.

From what I understand, that ad on the DVD was just a marketing botch. Shawn Michaels was on the original poster, but was replaced with Warrior, but they left the WWF Championship part left in by mistake.

Had Warrior not been flaky again, he would've no doubt been WWF Champion again. The only problem is I couldn't see Shawn jobbing to him. He would've thrown another one of his backstage hissy fits again.

- Vic

 

ON the Warrior DVD, they show the Summerslam cardboard with HBK defending the title against Warrior. So Vader probably replaced Warrior once Hellwig left.

 

Where was that? I have the Warrior DVD but never recall remembering this, despite having seen it several times

 

They would never have done HBK vs Warrior. They wanted Shawn Michaels to be the face of the company, and didn't want to put him in situations where he may have been booed. When bringing in Warrior, they hoped people would get behind him, so there's no way they would have been prepared to have HBK booed at the benefit of Warrior. They brought in Ultimate Warrior because they were lacking names and feared WCW beating them in the ratings, I don't think they had any real grand plans for him.

 

Yeah I think it was just about replacing Hall and Nash. I saw his return being utilized as UT being used as a main attraction during Bret's title reign in 94, but HBK being the champion.

I also believe it really was going to be Bret/HBK at WM 13 in a title rematch. I agree with those who say Warrior doesn't fit in the title scene. Not to say if things were different it might not happen as things just got worse as the year went on in terms ratings.

November/December 96 were rock bottom and I could see Warrior being shoehorned into champion as Hogan/Piper were really hot for Starrcade.

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Very informative.

Now I know Warrior was a fuck up but I believe him 100% in this matter.

Which only confirms them claiming they "planned to give Warrior the belt" as a way of blaming him and labeling him as wrong in the situation.

Really sucks because WWE has altered people's opinions of Warrior regarding his 3 departures.

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Same here, Warrior may be a nutjob, but WWE are not so innocent as they claim they are. I do believe Warrior's story as well. But we also have to consider another factor: Warriors dad passing, sure McMahon claim Warrior never had so much contact with his father insuniating that he should not have missed the WWF shows when Warrior attended the funeral.
To me deos not matter, it was his father, and Warrior could afford to live without WWF since he was already financialy set, WWE needed him more than he needed them. So he took off to his fathers funeral. I would do the same every day of the week if I was in Warriros shoes

If Warrior's shitty attitude over the years was true, then it would be dumb for Vince to trust him with the belt. Either way, I would have loved to see it. HBK/Warrior would have been a great match. Not to mention if he fought Austin, Vader, Bret and Mankind in title matches as well.

Yeah but the problme is that you mention onöy heels except Bret. Bret was there to pass the belt like Hogan did to Warrior six years earlier. VAder, Mankind and Austin were all heels to make HBK look credible as a top tier.

But I believe that a match between HBK and Warrior could have been awesome, since HBK most likely could have given Warrior his best match ever besides the WM 6 and WM 7 matches.

Furhtermore, I think Warrior in 1996, had such an edge to his character, like a pre attitude era gimmick. Just look at his promos, he talks no nonsense, kicking Goldusts ASS all over there building and using other more edgy words.

 

If Warrior's shitty attitude over the years was true, then it would be dumb for Vince to trust him with the belt. Either way, I would have loved to see it. HBK/Warrior would have been a great match. Not to mention if he fought Austin, Vader, Bret and Mankind in title matches as well.

 

No unless vince was really desperate and hbk's title rating wasn't grabbing ratings. I mean warrior walked out on vince before so i don't think he really trusted him, the only reason he was brought in was because the fans missed, not because vince really wanted him in the wwf.