The match we never got

[FanSince99]

First time posting here hope it is a good discussion. I was recently looking through some old youtube clips leading up to the 1999 Survivor Series triple threat main event. After looking at the promos and the feud as a whole, it got me thinking we got “screwed” out of what would have been a guaranteed classic. Each of these men have had instant classics in one on one matches with each other, imagine what could have been if we actually got the original triple threat match. What’s even worst is that we will never see this match. I am actually saddened by the thought of this and want to know what do you guys think.

Would the match have been a success given the fact it was Triple H’s first major storyline as champion, Rock was just peeking as the number 2 man in the company, and well Austin was AUSTIN. Second what would have been the outcome if Austin didn’t need the neck surgery? Would we have Austin vs. Rock again at Wretlemania or Triple H vs. Rock at Wresltemania.

To add to the point here is the Sunday night HEAT promo before the match...P.S. I miss HEAT when it was before a big PPV it single handedly bought an extra 100+ ppv buys.

[YOUTUBE]1rdOMtOWRP0&feature=related[/YOUTUBE]

 

[AJRyder]

good shout there!that will be argued for years to come, but this is a personal one for me and im going for...
Chris Benoit Vs CM PUNK....how hyped was I heading into night of champions, for the re born ECW Championship, even ordering the PPV, turning my PC off just so nothing spoilt the match for me, to then discover that Johnny Nitro had replaced benoit!...then obviously we all know what happened after...

 

[RkoMachine]

i say you are both completely right with your answers but i dont wanna say the same one as you so im going to go with the rock vs kurt angle vs hhh at summerslam 2000. OK we did get the match but kurt was sent to the back for most of it after a botched pedigree on the table. So it was mostly a one on one match between the great one and the game which was good dont get me wrong! but kurt angle can make any match better and i wish he would have wrestled in that match more then just a few minutes

 

[zman21]

i was so mad when that match dident take place at survivor series and said well mayb it will happen at mania. how ever it did not and to make matters worst they replaced austin with the big show and let him go over

micheals vs rock is something we dident get to see. the very first smack dwn hbk screwd the rock out of his tittle match and i thought that was gonna set up a match between them. sadly it dident and we never saw those 2 go at it

 

[Psycokid4ever88]

Hmm the easy answer to this question at the current moment for me is Miz and Morrison at Mania..Instead we get the same old shit. supercena winning at mania

 

[d_henderson1810]

Hmm the easy answer to this question at the current moment for me is Miz and Morrison at Mania..Instead we get the same old shit. supercena winning at mania

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I agree with you on that, and I would say that they missed an opportunity not having John Cena v The Rock at WM this year. Imagine the crowd for that match!

I would also say that they missed the chance of doing a proper Hulk Hogan vs Ric Flair match in 2002. They should have had that at WM8.

 

[Carpathian Florist]

I would like to also note, that another match we never got to see was Sting v Jeff Hardy at Victory Road 2011.

Or Mr Anderson vs Sting at Victory Road either! All the pieces were there, Anderson wanting the title shot he should have had, Jeff "in no condition to wrestle" or whatever, Anderson's lack of a finish in his previous match... They could have easily stalled, set up Anderson attacking Hardy in the back and stealing his spot... How hard would that have been???

 

[Decarow]

Muhammed Hassan vs Batista at SummerSlam 2005.

He was slated to win the #1 Contendership against Taker at the Great American Bash 2005, but during the build up he was "offensive" and they had to destroy his character. Taker won the match, then JBL beat him on Smackdown and challenged Batista. Reports show that Hassan may have won the title if the match happened.

Another match is one that I really wanted to see, but couldn't due to Eddie's death. The day Eddie died, there was a Supershow taping. On that night's Smackdown taping, Batista was supposed to defend his title in a triple threat against Eddie Guerrero and Randy Orton, where Eddie was supposed to win.

 

[mayankeagle]

I'm gonna go with the old-school old-fashioned Undertaker vs Sting, because I still believe that at the level that these guys perform at in big events regardless of their age, they would have given us a guaranteed classic. Yes its true that they faced each other more than 2 decades back when Sting was a star and Mean Mark Callous wasn't that big a noticed guy, but now that he is the definition of gargatuan awesomeness himself in the form of the Undertaker, pretty sure it will be a great match.

 

[JETER123]

Shawn Michaels vs Bret Hart at WrestleMania 13.

I know, I know. Then we wouldn't have seen the spectacular Hart/Austin match, but I would have loved to see how they would have followed their Iron Man match the year before.

 

[nbrew2119]

This one is very simple for me.

A match that I wanted to see, and probably never will is the Undertaker vs. Chris Jericho. They have fought in Elimination Chamber matches, but, never one on one.

This would have been a good Wrestlemania feud, with Jericho claiming to be the best in the world at what he does, and trying to end the streak, could have been a decent money maker.

Another one. which I will go to the tag team side of things here...Edge/Christian vs. Benjamin/Haas.

If built right, this could have been an awesome tag team match, with Edge/Christian from the "5 second pose" era, against Benjamin/Haas aka the World's Greatest Tag Team.

 

[Hollywood Naitch]

The first thing that came to mind was that the night after the 1997 Survivor Series, Bret Hart wanted to drop the WWF Title to Ken Shamrock, before leaving the WWF and going to WCW.

All he wanted to do was to leave Montreal with the title after his match with Shawn Michaels, so he wouldn't have to drop the belt in Canada and then willingly lose on Raw the next night. He had creative control in his contract and had been an incredibly loyal employee to Vince McMahon for 15 years. He just wanted to go out on his terms.

Obviously, this never happened and we never got to see Ken Shamrock as the WWF Champion. The screwjob took place, Shawn Michaels left as the WWF Champion, Vince McMahon became a top heel and Bret Hart went to WCW, never to be the same again.

I personally would love to know how Shamrock would have fared as a Champion. I was always a big fan of his and would like to have seen him be given a shot on top. He had the look, gimmick and skills to pull it off in my mind.

 

[GrandSword]

I was so amped to see the dominant heel ECW Champion Mike Awesome who was 6 foot 6 300 pounds and could fly like a cruiserweight, against the man who was the face of ECW RVD. He was the hottest wrestler in all of the three companies at the time and he was set to feud with Awesome. But Heyman couldn't pay his bills and Awesome had to do the right thing for his family and go to a guaranteed pay check.

It would have indeed been the most violent and most "awesome" title match in ECW history I beleive and would have probably led to RVD becominig ECW Champion, something he never achieved in the original ECW and shold have as it wold have kept the company a float...

 

[RKOx7]

Randy Orton vs the Rock 1 on 1, back in Randy's early days as the Legend Killer... wish they had that match instead of the 3 Evolution vs 2 RocknSock at WrestleMania XX.

 

[S.J. Maximus]

How about Shawn Michaels vs the Rock if he didn't get hurt in 98 or maybe at at WrestleMania 19 instead of giving Jericho the rub

 

[nwo1234life]

4 me it would have to be HBK vs Owen at Royal Rumble 1998 which would have been a 5 star classic but never took place probably thanks to HBK playing politics. and Stone Cold vs HHH at Wrestlemania 18 which would have seen HHH get revenge for Austin bad mouthing him when he got injured. but thanks to Austin turning face it never happened.

 

[wrestling89]

Good post about the HHH-Rock-Austin match. I remember watching all of that hype back then and it never happened. Even though we saw so many matches with 2 out of the three of them or in tag matches, we never ever did get to see a straight on triple threat match.

ANother one that NEVER happened, at least on WWF TV was Hogan vs Flair. At Wrestlemania 8, that would have been the biggest WM main event ever! Yeah we had a plethora of it in WCW, but it just was never the same.

I mean for the belt at WM? Hogan vs Flair? That would have been the ultimate in 1992.

 

[JuviJuiceIsLoose]

Eddie Guerrero vs Bret Hart.

Eddie was on a serious roll in late '97, early '98. Bret was probably the biggest story in Professional Wrestling at the time.

I think it would've been a great 2nd or 3rd feud for Bret in WCW. It would've seriously legitimized and brought Eddie up.

Unfortunately, WCW had one finger up their nose, and the other up their ass. They had no idea how to use Bret or Eddie.

It definitely would've worked better than having Bret play Hogan's lackey, or having Eddie create the LWO.

I think Bret had the ability that would've definitely help put over guys like Eddie, Benoit, Jericho, and Malenko. Bret feuding with either one of those guys would've been awesome.

Another Eddie Guerrero match or feud that would've been awesome is Eddie vs Shawn Michaels. Apparently, before Eddie died, the WWE was working on booking a feud between Shawn and Eddie for Wrestlemania 22.

Of course the match would've been a classic, but the promos leading up to it would've been awesome, too. They could have used the fact that they were both Born Again Christians, but Eddie would be jealous that the crowd embraced Shawn for beating his demons more than they did Eddie.

I would've pretty much booked it like Jericho's feud with Shawn, but a couple years earlier.

 

[Alliance316]

Obviously Stone Cold vs Hollywood Hogan is the 1 match we will never see

But the 1 match we all would of had mixed emotions about

 

[Wolf Pac]

Well my definite pick is Austin vs. Rock vs. HHH as they were the 3 best at the time, also I always like to think I would've seen Taker vs. Bret vs. HBK or Austin vs. Bret vs. HBK or Austin vs. Bret vs. Taker vs. HBK back in 96/97 cause those four were carrying the WWF through those two years, so either option would've been great to see. I just wish they had brought in Triple Threats in those years instead of in 98 and that they had Fatal 4 Way matches more often back then.

Other picks that haven't been mentioned already I would say are:

Undertaker vs. Goldberg - The Phenom vs. another Phenom. A infamous streak vs. another infamous streak, why WWE never booked this when they had the chance I will never understand, they missed out on this.

Brock Lesnar vs. Triple H/Shawn Michaels - BL vs. HHH was originally booked for WM 21 but damn Brock had to leave. Also I would've loved to have seen Brock vs. Shawn, would've been another one of those Shawn vs. big man classics that he was famous for back in the day.

Shawn Michaels vs. Booker T - I at least thought this could've happened somewhere down in 02 or 03 where they could've used Shawn kicking Booker out of the NWO as the reason for this match. These two have a lot in common, great tag team wrestlers turned World Champions and they have so many accomplishments.

Scott Steiner vs. Undertaker/Shawn Michaels -If only they had pushed Steiner. I would like to have seen Steiner vs. Michaels cause like Booker & Shawn, both men were great tag wrestlers turned World Champions and Undertaker vs. Steiner which I just thought of now could've been an epic big man battle.

Austin vs. Goldberg - Well even though Austin secretly retired at Mania 19 because of his injuries, I believe there could've been some way this could've still been pulled off somehow whether it would've had to have been a short match or Austin couldn't have gone all out but as long as we got to see them two in the ring, that's all that would've mattered really.

Kurt Angle vs. Goldberg - Both these guys are total badasses in the ring, their styles are a little similar, the only difference is Goldberg is a powerhouse but man, they could've tore the house down if they had a match together. Just a shame the only time we ever seen em together was when Angle eliminated Goldberg from the Rumble. WWE missed a lot of dream with Goldberg.

Benoit vs. Goldberg - Same reason as above.

I'll just name a list from here on cause I can't be bothered with no more explainations...

Eddie Gurrerro vs. Shawn Michaels
Rey Mysterio vs. Ultimo Dragon
The Rock vs. Rey Mysterio (if you've seen Rock's HOF speech on Youtube, he said Rey was one of the 3 people he wanted to face)
Batista vs. Bobby Lashley (though it may happen in MMA)
Kane vs. John Cena (even though it happened on Raw but I mean on PPV and in a real feud)
John Morrison vs. Shawn Michaels
Mr. Kennedy vs. Triple H
Sheamus vs. Undertaker (I don't see him wrestling again till WM 28 after WM 27)
Alberto Del Rio vs. Undertaker (same as above)
Jack Swagger vs. Undertaker (same as above)
The Rock vs. Ric Flair
Mick Foley vs. Hulk Hogan
The Rock vs. Randy Orton

 

[Austinfan87]

austin vs the rock vs hhh at survivor series 99, austin vs hogan at wm 18 and austin vs taker at a wrestlemania, austin vs goldberg the rock vs shawn michaels , austin vs brock lesnar in 02 .. theres alot

 

[Chrome]

How about Shawn Michaels vs the Rock if he didn't get hurt in 98 or maybe at at WrestleMania 19 instead of giving Jericho the rub

HBK would have never wanted to do business with the rock. The rocks promos would have killed him and made him look like a sissy. Lets be honest we all love HBK and Rock... but back then he was known for being a sexy boy... dressed in sparkles and glitter while all the while wanting to be a cowboy... In the hands of the Rock this would have been TOOOOOOO easy not to poke fun at. LOL

What match ups did we never get..

DDP vs Rock.. Peoples Champ vs Peoples Champ
Sting vs Undertaker
Sting vs Ultimate Warrior
Santino & The Rock in a promo
Stone Cold vs Hulk Hogan
Goldberg vs Stone Cold
Goldberg vs Kurt Angle

 

[Davi323]

Hulk Hogan vs. Ric Flair, Wrestlemania 8. Don't get me wrong, the Flair/Savage match was pretty damned good. But, the way Ric Flair was introduced into the WWF, carrying the big gold belt, and then the WWF has him win the WWF belt at the Royal Rumble, it seemed like a Hogan/Flair dream Wrestlemania match was inevitable. But, for some reason, the WWF never pulled the trigger. Damn shame.

 

[Mr. HD]

I was gonna say HHH vs Rock vs Austin, but everyone else has said it.

I got one and it came from a thread a while back.

Kurt Angle vs The Undertaker at WrestleMania 22

The cards were there to make it happen, but they never pulled the trigger on it. I woulda had Angle drop the belt to Orton due to Taker's interference and have Rey win it from Orton as planned at WM setting up Angle vs Taker at WrestleMania.

Just think about it:

Angle with Taker in the Ankle Lock in the middle of the ring, just one tap away from the streak being broken. Just think of the fan's reacion. Besides Orton & HBK, Angle could've been a legitimate threat to end Taker's Streak. Not to mention it'd be a great match. It probably would've topped their No Way Out IMO