WWE WrestleMania 31: Biggest Missed Opportunities in Event's History

WrestleMania is known for delivering some of the biggest moments in the history of pro wrestling. However, there have also been plenty of potentially iconic happenings that never quite came to pass.

Many fans have expressed their frustrations with the way that this year's WrestleMania has come together, but the feeling of the biggest show of the year having missed out on a golden opportunity is nothing new. In the business of pro wrestling, there's often a reason that the obvious scenario might not play out.

Here are some of the biggest missed opportunities from the last three decades of WrestleMania. Let's hope that we're not looking back on this weekend's event in the same light this time next year.

At WrestleMania 2000, we saw Triple H defend his WWF Championship against The Rock, Big Show and Mick Foley with a McMahon in every corner—but things could have turned out to be quite different.

As Jericho described in his second autobiography, Undisputed, the original promotional materials for the show had Y2J in the spot that eventually went to Foley. Fresh off a gripping debut, having the Millennium Man make his WrestleMania debut in the main event would have been quite a moment.

However, it just wasn't meant to be. Foley managed to achieve his dream of main eventing the show, but he delivered a performance that perhaps wasn't up to his own high standards. Meanwhile, Jericho competed in an entertaining two-fall Triple Threat match with Kurt Angle and Chris Benoit.

Jericho struggled to maintain a constant spot in the main event for the duration of his time in WWE, but that might not have been the case had he fought for the title at WrestleMania 2000. With that sense of legitimacy, he could well have been a made man and reached even greater heights—but we'll never know for sure.

At WrestleMania 29, CM Punk put on a classic match with The Undertaker—but many still feel he could have done even more in the main event.

As it went, John Cena and The Rock headlined the show with a match that relied on star power to carry a rather pedestrian in-ring contest. In the weeks leading up to WrestleMania, Punk had faced both men in much better matches.

Rock vs. Cena was a confrontation years in the making, being built towards at WrestleMania 27 and jumping off from their initial match at WrestleMania 28. It was an attempt to recreate the magic of Rock vs. Hogan at WrestleMania X-8, but it couldn't quite reach those heights.

Adding Punk in and making it a Triple Threat would have made for a much more interesting match—even dropping The Great One altogether and seeing Punk vs. Cena on the grandest stage possible would have probably been preferable.

However, as is often the case, the best possible match at WrestleMania fell by the wayside of the "biggest" clash of the titans possible.

Making its debut at WrestleMania 21, the Money in the Bank Ladder Match soon became a highlight of the biggest show of the year.

It represented a chance for those on the top end of the midcard to make an attempt at the main event. The winner was guaranteed a good shot thanks to the contract within their briefcase—but the rest of the pack also had their opportunity to shine in an exciting match on the biggest show of the year.

Wrestlers like Edge and CM Punk were given a great boost by winning Money in the Bank, and the achievement was made even more special as it unfolded at WrestleMania. Eventually, the match became so popular that it now has its own pay-per-view, but its impact is somewhat diminished.

If for nothing else, Money in the Bank was a great way of putting a wide swathe of the roster on the card. That function has been filled by the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal—but this year's Ladder Match for the Intercontinental Championship suggests fans still want some high-flying action to flesh out the show.

In 1992, the stars seemed to have aligned to give WrestleMania the biggest dream match in the history of American wrestling—but Ric Flair vs. Hulk Hogan never happened on the grandest stage.

At the time, Flair and Hogan were very much the respective icons of WCW and the WWF. However, the Nature Boy had left WCW amid creative differences and found himself on the WWF roster. Two bona fide legends were under the same roof and looked set to collide.

However, the rivalry that seemed destined to headline WrestleMania would instead be constrained to live events, for the most part. The reasons behind this remain unclear; some suggest that the pair were kept separate to protect Hogan, while others maintain that the pairing underperformed in terms of house show box office.

Nevertheless, the idea of two of pro wrestling's greats squaring off at WrestleMania VIII is too monumental to be forgotten. It's been more than 20 years since we missed out on this match, but many fans will still mourn the possibility for years to come.

Much has been said about the good and the bad effects of the nWo on WCW—but it would be difficult to argue that the group is anything but one of the most impactful wrestling factions of all time.

However, their 2002 debut in WWE was undoubtedly a missed opportunity. The match between The Rock and Hulk Hogan is a classic, but so much more could have been done with the group. Ideally, the WCW invasion of 2001 would have been better executed, and it would have run all the way until WrestleMania X-8.

Seeing the nWo interact with WCW talent while the on-screen war with WWE was ongoing could have made for a compelling three-way conflict. The original appeal of the nWo was that they felt larger than similar stables had done in the past, but their 2002 run didn't make the most of this.

Instead, their rushed reintroduction produced the one great match mentioned earlier, as well as a middling contest between Scott Hall and Stone Cold Steve Austin further down the card. The group hung around for a few months longer, but did little of any real consequence.

Much like WCW, the nWo were never quite made to feel as important as they could have been in WWE. It's perhaps understandable why home-grown talent was given the upper hand—but it's a shame that we didn't see such a huge storyline play out at the biggest show of the year.

What do you think is the biggest missed opportunity in WrestleMania history? The Streak being broken? Lesnar vs. Goldberg at WrestleMania XX? Daniel Bryan and Sheamus being limited to less than a minute? Let us know in the comments section below.