MLW owner Court Bauer recently spoke with The Insiders podcast for an in-depth interview covering all things pro wrestling. During the discussion, Bauer told stories from his mid-2000s time as a WWE writer.
During the interview Bauer talked about the discussions of a match between Shawn Michaels and Eddie Guerrero at WrestleMania 22:
“It was discussed the weekend that Eddie passed away. That Friday and that Saturday morning, we had conference calls. It was just like a general call, like the business is quiet. We were now mapping out the road to WrestleMania 22. That was also the call, one of those two calls was the call with Bret, where the (Wrestlemania) 22 match was set. He called Bret on the other line as we were waiting, listening, and pitching him the match. We heard Vince, ‘Hey, Bret’, and heard Vince do the pitch to one of the legends. It was fascinating to hear him do it. The other matches, like, alright, what’s our other feature for this show? We started kicking around the idea. I don’t remember who introduced the match Shawn versus Eddie, but I remember the room was like, ‘Wow, that’s a great match’. Then Bruce chimed in, I vividly remember saying, ‘Well you got these two Texas guys. Heartthrobs from different eras. Great workers from different eras. Never wrestled. This could be huge.’ When he said that, Vince was like, ‘Put it in there. Let’s put it down’, and that match was made official.”
“I just remember thinking, man, you got Bret versus Vince, Bret Hart coming back to the company. Then you have HBK versus Eddie. Punch my ticket, man, that’s an instant sellout. That’s a hot show. Here we go. If you think about where Eddie was going here, he had done some stuff with Batista that fall. He was doing stuff with Rey. What was next for Eddie? Just thinking of a long term, like a long form story and rivalry with Shawn Michaels like, man, that’s the easiest match you could book. How’s it not been booked? Well, Shawn had been away for a bit. Eddie had been away. Then he came back in a big way. They both had been on different brands for so long that, you know, it just never happened, and unfortunately, it didn’t. I know that would have been a great match and people would have been talking about it for years.”
For those who missed it, click here for Bauer’s comments regarding why Shawn Michaels started to resent putting Hulk Hogan over at SummerSlam 2005.
You can listen to the complete podcast on AdFreeShows.com.
(h/t to Wrestling News for the transcription)
