10 biggest WWE stars to never main event WrestleMania

In this list, I look over some of the biggest names ever to have wrestled for WWE, but were never featured in the main event of the grandest stage of them all, WrestleMania.

Not to take personal shots, but when you see the likes of King Kong Bundy, Sid Vicious, and Roman Reigns having been in the main event, in some cases more than once, it really makes you wonder why WWE chose those, and none of these for others.

To make this list, these big names will have at least performed on one WrestleMania in the past. I'm not necessarily going by how big the wrestler is, as in some cases, many of these were in prime position, but a blown opportunity.

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#10 Bob Backlund

There was no WrestleMania during that very long WWE Championship reign

Bob Backlund is one of the greatest wrestlers of all time. An original WWE 'Iron Man', he regularly wrestled 60-minute matches, and longer, throughout the late 70's/early 80's in WWE. He will be best remembered for his first WWE Championship reign, which lasted an astonishing 2,135 days.

While Backlund did leave WWE just before the debut of WrestleMania, he would eventually return in the early 90's, and was still highly skilled in the ring and would have been a far better choice for a main event match at WrestleMania than others were at the time who were in that position, namely Lawrence Taylor.

#9 Ricky Steamboat

Ricky Steamboat joined WWE in 1985, just before the very first WrestleMania. He competed in the first four WrestleMania events, which included his all-time classic Intercontinental Championship match with Randy Savage at WrestleMania III, before departing WWE shortly after WrestleMania IV.

The Dragon was one of the greatest wrestlers of all time, and at that time, like every other stage in his professional career, was generally wrestling the best match of the night on every show. WWE never realized The Dragon's full potential as a top star, so he never came close to reaching the glass ceiling in WWE.

At WrestleMania IV, WWE decided a major selling point would be having a rematch between Hulk Hogan and Andre The Giant at WrestleMania IV, which did happen and wrestling wise, did little to please.

Randy Savage won the vacant WWE Championship that night, so had WWE's booking department had their thinking caps on that night, they should have realized that the real selling point for the show should have been Randy Savage vs. Ricky Steamboat in a WrestleMania rematch.

As solid as his match was with Ted DiBiase that night, a rematch with Ricky would have been yet another all-time Mania classic, only this one, would have been the WrestleMania main event Ricky deserved.

#8 Goldberg

It is a little-known fact that Goldberg was almost in the main event of WrestleMania, and yes, it would have been with Brock Lesnar, but no, not WrestleMania 33 in 2017.

Goldberg vs. Brock Lesnar had been planned for WrestleMania XX since pretty early on in 2003, not long after Goldberg arrived in WWE in fact.

Up until towards the end of the year, the plan was for Goldberg to win the 2004 WWE Royal Rumble, and then jump ship to Smackdown, where he would have challenged reigning WWE Champion Brock Lesnar, for the Championship in the main event of WrestleMania XX.

However, Goldberg had heavily implied to WWE officials as early as December 2003, that he would likely not be re-signing with WWE when his contract was to expire the night of WrestleMania.

Although the Goldberg vs. Lesnar WrestleMania match still happened, plans changed for back up Chris Benoit to win the Rumble and headline the event. Goldberg and Lesnar would take place much earlier on the card and as we all know, failed to deliver on any and every level.

#7 Kane

Former WWE Champion and World Heavyweight Champion Kane has now been on WWE TV for over 20 years. A character that was originally planned to have a shelf life of 6 months, has lasted longer in WWE than Hulk Hogan, The Rock, Stone Cold Steve Austin, and many more.

So I find it quite a shame that Kane hasn't gotten a WrestleMania main event, as he probably deserves it far more than others to have gotten in over the past two decades. The timing for a Kane WrestleMania main event has also been good over the years, in my opinion, most notably for the year 2000.

Kane was, pardon the pun, on fire at the time, and deserved it over someone say, like the Big Show, who all though is one the best ever in his own way, wasn't on Kane's WWE level in 2000.

#6 Kevin Nash

Kevin Nash in the main event of WrestleMania was indeed the plan at one point, 1995 to be exact.

Yes, back when he was Diesel, he was one of WWE's biggest and best Superstars and was having WWE's hottest feud at the time, with former tag team partner Shawn Michaels.

As WWE was entering bad business in 1995, they would try to seek as much publicity and media as possible, and decided to promote the celebrity match, NFL star Lawrence Taylor vs. Bam Bam Bigelow, as the main event.

This was a real shame. Not only should Diesel and Shawn been the main event at the time, based on that it was WWE's best feud and for the WWE Championship, but it also turned out to be the best match of the card, that year and probably the best in the career of Kevin Nash.

#5 Bruno Sammartino

When it is all said and done, Bruno Sammartino may be one of the very best of all time. Bruno is no stranger to wrestling the best match of the entire year, and this two-time WWE Champion remains the record holder for longest reigns as WWE Champion, coming in at a combined 4,040 days.

Now to be fair, Bruno's career was certainly winding down come the birth of WrestleMania. In fact, he only ever competed at one, a 20-man battle royal at WrestleMania II, and then officially retired in 1987.

But WrestleMania II would have been perfect a Bruno Mania main event, as Hulk Hogan was WWE Champion and just two years into his run as the face of WWE, while Bruno was the former megastar who was stepping aside.

A Bruno Sammartino vs. Hulk Hogan WWE Championship main event sounds a lot more appealing to me than what we did get, a 10-minute cage match between Hogan and King Kong Bundy.

#4 Eddie Guerrero

WWE would like you to pretend that he did

Eddie Guerrero was never in the main event of WrestleMania, but WWE wished they had done so with him, while they had the chance.

Guerrero is one of the greatest of all time, and due to his size, no one ever thought he would be a main event player in the land of the giants, WWE. He proved everyone wrong in 2004 when he defeated Brock Lesnar to become WWE Champion.

He would defend his title with Kurt Angle in a stellar match at WrestleMania XX, and due to the main event that night featuring Chris Benoit, it is this that WWE wishes had served as the main event.

Sadly, Eddie's reign as a main event superstar was literally short-lived due to his tragic death in 2005, and thus, never had another chance to close the show at WrestleMania.

#3 CM Punk

'Best in The World'... just not at WrestleMania

CM Punk tried and tried, but it was always a no for the WrestleMania main event.

CM Punk instantly became WWE's hottest star in 2011 after his viral shoot-promo on RAW in July of that year. Punk became WWE Champion at Money in The Bank, but wouldn't see the main event picture that often on Pay-Per-View, thanks to being overshadowed by John Cena most of the time.

There was no chance of Punk main eventing WrestleMania 28 thanks to the dream John Cena vs. The Rock match, but Punk had his eyes set on WrestleMania 29 in 2013. He was still WWE Championship at the beginning of the year and looked to be possibly heading that way.

Unfortunately, Vince McMahon saw dollar signs in a Rock vs. Cena rematch, and that would serve as the main event once again.

Punk has since said that he tried to convince WWE officials on having the match as a Triple Threat, also involving him, but they were not interested. Looking at how Rock vs. Cena II came out, Punk's inclusion probably would have been for the better.

#2 Dusty Rhodes

WWE managed to sign Dusty Rhodes in 1989, which was incredible seeing how he had always been an 'NWA Guy', and was the next biggest NWA star of the 80's, next to Ric Flair.

When Dusty joined WWE, the possibilities were endless. So many dream matches to be had, and so many of them to have been wished to happen at WrestleMania. That's not what happened though.

Dusty debuted dressed in polka-dots, a decision that is still debated, and if it was a rib to humiliate him. He was given a 55-year-old valet named Sapphire, and the two were often used for comedic purposes.

He only ever competed at one WrestleMania, in a mixed tag team match with Sapphire against Randy Savage and Sensational Sherri at WrestleMania VI.

Dusty and Randy had the potential to put on a classic, in the main event, but we got this less than 8-minute throwaway match instead. He left WWE for a return to WCW in 1991 before WWE could do any more to try to ruin him.

#1 Ric Flair

Ric Flair is arguably the greatest professional wrestler of all time, and he has never been in the main event of WrestleMania. Even just saying it sounds like a crime.

Hulk Hogan was the biggest WWE star of the 1980's, and probably all of wrestling. Ric Flair was the biggest star of the 80's of the rival, NWA. Nobody ever thought it would happen, but in 1991, Flair left the NWA after a major fall out with boss Jim Herd and signed with the WWE, and suddenly the biggest dream match in all of the wrestling was about to become a reality... until it didn't.

WWE did indeed have plans for the match even teasing it with stare downs between the two on television. So why didn't the ultimate dream match happen?...

In early 1992, WWE's live event attendance was getting pretty small and Vince McMahon decided to try bringing it up by booking a tour featuring Hogan vs Flair in the main event of each night. Surprisingly, this did little to help attendance figures.

WWE then got cold feet with the match happening as the main event of WrestleMania and scrapped it.

Instead, we got Flair vs Randy Savage and Hulk Hogan vs Sid Justice. This was just wrong. It wasn't a total loss as Flair vs Savage was a great match, but Hogan vs Sid wasn't and no one will ever convince me that Hogan vs Flair was not the right main event.

I really don't know how WWE thought that Hogan vs Sid would pull in a better number than Hogan vs Flair. And if not Hogan and Flair, well Flair vs Savage was such a great WWE Championship match, that it deserved to end the show far more than Hogan getting a DQ win over Sid.

Edited by Nishant Jayaram