10 Times WWE Booked The Wrong Guy To Win
6. Triple Beats Goldberg Et Al - SummerSlam 2003
The Goldberg experiment was deflating. Why did WWE bother?
They hired him because, in the wake of the NWO's 2002 failure and the death rattle of the Attitude Era, he represented the last chance of a ready-made shortcut with whom to reintroduce themselves into the mainstream consciousness.
His push was lacklustre at best, despite being booked to go over a departing Rock at Backlash 2003. An unflattering series with Chris Jericho followed, in which the former rapid-fire weapon of destruction was booked to sell for his much smaller opponent. Given Jericho's real-life ability to quell the massive Goldberg, this was paradoxically realistic - but counterproductive in the extreme between the ropes.
The impression that McMahon resented pushing a homegrown WCW success story was impossible to shake.
These victories set up him for a series with Triple H throughout the summer and autumn months - which was, at Trips' behest, so bungled that it hastened Goldberg's departure after just one year.
The Elimination Chamber match seemed custom built for the marauding Goldberg character. Booking him to brutally cut through the field would have resembled his fabled WCW push in microcosm - but insecure politicker Triple H was hiding in the grass, laying in wait, ready to smash Goldberg with a solitary sledgehammer shot to steal the win.
This was all designed to promote their subsequent singles match, but his unstoppable monster aura was stripped away the second he was stopped following the barest hint of malfeasance.