WWE: Mike Tyson vs. Hulk Hogan Match Almost Happened, Executive Says

A WWE executive revealed that Mike Tyson vs. Hulk Hogan almost happened, but talks eventually fell through.

In the '90s, Tyson shocked the world when he burst into the pro wrestling scene. WWE worked “Iron Mike” into a storyline involving WWE legends Shawn Michaels and Stone Cold Steve Austin during the famed Attitude Era at the time.

It will be remembered that Tyson was the special “outside enforcer” for Michaels and Stone Cold's WWE World Heavyweight Championship clash at WrestleMania XIV in 1998. The event was made famous by the “Texas Rattlesnake” when he attacked the boxing legend after appearing on Raw and Tyson would initially align himself with “HBK” and D-Generation X.

But fans were stunned at WrestleMania XIV when Tyson madfe the three count for Austin's championship victory and KO’d Michaels at the end of the match.

All told, Tyson’s stint as a pro wrestler was a success. However, there was one match WWE planned that could have changed the history of pro wrestling – Tyson vs. Hogan.

WWE Senior Vice President and Executive Director of SmackDown Bruce Prichard told on his ' Something To Wrestle With ' podcast that talks were held between the WWF and "Tyson's people" about potentially matching the boxing icon up with Hogan on pay-per-view. At the time, the promotion was skeptical about whether the match would be a box office smash that could equal the iconic Hulk vs. The Ultimate Warrior at ‘Mania VI, What Culture reported.

Prichard then revealed that everything was going well until Tyson lost to James 'Buster' Douglas via a sensational KO. Plans for Tyson to be a guest referee at WrestleMania V rematch between Hogan and Randy Savage on the Main Event were shelved. Instead, Buster replaced Tyson as ref. Ultimately, the Tyson-Hogan match ended up being a logistical nightmare for the company after the Douglas win.

Apparently, losing to Douglas was not the only reason why the dream wrestler vs. boxer match never happened. Prichard also stated that nobody knew how it'd actually work. Beating Hogan was definitely out of the question for the WWF, and it didn't make much sense to Tyson's management that their legendary fighter would lose a worked fight shortly after losing a real fight.

To sum it all up, both Hogan and Tyson had reputations to protect and resurrect, and so plans were dropped.

In an interview with Ariel Helwani of ESPN last October, the 53-year-old legend insisted that he has no regrets about his collaboration with WWE and that they helped him during a "crucial time" in his life.

When asked if he had fond memories of being involved with WWE, Tyson was quick to answer “yeah” and revealed that WWE gave him “some of the best times of his life,” Sport Bible reported.

"Yeah, absolutely. Never forget them. I'm in the WWE Hall of Fame -- it was one of the greatest moments of my life,” Tyson said.