Want more wrestling news, rumors, and results? Be sure to visit PWInsider.com and PWInsiderXtra.com.
Bret Hart vs Shawn Michaels: Wrestlemania 12
For much of the mid-90s, the WWF was largely carried on the backs of two men: Shawn Michaels and Bret Hart. While other people found their way into the top mix, these two were the most consistent main eventers and nobody else in the company could touch them from a workrate perspective. It seemed only natural that they would be matched up eventually, and that happened at Wrestlemania 12 when they faced off in a 60 minute Ironman match for the WWF Title. With these two involved and an hour to work with, there was no way it could go wrong, could it?
Well, it did. The problem basically boiled down to the fact that both men were so paranoid of the other that neither one wanted to lose any falls until the very end when Shawn won. In trying not to do anything that could potentially lead to a pinfall, the match turned into an almost solid hour of chinlocks, armbars, and other stuff designed to run down the clock so they could go to the finish. It finally got good in the last two minutes when Hart caught Michaels coming off the top rope and put him in the Sharpshooter, but Shawn hung on until the clock ran out and then they did the infamous overtime period where Shawn hit two superkicks and got the win.
What could have easily been one of the greatest matches of the decade had been ruined by politics, and their mutual mistrust only got worse until it culminated in the infamous screwjob in Montreal a year and a half later.
Bill Goldberg vs Brock Lesnar: Wrestlemania 20
This was supposed to be a war between the most dominant man to come to WWE in years (Lesnar) and the most dominant man to ever come to WCW (Goldberg) in a battle of two unstoppable forces, one of whom would have to be stopped. We all knew Goldberg was leaving and assumed he would be putting Brock over on the way out, but then news broke that Lesnar was leaving too, and now nobody knew what we'd get when they faced off at Wrestlemania 20. I think people originally expected this to be a war between two powerhouses, reminiscent of Hogan vs Warrior at Wrestlemania 6, but Lesnar and Goldberg apparently decided to go out there and dog it since neither was particularly worried about ever wanting to come back. Forget the fact that Steve Austin was the most over guy in the match even though he was the referee, Lesnar and Goldberg basically sleepwalked through the match, going through the motions for the sake of fulfilling their commitment and not going out of their way to make a good impression on the way out. After getting booed out of the building by the live crowd, Goldberg hit the spear and Jackhammer for the win and then Austin laid both men out with Stone Cold Stunners, just to give the fans something to be happy about coming out of this mess.
Ric Flair vs Hulk Hogan: Bash At The Beach 1994
Though this was the first PPV meeting between the two biggest stars of the 80s, it wasn't supposed to be. Flair vs Hogan was originally envisioned as the main event of Wrestlemania 8, a match that had been building for months since Flair came to the WWF and confronted Hogan with the NWA World Title belt, claiming to be the Real World Champion. After months of build, we were fairly sure that even if Flair couldn't necessarily carry Hogan to a decent match, it would be promoted and treated like the big deal it was.
Unfortunately, the match was changed and they never had another occasion to face off in a WWF ring. The match didn't happen until Hogan came to WCW, and unlike the WWF, putting Hogan and Flair together on PPV was priority #1 for Eric Bischoff. The only problem was that, instead of treating it like the battle of the two biggest stars of the modern era, it became the moment when Ric Flair was cast aside like a used coffee cup now that WCW had the REAL biggest star of the modern era.
Flair was treated like a jobber and lost the WCW World Title to Hogan, then was suspended for getting a masked man to attack Hogan, after which Hogan petitioned to get Flair brought back so he could beat him in a cage in a retirement match. He then had WCW reinstate Flair AGAIN about six months later just so he could beat him one more time after Flair was reduced to coming out of the crowd dressed like a woman to attack Randy Savage. This may have been the worst match on the list not just because it sucked, but because of what it meant for the rest of Ric Flair's WCW career.
Shawn Michaels vs Mr Perfect: Summerslam 1993
Shawn and Perfect were two of the best Intercontinental Champions to ever hold the title, so when they ended up feuding with each other and were signed to face off at Summerslam, workrate freaks rejoiced. This had Match of the Year written all over it, and while Lex Luger and Yokozuna were fighting over the WWF Title in the main event and were getting all the hype from the company, the worker's title would be contested between two of the best around and, much like Savage vs Steamboat at Wrestlemania 3, this would be the match everyone would remember.
Except that the match stunk. I really don't know what happened except that sometimes, putting two supremely awesome workers together doesn't result in a great match. Some people just don't have chemistry, so after ten or so disappointing minutes, Perfect was counted out after Shawn's bodyguard Diesel rammed him into the ringpost and knocked him out. It was a crappy finish for a disappointing match, and they would never get a chance to redeem themselves in a televised match.
Triple H vs Scott Steiner: Royal Rumble 2003
When WCW went out of business and its former stars gradually began trickling into WWE over the ensuing years, one name that kept coming up in "I hope they go to WWE" conversations was Scott Steiner. Steiner had been around for years as one half of a legendary team with his brother Rick, then closed out his WCW career by breaking up with Rick, turning heel, changing his entire character and ring style, and finally winning the WCW World Title many people thought should have been his a decade earlier. Though injuries had slowed him down a bit, he was slowed down a lot more by headlining a poorly-run company that was going down the tubes. However, his new Big Poppa Pump character seemed tailor made for Attitude Era-style booking, so the expectation was that he'd fit right in and become a major player if he ever did go to WWE.
After a year and a half off the rader, Steiner made his WWE debut at Survivor Series 2002 and trashed both Matt Hardy and Chris Nowinski to roaring applause from the New York fans. He was immediately put into a program with Triple H and was booked to challenge him for the World Title at Royal Rumble 2003. Steiner got a very strong start, but it was all downhill from there as, after weeks of a bizarre build where Steiner and Triple H seemed more concerned with beating each other at arm wrestling contests than fighting, they had what won a lot of year end polls as the worst match of 2003. Steiner blew up early in the match, and had so much ring rust on him that he lost his balance performing several of his trademark moves like the double underhook powerbomb, and relied so heavily on overhead release suplexes that the crowd turned on him.
Triple H did his best, but Steiner was so far off his game that he very well may have sealed his fate in WWE right then and there. They did a DQ finish that was obviously designed to finish a hot match and set up a rematch the next month, but if there were any plans to go further with Steiner after the Royal Rumble, they went right out the window as Steiner was permanently banished to the "just above prelim" level of the WWE ladder after putting Triple H over via pinfall at the next month's PPV.
* * *
So we've looked at dream matches we never got and dream matches we did get that turned out to stink, so what's left? How about some dream matches that we did get and turned out awesome...so they gave it to us a million more times? Yep, that's up for tomorrow!
If you enjoy PWInsider.com you can check out the AD-FREE PWInsider Elite section, which features exclusive audio updates, news, our critically acclaimed podcasts, interviews and more by clicking here!
Bang On Casino
