10 WWE WrestleMania Matches That Failed To Live Up To The Hype

by John Bills

1. Goldberg Vs. Brock Lesnar - WrestleMania XX

Stone Cold Steve Austin, Goldberg, Brock Lesnar
WWE

Looking back over the years, Brock Lesnar has a pretty disappointing collection of WrestleMania matches behind him. The Beast Incarnate started strong with a fabulous bout against Kurt Angle, but almost every match since has been disappointing with exception of the smash and grab that his WrestleMania 34 bout Goldberg. Ironically, the first meeting between the two may have been the most frustrating of them all.

Okay, so the circumstances were different. The fans knew that both men were leaving WWE after the match, and that anger burst out from before the opening bell. Goldberg and Lesnar put on a stinker at WrestleMania XX, a match remembered for how bad it was and little else. 14 years later they put that right, but the bad taste of that first match still lingers.

In 2004 speak, could a pro wrestling match be any more hyped than Goldberg vs. Brock Lesnar? This was supposed to be the very definition of irresistible force meeting the immovable object, the man who ran through WCW on his way to breaking records against the legit athlete who did the same in WWE. The Attitude Era against the Next Big Thing. Goldberg vs. Lesnar in 2004 was the very definition of a dream match, but all fans got was a damp squib and a couple of stunners.

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Born in the middle of Wales in the middle of the 1980's, John can't quite remember when he started watching wrestling but he has a terrible feeling that Dino Bravo was involved. Now living in Prague, John spends most of his time trying to work out how Tomohiro Ishii still stands upright. His favourite wrestler of all time is Dean Malenko, but really it is Repo Man. He is the author of 'An Illustrated History of Slavic Misery', the best book about the Slavic people that you haven't yet read. You can get that and others from www.poshlostbooks.com.