It looked good on paper

[ScruffDog]

I was watching a few old matches the other day, and I stumbles across one from Wrestlemania 20. The match was Brock Lesnar vs Goldberg with special guest referee Steve Austin.

On paper this looks like an Awesome match. Two big name guys, both are real strong and should have no problem man handling each other, and anything with Austin is awesome. But when the match happened, well nothing happened. It is one of the most boring matches I've ever seen. They just stood there for this first five min just staring at each other walking around the ring. Then they locked up, you think something would happen at this point, but the just stayed locked up for another five min. The fan turn on them almost immediately, it was such a let down.

Now I know both Lesnar and Goldberg left the WWE shortly after, but that no reason to have such a shitty mach at Wrestlmania. Shouldn't you at least try and leave with a bang? These are two of the biggest names in Wrestling, especially at that time; on paper that should have been an epic match, but in the end, it was a bust.

What other matches looked great on paper, but when the even came turned out to be a bust?

 

[Braxton11]

Luger vs Savage Superbrawl 98. This match was utterly pathetic on what was a great card. It was dissapointing because you knew what these two were capable of but at this point in their careers they were just mailing it in. I think you can even see Luger spit on the WCW security guy on his way back up the entrance ramp. All they did was trade a few punches, brawl around the ring and then finish with the torture rack. Very lazy.

 

[hbkmark]

I was about to mention that HHH vs Scott Steiner match and then I saw it here. You could actually see HHH getting frustrated at how little Steiner put into it. They had spent weeks building up Steiner and making HHH appear to be scared and then Steiner phoned it in (actually he put less effort out than dialing a phone). It was just frustrating having been a huge fan of Steiner. Superstar Billy Graham (at the same point) would have been a better matchup.

 

[This Is My Name Thank You]

Undertaker and Kane vs Kronik. To me this match looked really good on paper. To huge WCW guys that were pretty over in WCW take on the Brothers of Destruction. I was a huge fan of Kronik back in the WCW days so for them to face two guys I really like I thought this match could be epic. It was far from epic and the whole match sucked out completely. When I was hearing Taker yelling at Kronik on what to do in the ring I knew this was the end for them. It was sloppy and embarrassing for Kronik and for Undertaker and Kane. Such a shitty match and even worse it was at a PPV were you want to put your best out there.
Another match that looked good on paper but seemed to suck out was in my opinion Jeff Hardy vs Matt Hardy to me their matches on paper would be good. But, when I watched them I just thought it could be so much more. To pretty popular guys and the matches just let me down. I thought they could be all the better than what they were. I do say their WM 25 match was okay. The rest just were eh.
I agree with any Triple H match vs Steiner, those were unbearable to watch.

 

[Navdeep]

HHH vs Orton at wrestlemania 2009, a great build up but match sucked very badly and both are known for putting good matches but I don't know what happened to both at that night

 

[Dusty Roids]

I was about to mention that HHH vs Scott Steiner match and then I saw it here. You could actually see HHH getting frustrated at how little Steiner put into it. They had spent weeks building up Steiner and making HHH appear to be scared and then Steiner phoned it in (actually he put less effort out than dialing a phone). It was just frustrating having been a huge fan of Steiner. Superstar Billy Graham (at the same point) would have been a better matchup.

Same goes for me. I thought Steiners whole WWE run sucked big time. I read somewhere he had some nagging back injuries back then.

Anyway as for the Lesnar vs Goldberg match, it looked great but the feeling definately wasn't in there. On paper it looked like a dream come true but in reality there are 2 guys who didn;t have their passion with wrestling anymore.

 

[x24hrs2livex]

Im surprised no one mentioned Sting vs. hogan at Starrcade. Sting put so much time and effort into reinventing himself into the Crow, and was the most sought after Free Agent at the time. The match should have been epic, could have been epic but some doofus thought it was a great idea to give wrestlers creative control clauses in their contracts.

 

[Hollywood Naitch]

The first one I thought of when I saw the name of this thread was Goldberg vs Lesnar.

It should have been a dream match. Two of the biggest and best powerhouses the business had ever seen colliding on the grandest stage of them all...WRESTLEMANIA.

But....we all know it didn't end up quite like we all expected. It was common knowledge that Goldberg was on his way out after WM, we had known that all along but it came out a few days before showtime that Brock Lesnar, one of the WWE's biggest stars and the guy it was going to build its future around, announced that he also was leaving, to try his hand at getting into the NFL.

So, the fans absolutely shit on the match letting both men know their feelings, and Lesnar simply couldn't deal with it, ending up flipping off the fans and giving a quarter-hearted effort. You could see he could not wait to get out of the ring and backstage. It was really sad to see, I had been looking forward to this match more than any other on the card and the pair of them simply failed to deliver.

Who cares if they were leaving after the show? If I am leaving a job does it give me the right to not give a fuck and produce half-hearted work for people who have paid for it? Not it doesn't. The 2 of them should have shown more pride in their work, more professionalism and gone out there and torn the house down. Now, their last act as WWE wrestlers was to give a shit WM match. Well done Brock, well done Bill. You *****

 

[Dagger Dias]

Goldberg V Lesnar at Wrestlemania 20. I completely agree even though it has already been mentioned. The fact that they were leaving as soon as the match ended should not have been an excuse for what they gave us. They didn't even care. That shows how much the fans' opinions mean to them. They knew they were letting the fans down, and just did not care. This match tarnished both mens' legacies. At the very least they could have put forth SOME effort in the match. The fact that it was their last match should have led to the exact opposite outcome. That should have motivated them to try to steal the show. Obviously that did not happen.

Someone pointed out Trips VS Orton at Wrestlemania 25 as being good on paper but bad in the ring, and I simply must disagree about that one. That match gets harped on so much around here. I was there. It was actually good. People wonder why Legacy or the McMahons did not get involved. Look, others do not have to get involved all the time. As for the stipulation of Trips not being allowed to use his sledgehammer, that was meant to make another obstacle for him to overcome. Orton had taken out his whole family, and now he had to win without his trusty sledgehammer? The point of that angle was for Trips to overcome the odds in an epic feud. He did just that. The match followed the now-legendary Taker VS Michaels match, the triple threat World Championship match between Cena, Edge, and Big Show, AND an appearance by Stone Cold when he rode out on a four wheeler drinking beer. The crowd was tired after that, we had been cheering and yelling almost non-stop. The match seems worse due to a tired crowd, but it was still a good match that doesn't get the credit it deserves.

 

[Wolf Pac]

Goldberg vs. Sting at Slamboree 99. This was a match between two of WCW's most popular wrestlers at the time, it was long awaited and what do WCW go & do? Ruin it by making it a short match with no winner due to the Steiners interfering. They ended up having another match at Halloween Havoc the same year and that was also short & I must admit that for a short match, it was actually okay. I think they also faced off on Nitro but I never saw that but the point I'm getting at is, the first match is always important. It should've been longer and had a winner.

 

[Braxton11]

Goldberg vs. Sting at Slamboree 99. This was a match between two of WCW's most popular wrestlers at the time, it was long awaited and what do WCW go & do? Ruin it by making it a short match with no winner due to the Steiners interfering. They ended up having another match at Halloween Havoc the same year and that was also short & I must admit that for a short match, it was actually okay. I think they also faced off on Nitro but I never saw that but the point I'm getting at is, the first match is always important. It should've been longer and had a winner.

I agree with this. There was virtually no epic build for any match in their series. Goldberg squashed him in the main event of some random Nitro. It might as well have been Lodi the way Goldberg went through him. You could tell at this point that WCW as just getting lazy.

 

[neildittmar]

Some good suggestions in this thread. I'll take a different approach though...

The first matchup in ECW between Cactus Jack and Sabu simply didn't live up to the hype and was a huge disappointment for a lot of people. Foley himself admitted as much on the "Greatest Hits and Misses" DVD retrospect of his career. This was supposed to be a battle for the ages. A knock-down, drag-out, chair-swinging, table-breaking, concrete-splattering gorefest between two of the most brutal and sickest guys in the industry at that point. On one side you have Cactus Jack... having been regularly blown up and set on fire in Japan, way too extreme for WCW where he was actually one-half of the Tag Team Champions at the time of this match. On the other, you have Sabu who was busy scarring his body up and putting himself through tables.

What fans got was a very confusing match indeed. Foley essentially tried to do a "Hogan" by getting brutalized by Sabu for nearly the entire match without mounting the least bit of offense. The goal here was for the crowd to get behind him insomuch that they were literally begging and pleading for him to fight back. Did Jack forget where he was? Meanwhile, Sabu punished Jack for nearly the entire matching, ending when Paul E. blasted Foley with his phone for Sabu to make the cover. Despite the carnage at the end and the incredible promo Foley stayed around to cut afterwards (the one that got him fired from WCW in fact), the match itself was pretty bad considering the context.

Cactus Jack and Sabu would go on to have much better matches that fulfilled the expectations that this one should've. The problem is, this was the "dream match" that lots of hardcore wrestling fans were waiting for. Given it was their first encounter, it should've been way better than it was.