Five WWE Dream Matches That Could’ve Happened, But Didn’t

Most of the time when dream matches are discussed, they’re matches that couldn’t have happened for several reasons, with the most common one being that the two participants were in their prime in two completely different generations. Another common reason is that the two guys – like Bret Hart and Kurt Angle for example – were in different companies when a match between them could have happened. But, there are times where we miss out on a dream match, and there’s really no good reason why.

Some of the matches on the list below could still happen, but most of them probably won’t. Who knows, though? Maybe WWE will bring back Hulk Hogan, and Steve Austin will decide to come out of retirement to face “The Hulkster” at WrestleMania 33. It probably won’t happen, but you never know!

So, without further ado, here are five WWE dream matches that could have happened, but, for whatever reason, they didn’t.

• Eddie Guerrero vs. Shawn Michaels

This match was actually booked for WrestleMania 22, however, Eddie Guerrero ended up passing away before the event, and Shawn Michaels ended up wrestling Vince McMahon instead. It’s pretty safe to say that most wrestling fans would’ve preferred to see the Guerrero vs. Michaels match instead.

While Guerrero’s untimely passing prevented the match from happening at WrestleMania 22, it could’ve happened beforehand. Michaels returned to the ring after a four-year hiatus in 2002, but when he returned, he returned to the Raw brand, and Eddie was on the SmackDown brand. Their brands didn’t change at all from the time Michaels returned to the time of Guerrero’s death, so the brand split is what got in the way of this match happening.

• Shawn Michaels vs. The Rock

This is one of those situations where two guys just barely missed each other.

At the very same event were Shawn Michaels returned to the ring after a four year hiatus, The Rock dropped the WWE Undisputed Championship to Brock Lesnar, and began transitioning into being a full-time movie star. The Rock returned to WWE a couple of months later, but he and Michaels ended up being on opposite brands. Both Michaels and Rock competed at WrestleMania 19 and at WrestleMania 20, but not against each other, and after WrestleMania 20, The Rock wouldn’t return to WWE until 7 years later, and by that point, Michaels had just retired.

Since his retirement, Michaels hasn’t come back to the ring, and it seems like he never will. The Rock, on the other hand, will likely have a couple more matches, but sadly, none of them will be against Shawn Michaels.

• Sting vs. The Undertaker

When Sting finally made his WWE debut in November of 2014, there was only one match to make: Sting vs. Undertaker. However, WWE decided to go with Sting vs. Triple H instead.

Both Sting and Undertaker wrestled at WrestleMania 31, and who knows? Maybe they were booked to wrestle each other at WrestleMania 32 before Sting was forced to retired due to injury earlier this year. Of course, there is no evidence that points to them being booked to face each other at WrestleMania 32, as it was reported that Sting was originally scheduled to face Bray Wyatt, while Undertaker was scheduled to face John Cena.

Sting has recently said that he’s holding off on getting neck surgery because he still wants to wrestle The Undertaker. Will WWE allow that to happen at WrestleMania 33? We’ll see. Rumor has it that The Undertaker has retired, and that he’s not planning on coming back. But, we’ve been hearing that for several years now, and “The Deadman” always seems to make his return right before WrestleMania.

• Hulk Hogan vs. John Cena

John Cena and Hulk Hogan have been in the ring together, but they’ve never been opponents.

Right as Cena was starting to become WWE’s newest top guy in 2005, Hulk Hogan’s in-ring career was winding down due to back issues. Of course, Hogan would go on to wrestle a couple of matches in WWE after Cena became the top guy. He was even one of John Cena’s tag team partners during an episode of Raw. But, for whatever reason, the match never ended up happening.

John Cena was willing to get in the ring with Hogan when he returned to WWE in 2014 after having spent several years in TNA, but WWE wasn’t going to allow Hogan to step in the ring again because of the fact that he’d had over ten operations on his back. Hogan tried to convince Vince McMahon to let him wrestle, be he never could, and even if WWE decides to bring him back to the company at some point, he probably won’t be coming back to wrestle.

• Steve Austin vs. Hulk Hogan

While Steve Austin and Hulk Hogan did briefly wrestle each other in a tag team match on Raw in 2002, the two men never faced off in a singles match. Why? Because Steve Austin was never all that interested in wrestling Hulk Hogan.

Over the years, Austin has done several interviews where he’s said that he felt a match between himself and Hogan would have been horrible because of Hogan’s age, and inability to move, as “The Hulkster” didn’t become more agile with age.

It’s quite possible that match between the two were actually booked at some point in the mid-2000s, because Hogan did call Austin out on an episode of Raw. But, the call out led to nothing, and the most the two men ended up doing with one another was a talking segment at WrestleMania 30, where Austin hinted a why they never wrestled each other, saying “over the years, we’ve both been protective of our legacies.” The line suggested that the match could have been put together if one of the two was willing to lose, but neither man wanted to do the job.

[Image via WWE]