8 Planned WWE WrestleMania 33 Matches That Fell Apart

1. Shaquille O'Neal Vs. The Big Show

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WWE.com

Long before anything else was scheduled for WrestleMania 33, WWE announced that Shaquille O'Neal would be taking on The Big Show at, well, the big show. Both men were in last year's battle royal and they fought before being eliminated together, and then at the ESPY Awards in July, the gauntlet was thrown down.

For the next several months, Show was in training. Though he didn't appear on WWE TV, he'd share pictures of himself slimming down and muscling up, getting ready for what was likely the last WrestleMania of his career. Early in 2017, Show came back to WWE, but soon afterwards, he mentioned that he was skeptical regarding the future of the match - he hadn't heard anything from Shaq, and didn't think that the former NBA MVP was training. Shaq countered by saying that the future of the bout was out of his hands, and then shared a photo that proved he was in ring shape, as well.

So what happened? WWE and Shaq couldn't come to terms on money, and a couple of weeks ago, Show announced he would be in the battle royal again.

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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