10 Huge Wrestling Matches That Were Given Away On Free TV

2. Hollywood Hogan vs Goldberg - WCW World Heavyweight Championship Match - Nitro, July 6th, 1998

The slow build and rise of Goldberg was one of the last things that WCW got right, as far as booking is concerned. After beating almost everyone else in one-on-one competition, Hollywood Hogan finally had no choice but to actually face Goldberg for the WCW title on Nitro in July, 1998. Although it would have made a decent main event of a Pay-Per-View and probably would have lead to buys, the match was put on TV, for some reason. WCW Creative didn't seem to know how to handle such a high profile match on TV. Realistically, given the amount of cheating, interruptions and shenanigans that the NWO became known for, you'd have thought this would be Goldberg's biggest challenge and that Hogan's support would have been relentless. Ironically, it was the reverse that happened in the actual match. Curt Hennig went to help Hogan mid-match, but took a Diamond Cutter from Karl Malone. While Hogan was distracted by DDP and Malone, Goldberg speared him, hit the Jackhammer and won the match. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v7Tp2cFkHQo WCW had made Goldberg their WCW World Heavyweight Champion on TV, but found that the character rapidly began to lose appeal now that he didn't have a challenge to surmount. While this should have been a great PPV match leading to a big pay-off, it was instead a huge, but disappointing match on free TV.