This day in wrestling history began like most others by playing on our love for one or both wrestlers as they built for a match.
As fans, we love imagining how our favorite wrestlers from one era would compare in the ring against another era, and in the late 90s and early 2000s we had plenty of opportunities for these matches, but they never materialized.
Hulk Hogan and Steve Austin are one of those, and it happened on October 3, 2005 when Hogan challenged Austin to face him on Raw from the American Airlines Center in Dallas, Texas.
Two eras and egos
It’s hard to imagine a match that fans wanted to see more than the man that helped make the WWE into a worldwide phenomena and the man that saved the WWE in the Monday Night Wars.
For years they faced each other on opposing networks and companies with Hogan riding the wave of the greatest heel turn in history.
Austin made history as he helped usher in the Attitude Era and was part of some of the best television moments and feud of all time.
So, when they were in the same company it seemed logical that they’d face each other at some point, even if Austin was retired at the time.
In the end, it looks like the match not happening to kick off Raw first 3 hour episode and its return to the USA network was because of trust issues between Austin and Hogan.
Both spoke about this in different interviews, and we want to give special thanks to @awrestlinghistorian for the transcripts.
“I was living a little too fast and been a little bit burnt out, was a little bit on the edge, but had they booked that match with myself and Hogan, I think that I might have shot that match down because of how the booking was going to go on who was going to win and who was going to lose.” – Steve Austin, The Steve Austin Show, Episode 159, October 14, 2014.
Hogan had a different perspective.
“When me and Scott Hall and big Kev came into the WWE with the nWo, we had such an edge, and we were getting cheered. I guess the babyfaces weren’t used to it. They were complaining, ‘Those guys are turning us upside down, and we’re getting booed instead of cheered…’ So there was some legitimate heat there on a business level.” – Hulk Hogan, Wrestling With Rosenberg, October 18, 2011.
All these years later, Austin has said he regrets his decision as they would’ve been able to figure something out.
This would’ve been a match on par with Hogan’s and the Rock’s, but now this day in wrestling history is relegated to our imaginations or video games.
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