10 Huge Wrestling Matches That Happened WAY Too Late

The phrase 'better late than never' tends to apply to quite a lot of titanic showdowns throughout the history of pro wrestling.

When the Hulk Hogan vs. Bret Hart ship seemed to have sailed, wrestling found a way to make it so. When we never thought we'd see The Rock grace a WWE ring again, wrestling made sure it happened not once, but twice in a lifetime at WrestleMania against John Cena.

But, just because we got there in the end doesn't mean that the end product was worth the wait.

Many times throughout the vast history of the predetermined sport we've seen epic showdowns fall flat on their *rse once they're finally willed into existence.

Sometimes these eventual dream matches contained stars that were simply too old to go anymore. Yet, on other occasions the momentum of the talents involved had been well and truly extinguished by the time the historic duel actually took place.

I suppose we should all just be thankful that these clashes ultimately found their way onto our screens in the end. However, you can't help but wonder what kind of spectacle could have been put on had any one of these following ten bouts been booked long before they finally made it onto TV.

Anybody who bought a ticket to WrestleMania 31 in the hope that they'd be witnessing the early 2000's version of 'The Game' Triple H taking on the late '90's iteration of 'The Icon' Sting were surely left thoroughly disappointed by what they actually got on the night.

Yet, anyone with half a brain knew that the chances of a 5* classic here were slim to none.

In all fairness to the pair, they put on the best possible match they could given their obvious handicaps - Sting being in his mid-50s by this point and Trips now being more of a chiselled show pony than a bonafide ring general.

Even all the bells and whistles of the nWo and DX popping up to reinforce their respective allies - despite Sting and the nWo being at odds for much of their WCW tenures - couldn't save this match from feeling like it should have happened ten years earlier.

Just imagine if Sting had waited in the wings for a couple of years following WCW's demise, only to finally appear on WWE television around 2003/4 as the last vigilante, his sole purpose now being to bring down the titan that took away his home, thus leaving Triple H (bolstered by Evolution) to protect his turf.

Instead we got the King of Kings massaging his fragile ego in front of 75,000 strong and a broken down Sting opening his WWE account with an 'L'.