One of the reason why WWE video games are so much fun is the simple fact that you can create so-called ‘dream matches.’ These are matches that can take place from just about any era between superstars that at the time were at the top of their game. The names of those eras role off the tongue – superstars like ‘Stone Cold’ Steve Austin, Hulk Hogan, John Cena, CM Punk and Randy ‘Macho Man’ Savage just to name a few.
The problem with ‘dream matches’ is that they rarely come about. It’s a rare trend when wrestlers are both in their prime and able to meet in the ring. When The Rock and Steve Austin had their famous feud from about 1998 to 2001, the two were never better and able to bring it just about every night, which is rare for an industry where it seems that mega-stars just never seem to be able to be their best in the ring at the same time.
The other issue always seemed to be the politics of the promotions, as back in the day the best in the NWA or WCW and WWE just were never able to get deals done to be able to get in the ring for what would be considered ‘epic’ or ‘dream’ matches. Now just months after WrestleMania, it’s a fun time to think about some of these ‘dream’ matches and just how great some of them would have been back in the day. In these cases, these are matches that should've happened, but either timing or politics caused a road block that they couldn't get around.
So get out your video games and play along as we take a look at the ‘Top 15 WWE Dream Matches that Never Happened.’
10 10. Kurt Angle Breaking the Streak vs The Undertaker – WrestleMania 22
The WrestleMania in Chicago would have been a good as a time as ever to put the streak with The Undertaker to rest. Taker had beaten Randy Orton at WrestleMania 21 and was beginning the downside of his career. Angle was still wrestling at a very high level and had defeated Shawn Michaels in a great match at the Mania in Los Angeles the year before. Angle said to The Sun that Taker wanted the former Olympic Gold medalist to end the streak, and do it at Mania 22 in Chicago. “The person who wanted to do it was Undertaker himself. I was flattered, for him to go to Vince McMahon and pitch it,” Angle said. At the time of Mania 22, Angle was the World Heavyweight Champion and the match was supposed to see him as the title holder go over on Taker, ending the most famous streak in wrestling. Instead, the streak lasted another nine years until Brock Lesnar ended it in New Orleans at WrestleMania 31.
9 9. Hulk Hogan vs Bret Hart – SummerSlam
1993 was a weird year for Bret Hart. He began the year as champion and believed that he was gearing up for a lengthy title reign. Then, he lost the strap to Yokozuna at WrestleMania IX in a surprise lost, before Hogan came out and won the belt right after. Hogan's explanation, according to an interview, was: "All I know is what Vince told me. I went in there and did the match at 'Mania because I was on my way out. I was getting ready to leave. I told Vince, 'Hey, if we can get one more pay-per-view out of this thing... I can beat Yokozuna for the belt, come back for the next pay-per-view and drop it for him.” That’s how the ending went down, and then at the following PPV, King of the Ring, Yoko won the belt back, and held it until he dropped it to Hart at WrestleMania X.
On top of that confusion, we could've also had a match between the two of them, as there was talk about there possibly being a Hogan-Hart match at SummerSlam that year, but Bret claims that Hogan put an end to that even though they already did the promotional work for it. He says that Hogan didn't want to put him over (that's a strong theme here), so we lost out on what could've been an epic encounter.
8 8. Razor Ramon vs Goldust – WrestleMania XII
If you saw the WrestleMania XII ‘Hollywood Backlot Brawl’ between Goldust and Roddy Piper, you probably wish you could forget it. Now imagine if that wasn’t Piper in the spot vs Goldust, and instead we had Razor Ramon. That was the original angle, as the original thought was a ‘Miami Street Fight’ according to Goldust, who told the following to WWE.com: “It would have been nice to wrestle him in a Miami Street Fight in his style match. It probably would have been the same kind of deal as it ended up being with Roddy, but instead of a backlot in Universal Studios, we’d be on the street. They would have had some people surrounding us and things like that.” Mania that year took place in Anaheim, and not Miami, which made the ‘Hollywood Backlot Brawl’ make a little bit of sense, instead of the ‘Miami Street Fight.’ However, the match with Piper was terrible and maybe we could've had a better match if Razor was in it,
7 7. Trish vs Lita at WrestleMania 21
Two of the greatest divas in the WWE of all-time had the perfect stage set for them to go one-on-one at WrestleMania 21, but then as fate would have it, Lita had to miss the match due to injury. The high flier tore her ACL and wasn’t able to compete against her longtime rival, and instead the company had to try to find a suitable replacement. With Lita out, the WWE went with the ‘underdog’ storyline, which resulted in Trish taking on a young Christy Hemme. It wound up being more of a squash, as even with Lita in the corner of Hemme, the match only went 4:11 with Trish getting the pinfall win.
Sadly, we never got to see a singles match between Lita and Trish on the biggest stage of them all, as the only time we saw them compete against each at WrestleMania, it was in a triple threat match with Jazz.
6 6. Ric Flair vs Hulk Hogan at WrestleMania VIII
Some will say this doesn’t belong since the two did indeed have single matches in WWE when Ric Flair came in for his first WWE run in 1991. The two were originally booked in a main event for WrestleMania VIII, a match that fans were dying to see after the years of trying to figure out who the best ever was. Then, after feeling that the matches betwwen the two at house shows weren't great, according to Bleacher Report, Vince McMahon pulled the plug and went in a totally different direction. The two did have their share of big matches in WCW, but they were still in their prime in the early '90s and this match could've been legendary in comparison to those.
5 5. Bret Hart vs The Ultimate Warrior – 1993 Royal Rumble
The 1993 Royal Rumble was going to go the way of Yokozuna, setting up a WrestleMania IX match with Bret Hart. Who Hart was set to take on for the WWE Title at that year’s Royal Rumble was another question. Hart wound up taking on Razor Ramon in a match that went close to 18 minutes and saw Hart win via sharpshooter. The match with Ramon wasn’t what Hart thought it was going to be, as he felt he would take on The Ultimate Warrior. He told the Boston Herald: “I was really looking forward to working with Yoko at WrestleMania IX. When I won the belt in October of ’92, it wasn’t like I had the stack of guys that Hogan had to work with when the talent roster was so deep. When I was champion, the roster had thinned out because of drug testing and a lot of the big names were gone. Jake Roberts was gone, and that was somebody I was supposed to wrestle but never happened. I was supposed to wrestle the (Ultimate) Warrior at The Royal Rumble, and that never happened either.” How a Hart vs Warrior match would have went over is anyone’s guess – but as two guys with big names and big fan bases it would have been fun to see.
4 4. Hulk Hogan vs The Ultimate Warrior Part Two
As two of the biggest fan favorites in the company back in the early 1990s, fans felt robbed when they didn’t get a proper rematch at WrestleMania VII after their very good match the year before to close out the 6th WrestleMania in Toronto. There is no doubt that Vince McMahon had visions of these two having their Mania rematch when he booked the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum the year before. Then, with a red-hot heel on the scene in Sgt.Slaughter and a rather ‘blah’ Championship run by Warrior, McMahon went in a different direction, according to Bleacher Report. Hogan took on Slaughter in a weak main event at Mania VII and Warrior fought Randy Savage in a ‘retirement’ match which was the match of the night. Fans soured on the event and the lack of ticket sales prompted the WWE to move the event indoors to the LA Memorial Sports Arena, citing security as the key due to Slaughter’s Iraq-loving character during the Gulf War. McMahon dropped the ball, and Warrior and Hogan did have a rematch – in WCW years later, which was a complete joke.
3 3. Randy Savage vs Ricky Steamboat Part Two
Some to this day still feel that the original Randy Savage-Ricky Steamboat WrestleMania III encounter for the Intercontinental Championship was the greatest match in the history of the event. The two had more false finishes and close calls than anyone could have ever predicted. Combined with a crowd of over 93,000 and a hot feud, it was just electric inside the Silverdome. Here’s the problem. We never saw part two. There was a chance the following year to do it again, as both were in the WrestleMania IV Championship tournament, and could have met in round two. Instead of allowing it, the booking (Vince McMahon) for whatever reason allowed Greg Valentine to beat Steamboat and then face Savage instead of the rematch everyone wanted to see. Steamboat was chocking up when he spoke of their Mania III encounter on the latest Randy Savage DVD, and it’s a shame we didn’t see another battle between the two.
2 2. The Undertaker vs Sting
When rumors of Sting coming to the WWE began to swirl after WCW crashed, most assumed that he'd be coming to the WWE to face The Undertaker. Year after year, we were fed with rumors and speculation about their prospective match, but it never came to be. Then, Sting actually signed with the WWE and we were sure he'd fight The Undertaker. Except, that never happened. Sting ended up taking on Triple H at WrestleMania 31, while The Undertaker went toe to toe with Bray Wyatt. There's still the possibility of it happening at next year's WrestleMania 32, but this one goes down as something we'd love to have seen happen and something we've been hearing about for years.
1 1. Hulk Hogan vs ‘Stone Cold’ Steve Austin
Let’s face it, this is the ultimate dream match, with the two biggest draws in the history of the industry in the ring doing their thing. No one transcended the sport like these two and when you talk about dream matches, it’s one that clearly would have been lived over and over again. They could possibly have done it at WrestleMania X8, but Austin wasn't into the idea. He told Jim Ross that he thought their styles didn't mix and that the wrestling would suck. He claims that if his body was in better shape, he would've agreed, but considering where he was at that point, he though it would fall flat. The Rock ended up facing Hogan at WrestleMania X8 in a legendary. Honestly, had Austin accepted the match, we would've been wondering the inverse and how a match would've looked between The Rock and Hulk Hogan.