WWE is the promotion that first took the huge leap of implementing celebrities in wrestling quite often. Vince McMahon even marketed the first WrestleMania around the celebrities involved in the show, like Muhammad Ali and Cyndi Lauper. Every major promotion has worked with famous names since then, but the celebs wrestling matches became the bigger step other than just cameos.

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Today’s industry is heavily impacted by the use of this attraction. Bad Bunny and Logan Paul have become important parts of WWE whenever they make their appearances. However, there have been some names that were almost close to having matches that just didn’t pan out. WWE had hopes for the following celebrities to wrestle, but it never came to be.

8 Shaquille O'Neal

NBA legend Shaquille O'Neal actually has been around wrestling enough to make appearances for WWE, WCW and AEW. O’Neal did technically have a “match” at WrestleMania 32 for WWE, but it was more of a spot to get some attention both ways in the Andre the Giant memorial battle royal.

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WWE had tentative plans for Shaq to face Big Show in his first big advertised match. The match never happened due to O’Neal not being in his ideal condition. WWE likely wasn’t too pleased when Shaq achieved his dream of having a true match in AEW due to the TNT ties teaming with Jade Cargill against Cody Rhodes and Red Velvet.

7 Eminem

Rap superstar Eminem has been a relevant name in pop culture for well over two decades now. WWE tried to get Eminem involved a few times, with the hopes of an actual match. WrestleMania 25 was the first goal with rumors of something involving John Cena since he used to have a rapping gimmick.

No deal was reached as Eminem didn’t even appear at all on the show. WWE was in talks with Eminem again to have an angle during their first year of Smackdown coming to the Fox Network. The same story played out with Eminem never appearing despite more rumors running rampant this time around.

6 Mike Tyson

Mike Tyson was arguably the most successful celebrity appearance for WWE, but it came as a referee at WrestleMania 14 for the main event between Shawn Michaels and Steve Austin. The agreement went so well that Tyson was in talks to return about three years later at WrestleMania 17 vs Triple H.

This longstanding wrestling rumor was confirmed by Triple H revealing that WWE wanted a boxing match attraction between the two. Tyson and WWE couldn’t come to terms for a financial agreement to end the plan. Triple H faced Undertaker instead, and Tyson had his first match almost a decade later “teaming” with Chris Jericho against Triple H and Michaels.

5 Justin Bieber

Even the many critics of Justin Bieber would admit that he’s been one of the biggest stars in the world for over a decade now. WWE tried to take advantage of a connection Bieber had with Big Show to book a wild six-man tag team attraction match at SummerSlam 2014.

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There were plans of Bieber, Big Show and John Cena to team up against the Wyatt Family. Bieber would have likely created massive headlines for WWE if this happened. The management representing Bieber didn’t like WWE’s negotiating and ended it before the build began.

4 Flo Rida

WWE developed a strong relationship with Flo Rida for live musical performances, appearances and his songs being used for PPVs. Flo Rida even got announced as “WWE’s favorite recording artist” at one point.

The most entertaining chapter of Flo Rida’s WWE stints saw him having issues with comedic heel Heath Slater. Flo Rida even punched him at one point to create a memorable segment. Dave Meltzer talked about WWE having interest in Flo Rida wrestling Slater since they loved working with him, but the segment was all that was needed.

3 Mickey Rourke

A huge “what if’ for WWE features actor Mickey Rourke and having a planned match for WrestleMania 25. Chris Jericho’s heel character was running down legends after The Wrestler film starring Rourke became a huge hit. WWE got Mickey to agree to a singles match against Jericho with legends in his corner.

Rourke talking about it early led to a lot of negative momentum since he was nominated for Best Actor at the Oscars. WWE found out that Mickey pulled out after already hinting at the angle since he wanted to help his award chances. Jericho instead faced and defeated the trio of Ricky Steamboat, Roddy Piper and Jimmy Snuka. Rourke did appear at the end of the match to punch Jericho out for some conclusion.

2 Charlie Sheen

2012 saw Charlie Sheen becoming one of the most discussed celebrities for his trainwreck interviews and insane quotes. WWE tried to take advantage of this when Sheen was starting a new television series called Anger Management and looked for ways to promote it.

Sheen appeared in an interview via satellite on Raw and had tension with Daniel Bryan. WWE had plans for a SummerSlam 2012 match between the two since Bryan’s character had anger management issues and he was good enough to lead a non-wrestler to a match. Bryan claimed that Sheen bailed on the idea before WWE could book the match.

1 OJ Simpson

One of the craziest ideas in WWE history saw OJ Simpson contacted for a match at WrestleMania 12. Simpson was famous for his NFL career, but he was a household name in 1996 when accused of murdering his ex-wife and controversially getting away with it.

Vince Russo pitched an idea to bring the polarizing name in, and Vince McMahon was tempted. Simpson was contacted to face Roddy Piper at the biggest show of the year. WWE being fearful of losing sponsors once getting negative feedback for the idea ended the plan before they started brokering a deal.