10 WWE Superstars Who Lost WrestleMania Main Events

7. Chris Benoit Was Called Up As Replacement To Face Brock Lesnar... But Kurt Angle Recovered – WrestleMania XIX

At WrestleMania XIX Chris Benoit teamed up with Rhyno to do battle with Los Guerreros (Chavo Guerrero Jr. and Eddie Guerrero) and Team Angle (Charlie Haas and Shelton Benjamin) for the WWE Tag Team Championship in a rushed match midway through the card. Team Angle’s leader Kurt Angle meanwhile closed the PPV wrestling Brock Lesnar for the WWE Championship. But at one time in early March 2003 both these matches were going to be dramatically altered.

The plan from the start was always to have Angle going against Brock in a spectacle to play off both their amateur backgrounds in a high profile main event at ‘Mania. But the month before WrestleMania 19 Angle suffered a devastating neck injury. Because of this WWE had to think fast.

They booked Angle to quickly drop the title to Brock in a (careful) squash on the 13/03/03 episode of SmackDown and afterwards have ‘The Crippler’ Chris Benoit slot into Angle’s spot at WrestleMania. Benoit would have fit well, given he’d recently been involved in angles and matches with Lesnar (No Way Out) and Angle (Royal Rumble). But neither of these ended up happening.

Angle has recently said of Benoit potentially taking his spot on The Kurt Angle Show podcast: “He was basically going to take my place and you know it bothered me.” Kurt convinced Vince McMahon and WWE medical professionals he could make it through WrestleMania, wanting to headline it as it would have been a highlight of his career, and then have neck surgery.