Easily two of the biggest stars of all-time, Steve Austin and Hulk Hogan never squared
off in the ring.
They were both in WCW when Hogan dominated the main event, and crossed paths again in
the WWF when Austin was on top.
When Hogan returned to WWF in 2002 there were discussions about doing Hogan vs Austin at
WrestleMania X8 - and again at WrestleMania 19 - but egos and personal issues got in the
way and the match never took place.
I am Luke Owen and this is the real reason Steve Austin vs. Hulk Hogan never happened.
To tell this story we have to go back to WCW, even before Hogan had joined the company.
In early 1993 Steve Austin had been promised a big singles run with Harley Race - who had
managed Lex Luger and Vader when they were WCW Champion - but was instead teamed with
Brian Pillman as the Hollywood Blondes.
When Austin eventually got his singles run in WCW, there were reports that WCW executive
producer Eric Bischoff had promised him a run with Hogan.
However he then told Steve that Hulk shot the idea down - feeling that Austin simply
wasn’t at his level.
Although other sources have said that Bischoff was just lying to Austin and then used Hogan
as a scapegoat.
When Austin jumped to ECW, he put his firing from WCW on people like Hulk Hogan.
“Bischoff had actually said to me, ‘you know Steve, you might need to find something
else to do for a living, or somewhere else to go - maybe New Japan or ECW - because if
you go out there in those black trunks and black boots, and there’s not a whole lot
of ways for me to market that.”
- Steve Austin, The Stone Cold Truth, 2003
Austin would go to ECW in 1995 and cut shoot-style promos on Hogan about holding younger guys
down - but the two wouldn’t be in the same locker room until 2002 when the WWF brought
in Hulk Hogan, Kevin Nash and Scott Hall as the nWo to run roughshod over the company.
They did so quickly by targeting two of its biggest stars - The Rock and Stone Cold Steve
Austin - and the company began building towards WrestleMania X8 where one of the biggest factions
in WCW collided with WWF’s franchise players.
Decisions had to be made.
“The match was Austin and Hulk or Rock and Hulk.
I think everyone agreed that Austin and Hulk were the bigger match that we had to get to,
so the feeling was, why to give to [the fans] first, let’s build it some more.”
- Bruce Prichard, Something to Wrestle, 3rd February 2017
The decision was made to go with Rock vs. Hogan, leaving Steve Austin to work with with
the troubled Scott Hall.
Although Austin argues in his book The Stone Cold Truth he didn’t have a problem working
with Hall, The Bad Guy says otherwise.
“[Austin] felt like he should have been wrestling Hulk [Hogan] and it would have been
fine with me.
I would have certainly wrestled The Rock and I would have been cool with that, but I didn't
make those decisions, Vince [McMahon] did.”
- Scott Hall, You're Welcome with Chael Sonnen
In reality, the real reason the match never took place was because - while Hogan and Vince
wanted the match - Austin didn’t.
“[Hogan] was open to having a match, me not so much.
I thought the styles would clash.
I didn’t think it would be that great of a match.”
- Steve Austin, The Ross Report, February 2014
Austin continues on The Ross Report that he felt Hogan now wasn’t on his level, saying
he would be “a step or two behind”.
With the power of hindsight, the Wrestling Observer’s Dave Meltzer feels that the right
choice was made.
“The Toronto crowd wasn’t going to boo Hogan, the heel, no matter what, and it wouldn’t
have mattered who the opponent was...
History probably worked out better the way it did for all concerned.
The crowd would have reacted to Hogan vs. Austin in a gigantic manner.
They’d have reacted big that night to Hogan vs. anyone...
Austin felt at the time that Hogan couldn’t work up to the level he was accustomed to
and didn’t want a bad match at WrestleMania.”
There had been talk of doing Austin vs. Hogan for the following year for WrestleMania 19
[7 - screen], but shortly after WrestleMania X8 Austin “took his ball and went home”.
By the time he’d returned to start another program with The Rock, Mania 19 was being
built around Hogan vs. Vince McMahon.
Only a few knew it at the time, but this would be Austin’s final match.
In 2005 when Hogan was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame, The Hulkster addressed the dream
match that never happened between him and Austin, and then a few months later publically
challenged Stone Cold on an episode of Raw.
At the 2006 WWE Hall of Fame when Austin was inducting Bret “The Hitman” Hart and the
crowd were chanting for both him and Hogan, The Rattlesnake remarked: “I was going through
my bag in the back, and I found a can of 'Whoop Ass' with Hulk Hogan's name on it.”
Although the crowd reacted huge, the match was never going to take place.
“Everybody thought that match between ‘Stone Cold’ Steve Austin and Hulk Hogan should
have happened a couple years back and never did.
Just for whatever reason, I didn’t feel like stepping back in the ring.
I think Hogan was ready to go, but I wasn’t.
And so, I never got a chance to wrestle that guy, and it would’ve been fun to be in the
ring with him.”
- Steve Austin, Steve Austin Unleashed!, August 2017
One has to wonder, if Austin wasn’t going through his personal issues and left the WWF
in 2002, could we have seen Stone Cold Steve Austin vs. Hulk Hogan in the squared circle?
Or is it a match that’s better left to the imagination and WWE video game simulations?
What do you think, let us know in the comments.
And while you’re doing that, why not find out about characters too extreme for TV!
And what was the real reason WWE fired Kurt Angle in 2006?
Click the videos to the left to find out more.
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I’ve been Luke Owen and that was wrestling.