10 Big Money Matches WWE Needs To Make

10. Goldberg Vs. Brock Lesnar

The current scuttlebutt (like gossip going back to lick up its own vomit) has WWE having reached an agreement with former WCW rainmaker Bill Goldberg to return for either a short run or a one-off engagement, to face off against the Beast Incarnate, Brock Lesnar, once more.

Anyone who knows the history here knows how easy this would be to screw up. Goldberg was booked in short, dynamic matches for the most part in WCW, capitalising on his wordless, menacing charisma and physical presence and a carefully cultivated fifteen month winning streak to create a genuine homegrown attraction.

Arriving in WWE in March 2003, he was booked to work long, back-and-forth WWE-style matches. Goldberg’s invincible aura, the thing that had pulled in all that money, wasn’t protected: it was as if WWE were determined to expose the weaknesses of the man who’d been their former rival’s biggest star.

When it came down to the big money match between Brock Lesnar and Goldberg at WrestleMania XX, the excitement was already diminished. It dropped through the floor once word got around that this was the last night in WWE for both men. The crowd in attendance at Madison Square Garden booed the lacklustre efforts of both performers and cheered when special guest referee ‘Stone Cold’ Steve Austin delivered stunners to the pair after the match.

Fast forward twelve or thirteen years, and Goldberg is still in great shape at forty-nine… but it’s cardio shape, noticeably leaner than in his intimidating heyday, and he hasn’t wrestled a match since that anti-climax with Lesnar in March 2004.

Lesnar himself, meanwhile, has been built up to be an unstoppable, sniggering monster since returning to WWE in 2012. The company’s usual shortsightedness has left one of their biggest names with no one left on the full time roster who can provide a credible opponent.

Will a fifty-year-old man with a fifteen-year-old rep as a killer fly with today’s crowd? They’d need to protect the living hell out of Goldberg to make him credible as an opponent for Lesnar. He had surgery on both his knees in early July, and might need a little time to bulk up. Then there’s that ring rust… but Goldberg was never about immaculate timing and technical virtuosity.

It’s still possible this could make a big time exhibition bout for Survivor Series, or for WrestleMania 33 next year… if WWE don’t mess it up again.