Steve Austin Was Afraid He Would Lose Fan Support After Refusing Hulk Hogan Match

For many years, a dream match between “Stone Cold” Steve Austin and Hulk Hogan was on the minds of many fans in the WWE Universe. Unfortunately, the idea of a match between the two at WrestleMania X8 was passed on by Austin, and many thought he had a lot of fears because of rejecting the match.

Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer reported that plenty of people in WWE behind the scenes at the time felt that Austin was paranoid he would lose a lot of fan support when the possibility of facing Hogan was suggested. At the time, Austin was also against bringing back Hogan, Scott Hall, and Kevin Nash to the WWE.

”A lot of people were more openly talking negative about him, about the difficulties people had working with him because he wouldn’t give a lot in matches and his paranoia over the idea he was losing the crowd support that made him. He was against bringing Kevin Nash, Scott Hall and Hulk Hogan in, and refused to work with Hogan at WrestleMania when it was suggested to him,” Meltzer stated.

Austin agreed to face Scott Hall at WrestleMania X8 in the end with Nash in Hall’s corner and the match was not well received. Hogan, on the other hand, faced The Rock in an instant classic that launched the latter’s WWE career into icon status.

The chance of Steve Austin and Hulk Hogan facing each other is long gone for various reasons. It’s understandable that Austin was very protective of his popularity because Hogan is a legend in the business and the crowd possibly turned against him and wouldn’t look good at all like it did for Rock.

Everything turned out well in the end for both men. As far as the fans, there are always the WWE video games for the dream match, sadly.

Do you think Austin should’ve faced Hogan at Wrestlemania X8? Sound off in the comments!