10 Wrestling Moments That Should Have Been Huge (But Weren't)
1. Cash For Gold
The 2001 Invasion storyline could furnish every item in this list, so rampantly abusive that it was of can't-fail characters and storylines. Mishandled thanks to the fragile ego of a monopolising billionaire and the ludicrous internal politics of his battle-scarred organisation, the WCW/ECW dual attack on WWE never reached anywhere near the potential it should have, not least in how the organisation's top titles were treated.
WWE Champion Stone Cold Steve Austin took on WCW Champion The Rock (yes, an Attitude Era icon held the WCW Title for longer than any Atlanta original during the Invasion) five times in mammoth title-for-title battles. Only, they weren't that mammoth at all. And very few people ever saw them.
Select house show crowds in Dallas, Austin, New York, Cleveland and Hartford witnessed the only unification matches over the modern era's two biggest championships in matches featuring one wrestler that never even worked for the organisation his title represented. 'Stone Cold Vs The Rock' was unequivocally WWE's biggest box office battle in 2001, but just six months after their legendary WrestleMania 17 clash, they were the wrong men, in the wrong place, at the wrong time.