>>10357744Interesting trivia:
The original plan for WM20 was Benoit in Eddie's role.
If you remember, Benoit was feuding with SD GM Heyman, who put him in at #1 in the Rumble. I don't know if he was always planned to win but it was supposed to lead to Benoit beating Brock at No Way Out (with Goldberg's interference) and then Benoit would defend against Kurt. It was Kurt and Benoit's "reward" for their work which peaked at Royal Rumble 03.
There was early talk of pulling an early trigger on the Evolution split and doing Orton vs HHH at 20 or HHH vs Foley for his "coming out of retirement" match.
BUT Flair got in HHH's ear that he needed his own "Ricky Steamboat" and needed more great matches in his legacy. This was right after his dull feud with Goldberg and there was grumbling that he didn't have anyone his level outside of HBK who he already did so much with.
so they politicked to get Vince to switch it up and give him Benoit for Mania. Benoit's world title match was going to be a midcard match and Vince didn't trust him with the real main event and added HBK
This opened up a spot for Eddie to get the SD world title spot
