10 Biggest Challenges WrestleMania Has Ever Faced
9. The Departing Bulls - WrestleMania XX
While it was clearly a challenge for WWE to have to move forward without two of its biggest stars once WrestleMania XX was in the company's rear-view mirror, that 'Mania itself was a huge challenge for several reasons. One of which was the simple fact that the watching Madison Square Garden crowd knew that both Brock Lesnar and Bill Goldberg were to depart WWE following the event.
Going into 'Mania, WWE was hit hard as a week before the event it became public knowledge that Goldberg and Lesnar were competing in their 'final' match at the 2004 edition of the Showcase of the Immortals.
Having only debuted on the main roster less than two years prior, Brock had become one of the company's biggest stars and one of its torch-bearers for the future. For Da Man, Goldberg had only been in WWE for a year at that point and was one of the organisation's hottest acts, having spent his WWE tenure feuding with heavy hitters like The Rock and Triple H.
To lose one of these monsters would have been a huge blow for Vince McMahon, but two lose two of them at the same time was a huge shocker. And likewise, having a fanbase that knew both of these former World Champions were walking away from WWE was a challenge all of its own. How could you possibly get the famously-hostile MSG crowd to care about this match?
You couldn't - as we saw by the crowd immediately turning on both performers and raining abuse down upon them.
The 13 minutes it took for this match to be completed felt like forever, and the only saving grace was Steve Austin being on hand to drop a couple of Stunners.