Sure, it was always a longshot, but the greatest dream match WWE could have delivered at WrestleMania 32 would have been an encounter between Brock Lesnar and "Stone Cold" Steve Austin. It's been almost 13 years since Austin's last match, but many hoped that the amount of money he could make for a bout with "The Beast" at the grandest WWE show of all time would be enough to draw him out of retirement. Austin appeared on a heavily-hyped edition of Raw in October, and immediately afterwards, interviewed Lesnar on a live edition of his podcast. If anything was going to happen, it would happen there, with "Stone Cold" and "The Beast" face to face with everyone with WWE Network access watching. Instead, the two talked about trucks, music, and tried to make plans to go hunting together. Needless to say, it was underwhelming, and Austin later reiterated the fact that he is "99.99%" likely to be done in the ring forever. While an Austin-Lesnar bout headlining at AT&T Stadium would have made the show feel like a WrestleMania beyond all others, WWE still has a talented roster capable of great things. With some smart booking, the company can make use of their current stars to put together a legendary event, no matter how many names are missing. As to whether they will or won't, all will be revealed in the coming months.
Scott Fried is a Slammy Award-winning* writer living and working in New York City. He has been following/writing about professional wrestling for many years and is a graduate of Lance Storm's Storm Wrestling Academy. Follow him on Twitter at https://twitter.com/scottfried.
*Best Crowd of the Year, 2013
