10 Superstars You Forgot Competed For A World Championship On WWE PPV
4. Hardcore Holly – vs. Brock Lesnar for the WWE Championship (Royal Rumble 2004)
The SmackDown main event scene in early 2004 was in desperate need of new blood, but Hardcore Holly was not the answer.
There being not a chance in hell that the challenger would walk out with the gold, has been a running theme on this list. However, if one man typified this perception better than anyone else, it would surely have to be Holly’s failed pursuit of Brock Lesnar’s WWE Championship at the 2004 Royal Rumble show.
The only match on this list to take place at a Big Four PPV event, Lesnar vs Holly was a tedious way to spend six minutes. A dull contest, with very little outside of mat-based rest holds, the contest sought to pay off the neck injury sustained by Holly at the hands of the future Beast Incarnate on a routine SmackDown in 2002.
A midcard rivalry, featuring a midcard challenger in the middle of the show, the crowd were stone cold for Hardcore Holly’s big opportunity, with the match slumped in the bathroom break slot.
It’s a bad sign when fans would rather go to the toilet then watch two of the best brawlers in the company, despite their opposing career paths, fight over the most respected belt in the industry.