10 Best Opening 60 Seconds Of Wrestling Matches Ever

10. Brock Lesnar Vs. Goldberg - WWE WrestleMania 33

The precedent of a flash win had already been established at Survivor Series the prior year.

In a rare and underrated feat of modern long-term storytelling, WWE exploited that story beat to perfection at WrestleMania 33. Everybody knew the match could end at any moment, and was exceptionally unlikely to go 8 minutes, much less 20. WWE effectively orchestrated a match in which every second was fraught with unmissable drama, and they stretched it out for the duration.

The opening minute was a fantastic subversion of the original match. This time, Brock Lesnar sprinted out of the gates. He struck Goldberg with a deluge of Germans, which might scan as boring/familiar, but it wasn't. The timing of the sequence was electrifying. He barely waited for Goldberg to absorb the blows before hoisting him back up for more.

Then, in another heart-pounding subversion of that, after the third German, Lesnar roared in a macho flex. Literally just as the sound emerged from his mouth, Goldberg leapt back up and speared him in half. This was so good that even Kevin Dunn was on form - or rather, the sprint was so furious that he didn't even have time to cut away. Goldberg exploded into frame from out of nowhere. What an outstanding, brutal-looking twist this was.

Goldberg smashed Lesnar with two more spears, one executed through the barricade, to cap off the first minute.

The "Paul Heyman match" has outstayed its welcome in 2022, but when it was hot, it was white-hot.