WWE WrestleMania: What every main event should have been

WrestleMania X8

Actual main event: Triple H vs. Chris Jericho

What the main event should have been: Hulk Hogan vs. Steve Austin

This is another of those positions where I find myself in a little bit of trouble. The roster was full of people that could have taken part in the main event. There was Chris Jericho, who was already a star but became a megastar by becoming the first Undisputed WWE Champion after beating Stone Cold Steve Austin and The Rock in the same night. There was Triple H, who had returned from that career-threatening quad injury to win the Royal Rumble. I actually don’t have a problem with those two in the main event. It was a good story but it actually didn’t need the title.

There was Kurt Angle, The Undertaker, and of course, The Rock. I think The Undertaker and Ric Flair was the right call as it was a bit of a dream WrestleMania match in itself, and it was great. Angle was a bit wasted in a match with Kane, but it was decent enough. Then there’s Dwayne, who could have gone in with anyone and looked great. Obviously, we got the dream match with Hulk Hogan that turned out to be one of the most iconic matches in WrestleMania history. With that being said, however, I think there was a chance here to pit the biggest star of The Golden Era against the biggest star of the Attitude Era: Stone Cold Steve Austin vs. Hulk Hogan. And it never happened, not even after WrestleMania. Sure, we got them in the ring in a tag match during the build to Toronto, but that’s clearly not the same.

Austin vs. Hogan actually was the plan from what I understand, but Austin just wasn’t into it. He didn’t feel that the two could have a good match as he felt he would have had to slow down due to Hogan’s age, and he was then placed into an average match with Scott Hall that’s very easy to forget. Sure, some of you may not think that Hogan deserves a main event spot here, but give the reaction from the Toronto crowd, I think they would disagree. And yes, everything turned out just fine as Rock and Hogan brought the house down, even if the match wasn’t a technical masterpiece.

Austin and Hogan likely wouldn’t have had the best match of all time, but can you imagine the crowd for this? They were hot enough for Rock and Hogan, but Hogan and Austin would have been off the charts. Arguably the two biggest stars in WWE history battling for the WWE Championship, which easily could have been put back on Austin at any time, would have been unreal.