10 WWE Feuds We Didn’t Know We Needed (Until We Got Them)

WWE's addiction to the stars of yesteryear is well documented. The company has a serious case of nostalgia, a desperate longing for a time long gone, a desire that only grows in the face of dwindling ratings and a deepening creative malaise. 'Can't see the wood for the trees' comes to mind, as the decision-makers continuously go back into the promotion's own history to try and remedy the problems, oblivious to the role such a culture plays in WWE's issues. With every returning icon, the hole gets deeper.

Goldberg returned in 2016 to challenge Brock Lesnar at Survivor Series. WWE billed it as 'Fantasy Warfare Just Got Real', and the whole thing smelt like one big advert for the recently-released WWE 2k17 video game. Goldberg was a playable character and thus came in for a match, a throwaway bout with an increasingly boring Brock Lesnar, a fight that nobody had any real interest in seeing. Lesnar was going to win, Goldberg was going to collect a cheque. The first match between the two was a dud, a blowout that stunk up the WrestleMania XX stage. 12 years had passed. Expectations were low.

It took all of 86 seconds for those expectations to be blown out of the water. Goldberg squashed Lesnar like no other had before, decimating Brock and doing to the Beast Incarnate what he was so used to doing to others. Goldberg made Lesnar look like a chump, to put it mildly. It took two spears and a Jackhammer for the feud to evolve from 'meh' to 'my lord this is immense'.

There was more. Goldberg continued to belittle Lesnar between the ropes, eliminating him from the 2017 Royal Rumble. It all came to a magnificent climax at WrestleMania 33 in one of the great sub-five minute matches of all time, ending a feud that gave us so much more than anyone expected and practically rehabilitated Goldberg in the eyes of fans along the way.