10 Hyped WWE Feuds That Were Complete Failures
When the WWE hype machine kicks into overdrive, only disappointment awaits.
Great feuds are the lifeblood of professional wrestling. Rivalries exist to amplify the drama, build stakes, and establish motivations. They're the glue that holds everything together, and without them, wrestlers would find themselves shambling from meaningless match to meaningless match, and the audience would have little to hold their attention.
Every wrestling fan has spent time dreaming up potential feuds and matches, regardless of their viability. Some, like Sting vs. The Undertaker, never materialise, and we're left wondering what could have been. One the few occasions that these fantasy scenarios do actually come to life, however, the results are almost always disappointing.
Sometimes this failure comes as a result of the audience getting carried away on a wave of enthusiasm, and establishing loftier standards than the feud could ever hope to match. More often than not, however, their failings come directly from the performers themselves or those pulling the strings, with WWE particularly culpable over the years.
Working yourself into a hype-fuelled frenzy is incredibly dangerous in an industry with such a high propensity to disappoint is, and as the following examples show, it takes more than just putting two great performers together to create a compelling rivalry.
10. Brock Lesnar Vs. Goldberg
Brock Lesnar’s recent feud with Bill Goldberg was a success. While fatigue rightly kicked-in when Goldberg needlessly became Universal Champion, the rivalry generated tremendous amounts of buzz, particularly when Brock was squashed at Survivor Series, and generally spiked ratings whenever the duo appeared. Furthermore, their WrestleMania 33 bout was a highly-satisfying slugfest that didn’t overstay its welcome, and closed Goldberg’s wrestling career on a memorable note.
The same cannot be said for their original feud, however. Goldberg and Lesnar originally clashed in the build to WrestleMania XX, and while it should have been an exciting program between WWE’s resident beast and WCW’s most dominant wrestler, neither man cared. After weeks of mailed-in, half-hearted performances, the duo met at ‘Mania, and it was a total shambles.
The fans knew both men were on their way out of the company, and they dumped all over the match. Steve Austin - the special referee - was the only man they’d cheer, and the action was non-existent, with the wrestlers sleepwalking their way through a turgid stall-fest that mercifully concluded with a Goldberg victory. Both departed the company shortly after, doing so on the back of one of the most disappointing ‘Mania matches of all-time.