In the Episode 6 “What If… Killmonger Rescued Tony Stark?”, the nexus-turning event is Killmonger as a Seal Commando of the US Navy rescues Tony Stark from the Ten Rings in Afghanistan, gaining Tony's trust to plot a revenge on Wakanda.

@What If...? | The movie is shown on Disney+.

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Killmonger rescues Tony to win his trust

The Killmonger character is T'Challa's cousin and has previously only appeared in Black Panther settings rather than in the broader MCU universe. This time, Killmonger has upset the order of the whole MCU: make an Iron Man forever "unborn", kill T'Challa to become the villainous Black Panther, and trigger the war between the United States and Wakanda.

In the main timeline, Tony was kidnapped in Afghanistan, imprisoned in a cave, and from there he was driven to build a super-soldier robot that paved the way for him to become Iron Man. In this time alternative, Seal Ranger Erik Stevens, codenamed Killmonger, infiltrates the Ten Rings and discovers their plan to capture Tony.

He shows up at the right time and Tony is rescued to continue a comfortable life and has been pushed away from his fate as an Avengers and finally falls into Killmonger's sophisticated trap.

The death of T'Challa

Killmonger gains more credibility by revealing (slandering) Obadiah Stane as part of a kidnapping plot; that leads Tony to promote Killmonger to the position of Chief Security Officer and invest in an old idea of Killmonger to build mech-like drones.

This project could not be completed due to a lack of viable energy sources. Stark is considering Arc Reactor technology, but rejects the idea as a pipe dream (in the main timeline, it was possible).

Killmonger thinks vibranium can do just that and sacrifices his heirloom necklace to make it work. Inspired by vibranium, Stark decides to make an appointment with Ulysses Klaue to buy more of the material on the black market. James Rhodes performs the mission on behalf of Tony and that's when everything fell apart.

Black Panther suddenly appears to retrieve the vibranium of his kingdom, but Killmonger overpowers by paralyzing Black Panther with the Sonic Taser, then killing him and Rhodes; at the same time creating a fake scene like Rhodes killed Black Panther. This event shows us the power of the Sonic Taser gun and we can imagine if Kang the Conqueror used an Ultra-Diode ray gun, how he could easily control the Avengers.

Tony Stark's Death

Stark is smart enough to discover the truth, but he fails to control Killmonger at the last minutes and dies under a vibranium spear. Dora Milaje is now blamed on for his death and war breaks out between the United States and Wakanda when two important figures on both sides were killed by the other in fake scenes.

Killmonger goes a step further when he comes to Wakanda to win the King's trust, then helps them defeat an army of robots sent by the United States. Killmonger finally wins the Black Panther status of the late T'Challa.

But maybe Killmonger won't stop there until he takes down the Wakanda Royals for revenge - he's ready to kill T'Challa so what's he hesitant about?

The episode has an open ending to this timeline as Wakanda's Shuri is not fooled by Killmonger and she is working with Pepper Potts in hopes of unmasking Killmonger and preventing the war from escalating.