10 WrestleMania Matches History Deprived Us Of (That Weren't Actually Impossible)

Hulk Hogan Vs. Ric Flair was the original plan for WrestleMania VIII - until the house show dry run failed to ignite the box office. Infamous fantasist Hogan has claimed years afterwards that "Flair-Hogan was magic; you could have doubled the ticket price and it would have still sold out." Take no credence in that. Objective data aside, Hogan has form: he once claimed to have out-partied John Belushi four years after the comedian's death, and was apparently (read: certainly not) the first wrestler to walk to the ring with entrance music.

Many fans bemoan the whole "McMahon In Every Corner" schtick at WrestleMania 2000, but it's hard to fault the logic when the widely preferred alternative, Triple H Vs. The Rock, drew over 600,000 buys for the B-level pay-per-view Backlash a month later. For the sake of professionalism alone, Bret Hart Vs. Shawn Michaels II should have happened at WrestleMania 13 - but, paraphrasing a recurring player in this list, what happened instead was better for business. Steve Austin knew what The Rock was in for at WrestleMania X8 in the face of the politicking Hogan. We weren't deprived of it. Austin saved himself.

Treading well-worn "What could have been?" territory with a more realistic slant, it's depressingly clear that WWE has deprived us of many star-making moments in 'Mania lore.

Ironically, the "Creator", Triple H, is at the epicentre of much of it.

2002 was (in patches) a much better year than conventional wisdom has it, but the WWF made a right mess of the WrestleMania X8 undercard.

Kurt Angle, fully established as a headline act and the company's in-ring Ace, was booked in a weirdly meta arc in which the WWF basically admitted that they had nothing for him. He fought Kane in Toronto in as much of a TV quality match as they come. Edge's match with Booker T at least had a premise behind it - but that premise was one of the most infamously naff in company history. Their dispute was predicated on a Japanese shampoo commercial. Booker T was incensed that Edge beat him to it, so they had a wrestling match. Jesus wept. Still, Booker T's introductory gambit - "Yo! Japanese people!" was brilliant, in a schadenfreude sort of way.

Angle and Edge initiated hostilities in the post-'Mania season, in a series of matches so good that they established Edge as a major singles player - but the dross that was the first hour of 'Mania X8 could have been saved, had the WWF got 'round to it that little bit quicker.

Instead, Edge and Booker T wrestled a nothing 06:32 match. If Angle Vs. Kane was a RAW bout, Edge Vs. Booker T was Jakked.