WWE is one of the most popular professional wrestling companies in the world. Although the headquarters in Stamford is known for its impeccable stories, not everything goes as planned, and there have been cases in which things were changed at the last minute.
That said, here there are three cases in which the company had doubts and offered fans something completely different from their initial plans.
#3 The unexpected change to Babyface of Shawn Michaels
Shawn Michaels was a very popular babyface during his second stage in WWE. In 2005, he entered a rivalry with Hulk Hogan, which was originally going to be a confrontation between two heroes. However, WWE turned HBK into Heel for this rivalry, and the two members of the Hall of Fame fought in the Premium Live Event event of Summerslam 2005.
Hulkster came out victorious, but the fight was not exempt from controversy, since it seemed that HBK was exaggerating every Hogan movement. Although there were plans to continue rivalry, things did not go as expected.
Hulkster supposedly retired from rivalry due to creative differences, and Vince McMahon had to turn Michaels again into Babyface. This was an abrupt movement, but since the Heart Break Kid was already very popular among the WWE universe, it did not take much time for fans to accept it again as a hero.
#2 Drew McIntyre was not the original “chosen” of WWE in 2020
The Royal Rumble of 2020 saw Drew McIntyre win the fight of 30 fighters. The Scottish psychopath eliminated Roman Reigns at the end to ensure victory and face Brock Lesnar in Wrestlemania 36 for the WWE championship. The Scottish defeated The Beast Incarnate to become the 31st Triple Crown champion of the company. However, 2020 was not going to be the year of McIntyre.
According to a Dave Meltzer report in Wrestling Observer RadioRoman Reigns was destined to win the fight. This would have made him a rumble winner for the second time. However, Vince McMahon retreated, possibly to prevent Reigns from having another stage in which he could have ended up being hated by WWE fans.
Therefore, Drew McIntyre was not the “Elected” original that night. The same happened with Charlotte Flair, who won the 2020 rumble when WWE originally planned to give Victory to Shayna Baszler.
#1 Mustafa Ali was going to win the Money in the Bank
In 2019, Mustafa Ali was receiving a good impulse from the company. According to reports, I was going to win the Money in the Bank contract that year, until Vince McMahon announced a change of plans in the last second. In addition, the eventual winner, Brock Lesnar, was not even a competitor announced in combat.
Talking about it with Chris van Vliet in his podcast INSIGHTMustafa Ali said that Vince McMahon called him while the entries for combat were made. They informed him that he would no longer win the fight, and that The Beast Incarnate would pick up the briefcase at the end. This also turned out that Ali broke his lip accidentally when he fell from a ladder.
