10 Best WWE SmackDown Cliffhanger Endings Ever

6. Stone Cold & Brock Lesnar Tease A Match (11 March 2004)

In 2002, Steve Austin walked out on WWE rather than working a one-off job to new sensation Brock Lesnar. This, aside from his 'Mania XIX program with The Rock, was pretty much the end of Austin's full-time run in the company. Almost two years later, WWE relied on him again to save a WrestleMania disaster.

Cue bedlam on the SmackDown days before 'Mania XXX.

Although Lesnar was facing Goldberg on the pay-per-view, he brawled with special ref Austin on the go-home edition of SmackDown, and it was glorious stuff. Fans had longed to see the match ever since news spread that it had cancelled a few summers before, and they were teased with a sh*t-kicker of a fight on SmackDown that suggested they'd finally get it.

They didn't, of course, but that didn't stop people dreaming. Watching Austin lay into Brock and give him a receipt for a prior beating on Raw weeks before was an exciting way to end the final TV show before the biggest show of the year. This is a case of what might've been.