Stone Cold Admits to Why He and Hulk Hogan Never Fought in WWE

One of the favorite pastimes of WWE fans is to imagine fantasy matches between legends of the past, present and future. As fortune has it, many of these magical “what if” contests tend to manifest. These time-transcending matches include Undertaker vs. Ric Flair, Brock Lesnar vs. Bill Goldberg, Triple H vs. Sting, even the recent John Cena and Shinsuke Nakamura qualifies as a dream match coming to reality.

But there’s one match whose doors are closed forever — Stone Cold Steve Austin vs. Hulk Hogan. However, according to Austin, it would’ve happened if not for poor timing on his part.

On a recent episode of his podcast, the Texas Rattlesnake asked who his dream opponent was, and without hesitation, he said the Hulkster.

“I gotta say, Hulk Hogan. Because one of the biggest draws in the history of the business. 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, because I was watching an old match on YouTube between Paul Orndorff and Hulk Hogan, and I watched how Hulk Hogan was down there on that mat, and he was just selling his a** off,” he said.

“Paul Orndorff was just kicking the snot out of him, and then finally, finally, finally after all this heat, started making that trademark comeback… He started firing up that comeback, the people started going crazy, and I realized that guy wasn’t born on top, he worked his tail off to get to the top. So I’d say Hulk Hogan right off jump street,” Austin added.

A match between Hogan and Austin would have created astronomical amounts on entertainment. Per Austin’s timeline, he and Hogan could have had a match between 2002-2004. But Austin’s declining health and Hogans’ own limitations seemed to have killed the opportunity.

We got a taste of their chemistry at WrestleMania 30, where The Rock, Austin and Hogan served as a trident of novelty to open the show. That’s as close as we’ll ever get, though. Maybe next life…