How Hulk Hogan Almost Wrestled At WWE WrestleMania 23, Explained

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The success of WrestleMania, and subsequently WWE as a whole, has a lot to do with Hulk Hogan. He was the top star and pop culture icon, and he put the WWE in the mainstream media. The 80s were called the Golden Era for a reason. However, because of that, The Hulkster turned into a bit of a pretty obnoxious human being. Throughout his entire career, he's made enemies by being an awful backstage presence, refusing to lose clean on several occasions, and putting down younger talent. This never stopped the company from using Hogan's star power whenever they could, though. Especially in the mid 2000s, Hulk would come back several times for a match, and that almost happened on the grandest stage of them all in 2007 at WrestleMania 23, but conflicting desires and powerful egos got in the way.

Hulk Hogan Was Meant To Face The Big Show At WrestleMania 23

Even though nothing concrete ever formulated, the match was set behind the scenes for a while. Hulk Hogan was meant to take on the other famous giant in wrestling, The Big Show. Hulk Hogan was going to recreate the famous bodyslam on Andre the Giant from WrestleMania 3 to celebrate twenty years since Hulk bodyslammed Andre and beat him. Big Show was going to be fed to Hogan for a quick moment because Big Show was the closest thing to resembling Andre. To be fair, Big Show was billed as Andre's son much earlier in his career.

Neither Hulk Hogan Or Big Show Appeared At WrestleMania 23

The biggest reason for this match not taking place was that Big Show simply refused to lose to Hulk Hogan. Jim Ross recalls on podcast that he was certain that Big Show felt that Hogan should put him over instead. Whether WWE wanted Hogan to win to truly recreate the WrestleMania 3 main event or that Hogan refused to lose altogether didn't really matter as a couple other factors were in play that caused the match to be canceled.

Big Show took a long break from WWE during this time. Big Show defended the ECW title at the maligned December To Dismember pay-per-view in late 2006. Bobby Lashley would be the one to pick up the win, but when the dust settled, Big Show was nowhere to be found until No Way Out 2008. This is because he started to get real concerned about his health. The 500 pounds shtick may have sounded cool, but it was literally weighing on The Big Show. His back was in rough shape, so he took the time off to lose weight, heal his back, and just take a break as he was going nonstop for the company since he debuted. Therefore, a loss and possible embarrassment at WrestleMania wasn't going to do much to convince him to cut his hiatus short.

Even if Big Show was healthy and willing to do the job to Hulk Hogan, Hogan and Vince McMahon couldn't agree on a payday. After Big Show was ruled out of the event, plans were made to make Hogan Donald Trump's representative in the Battle of the Billionaires. It's not surprising to learn that Hogan wanted a lot more than Vince was willing to pay him, so Hogan backed out of the show completely. With that, the big recreation of the bodyslam went to a couple of random guys.

Hulk Hogan Vs Big Show Turned Into Kane Vs The Great Khali

WWE were still very much intent on a bodyslam happening on this show. With Big Show and Hulk Hogan out, they needed two guys that could do it. They went with The Great Khali who was probably the most famous giant at the time besides The Big Show, and before Hogan backed out, Khali was going to be Vince's representative. Then Kane was inserted in Hogan's place because he was most likely one of the very few in the company trusted enough to actually be able to bodyslam The Great Khali. The match was put elsewhere on the card, and the bodyslam itself, like the match, was ugly, but it was going to happen one way or the other.

WrestleMania 23 was a victim of major changes for various reasons. Triple H's injury at New Years Revolution 2007 affected most of the card including the main event, and the representatives for the Battle Of The Billionaires changed several times before Bobby Lashley was decided upon. However, this debacle also caused things to change even though it seemed like it was doomed from the start. Big Show was in bad shape, and in fairness to Big Show, Hogan beating so many talents around that time was just not fun to watch. He made a smart decision as the match wouldn't have been enjoyable to watch, and who knows if Hogan would've even been able to bodyslam The Big Show. It's just another case of things falling apart because Hulk Hogan thinks he's a big shot.