10 Most Divisive WWE Match Outcomes Ever
"Boo! Yeah!"
At Sunday's Survivor Series, Goldberg speared both Brock Lesnar and the wrestling fandom into a state of absolute shock.
Apparently, the idea behind the 01:25 demolition job was to make right the wrongs of Goldberg's first WWE run, in which he was presented as just another Superstar. Wrestling typical back and forth matches, Goldberg wasn't the rapid-fire machine gun that he was in WCW. Instead, he was a musket, pulling the hammer back slowly and taking an eternity to pull the trigger.
The idea behind the now notorious events of Sunday was a sound one - but the execution was absolutely baffling. Brock Lesnar wasn't Hugh Morrus. He was the man who had conquered the Undertaker's WrestleMania streak. Where was the new star many had convinced themselves WWE had in mind when they positioned Lesnar with such unprecedented dominance?
It wasn't the first time WWE polarised its audience.
In recent years, WWE has become fixated on the idea of creating moments, enamoured as it is with the short-term buzz of a worldwide Twitter trend. But, stretching further back, it becomes apparent that WWE have been setting message boards ablaze even when they were powered by 56K modems...
10. Goldberg Vs. Brock Lesnar - Survivor Series 2016
The Suplex City act had grown more stale than week-old bread in 2016. The Brock Lesnar who had acted as winged Goliath in his scorcher opposite CM Punk at SummerSlam 2013 was dead. From the ashes rose a man who, reductively, handily destroyed everybody in his path with the same move ad nauseam. It worked once. But it painted WWE into a damn boring corner.
Those in favour of Sunday's shocking coda were thrilled that WWE had unceremoniously demolished Suplex City; those opposed felt WWE picked entirely the wrong man to wield the wrecking ball.
The transference of heat in wrestling is notoriously tricky business. It can work - look no further than Kazuchika Okada for proof of that - but for every Rainmaker there is a Sheamus, who had no real chance of acting as a successful proxy to Triple H during his 2015-16 feud with Roman Reigns. His positioning as a transitional champion was too transparent.
The storyline has yet to reach a resolution. Only then can we gauge its success. But there will be no bigger opportunity, for quite some time, to crown a major star than with the man who conquered the Conqueror. The Streak is over. AJ Styles has already benefitted from the rub of beating Cena clean. He runs SmackDown now. The ailing RAW could use somebody with similar storyline credibility - and the guy who has it won't be back until 2017.