5 Near disasters that almost changed the entire history of WWE

#2 Triple H winning the 1996 King of the Ring tournament

"King" Triple H?

The King of the Ring tournament is returning to next week on Raw, and I thought it’d be great to talk about this tournament.

Back in the 90s, wrestling was all about maintaining kayfabe, which means no friendly talks between faces and heels because everything was meant to look real. However, in 1996, The Kliq broke the unwritten law when they hugged each other at a WWE event at Madison Square Garden.

This controversial incident, also known as “Curtain Call”, happened when Shawn Michaels and Kevin Nash, who were enemies at that time, finished their tussle in the main event. Soon after the match, Triple H (a heel) and Scott Hall (a babyface) came to the ring and hugged each other in front of thousands of fans.

After this event, Nash and Hall left WWE and joined WCW, which means Vince couldn’t punish them. And because Michaels was the WWE Champion at that time, he too escaped the situation and Triple H had to take the toll alone.

Reportedly, The Game was going to win King of the Ring tournament that year but his push was canceled and WWE took a chance with Steve Austin, which changed the history of pro-wrestling. If the “Curtain Call” incident hadn’t happened, Austin might have never given his “Austin 3:16” promo, which basically made his career.