1996
WWF: 1996 for the WWF was defined by the events that happened on May 19th, when the Kliq, a backstage group of Shawn Michaels, Kevin "Diesel" Nash, Scott "Razor Ramon" Hall and Paul "Hunter Hearst-Helmsley" Levesque (fifth member Sean "1-2-3 Kid" Waltman was injured at the time) had come out and hugged in front of the Madison Square Garden crowd to say goodbye to Hall and Nash, in flagrant disregard of kayfabe. Head booker Ric Flair was furious and immediately fired Levesque. Michaels, a known hellraiser even under the more stringent drug policies of TTL, was nothing short of a headache for the Nature Boy in spite of his amazing talent. It was then that Flair went old school, withholding pay from hall and Nash (resulting in a nasty legal battle that cost the WWF, but since they were in something of a better position financially, this wasn't a huge dent) and having Michaels world title at King of the Ring, cutting off the "Boyhood Dream" angle at the legs, and firing Michaels that night after Michaels bitched about his choice of opponent. That opponent was Vader, a stiff hoss who gave Michaels more potatoes than an entire McDonald's (believed to be at either the behest of Flair or Vader's on-screen manager, Jim Cornette, who also had little nice to say about the Heartbreak Kid) before going on to a great run on top facing off against the British Bulldog, The Undertaker, Randy Savage [1] and even Owen Hart on the low end before dropping the belt next year to Bret.
On the Intercontinental Title picture came Dustin Rhodes, rechristened as Goldust, a face-painted sexual deviant (very heavily implied to be a homosexual before GLAAD caught wind of it) known for playing mind games against his opponents. He beat Razor Ramon for the title and would hold it throughout the year, winning the crowd over thanks to the enthusiasm and energy he put into the bizarre gimmick, which was a creation of junior staff member Vince Russo. Russo was a writer for WWF magazine who basically works on the lower end of the WWF's booking team, often dubbed Vic Venom (by himself) and Vinny the Coffee Boy (by Cornette.)
The tag titles would switch from Canadians to Canadians as Owen and Benoit would drop the titles to the arriving Thrillseekers, Chris Jericho and Lance Storm [2] who would also have a year-long reign as tag champions. Along with Dustin, WWF would pick up Steve Austin and Chris Candido, with Austin jumping straight into the Stone Cold gimmick while Candido was given the management services of Ted DiBiase as "The Ringmaster" Chris Candido. [3]
WCW: Over in WCW, while things seemed to be running smoothly for the first half of the year, it was the arrival in the second half of the year by the Outsiders were things suddenly exploded. Shawn Michaels, Scott Hall, Kevin Nash, Triple H, and Sean Waltman began running roughshod over the southern promotion. Michaels would topple Paul Wight to take the WCW World Title. Kevin Nash power bombed Brian Pillman into oblivion for the United States title. Hall and Waltman beat three-time [4] tag team champions Harlem Heat for the belts while Waltman did double duty as Cruiserweight Champion, beating Rey Misterio Jr. for it. And finally, Triple H defeated Lord Steven Regal for the WCW Television Championship. The group would later be joined by the sixth member, Triple H's bodyguard, Joanie Lee [5] as the group would rule the roost for a while.
ECW: On January 1996, Bruiser Brody would drop the ECW World Heavyweight Championship to Raven, who would rule over as champion for over a year. Brody did everything in his power to put the young, grungy brawler over because more and more he's been contemplating retirement. He's getting older and more broken down, he's been making money hand over fist and at this point, while ECW is stable, he's been looking to invest because he knows it can get bigger. The show's been doing great on syndication and there have been smaller networks looking to bite on getting it as the wrestling scene is looking to have a second wave of popularity. Brody basically uses the year to relax and see if Raven can carry the promotion and if not, they know where to find him.
Meanwhile, Shane Douglas would beat 2 Cold Scorpio for the TV title, holding it for the rest of the year but finding lesser talents like Raven holding the world title upsetting. He's on the verge of giving up on wrestling if things don't turn around for him in 1997. The tag titles would switch from the Public Enemy to the Eliminators, then to the Gangstas, which is where the worst event in ECW history would happen.
On November 23, young Eric Kulas would sneak his way into a tag match with D-Von Dudley in a tag title defense under the name Mass Transit. Kulas, only seventeen, would get on the wrong side of New Jack and end up suffering a deep blade job, severing three arteries in his forehead and causing Kulas to bleed to death. The show wasn't recorded, but people had camcorder footage at the ready. Kulas was dead and Jerome Young was charged and convicted of murder (I wanna say that's second degree since Kulas told him to get juice) and ECW would vacate the tag titles, before having the Eliminators reclaim them. At this point, Brody had seen enough. He had left the wrestling world in disgust (his own son Geoff having turned sixteen notably helped) and chose to retire entirely from the business. Not helped was the news of Chris Von Erich's suicide by gunshot back in June.
ECW would end up losing Hardcore TV, and while they had the money to keep going for the end of the year and could possibly last 1997, many doubt it will even see the end of the 20th century.
You know, I genuinely was gonna keep this TL going. I could've avoided doing Mass Transit, hell I dodged the Sandman crucifixion. But something evil in my head told me that I had to let that butterfly flap its wings. The TL started with a death and ends with one as well. It's not like Bruiser working ECW style was gonna ever end well. Dude probably got out before the real damage was done. And hey, that just means we can jump to our next timeline a little faster than planned.
[1] This feud would end Randy's run in the WWF, who was considering a jump to WCW or straight retirement.
[2] Brought in on word from Cornette.
[3] While the name itself is silly, I think if there's anyone who could make a good claim to be a master of the ring, it'd be Candido. Not the first pick, but he's good enough to make you believe it.
[4] Yep. Only three reigns so far. Not there yet, Booker.
[5] Yeah, essentially we're heading into Cornette Call, but also Bruiser Brody's in ECW. This timeline is madness.
