10 WrestleMania matches that almost happened

WWE WrestleMania is always the biggest sports entertainment event of the year, the Super Bowl of professional wrestling.

So because it is, WWE likes to give fans the biggest matches they can have every year the spectacle. WrestleMania has brought us the first time meeting dream matches of The Rock vs Hulk Hogan, Shawn Michaels vs Kurt Angle, Ric Flair vs Randy Savage, Hulk Hogan vs The Ultimate Warrior and countless others. So, if these matches actually happened, what about some big matches that almost did?

They just barely got away from us but here are 10 matches that almost happened at WrestleMania.

#10 Triple H vs CM Punk - WrestleMania 30

Triple H is still 1-0 over CM Punk

Despite CM Punk being one of WWE's biggest stars from 2011 until his departure, he never saw eye to eye with WWE bigwig Triple H.

In Punk's words, Triple H always saw him as an ''internet darling'' who couldn't hang with him. Punk was allowed to shoot a little with his promos in 2011 and told Triple H how he really felt about him live on the air which made the Game despise him even more, especially when Punk got the better of him during said promos. That's why it was no surprise that Triple H easily pinned Punk in a NO DQ match between the two at WWE Night of Champions that year.

So when Triple H vs CM Punk was planned for WrestleMania 30, everyone wondered would Triple H really put over someone he despised on the grandest stage of them all?... That is something we will never know as Punk walked out of WWE on the post-Royal Rumble RAW and has vowed to never return.

#9 Hulk Hogan vs Ric Flair - WrestleMania 8

This is a job for WCW!

Hulk Hogan was the biggest WWE star of the 1980's, and probably all of wrestling. Ric Flair was the biggest star of the 80's of the rival NWA. No one ever thought it would happen but in 1991, Ric Flair left the NWA after a major fall out with boss Jim Herd and signed with the WWE, and suddenly the biggest dream match in all of the wrestling was about to become a reality.... Until it didn't.

WWE did indeed have plans for the match even teasing it with stare downs between the two on television. So why didn't the ultimate dream match happen?.... Well in early 1992 WWE's live event attendance was getting pretty small and Vince McMahon decided to try to bring it up by booking a tour featuring Hogan vs Flair in the main event of each night, but surprisingly this did little to help attendance figures. WWE then got cold feet with the match happening as the main event of WrestleMania and scrapped it.

Instead, we got Flair vs Randy Savage and Hulk Hogan vs Sid Justice, and this was just wrong. Now it wasn't a total loss as Flair vs Savage was a great match, but Hogan vs Sid wasn't and no one will ever convince me that Hogan vs Flair was not the right main event. I really don't know how WWE thought that Hogan vs Sid would pull in better number than Hogan vs Flair.

Hogan and Flair would eventually meet but in WCW. Hogan defeated Flair in his historic WCW debut match for the WCW Championship and the two would collide several more times for Ted Turner's pockets. Hogan and Flair would eventually have a WWE match on RAW in 2002 and even share the ring in TNA.

#8 Randy Orton vs Batista - WrestleMania 30

Batista: Wrong place, wrong time

Former WWE Champion Batista returned to WWE in January 2014. His return was announced 2 weeks before it happened on RAW and these were soon followed by rumours that he was the planned winner of the Royal Rumble match and to face then WWE World Champion Randy Orton in the main event of WrestleMania.

Now this doesn't sound too bad, Batista was always a pretty good performer, had always been popular and it had been almost 4 years since we last saw him on WWE TV, so all this combined with winning the Royal Rumble sounded great, but there was just one problem.... The YES! Movement.

Daniel Bryan was WWE's most popular superstar. Unfortunately for him he just wasn't being looked at as 'The Guy'. Even though the build-up he had throughout 2014 made him seem like a lock for to be the last man standing in the Royal Rumble match, WWE had other plans. Batista entered the Rumble to a mixed response and upon realizing there would be no Daniel Bryan entry, the fans hijacked the show and booed Rumble winner babyface Batista out of the building.

Ultimately Bryan's popularity became too much for WWE to ignore and he was added to the planned Orton vs Batista match and came out on top.

#7 John Cena & Bret Hart vs Vince McMahon & Batista - WrestleMania 26

This was almost a certainty

WrestleMania 26 saw John Cena challenge Batista for the WWE Championship and Bret Hart compete in his first WWE match since Survivor Series 1997 in a dream match of sorts, a No Holds Barred match with Vince McMahon. But these two matches were actually a plan B.

Up until very late February, the plan was to combine these two matches into a tag team match, John Cena and Bret Hart vs Vince McMahon and Batista, and the WWE Championship would have still been on the line.

In fact, some sources even claim that at one point, the plan was to have whoever scored the pin fall be Champion, ala' David Arquette's WCW Championship win, and to have Bret Hart win his 6th WWE Championship!

Ultimately WWE changed their minds, which is unfortunate as it likely would have been better than Vince vs Bret and even possibly Cena vs Batista.

#6 Brock Lesnar vs Chris Benoit - WrestleMania 19

The promos would have been.... Yeah

As early as December 2002, the main event of WrestleMania 19 was soon to be Royal Rumble winner Brock Lesnar challenging Kurt Angle for the WWE Championship.

However, Kurt would suffer yet another neck injury in February 2003 and needed surgery. The plan was made for Brock Lesnar to defeat Paul Heyman in a Steel Cage match on Smackdown, which he did, to earn an early Championship match with Angle the following week, Kurt was to then drop the Championship to Brock in a very quick and as painless as a possible match.

Kurt revealed in an interview last year that just days before the Smackdown taping, a young neighbour fan of his with Down syndrome told him how excited he was for the match and Kurt changed his mind and wrestled Brock in the main event at WrestleMania as originally planned.

When the belief was that Kurt couldn't compete, WWE planned on having Chris Benoit win a number one contender's match to face Brock in the main event for the Championship.

#5 Kurt Angle vs Sting - WrestleMania 18

Thank you, TNA!

When WCW went out of business in March 2001, WWE was only able to secure two top ex-WCW stars for the Invasion angle, Booker T and Diamond Dallas Page. Everyone else, Goldberg, Ric Flair, Scott Steiner, Kevin Nash and others all collected on their Time Warner deals and joined WWE shortly after. That is all but one, the Icon Sting.

WCW's captain to go down with the ship, Sting claimed several times over the years that he didn't want to go to WWE due to a fear of how they would book him, citing Booker and DDP's poor runs as an influence. However, in early 2002 shortly after WWE announced the signings of Hulk Hogan, Scott Hall and Kevin Nash, it was leaked that WWE had been negotiating with a few other former top WCW stars, one of which being Sting.

Apparently, at one point WWE considered Sting coming in as a lock and planned a match between him and Kurt Angle for WrestleMania 18. However Sting backed down and we wouldn't see him sign with WWE until 2014, meanwhile Kurt was given a throw-away mid-card match with Kane in Toronto.

Thankfully the Kurt Angle vs Sting match would eventually happen, 4 times in TNA Wrestling. The first encounter between them, at Bound For Glory 2007 had been cited as Sting's best match since 1999. The 3 follow matches were also all well received.

#4 Stone Cold Steve Austin & Scott Steiner vs the NWO - WrestleMania 18

Could have been better, could have been worse

The NWO vs top WWE stars The Rock and Stone Cold Steve Austin had been dream feuds for fans for years. In 2002, we got our wish, The Rock was given Hulk Hogan for a memorable clash at WrestleMania 18, while Austin was given more of a mid-card style match feel with Scott Hall.

As unhappy as Austin was about all this, it was almost different, probably not different enough to make Austin very happy but it still might have been better. I mentioned earlier that WWE were negotiating with several former top WWE/WCW stars in January 2002, these included the NWO, which signed, Sting, Bret Hart and Scott Steiner.

According to Steiner, apparently, the plan at one point was for him to return to WWE TV in early March to aid The Rock and Austin in the feud with the NWO. Steiner said he never spoke directly to WWE about any of this and it was all handled by his attorney, he claims nothing ever came of this because WWE wouldn't pay him enough.

Steiner would sign with WWE in 2002, but it was much too late for this match and feud as the contract between them wasn't reached until October.

#3 Triple H vs Hulk Hogan - WrestleMania 17

I won't lay down, Brother!

Even before WCW went out of business, WWE and Hulk Hogan were actually in negotiations for him to return at least one year before he actually did.

The two sides began talking about a comeback in January 2001. Not many details are known to the public about this but apparently, Hogan allegedly ended the negotiations when WWE told him they wanted him to put over Triple H in a match at WrestleMania 17. Hogan has been infamous at times in the business for refusing to lay down for certain people, some believe that at that time he didn't see Triple H as being good enough to get pinned by on the granddaddy of them all.

Hogan and Triple H would eventually have two matches on WWE TV, the first at Backlash 2002, in which Hogan controversially won his 6th WWE Championship from the Game, and the second being on Smackdown about a month later, with Triple H picking up the win.

#2 Shawn Michaels vs Eddie Guerrero - WrestleMania 22

When Eddie Guerrero sadly passed away in November 2005, the wrestling world lost one of its true greats. While talking about his passing, Stephanie McMahon heavily implied that had Guerrero not died, he would have won the 2006 Royal Rumble and World Heavyweight Championship in the main event of WrestleMania 22, which seems plausible as Rey Mysterio would win the match in Eddie's honour.

However, former WWE writer Court Bauer noted on the MLW Radio Network that early WrestleMania match discussions were in progress at the time of Eddie's death, however, he winning the Royal Rumble was not apart of this and the plans were for him too actually have a RAW vs Smackdown match with Shawn Michaels. Former WWE and Impact executive Bruce Prichard has since confirmed all of this as true.

Eddie Guerrero and Shawn Michaels never had the opportunity to have a match, which is a huge shame as both are among the greatest of all time and surely would have put on a classic.

#1 Vince McMahon vs Eric Bischoff - WrestleMania 20

Or WWE vs WCW in Vince's mind

This is another planned WrestleMania match that not much detail was eve released on. What we do know is a real fight between the two almost took place at WCW Slamboree 1998. Eric had challenged Vince, who elected not to show up due to being ''too busy''.

Although Vince was able to put this and everything else during the Monday Night Wars behind him to offer Eric Bischoff a job in 2002, many within WWE also knew that Vince would have still loved to have a match with Eric. In February 2004, a short list of the planned matches for WrestleMania 20 was leaked.

These included Kurt Angle vs Eddie Guerrero, Brock Lesnar vs Goldberg, Kane vs The Undertaker, all of which did happen, The Rock and Mick Foley vs Randy Orton and Batista, which Ric Flair was added to, the Triple Threat main event, only involving a ladder, and Vince McMahon vs Eric Bischoff.

The match did not take place at WrestleMania, and it is not known why. The popular opinion is that it was possibly due to no storyline being in place as they were both heels at the time. However did get what he wanted as the match did actually happen on an episode of RAW in late February, with Steve Austin as special referee.