Good Feud, No Pay Off

[The Brain]

Over the years we have seen feuds begin in the wrestling world and fizzle out before reaching a satisfying conclusion. This was especially common before there were monthly pay per views as we didn't often get blow off matches on free tv. If you wanted to see the feature matches back then you had to buy a ticket for your local house show. Even watching the match live didn't leave you fully satisfied as there was always kind of a feeling that if it didn't happen on tv it didn't matter.

One feud that I thought had potential but didn't receive the proper blow off was Tatanka vs. IRS in 1994. I could have come up with some bigger and more popular names but you know my love for the random and less talked about wrestlers and storylines.

In the spring of 1994 Tatanka was presented with a sacred chief headdress from Chief Jay Strongbow and Wahoo McDaniel. This was considered to be the highest honor among the Lumbee tribe and Tatanka was very emotional and humbled to receive the headdress. With tax day approaching IRS reminded Tatanka that he was to pay a gift tax on the headdress. Of course Tatanka ignored Irwin. One week on Superstars IRS attacked Tatanka after a match with Kwang. Irwin tied Tatanka in the ropes and proceeded to destroy the sacred headdress. Eventually Chief Jay Strongbow tried to make the save but being well past his physical prime he was no match for IRS. Tatanka watched helplessly as IRS not only destroyed the headdress but also put the boots to his mentor. Tatanka became a very sympathetic character as he did a great job showing emotional distress for this unprovoked attack. The fans felt bad for Tatanka and wanted IRS to pay for his heinous crime.

We never got to see IRS pay. The next ppv was King of the Ring and even though there was a chance the two would meet up in the bracket it didn't happen. As spring turned to summer Tatanka began his slow heel turn before turning against Lex Luger at SummerSlam and the feud with IRS was forgotten. I know Tatanka and IRS aren't the biggest names in the world and it's not like I expected them to put on a match of the year candidate, but I felt this feud was personal enough to warrant a big blow off somewhere. I always thought a strap match would have been appropriate so Irwin could really be punished. I wish this angle would have taken place just a little earlier so the two could have wrestled at WrestleMania X.

What are some other feuds that you feel deserved a pay off that we never got? Also feel free to comment on the Tatanka vs. IRS feud if you wish. And yes, I know this angle was a repeat of the Strongbow vs. Ernie Ladd feud but I think that was before most of our time.

 

[klunderbunker]

Tito Santana vs. Rick Martel.

They had been partners in a very successful team called Strike Force but Martel got hurt and was out for about a year. WHen they reunited at Wrestlemania V, Martel turned heel and walked out on Santana. The two feuded for the better part of ever but there was never a blowoff match or a big showdown between the two. Tito kept wanting revenge but Martel kept walking out on the matches. These two feuded for well over a year but there was never a moment where either guy won or the feud was declared over.

 

[Mcase7187]

One of the best ones that I can think of was the Orton vs Kofi they had some great stuff when ortons NASCAR got trashed and they also had a pretty good match on raw but it all ended when Orton cried about something and that was the end of kofi's push

 

[THTRobtaylor]

I remember Martel v Santana never truly paying off same for Bret v Davey, they always needed that 3rd match.

In Martel's case it was more because his wife got sick so he was drifting in and out of the roster at the time. But Bret and Davey was puzzling, indeed thinking about it neither did Davey v Shawn ever properly pay off in 96 or later in 97. Sure the screwjob/injuries intervened but in 96 both guys had 2 "close matches" and it was screaming out for the 3rd at Summerslam.

Sometimes WWE just goes cold on booking, less often than WCW did but it's often glaring when they do.

 

[JoeyJoeJoe]

Tito Santana vs. Rick Martel.

They had been partners in a very successful team called Strike Force but Martel got hurt and was out for about a year. WHen they reunited at Wrestlemania V, Martel turned heel and walked out on Santana. The two feuded for the better part of ever but there was never a blowoff match or a big showdown between the two. Tito kept wanting revenge but Martel kept walking out on the matches. These two feuded for well over a year but there was never a moment where either guy won or the feud was declared over.

Dammit, stole mine. This one just always stood out to me as a missed opportunity.

Every time these guys wrestled each other, they had chemistry in the ring, it was always mentioned by the announcers how Martel had screwed Santana over, and people were into their matches. This one deserved a blow off match at a Summer Slam or a Wrestlemania, and not as a part of a Survivor Series match, or a 6 man tag match either.

I'm not sure if Santana was injured for WrestleMania 6 or not, but that would've been the perfect place for the match. Barring that, a highlighted spot at that year's Royal Rumble would've worked just as well.

The result would've been a boost for both guys: Both of them would've been stronger contenders for the IC title. It probably would've given Martel an even bigger boost as a heel.

 

[HeenanGorilla]

Jake "The Snake" Roberts vs. Ultimate Warrior

A great angle from the summer of '91 where, after the Warrior was locked in a casket, by The Undertaker and Paul Bearer on the set of The Funeral Parlor, Jake offered to help the Warrior by bringing him to the dark side, which would give him the power to defeat Taker.

In a series of three skits, Jake first put Warrior back in a coffin, then he had him dig a grave in a dark, eerie cemetery and buried Warrior up to his neck and, finally, Jake had Warrior enter a dark chamber which, once Warrior was locked in and the lights were turned on, we found was full of snakes.

In the center of this room was a chest and Roberts told Warrior that the answer was inside of it. When Warrior opened the chest a King Cobra (laughable cobra, but go with me here) struck Warrior, who struggled in pain as the venom went through his body. As Warrior falls to his knees on the inside of the room's door, Jake looks up back towards the camera and greets the off-screen, on-looking "Man in Black". Warrior escaped the room by breaking down the door with one last burst, just as he collapsed. And then--in one of my favorite moments as a kid--as Warrior struggles to get to his feet, he reaches out to brace himself to pick himself up...and his hand touches a black boot...and the gong sounds! The camera pans up and it shows The Undertaker and Paul Bearer looking down at Warrior. With Taker's theme now creepily playing in the background, Warrior desperately reaches for Jake's hand and Jake says "Yeah, reach out for me, I'm a snake." and then pulls his hand away and says "Never trust a snake."

This is still one of my favorite skits/angles of all time! At least up to that point...

Unfortunately, with the Warrior/SummerSlam firing to follow, the angle never concluded and I was always disappointed in that. Taker/Jake crashed the Savage/Elizabeth wedding reception at SummerSlam '91 and Roberts and Savage had a nice little feud afterwards. At the end, Taker turned on Jake (stopping him from smashing Elizabeth and Randy with a steel chair as they came back through the curtain on SNME) and turned face, meeting Jake at WrestleMania VIII. Guess who won...

But, that Warrior/Roberts angle ending the way it did...damn! I still love what we got out of it though. A great set up! But a true letdown.

 

[Catacomb]

Speaking of Jake the Snake I've got 2 from 1991

Jake vs Earthquake. The quake crushed damien jake brought out the new snake, but the two never met in the ring, shortly after tugboat became typhoon and quake entered the tag division. Jake turned heel also and what seemed like a sure fire match for sumerslam never happened. maybe if wwf had kotr in june back then or any ppv in june for that matter.

Jake vs Sid Justice

These who were meant to meet in survivor series 1991 and after, but an injury by sid prevented that, and savage was substituted. Jake mentioned in an interview that the cobra was meant to bite sid. Two great matches that didn't happen.

 

[TheICChampion]

I wonder why no one has mentioned this yet, so I guess I get to.

Shawn Michaels vs. Marty Jannetty.

In 1992 (I think it was) The Rockers had been a tag team for 7+ years and there were some tensions between the two. HBK also wanted to go out on his own and try his luck as a singles superstar. They had this big feud planned, all of it was supposed to start with Michaels superkicking Jannetty and throwing him through a window (Bobby Heenan was golden during this segment, by the way). But, supposedly due to Jannetty's "exploits" outside the ring, he got fired. WWE soon brought him back in mid-1993 to try out the feud with HBK again, starting it off in a good way by having Jannetty win the IC title from Michaels. But once Jannetty lost it, he soon was fired again. This pattern would keep up until 1996, where they finally had enough and fired Jannetty for good until 2005. Now, had he not kept up his "party hard" lifestyle, which kept costing him his job, how good do you guys think the feud between Jannetty and HBK could have been?

 

[Catacomb]

hbk and marty had a lot of matches in 1993 starting with rumble and continuing on raw, so thats why i didnt mention it

 

[king1836]

Ultimate Warrior vs. Earthquake

When Earthquake made his first appearance on TV in November 1989, he helped Dino Bravo beat up the Ultimate Warrior. It wasn't until 1991 that they had a match taped for Coliseum Video. What a waste! The main Event of SummerSlam 90 should've been Ultimate Warrior defending the World Title against Earthquake. Hulk Hogan could've done his return for Survivor Series.

 

[JoeyJoeJoe]

A more recent example that I can think of is John Cena Vs. Christian.

I believe this was around 2005 -- Cena was on Smackdown, Christian was on RAW and Captain Charisma begins running down Cena nearly every week. At the time, Christian was delivering great heel promos on the mic, and probably needed a big feud to get him to the next level. The WWE Draft was coming up and it looked like we were going to be seeing Cena and Christian as Cena's first feud on arriving at RAW. I still think that this would've been a stellar match as Cena was still fresh in promos, and red hot with fans.

As expected, Cena gets drafted to RAW. The next week or so -- Christian gets drafted to Smackdown. I think they met one time in a tag team match, and that was about it. The WWE literally built up this war of words for weeks, and then had absolutely no payoff; probably because McMahon had his "ratface" epiphany about Christian or whatever bug was up his ass that week.

There was literally no build for Christian after that. He was starting at square one again and I barely remember who his first feud was with on SD.

 

[d_henderson1810]

I notice that most of the feuds mentioned happened back in the 80's-early 90's.

I notice what is significant is that most of these happened was before the days of monthly PPVs, so the blow-off may have happened on TV, but because it didn't happen at RR, WM, KOTR, S'slam and SS, it didn't seem as much of a big deal.

So, to have the feud end at a PPV, you had to draw the storyline out for four months before their first match, so injuries and other factors often intervened to prevent any end to happen.

 

[Wolf Pac]

Edge vs. Evolution.

After Edge returned in 2004, he vowed to take down Evolution one by one. He teamed with Benoit and Jericho a bunch of times to take on members of the group in tag team matches, he and Benoit beat Flair and Batista for the Tag Team Titles and he defeated Randy Orton for the IC Title in a great match at Vengeance but then a few weeks later, he would get eliminated by Chris Jericho in a Battle Royal to determine the #1 contender for the World Title at Summerslam, and he would slowly turn heel and begin a feud with Jericho, completely dropping the storyline. I thought the storyline had potential, they could've dragged it all the way to Wrestlemania 21 if they wanted to. Edge could've feuded with Batista and Flair later on in the year and beaten them in PPV matches and then went on to win the Royal Rumble match and defeat Triple H for the belt at Wrestlemania, taking down the last member of Evolution and saving Raw from their dominance, but it just wasn't meant to be as they wanted Orton to be their next big star. Things still turned out great though.

A more recent example that I can think of is John Cena Vs. Christian.

I believe this was around 2005 -- Cena was on Smackdown, Christian was on RAW and Captain Charisma begins running down Cena nearly every week. At the time, Christian was delivering great heel promos on the mic, and probably needed a big feud to get him to the next level. The WWE Draft was coming up and it looked like we were going to be seeing Cena and Christian as Cena's first feud on arriving at RAW. I still think that this would've been a stellar match as Cena was still fresh in promos, and red hot with fans.

As expected, Cena gets drafted to RAW. The next week or so -- Christian gets drafted to Smackdown. I think they met one time in a tag team match, and that was about it. The WWE literally built up this war of words for weeks, and then had absolutely no payoff; probably because McMahon had his "ratface" epiphany about Christian or whatever bug was up his ass that week.

There was literally no build for Christian after that. He was starting at square one again and I barely remember who his first feud was with on SD.

I was almost gonna say this one. They had a Triple Threat match for the WWE Title at Vengeance that also involved Chris Jericho but they never had a one-on-one match together.

 

[Catacomb]

ive got another one

Ken Shamrock vs Dan Severn

It seemed like an inevitable match would happen, then at the last second wwe added owen hart to the feud, and we ended up with severn vs owen and shamrock vs owen but not shamrock vs severn. couldve been a great feud and ppv mainevent, i remember being disappointed at the time when the match never happened

 

[UFOcalling]

I might be in the minority here, but I actually enjoyed when "unmasked Kane" was confronted by "old school Kane" in 2006. The feud actually did have "closure", when Kane threw "Imposter Kane" out of an arena's door and took his mask back (saying something like "this is mine" after he did it)...but it could have (and should have) been a bigger & better story.

I loved the look on Kane's face when he first saw "Imposter Kane", he looked legitimately terrified (probably for the very first time, since removing his mask) when the "Imposter" revealed himself. If I remember correctly, Kane was being quite vague about who this imposter could have been. I think he said something like "if it is who I think it is, he's an evil that can never be defeated" (something along those lines). Obviously the story didn't go that way, and the angle fizzled out after three or four weeks (with only one or two official matches happening between the two of them).

From what I remember reading on the "dirtsheets" at that time, the WWE was unhappy with how the live crowd(s) received "Imposter Kane". I also think I remember reading that the original plan was for this story to get a longer run, but they cut it short (again, due to lack of fan response). It could have been so good, maybe even getting Paul Bearer or The Undertaker involved. It could have had ties to the original Undertaker/Kane story (during Kane's 1997 debut), or could have been something else all together. A fellow patient Kane knew from his "insane asylum" days could have been the imposter, or maybe they could have gone the route of someone just preying on Kane's past (a stalker, or something along those lines). For those who don't know, Imposter Kane was played by Drew Hankinson - better known for his time with CM Punk as Luke Gallows. He was also DOC in TNA, and Festus in the WWE before "getting off the prescription pills" (that made him a "zombie"), and becoming Straight Edge with Punk.

Gallows/Doc/Festus (whatever you want to call him) could have had longevity with this character, if it would have been done better. Even if the crowd wasn't into it, they could have pushed it another month. If the story would have got better, the fans would have reacted better as well (at least I believe so). Kane's unmasked character was getting kind of stale by 2006 anyway, so adding another arc to his "demonic" story could have been great. Another supernatural character could have been born from this, if the "reveal" would have actually happened. They could have done a "reveal" without ever showing the guy's face, too. They could have had him show up after Kane took "his mask" back in a completely different mask/costume. Have him return with Paul Bearer, or another manager and reveal the "real story" (whatever that would have been). The possibilities were there, it just seemed that the WWE didn't want to invest any time/energy into it. It's a shame too...just because the fans didn't get on board immediately doesn't necessarily mean that they never would have.

So even though this feud wasn't amazing, and there was a "payoff" in the end (albeit a crappy one), I'm still mentioning it because it could have been great if it was executed differently. Another chapter in the Kane/Undertaker saga could have been great, even in the PG era (if told correctly). The mind games that "Imposter Kane" was playing on Kane in the beginning seemed full of potential, including the possibility of Kane putting his mask back on (which obviously didn't happen until a while later). Maybe part of the reason it was so poorly received was due to Gallows' performance (his first chokeslam on Kane definitely left something to be desired), and the wig he was wearing was pretty bad too (it looked like 80s hair, teased and hairsprayed! lol). Kane's initial fear of this figure was enough to suck me in at first though, and like I mentioned already - it was just so poorly executed. I put most of the blame on creative (and Gallows himself), as Kane was pretty good throughout this dogshit program he was given. It's probably too late now to add another chapter to the Kane/Undertaker story, but it could have been great in '06 if WWE Creative & Gallows would have tried harder.

 

[bko]

Matt Hardy vs MVP - When they had that feud on Smackdown where they were doing all those non wrestling contests I found they actually had a ton of chemistry and to be honest I remember that being the only thing I was interested in on Smackdown at one point, all to be halted by Matt getting injuried. I know they had a match when he got back from the injury but by then the feud lost ALL the steam it had gain from the months of build due to Matts injury and it fell flat.

 

[Catacomb]

kane vs X Pac

these two had a long rivalry first being tag partners, then x pac turning on kane and eventually stealing his girlfriend. this feud needed a big match with kane getting his revenge, but instead we got a tag match at mania 16 and no follow up, the feud was just dropped

 

[Jimmy Carter]

kane vs X Pac

these two had a long rivalry first being tag partners, then x pac turning on kane and eventually stealing his girlfriend. this feud needed a big match with kane getting his revenge, but instead we got a tag match at mania 16 and no follow up, the feud was just dropped

Indeed. We needed a knock-down, drag-out slobberknocker to properly culminate this blood feud. Cage match, Hell in a Cell -- some sort of big match addition was necessary. Road Dogg and Rikishi would not have looked out of place had they been excised from this tag team bout and inserted into the hardcore battle royal that year.

Here's another one that needed much more time than it received:

X-Pac versus HHH

Much like the New Age Outlaws' breakup that year, this feud was railroaded into the middle of a minor pay per view with little to no fanfare. On both fronts the breakup of DX should have been a more momentous event, not just to prepare Hunter for his main event transition, but also to elevate the other members in the process.

Starting after Wrestlemania XV, dissent in DX was such that the group was all but dissolved around King of the Ring. Inexplicably Hunter chose to relinquish his spot to Chyna, reasoning that he would rather pursue the World Championship. What a load of contrived malarkey. Not only has the tournament been used as a stepping stone towards the world belt, but HHH did not even wrestle on that show. Talk about undercutting a good story before it started.

Obviously HHH needed to be in the tournament. No one was going to miss Hardcore Holly, so his spot goes to Hunter. Switch around the brackets so that HHH beats Road Dogg cleanly but harshly in the first round, betrays Chyna to a quick, sneaky win in the quarterfinals, and emerges victorious after a hard-fought battle with Billy Gunn in the semis. Meanwhile X-Pac beats Big Bossman in a close upset, wins by DQ against Kane (who decides he'd rather walk away than be forced to fight his best friend), and squeaks out a win against Big Show before getting beaten down by the giant for doing so. Stage is set for the final with X-Pac vs. HHH.

After X-Pac wins the tournament, he and Hunter have a couple more matches, alternating victories until the latter screws X-Pac out of a title shot and goes on to gain the belt the night after Summerslam. Over the next few months, X-Pac begins rebuilding DX with Shawn Michaels' blessing, recruits Kane, and has himself built up as a force to be reckoned with by the time HHH "marries" Stephanie in November. We can proceed with a similar turn against Kane to build into their Wrestlemania program the next year, but by the end of that X-Pac emerges as a viable main event contender, pursuing the IC belt and various top tier feuds until the appropriate time for his World Championship run.

Or something like that.

 

[relentless1]

nWo Hollywood vs nWo Wolfpac looked like it was going to be a great feud, they really had that gang war momentum on their side and some of the things they did like the time when the Wolfpac went after Hollywood and a huge brawl broke out in the black n white locker room was gold. That being said, the brilliant flashes were rendered moot by the sudden dissipation of the feuds intensity for whatever reason (likely Hogan), the feud was tailor made to end in the War Games cage with a loser disbands stipulation. What could've been...

 

[Catacomb]

Stone Cold vs Bret Hart

Austin and Bret had a few matches in 1997, but the feud was never resolved. Bret dominated the feud until the heel turn, then the buck was passed from Bret to Owen. Austin needed to beat Bret clean in the middle of the ring, preferably for the WWF title. If Bret hadn't been screwed a great time would've been WM 14, with Bret dropping to Austin clean.

 

[J.J.]

Indeed. We needed a knock-down, drag-out slobberknocker to properly culminate this blood feud. Cage match, Hell in a Cell -- some sort of big match addition was necessary. Road Dogg and Rikishi would not have looked out of place had they been excised from this tag team bout and inserted into the hardcore battle royal that year.

Here's another one that needed much more time than it received:

X-Pac versus HHH

Much like the New Age Outlaws' breakup that year, this feud was railroaded into the middle of a minor pay per view with little to no fanfare. On both fronts the breakup of DX should have been a more momentous event, not just to prepare Hunter for his main event transition, but also to elevate the other members in the process.

Starting after Wrestlemania XV, dissent in DX was such that the group was all but dissolved around King of the Ring. Inexplicably Hunter chose to relinquish his spot to Chyna, reasoning that he would rather pursue the World Championship. What a load of contrived malarkey. Not only has the tournament been used as a stepping stone towards the world belt, but HHH did not even wrestle on that show. Talk about undercutting a good story before it started.

Obviously HHH needed to be in the tournament. No one was going to miss Hardcore Holly, so his spot goes to Hunter. Switch around the brackets so that HHH beats Road Dogg cleanly but harshly in the first round, betrays Chyna to a quick, sneaky win in the quarterfinals, and emerges victorious after a hard-fought battle with Billy Gunn in the semis. Meanwhile X-Pac beats Big Bossman in a close upset, wins by DQ against Kane (who decides he'd rather walk away than be forced to fight his best friend), and squeaks out a win against Big Show before getting beaten down by the giant for doing so. Stage is set for the final with X-Pac vs. HHH.

After X-Pac wins the tournament, he and Hunter have a couple more matches, alternating victories until the latter screws X-Pac out of a title shot and goes on to gain the belt the night after Summerslam. Over the next few months, X-Pac begins rebuilding DX with Shawn Michaels' blessing, recruits Kane, and has himself built up as a force to be reckoned with by the time HHH "marries" Stephanie in November. We can proceed with a similar turn against Kane to build into their Wrestlemania program the next year, but by the end of that X-Pac emerges as a viable main event contender, pursuing the IC belt and various top tier feuds until the appropriate time for his World Championship run.

Or something like that.

While I have always found Sean Waltman to be a solid worker, he was never going to be a main eventer. He didn't draw heel heat but he drew, "Xpac Heat". You were a fan of the product back then, you know he wasn't going to get over. No Mercy 98 or 99 saw him emerge with a victory against bigger talent. Billy Gunn during that time definitely should have,been elevated into main event scene.

 

[LBGetBack]

Chris Jericho vs. Goldberg in WCW. This was when Jericho beat a midget "Goldberg", and claimed a forfeit victory when he called Goldberg out knowing that he wasn't there. He kept talking about how he was 2-0 against Goldberg, then 3-0 etc., even wearing t-shirts with these "records" displayed on them.

Eventually Goldberg caught him with a huge spear in the aisle. Entertaining feud....and then it was over. No PPV match. Jericho has stated that's when he knew he was not staying in WCW much longer.

They did have a feud in WWE like 5 years later.

 

[UFOcalling]

I know I already posted in this thread (about Kane vs. Imposter Kane), but I thought of a couple of other feuds I would have loved to see have a "real" payoff: Goldberg vs. Sting, and Bret Hart vs. Sting (both in the dying days of WCW).

Sting & Goldberg had a few matches in '98 and '99 (they may have had more in 2000/'01, but I don't remember for sure), but they never had a real feud. So I suppose that it's not that we never had a payoff, but we never had an actual feud between the two. I know Sting was quasi-injured during his time with the Wolfpac (and by proxy, during Goldberg's first WHC reign), but I would have loved to have seen Sting end the streak. In my opinion, a guy with a strong submission finisher should have been the one to end Goldberg's streak; making Goldberg's first loss a tap-out. The other guy who would have been a great candidate to end the streak (with virtually the exact same submission finisher) was Bret Hart.

We did see the start of a potentially fantastic feud between Bret & Goldberg: Bret Hart was talking trash about Goldberg on Nitro, then Goldberg appears after he's "heard enough". Goldberg spears Bret, but is knocked out somehow. When Bret finally gets to his feet (selling the effects of Goldberg's spear), Bret removes his hockey jersey to reveal some sort of metal chest protector - in a possible homage to the movie "A Fistful of Dollars", where Clint Eastwood is shot in the chest; only to reveal he was wearing a "bulletproof vest", which was a piece of cast iron that was hidden under his poncho.

Granted, we did get a couple of Goldberg/Bret matches - but they were crap. Bret would have been another good candidate to end the streak (again, a sharpshooter victory would have been best). Even though the "bulletproof vest" story ended abruptly, it looked like we were going to get a "real" feud between Goldberg & Bret after Russo started booking for WCW. Bret beat Goldberg for the vacated WCW World Title (if memory serves), when Nash & Hall (the newly crowned tag champs) came to the ring and beat Goldberg with baseball bats. Then Jeff Jarrett (the newly crowned US champ) came to the ring with cans of silver spray paint, and it was revealed that night that these four guys had formed nWo 2000. Not only that, but they looked dominant having all the major titles, and it was obvious that Goldberg had a great "heel machine" to fight in the coming months: the nWo 2000.

Say what you want about Russo, but he would have booked Bret vs. Goldberg the "right" way. I'm sure we would have seen Goldberg run through Jarrett, Nash & Hall before finally "earning" the right to face Bret for the title, and it would have been a great feud. We all know that Goldberg ended Bret's career by giving him that final concussion, but the other big problem came when Goldberg smashed the windows of a limo that Bret was in. From what I heard, Goldberg was supposed to have smashed the windows with a baseball bat, but Goldy decided to use his own fists instead. That lead to Goldberg severing a few arteries in his hand(s), and that put him on the shelf (that was even before Bret announced his retirement, if I remember correctly). Add that to Bret's career ending, and we have yet another feud that never got it's payoff. That could have been a great one, too. Like I said already, whether you love or hate Russo - he would have booked that feud to be amazing (had everyone stayed off the injured list). I'd imagine that was going to be Russo's big Starrcade match that year, but with all the injuries plans obviously had to change. Hogan could have potentially screwed everything up too, with his creative-control clause...but I won't go into that, we all know how Hogan liked to look out for himself (and win the title whenever his current storylines didn't "work" for him).