9 Planned WWE WrestleMania 32 Matches That Fell Apart
8. Triple H Versus The Rock
When The Rock confronted a bragging Triple H at WrestleMania 31 last year, the idea was to build up to a showdown between the archrivals at next year's event. After all, the two had never collided in a one-on-one match at WrestleMania, and in WWE's eyes, Triple H's place as the top heel in the company made him the perfect opponent for "The Great One." With casual and lapsed fans making up such a huge percentage of those who watch WrestleMania live and at home, a Rock-Triple H match was particularly attractive - after all, that was a key feud during the company's most popular period, and WWE's done a good job of selling nostalgia at the show of shows over the years. Why it fell apart: The Rock was game to compete, but producers involved with his "Baywatch" film weren't interested in letting him risk his health and insurers weren't keen on covering his in-ring competition. It's hard to blame them - when The Rock was injured during his match with John Cena at WrestleMania 29, filming on "Hercules" was delayed, causing multi-million-dollar studio headaches. The Rock may love WWE, but his current job title is Hollywood superstar, so he has to accommodate those on the business side of things. Still, "The People's Champion" has promised to appear at the event.
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