Well, who else did you expect? Arguably the two biggest names in the history of the sport, the two biggest draws of their respective generations, Austin and Hogan never had a high-profile match against each other. When Hogan returned to the WWE in 2002 this match seemed almost an inevitability, as Hogan would slowly work against all of the superstars that had grown in his absence. Hogan would go up against The Rock at WrestleMania X8, with Austin arguably getting the silver medal in a match against Scott Hall. You can't really argue with WWE's decision to go with Hogan versus Rock, especially in hindsight, but by booking Austin against Hall it could be said that any chance of putting on Austin vs. Hogan was gone. Egos play a huge part in professional wrestling after all. The fans wanted it and they wanted it bad, and if the match came to be the audience would have shown their desires in the shape of dollars and cents. The hype and story for such a match would write itself, and the status of both men as genuine icons of pop culture would have garnered a huge amount of outside, mainstream attention. For reasons we'll never truly know, the match never happened. It never even came close to happening, with Austin apparently steadfastly refusing to work with master politician Hogan. It never will now, and Vince McMahon's bank account might just cry itself to sleep every night just thinking about it.
Born in the middle of Wales in the middle of the 1980's, John can't quite remember when he started watching wrestling but he has a terrible feeling that Dino Bravo was involved. Now living in Prague, John spends most of his time trying to work out how Tomohiro Ishii still stands upright. His favourite wrestler of all time is Dean Malenko, but really it is Repo Man. He is the author of 'An Illustrated History of Slavic Misery', the best book about the Slavic people that you haven't yet read. You can get that and others from www.poshlostbooks.com.
