Wrestling has its share of dream matches that have never quite come to fruition. While it’s fun to speculate about showdowns like Bruno Sammartino vs. Hulk Hogan or John Cena vs. Steve Austin, those are the kinds of matches that were never in the cards due to timing of different performers’ careers. Other dream matches remained fantasies because the talents never worked for the same company at the same time.
There are, however, those dream matches we got close to. Sometimes it was a matter of the talents involved physically engaging with one another but never actually having a match. Other times, it was a case of the booking drawing them close to a collision, but changes in creative or real life factors cutting off the match. Whatever the case, here's a look at 10 dream matches we felt close to, but that never happened.
9 Brock Lesnar Vs. Shawn Michaels
In the build to the SummerSlam 2012 first time one-on-one collision between Triple H and Brock Lesnar, Shawn Michaels got involved in the proceedings. It looked as though HBK might even be in Triple H’s corner for the match, until the Raw before the PPV when The Beast broke Michaels's arm.
The issue added drama to Lesnar vs. Helmesley, but also raised a question as to what Lesnar vs. Michaels might've looked like. Lesnar has a history of working some of his best matches opposite smaller opponents like Seth Rollins, Finn Balor, and Daniel Bryan. Additionally, Michaels made his name playing the physical underdog and giving big men like Diesel, Sid, and Razor Ramon the best matches of their careers. Lesnar vs. Michaels might have been something special.
8 Steve Austin Vs. Mike Tyson
WrestleMania XIV looked to feature the coronation of rising star Steve Austin as he challenged reigning world champ and the leader of white hot D-Generation X, Shawn Michaels.
The electricity went to the next level with the insertion of Mike Tyson, who had a wild confrontation with Austin on Raw before being announced as the guest enforcer referee for the ‘Mania main event. While it’s probably for the best that WWE stayed the course with two proven wrestlers working that match, the prospect of Tyson vs. Austin was certainly tantalizing. Whether it was WWE or Tyson that pumped the brakes, it certainly looked like that might have been a creative direction at or after WrestleMania for a moment.
7 CM Punk Vs. Kevin Nash
Kevin Nash made a shocking return to WWE at SummerSlam 2011 when he attacked CM Punk after he had defeated John Cena in the main event. This seemingly set Nash and Punk on a collision course.
WWE went so far as to announce this match for Night of Champions 2011. The storylines surrounding Nash only grew more convoluted, though, with the implication Triple H may have asked him to attack Punk. From there, reports indicated that Nash had real life issues with his WWE physical that kept him from working a match, so WWE subbed in Triple H himself to face Punk, thus never really settling the dispute or letting Punk get the rub from Big Daddy Cool.
6 Becky Lynch Vs. Ronda Rousey
By fall 2018, two definitive top stars of WWE’s women’s division had emerged. Becky Lynch had a groundswell of support behind her as she became a crowd favorite. Meanwhile, Ronda Rousey’s MMA credentials objectively made her the biggest female star in WWE, not to mention that she’d made the transition to pro wrestling quite well.
These two were set to square off as representatives of Raw and SmackDown at Survivor Series before an injury took Lynch out of action. We would still see them clash at WrestleMania 35, but it was in a Triple Threat Match with Charlotte Flair. If Rousey ever returns to WWE, and assuming Lynch returns, too, after seeing through her pregnancy, this remains a match that could happen one-on-one. For now, though, it's still a dream match.
5 The Rock Vs. Bray Wyatt
When it comes to wrestlers with unique and exceptional abilities on the microphone, The Rock and Bray Wyatt are both all time great performers. While this inter-generational clash may, at first blush, feel like a pipe dream, it did feel like a possibility at WrestleMania 32.
The event saw The Rock cut a promo to the live attendance in Dallas, before getting interrupted by The Wyatt Family. Erick Rowan stepped up to work a quick, impromptu match with The Great One, and John Cena helped Rock fend off the villains afterward. The real attraction here felt like Rock vs. Wyatt, though. In theory, this match could happen, but it feels less and less likely we’ll see The People’s Champion work a full-fledged match again.
4 Hulk Hogan Vs. Steve Austin
Hulk Hogan and Steve Austin are arguably the two biggest, most important stars in WWE history. Hogan captained the ship for WWE’s original national expansion, and was the face of the company for an extremely successful mid-1980s to early 1990s run. Austin took up the mantle in the late 1990s into the early 2000s as the face of the Attitude Era.
WrestleMania X8 saw a recently returned Hogan face The Rock in a match that quite reasonably could have gone to Austin instead. From there, Hogan made an appearance on Raw in 2005 in which he suggested he wanted a match with The Rattlesnake. Accounts vary as to the role of each man’s health, or each man’s reluctance to put the other over, and how these matters affected the match never coming to fruition. Nevertheless, the ship now seems to have sailed on this dream match ever actually happening.
3 The Big Show Vs. Shaquille O’Neal
The Big Show has spoken openly in shoot interviews about how it was his and WWE’s intention for him to face Shaquille O’Neal at WrestleMania 33. The timing made sense, given O’Neal’s basketball career was long over and he was still in good shape, and given the event happened in Orlando where the star center’s NBA career had begun.
Shaq has only spoken up to the extent of saying the decision was out of his hands not to participate in the match. Fans have inferred that he might have been placing the responsibility on WWE, or perhaps on outside contractual obligations. Show, meanwhile, has suggested that getting into the ring was a risk and that he understood O’Neal not wanting to take it. Regardless, fans had to settle for collisions the two had on Raw and in the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal at WrestleMania 32.
2 Trish Stratus Vs. Alexa Bliss
Trish Stratus and Alexa Bliss have a fair bit in common, as women who look a bit alike, and who came into WWE seemingly as pretty faces and developed into top tier wrestlers. Booking the two against each other at the all-female Evolution show felt like a pretty natural choice, and it was indeed the first match WWE announced for the event.
Things shifted as the match became a tag team match—Stratus teaming with Lita against Bliss and Mickie James. From there, injury issues kept Bliss out of the match altogether as Alicia Fox took her place in the tag match. Stratus vs. Bliss still could happen, but with each passing year, it feels less likely.
1 Steve Austin Vs. Brock Lesnar
Steve Austin and Brock Lesnar overlapped for the end of Austin’s run and the beginning of Lesnar’s. Given that The Beast did work matches with the likes of Austin’s contemporaries like The Rock, Triple H, and The Undertaker, it feels a bit absurd that Stone Cold vs. Lesnar never happened.
The history got complicated of course, because as Austin has discussed ad nauseum in interviews, he was asked to put over Lesnar on a throwaway match on Raw. The Rattlesnake resisted, on the premise he’d put Lesnar over, but it was a waste to do it on free TV without any build. It looked like this dream match would have new life when Austin interviewed Paul Heyman for the WWE Network and it seemed to culminate in Austin setting up a match with Lesnar. It turns out that was never in the cards, though, and just a matter of Austin and Heyman trying to create buzz.