WWE.com article 10 Wrestlemania matches that almost happened

[Littlebase631]

This wwe.com article has some great matches that I would've wanted to see but i wanna talk about one.

http://www.wwe.com/shows/wrestlemania/10-wrestlemania-matches-that-almost-happened/page-11

Stone Cold Steve Austin vs Hulk Hogan

I know this is often debated when people say it was originally for Austin. Others say it was originally for The Rock. Well this article clears it up it was originally for Austin.

From wwe.com

When Hulk Hogan returned to WWE under the black and white colors of the nWo in 2002, fans began to salivate at the thought of The Immortal One finally clashing with “Stone Cold” Steve Austin. Each competitor represented distinct eras in the historic timeline of WWE — Hogan as the driving force behind WWE’s 1980s pop culture boom and Austin as the brash mouthpiece of the uncensored Attitude Era. They were the two most important Superstars of WWE’s two most important periods and it was a clear match made in heaven. But it never happened.“He was open to having a match, me not so much,” Austin said on a recent episode of WWE Hall of Famer Jim Ross’s podcast. “I thought the styles would clash. I didn’t think it would be that great of a match. With The Texas Rattlesnake unwilling to agree to the bout, The Hulkster ended up facing off against The Rock in a now legendary encounter at WrestleMania X8. But that bout, billed as Icon vs. Icon, could have easily featured The Texas Rattlesnake instead.“I guarantee you, if my head had been at a little different place, then by all rights, a [match] should have happened,” Austin told JR. “Physically and mentally where I was at, I could go. I think Hogan probably would have been a step or two behind that. That wasn’t acceptable to me, and I didn’t want to slow myself down. I say that with all due respect to Hulk Hogan, because he had a hellacious run. That was my thought process back in the day. I didn’t think we could deliver.”

 

[TheOneAndOnlyGOAT]

Austin vs Hogan was never the plan.


It doesn't this confirm anything.

WWE.com has been hiring a lot of smarks as their writers and the writer of this article is a clueless smark.


[YOUTUBE]watch?v=BqlBqtQUdTQ[/YOUTUBE]

 

[Littlebase631]

The article clearly quotes Austin in regards to what he said about it on Jim Ross' podcast the Ross report. Austin says hogan was open to the match but not him. He didn't think the styles would match up so he declined the match. But he said if his head was in a different place the match would've happened.

 

[Y 2 Jake]

Saw that. Interesting article.

Austin was asked if he wanted the match against Hogan. But saying their styles might clash or Hogan was behind the pace was bullshit. Austin knew Hogan would manipulate the crowd in his favour and wanted no part of that. Austin was right, that's exactly what Hogan did against The Rock.

 

[TheOneAndOnlyGOAT]

The article clearly quotes Austin in regards to what he said about it on Jim Ross' podcast the Ross report. Austin says hogan was open to the match but not him. He didn't think the styles would match up so he declined the match. But he said if his head was in a different place the match would've happened.

Of course he isn't going to say they picked Rock over him.

Numerous people said Rock Hogan was the original plan.

I'll make a thread about it tomorrow or something.

 

[Ryan1025]

In one of the Austin documentaries, Austin says he was angry that Rock was picked over him. I don't think it was Austin turning down the match.

 

[IPodBoy91]

From what I have seen and read over the years there have been conflicting reports . In the most recent stone cold DVD he said he wanted the match. More recently he has gone on the record saying his and hogan's styles would not be a good fit for a match .

 

[Themagician]

Ok so here goes:

In late summer 2001 Vince began to reach out to the original members of the nWo. The original plan was for them to be part of the inVasion angle which at the time of negotiation was meant to finish at Wrestlemania X8. However, the inVasion angle was suddenly cut short and instead finished at Survivor Series.

Just after Survivor Series, Vince told Austin that he wanted him to face Hogan at Wrestlemania. Make no mistake about it, Austin vs Hogan was Vince's dream match. It had been ever since Austin had gone on to shatter all the box office records which Hogan had set. Vince was/is an Austin fanboy.

Austin said no. Vince gave him a few days to think about it but again Austin said no. Vince threatened that the match would go to The Rock and that he would lose out on taking part in a historic moment but Austin didn't care.

Vince relayed the news to Hogan who said he was more than happy to work with The Rock at Wrestlemania and put him over. Whether he agreed to put Rock over in order to prove a point to Austin is debatable, although I do think if Austin had said yes, he wouldn't have been so happy to do the job.

Vince and management were furious with Austin's decision. Ever noticed how Austin appeared to take a bit of a de-push around this time? He lost the title weakly to Jericho in December, randomly played third man to Rock and HHH in early 2002, before facing Scott Hall in a mid card match at Wrestlemania. This was all pretty much because Austin was in the dog house for ruining Vince's dream main event.

The actual plan was for Austin to lose his match with Scott Hall but Austin eventually put his foot down. Austin was fully aware as to why he was being booked as a 'B' performer but thought he could ride it out. Eventually he had enough and the tensions escalated to the point where Austin walked out when they then wanted him to lose a King of the Ring qualifying match to Brock Lesnar.

Years later and Vince is over not having his dream Austin/Hogan match. If you watch any new history programming from WWE they always make it clear that Austin > Rock. This is a conscious decision from Vince who recognised what Austin did for the company.

 

[JJ15776]

In one of the Austin documentaries, Austin says he was angry that Rock was picked over him. I don't think it was Austin turning down the match.

Yep. It's actually on the WWE Network, he talks about it in his Beyond The Ring. You can tell he's upset that they picked Rock over him. Hogan vs. Austin was NEVER the plan, it was never considered, it was never pitched to Austin, and Austin never turned it down. Hogan vs. Rock was the plan from Day 1 and they never even gave serious consideration to Hogan vs. Austin. And Austin is still mad about it to this day, imagine how mad he was at the time...that was what started them down the road that ultimately saw him walk out on the company when they wanted him to lose an unannounced match on Raw to Brock Lesnar.

All this other nonsense is just that, nonsense. The idea of Austin saying no is ludicrous and never would've happened. WWE knew Hogan vs. Rock was a better match and that was their first and only choice and it's as simple as that.

 

[Themagician]

Austin actually said no to the Hogan match multiple times from 2001 to 2006. WWE even offered him a 7 figure sum but Austin still said no.

Austin says in a vid that 'the guy he needed to work with (at X8) was Hogan' but that's just Austin meaning that he himself should have chose to work with Hogan instead of shunning the match. He repeated this on JR's podcast recently, stating that his head wasn't in the right place at the time and he'd probably do things differently now.

 

[Littlebase631]

Ok so here goes:

In late summer 2001 Vince began to reach out to the original members of the nWo. The original plan was for them to be part of the inVasion angle which at the time of negotiation was meant to finish at Wrestlemania X8. However, the inVasion angle was suddenly cut short and instead finished at Survivor Series.

Just after Survivor Series, Vince told Austin that he wanted him to face Hogan at Wrestlemania. Make no mistake about it, Austin vs Hogan was Vince's dream match. It had been ever since Austin had gone on to shatter all the box office records which Hogan had set. Vince was/is an Austin fanboy.

Austin said no. Vince gave him a few days to think about it but again Austin said no. Vince threatened that the match would go to The Rock and that he would lose out on taking part in a historic moment but Austin didn't care.

Vince relayed the news to Hogan who said he was more than happy to work with The Rock at Wrestlemania and put him over. Whether he agreed to put Rock over in order to prove a point to Austin is debatable, although I do think if Austin had said yes, he wouldn't have been so happy to do the job.

Vince and management were furious with Austin's decision. Ever noticed how Austin appeared to take a bit of a de-push around this time? He lost the title weakly to Jericho in December, randomly played third man to Rock and HHH in early 2002, before facing Scott Hall in a mid card match at Wrestlemania. This was all pretty much because Austin was in the dog house for ruining Vince's dream main event.

The actual plan was for Austin to lose his match with Scott Hall but Austin eventually put his foot down. Austin was fully aware as to why he was being booked as a 'B' performer but thought he could ride it out. Eventually he had enough and the tensions escalated to the point where Austin walked out when they then wanted him to lose a King of the Ring qualifying match to Brock Lesnar.

Years later and Vince is over not having his dream Austin/Hogan match. If you watch any new history programming from WWE they always make it clear that Austin > Rock. This is a conscious decision from Vince who recognised what Austin did for the company.

Totally correct and themagican was correct too. I just think when he talks about it on his documentary is that that was the match but it didn't happene because he thought it wouldn't be a good match at perform level and cause as he said his head wasn't in the right place. Not cause it wasn't the original idea. He means like ok if I refuse the match with hogan if I'm not wrestling him don't give me Scott hall put me in the title match. A triple threat Ausitn vs Hogan vs Rock would've been cool too.

 

[pratrullz098]

Austin VS Hogan was indeed the original plan. Even WWE have confirmed it now. Move on people.

 

[pratrullz098]

Austin vs Hogan was never the plan.


It doesn't this confirm anything.

WWE.com has been hiring a lot of smarks as their writers and the writer of this article is a clueless smark.
]

Yes, ofcourse. I'm sure you know more about the happenings in WWE than the WWE writers themselves. Sure.

 

[TheOneAndOnlyGOAT]

Yes, ofcourse. I'm sure you know more about the happenings in WWE than the WWE writers themselves. Sure.

LOL It's not WWE writers, it's the writers for their website.

Anyone can apply and work for their websites.

Many wrestlers have said Hogan-Rock was the original plan.

Ok so here goes:

In late summer 2001 Vince began to reach out to the original members of the nWo. The original plan was for them to be part of the inVasion angle which at the time of negotiation was meant to finish at Wrestlemania X8. However, the inVasion angle was suddenly cut short and instead finished at Survivor Series.

Just after Survivor Series, Vince told Austin that he wanted him to face Hogan at Wrestlemania. Make no mistake about it, Austin vs Hogan was Vince's dream match. It had been ever since Austin had gone on to shatter all the box office records which Hogan had set. Vince was/is an Austin fanboy.

Austin said no. Vince gave him a few days to think about it but again Austin said no. Vince threatened that the match would go to The Rock and that he would lose out on taking part in a historic moment but Austin didn't care.

Vince relayed the news to Hogan who said he was more than happy to work with The Rock at Wrestlemania and put him over. Whether he agreed to put Rock over in order to prove a point to Austin is debatable, although I do think if Austin had said yes, he wouldn't have been so happy to do the job.

Vince and management were furious with Austin's decision. Ever noticed how Austin appeared to take a bit of a de-push around this time? He lost the title weakly to Jericho in December, randomly played third man to Rock and HHH in early 2002, before facing Scott Hall in a mid card match at Wrestlemania. This was all pretty much because Austin was in the dog house for ruining Vince's dream main event.

And your sources are?

 

[pratrullz098]

You do know that the website writers are supervised right? Maybe not by Vince McMahon himself, but these lists go through a variety a people in the higher up levels of WWE. Now if you're saying that you know more about the backstage going on than all of them, then okay. You're right. The people who work in WWE dont know anything, and you know everything. Sure.

 

[TheOneAndOnlyGOAT]

You do know that the website writers are supervised right? Maybe not by Vince McMahon himself, but these lists go through a variety a people in the higher up levels of WWE. Now if you're saying that you know more about the backstage going on than all of them, then okay. You're right. The people who work in WWE dont know anything, and you know everything. Sure.

Hahahaha you're so funny. Oh God that was hilarious. You used sarcasm by saying that I know everything and that everyone in WWE know nothing about WWE. Hahaha sarcasm is funny. I wish I had the sense of humour that you have.

Not what I'm saying d-mb@$$.

I know a writer that works for WWE.com and he's following me on twitter and he pretty much told me that they're just writers,, they don't know more than any other fan but they can get access to WWE Library and use pics/vids for their articles.



Most of the WM dream matches that almost happened that he mentioned on the list had the 2 wrestlers involved talk about why it didn't happen which isn't the case for Austin-Hogan where only Austin talked about it on his podcast.

Austin is the only source the writer used on his article.

Many wrestlers have said that the original plan was Rock-Hogan, I'm pretty sure this writer knows more about what happened 12 years ago than the people who were there 12 years ago.

 

[Rocky84]

Yea, Austin has flip flopped on this topic just like he has with many other things including a return to wrestling. It's hard to believe him to be honest. I love the guy, but damn man. The fact that he did in fact decline a Hogan match in 2006 makes me wonder if it's true that he turned down Vince before anyone knew about it.

However, I have also seen plenty of other wrestlers including Hogan himself say that Rock was the plan from the start. I guess nobody knows the truth but Vince and Austin, but we can't trust Austin 100% because he's changed his story, and if he didn't change it, he certainly wasn't very clear in his documentary. When he mentioned "They had Rock against Hogan, what about me" -or something to that effect, it leads me to believe he was never offered it since it sounds like he would've taken it.

It's tough to call based on the evidence we have. The Austin guys will swear it was him, and the Rock guys will do the same. We don't have concrete evidence so it is what it is. It's basically another way to argue who is better -Austin or Rock since only the best could face the greatest in Hogan.

I wish we could all just agree it was 50/50 with these two already lol.

 

[rinehart]

Why do people care about a Hogan vs. Austin match? The clash of style would have made for a terrible match. Rock vs. Hogan was a much better idea.

Austin was wasted by being put with Scott Hall.

 

[shalliin]

Austin vs Hogan was a possible plan. One of several. In fact there were even promo posters hyping the match prepared in case it went through. The story about why it didn't happened changed a few times over the years, but the original story that leaked was that Austin refused to work with Hogan for what ever reasons. Same way the story about Nash ending Goldberg's streak changes every few years or HBK finally admitting that he was in on the Screw job the whole time instead of the way he claimed he had no idea it was happening for almost a decade after it happened.

 

[shalliin]

Why do people care about a Hogan vs. Austin match? The clash of style would have made for a terrible match. Rock vs. Hogan was a much better idea.

Austin was wasted by being put with Scott Hall.

I always find this funny. Clash in styles? The whole point is that there is a contrast in styles between the wrestlers otherwise might as well watch junior kata contests where everyone does the same moves and are judged on how straight their arms or legs are when doing them.

And how does Rock's style fit better with Hogan's then Austin's? Unless Austin was worried that his rougher style was too hard for Hogan to keep up with while Rock had a somewhat 'softer' style in the ring that could protect Hogan better.

I never understood this argument about the reasoning behind the lack of Austin/Hogan. Maybe the real reason is Austin didn't want to take the ego drubbing from the live crowd turning on him. maybe he didn't want to do the job, or maybe it was Hogan that didn't want to do the job.

the point is that there was a plan that entailed hogan vs austin at WM, but it didn't work out for whatever reason and they went with hogan vs rock. the austin vs hall was a waste, but frankly, any time hall stepped in a ring after 2000 was a waste.

 

[FlairFan2003]

You also have to remember that Austin genuinely disliked Hogan from their time in WCW, it's not a coincidence that when Flair arrived in WWE Austin was eager to work with him and did so both on TV and on the house show circuit (despite claims he didn't want to work with Hogan due to his declining ring skills, Flair was always a better performer than Hogan but was 53 years old at the time and not nearly as capable as he had been when he and Austin worked together 8 years earlier). Austin wasn't just a huge Flair fan he got along with him very well by all reports when they were in WCW together. This has never been a secret, same with his dislike for Hogan.