Zanatopic: The Vince Is Dead Universe

It seems that my attempt to make a Friday column dedicated to the most spectacular injuries in wrestling didn’t take off like I hoped, so here’s another try.

Let’s take one aspect of the past, change it, and attempt to extrapolate what the future might have looked like in this alternate universe.  The bookworm term for this is “counterfactual”.  One insane person has spent an entire lifetime rebooking WWE history from the perspective of Vince McMahon having a hard on for Ricky Steamboat instead of Hulk Hogan:

http://whatifwrestling.blogspot.com

Let’s not be that insane, but let’s see if this is something that we could have fun with.

Zanatopic 1 (out of a likely total of 1): Imagine that somebody takes Daniel Bryan’s time machine, goes back to 1981, and assassinates Vince McMahon Jr.  What happens to the wrestling industry?

Vince McMahon Sr. was against national expansion from the start, and was not long for this world anyway.  Linda probably would have wanted nothing to do with running the World Wrestling Federation, and an 11 year old Shane McMahon wouldn’t be able to do so either.  So the industry would go on to be directed by other forces.

Does some other organization that gains national exposure through cable, such as Jim Crockett Promotions, World Class Championship Wrestling, or the American Wrestling Alliance, make a play to become the dominant force of wrestling?  Does Paul Heyman or Eric Bischoff come along in the 90’s to take over in a Vinceless world?  Does the territorial system live on to this day?  Does it morph with MMA to become some type of hybrid?

Or, as I believe, does professional wrestling just fade into obscurity like roller derby?

What say you, Blog of Doom?