Best matches that never happened

ColePens

RIP Fugu Buffaloed & parabola
Mar 27, 2008
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I was thinking in the Sting thread, we never got to see Sting vs. Taker at Wrestlemania and that's a damn shame. What other matches were very possible and just never happened? Here is my list:

1) Sting vs. Taker at Wrestlemania. It was meant to be and just would have been mindblowing if they did it in their prime.

2) HBK vs. The Rock. I don't even know if these guys ever fought?

3) 1992 Hogan vs. Flair Wrestlemania. How in the world did this not happen?

4) CM Punk vs. Daniel Bryan headline Wrestlemania. What a sight to see and very possible at the time. Now both are out of wrestling. :(

5) Kurt Angle vs. Daniel Bryan. I don't know if this is as possible but technically both were wrestling at the same time and I believe Angle was still at an insanely high level. If this was 2011 and Angle came to WWE and put on a SummerSlam show with DB... they would have brought the house down.

6) Hogan vs. Austin Wrestlemania. For as much as I hate Hogan, he's on this list a couple times but he's such an ******* for picking his opponents because he was too afraid to lose.

7) HBK vs. Daniel Bryan. I don't know if this would have worked because technically HBK would have had to come out of retirement. But damn... could you imagine?


Those are just a few I was thinking of. What dream matches were possible but just never ended up happening at the moment you wished it happened?
 

quoipourquoi

Goaltender
Jan 26, 2009
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Am I correct in remembering that they took Hogan/Flair on the road in 1992 and that they didn't do the WrestleMania match because it was underwhelming?
 

Engebretson

Thank you, sweet rabbit
Nov 4, 2010
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If I remember right, WM 18 was supposed to be Hogan/Austin but Hogan wouldn't put over Austin so it was changed to Rock/Hogan.

Am I correct in remembering that they took Hogan/Flair on the road in 1992 and that they didn't do the WrestleMania match because it was underwhelming?

That's the most popular theory and they did run those matches as house shows during that time. I think Flair has said before that it was never actually planned because Hogan was going to be taking time off after WrestleMania to shoot "Thunder in Paradise" so they wanted Flair to drop the belt to someone who would be around. They had even built his match with Sid as his "retirement match" but made it sound like nobody knew if he was retiring or not. I'm sure egos played a huge factor too.
 

Kimi

Registered User
Jun 24, 2004
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Found it them, story is basically this:

Vince offered Sid a main event match with Hogan in order to get him to sign with the WWF (WCW offered him a championship run, but he still left). So he was going to get a match at some point.

Flair vs Hogan wasn't a bad run like people say, it was fine; but after 4 months of the program on the house shows, it was winding down and wouldn't have lasted until Wrestlemania. This was in some part due to botched promoting/booking.

Sid was added to the program, and at that point there was a spike in ticket sales and it was clear that there was interest in Sid. They had tag matches of Hogan & Piper vs Sid & Flair, and it was very clear that the heat was in the Sid vs Hogan match, not with flair. That was in January.
 

Loosie

The Eternal Optimist
Jun 14, 2011
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How about matches that happened later than they were supposed to?

Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels were supposed to have a rematch at WM 13, but Shawn 'lost his smile'. Then they were actually advertised for a match at KoR 1997 but Hart injured his knee, that I'm not sure if it was legit, or they came up with the injury to cancel the match as there was fear that they would actually hurt each other. All this before finally having 'that match'
 

LeafsNation75

Registered User
Jan 15, 2010
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I have read at SummerSlam in 1993 the original main event was supposed to be Hulk Hogan defending the WWE Championship against Bret Hart. However apparently Hogan was worried that he wouldn't be able to work with him and thought Hart would seriously injure him or something like that, so that's why he agreed to drop the title to Yokozuna at King of The Ring that same year.
 

BonMorrison

Registered User
Jun 17, 2011
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Toronto, ON
This only half-counts because they've fought a million times but I'm speaking storyline and at Wrestlemania.

Wrestlemania 25 should have been headlined with John Cena vs. Randy Orton. It's a decision that still annoys me to this day. Orton had just won the Rumble and was the hottest thing in the company. He had just punted Vince and people were clamoring that it was an Austin-level angle, an angle that changed the face of the main event scene of WWE. I'll never forget the thousands of pages and threads we racked up on WF discussing how psycho Orton was the savior of the company in 2009.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, Cena had recently regained the WHC and was still looked at as he is today. Clean-cut babyface, always wins, goofy, annoying, but still the face of the company. Incoming Rumble winner Randy Orton who was white hot and looked like an anti-hero this company could build around for the next decade.

Logical thing? Put him with Cena in the main event at Wrestlemania. Start a new Rock-Austin level feud. These were two characters literally designed to feud with each other on-and-off non-stop for years but then WWE be like "nah" and put Orton with Triple H and Cena with Edge/Big Show. WWE would eventually have Cena/Orton clash that summer in a series of mostly forgettable matches but by this time Orton had lost much of his January momentum and WWE blew the chance to create a true rivalry.

tl;dr - Cena/Orton could've been a classic rivalry but WWE blew it by not having it when Orton was at his absolute hottest.
 
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M.C.G. 31

Damn, he brave!
Oct 6, 2008
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Shawn Michaels vs. Eddie Guerrero. This was reportedly the match that was planned for Wrestlemania 22.
 

Emperoreddy

Show Me What You Got!
Apr 13, 2010
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Am I correct in remembering that they took Hogan/Flair on the road in 1992 and that they didn't do the WrestleMania match because it was underwhelming?

The official story is the feud wasn't drawing enough on house shows yes and there is some truth to it, but there is more to it.

Vince knew Hogan was leaving in January of that year and he knew Hogan couldn't win the title off Flair as they originally intended. The other option was for Flair to go over Hogan and Hogan pulled a Hogan and said he wasn't jobbing to Flair.

So that is how we got the overbooked crap that was Sid/Hogan, and Randy won the belt off Flair.
 

Emperoreddy

Show Me What You Got!
Apr 13, 2010
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I have read at SummerSlam in 1993 the original main event was supposed to be Hulk Hogan defending the WWE Championship against Bret Hart. However apparently Hogan was worried that he wouldn't be able to work with him and thought Hart would seriously injure him or something like that, so that's why he agreed to drop the title to Yokozuna at King of The Ring that same year.

More Hogan being Hogan. He just flat out didn't want to job to Brett and apparently said some nasty things about Brett as well.
 

ColePens

RIP Fugu Buffaloed & parabola
Mar 27, 2008
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Pittsburgh
Very good call, Pinkfloyd. The storytelling would be through the roof. Even better than Punk/Lesnar. And DB can be stiff as hell with his shots to make it realistic.
 

DD03

3D
Mar 15, 2010
21,734
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Bret v Daniel Bryan
Bret v Punk
Punk v Austin
Angle v Bret
Punk v Angle (I think this would've been a hilarious feud)
Prime Macho Man v Prime Angle

Owens v a bunch of people.
Rollins too
 

Emperoreddy

Show Me What You Got!
Apr 13, 2010
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New Jersey, Exit 16E
Daniel Bryan vs Brock Lesnar

I know in hindsight with his health it worked out they didn't push DB again, but THIS was the match I wanted to see at Mania last year. Think most people did too.

Nakamura vs Daniel Bryan is on my list. It is worse because with him now in WWE if DB was healthy it legit could of happened.

Doubt it will happen so Kenny Omega and the Young Bucks vs New Day
 

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