10 Matches WWE Teased But Didn't Deliver

WWE have often delivered on teases for major matches, even if the match ends up taking place long after the initial build began. That isn’t always the case, however, and sometimes WWE have suggested a match will happen before, for one reason or another, plans end up changing or being scrapped altogether. 

These are 10 Matches WWE Teased But Didn’t Deliver. 

10. Brock Lesnar vs. Shane McMahon

Due to the scarcity in which he wrestled, Brock Lesnar’s matches during his second WWE run felt important, especially as the former UFC Heavyweight Champion was often featured at the top of the card against the likes of Roman Reigns, Cody Rhodes, Samoa Joe, and The Undertaker. One match that was teased but didn’t end up happening, though, was Brock Lesnar vs. Shane McMahon, which was set up after Lesnar’s infamous KO win over Randy Orton in the main event of SummerSlam 2016.

After Lesnar elbowed his way to victory, the SmackDown General Manager arrived in the ring to check on Randy Orton. Lesnar blocked McMahon from reaching Orton, however, quite literally standing in his way. When McMahon came face-to-face with Brock, Lesnar promptly scooped up Shane O’Mac and hit him with an F5 to end SummerSlam. 

Many assumed this was WWE building to Lesnar’s next big match, which it was assumed would take place at Survivor Series. WWE didn’t continue any issues between Lesnar and Shane McMahon, however, as Lesnar battled Goldberg in Da Man's return to pro wrestling at Survivor Series, losing to him in a fantastic 90-second clash. Shane McMahon, meanwhile, was a part of the Raw vs. SmackDown Survivor Series Elimination Match.

Shane McMahon and Brock Lesnar would eventually come to blows again in the 2022 Royal Rumble, during which Lesnar eliminated Shane O’Mac on his way to victory. 

9. Trish Stratus vs. Sasha Banks

A Royal Rumble match is as good a place as any to test the waters and tease a match that may (or may not) end up transpiring. 

Number-one entrant Sasha Banks was arguably the star of the inaugural Women’s Royal Rumble in 2018, lasting 55 minutes and eliminating three people before being thrown out by the Bella Twins. 

One of the people The Boss eliminated was surprise entrant and WWE Hall of Famer Trish Stratus, who entered at number 30 and eliminated three people in her own right. One of the biggest reactions of the night occurred when Banks and Stratus faced off, leading many to assume WWE were foreshadowing a future match, possibly at WrestleMania. 

When ‘Mania came and went, that assumption turned to the all-female Evolution pay-per-view, but both women were put in tag matches instead. Banks vs. Stratus could well have happened at SummerSlam 2019 but, with Sasha on hiatus, Trish pitched to work a singles match with Charlotte Flair instead.

8. Shawn Michaels vs. Daniel Bryan

Shawn Michaels was afforded one of the best retirements in professional wrestling history when he lost to The Undertaker in the classic main event of WrestleMania XXVI, before getting to give his sendoff speech at the end of Raw the night after. 

In the years that followed The Heartbreak Kid’s farewell, however, there was occasional hope, rumour and speculation that he’d return for one more match and never was that speculation more intense than when Michaels became involved in The Authority’s feud with Daniel Bryan in the Autumn of 2013.  

Any programme had a natural story as The American Dragon had trained at HBK’s Texas Wrestling Academy at the beginning of his career and WWE knew full well that fans would clamour to see a match between two of the very best to step inside the squared circle. 

A potential confrontation was then only further teased after Michaels cost Daniel Bryan the WWE Championship at Hell in a Cell 2013 during Bryan’s match for the vacant title against Randy Orton, a match which Michaels was the special guest referee for. Bryan then placed HBK in a Yes Lock the next night on Raw. 

Unfortunately, there were never any concrete plans for Daniel Bryan vs. Shawn Michaels. HBK did infamously come out of retirement, though, at Crown Jewel 2018 for D-Generation X vs. The Brothers of Destruction. 

7. Hulk Hogan vs. The Great Khali

During the final years of his career as an active wrestler, there were many WWE matches rumoured concerning Hulk Hogan. The big ones were, of course, The Hulkster against either Steve Austin or John Cena, but there was a very tall star WWE planned to book Hogan against. 

The rumour heading into WrestleMania 23 was that WWE were considering booking Hulk Hogan vs. The Great Khali on the card, simply in an attempt to have the visual of Hogan slamming Khali in a callback to his slam of Andre The Giant 20 years earlier. 

The match didn’t happen, though, as WWE and Hulk Hogan had one of their many falling outs in the 2000s and Kane faced The Great Khali on the Grandest Stage of Them All instead. 

Hogan and Khali did come to blows later in the year at Raw’s 15th anniversary show as Hogan made the save for Hornswoggle and knocked Khali down with a few punches. Following the confrontation, Hogan hinted he wanted to slam Khali but the angle never went any further after this tease. 

6. Mick Foley vs. Mr. McMahon

After being retired by Triple H at No Way Out 2000, Mick Foley would for the next several years pop back into WWE for short-term programmes and the occasional match. 

For Mrs Foley’s Baby Boy to put on his sweatpants, however, the creative had to be good and really mean something as he put a lot of physical and mental energy into his feuds with the likes of Randy Orton, Edge and Ric Flair. 

Soon after the initial retirement, however, Foley was hell-bent on keeping his vow and never wrestling again after a final big WrestleMania main event payday at WrestleMania 2000. This prompted Foley to turn down the opportunity to wrestle Vince McMahon at WrestleMania X-Seven despite several hints of a match on WWE TV. 

Instead of wrestling, Foley was the special guest referee for the Mr. McMahon vs. Shane McMahon Street Fight. Mick later expressed his regret at not doing the match and noted that he would have done it had he known he would eventually come out of retirement. 

"I was really a stickler for details. I didn’t like holes in the storylines and I thought the idea of coming back and demanding my job back was not realistic. I was like, ‘It’s his company, he’s allowed to fire me.’ We got 200 people here, right? Maybe one of you would have thought a tiny bit less of me if I had exercised my right to come back to that match. Like, it was over-thinking, you know, I could have easily come back and it would have been a big match, and it would have been a good money match, like a really good money match. What it came down to was that I really, at that time, took that retirement stipulation seriously and I was hellbent on never wrestling again," Foley said on an Inside The Ropes tour.

"If I’d known that I was going to come back another 14 times and make a mockery out of that stipulation, I certainly would have cashed in, in 2001, and wrestled Vince, you know, and it wouldn’t necessarily have been a great technical match, but we would have had a heck of a storyline, I think it would have been a tremendous payoff.

"And more importantly, I wouldn’t have become like the boy who cried wolf to Mr McMahon. And I don’t think my relationship with… I used to call him Vince. You know, I called him Vince and now I refer to him as Mr McMahon, even when I see him. ‘Hello, Mr. McMahon.’ So it hurt that relationship, cost me a lot of money and would have been a good match to have on a great WrestleMania."

5. Terry Funk vs. Steve Austin

Shotgun Saturday Night was a unique experiment by WWE that, while it may have been a failure overall, at least provided fans with something a little different. 

Fans tuning into the third episode of the show in January 1997 may have thought something truly special was on the cards as the show from the Denim and Diamonds bar in San Antonio, Texas featured a pulsating confrontation between two legendary wrestlers from the Lone Star State.  

After going on a foul-mouthed tirade, Terry Funk called out Steve Austin (who was on commentary) and the two got into a short but intense brawl. During the the show’s main event pitting Stone Cold against Goldust, Funk got involved yet again and caused a disqualification by attacking Austin before they continued their scrap around ringside.

A day later, The Texas Rattlesnake briefly fought with Funk in the Royal Rumble match, but this was as close as WWE came to booking Terry Funk vs. “Stone Cold” Steve Austin. 

4. The Rock vs. Triple H

One of The Rock’s biggest rivals during his WWE prime outside of Steve Austin was Triple H and the two talents had major clashes over the WWE and Intercontinental titles in the late 1990s and early 2000s. 

In 2014, it appeared Triple H vs. The Rock was going to take place one more time. Triple H was part-time by this point but he still wrestled in high profile matches, while The Rock had been featured prominently on WWE TV from 2011 to 2013 as part of his programmes with John Cena and CM Punk.

With The Authority still on top of WWE, Triple H and The Rock had a backstage confrontation which threatened to become physical on the October 10, 2014 episode of SmackDown. Issues between Dwayne Johnson and Triple H were further ignited at WrestleMania 31 when Rocky helped Ronda Rousey take down HHH and Stephanie McMahon. 

Triple H later revealed on a WWE: Untold documentary that he was scheduled to face The Rock at WrestleMania 32 but the match fell through due to The Rock’s schedule changing. 

“I was already booked to work with The Rock at the following year’s WrestleMania and we’ll build it for more than a year. That was the intent, belief, everything else. Just as time went on, Rock’s schedule changed later in the year and we weren’t able to do the match for the following year’s WrestleMania one-on-one against The Rock,” HHH said.

H/T WrestleTalk

3. The Big Show vs. Shaquille O'Neal

A Giant vs. Giant match on the biggest stage between The Big Show and Shaquille O’Neal was teased on multiple occasions, but ultimately never happened. 

The match was initially teased in 2012 ahead of WrestleMania 28, with WWE even issuing a statement saying that Shaq would not be in action at the show. O’Neal and Big Show did later come to blows in the Andre The Giant Memorial Battle Royal at WrestleMania 32, with Big Show challenging Shaw to a match at WrestleMania 33 in Orlando at the ESPY Awards.

The match was teased ahead of WrestleMania 33 with workout videos from both men, but the contest ended up falling apart. Paul Wight blamed the former NBA player, while Shaq placed the blame at WWE’s door, saying on his podcast after WrestleMania 33 why the match didn’t happen. 

“Because they kept playing. First, they said it was me and Big Show. Then, they said it was going to be three and three. Then, they canceled it, so when they canceled it, I made other arrangements. And then they tried to call back and tried to get it done, and I just said, ‘I’m not going to do it.’ They messed it up,” O’Neal stated.

The match could still happen in All Elite Wrestling but probably won't.

H/T Cageside Seats 

2. Brock Lesnar vs. Bray Wyatt

In January of 2016, The Wyatt Family began to target Brock Lesnar, which included attacking him on Raw and then ganging up on Brock to eliminate him from the 2016 Royal Rumble match, after Lesnar had already eliminated Luke Harper, Erick Rowan and Braun Strowman. 

While some fans assumed The Beast Incarnate and The Eater of Worlds were on a collision course for WrestleMania, WWE opted to book the match for the WWE Network exclusive Roadblock instead. 

Prior to the match, however, it was changed to a two-on-one handicap match pitting Lesnar against both Wyatt and Harper. Bray tagged out immediately and the match was essentially a straight singles match between Brock and Luke, with Lesnar predictably getting the win after a series of German suplexes and an F5.

WWE didn’t go back to the programme in the aftermath as Lesnar segued to a match with Dean Ambrose at WrestleMania 32, while Bray Wyatt and the Wyatt Family were made to look like chumps by The Rock and John Cena at the biggest show of the year. 

WWE looked to revisit Bray Wyatt vs. Brock Lesnar at WrestleMania 39 but Brock turned out the pitch and instead faced Omos. Bray Wyatt was instead scheduled to face Lashley but disappeared from TV due to COVID-19-related heart issues. He sadly passed away in August of 2023. 

1. Steve Austin vs. CM Punk

One of the most-talked-about matches to never take place is Steve Austin vs. CM Punk in what was a natural matchup in the early 2010s between one of the biggest babyfaces in history and a man whose exceptional heel work helped him finally shatter the glass ceiling.

Punk and Austin did interact on the June 13, 2011 episode of Raw and at a sit-down mediated by Jim Ross to promote WWE 13 in August 2012. Regrettably, Punk and Austin were just promoting a video game and, due to Austin’s extensive injury history, the odds of an actual match resulting from this piece of business were slim-to-none and WWE never actually planned to book the match. 

Austin did later come out of retirement, facing Kevin Owens in a Street Fight at WrestleMania 38. CM Punk, meanwhile, inducted Bret Hart vs. Steve Austin into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2025.