The WWE's grimmest mistakes. #2 . Matches that should've happened on PPV.

[AegonTargaryen]

On a Raw before Survivor Series 2003, Batista interfered in the WHC match between Shawn Michaels and Goldberg, decimated Goldberg's ankle with a steel chair and thus claimed $100,000 of HHH's own money. The match itself was pedestrian and permeated by resounding boos and audience ambivalence.

Goldberg has never been a great technical wrestler but that shouldn't prevent him from having a good wrestling match with Shawn Michaels. What happened instead on Raw, due to TV time limit impeding was a bunch of blows exchanged, Shawn Michaels largely overpowered and power-slammed and both opponents trying to execute their finishers before the referee got speared.

Needless to say, the match between Goldberg and Shawn Michaels could've surely been sufficient to sell a ppv and could've incorporate some great storytelling and elaborate grapples and emotions instead of the miniature WHC match on Raw resulting in an interference. Personally, I feel Armageddon 2003 should've had Goldberg defending against Shawn Michaels and/or HHH and Kane should've never been involved. This is one of the very big matches WWE failed to cash in on by having it on a ppv main-event, something which was also the case when Goldberg won the WHC from HH on WCW Nitro.

There've been many other matches and feuds which actually happened on TV around the 2000s, but they should've been featured on PPV. Here are some of the matches comprising what I think/perceive as the WWE's grimmest mistakes:-

1)Brock Lesnar and Kurt Angle wrestled quite a few times on ppv in 2003 but IMO, their classic 60-min ironman match shouldn't have been given on a TV show, much less a B-show but on Vengeance or Summerslam.

2)Chris Benoit vs Brock Lesnar never happened on ppv for whatever reason but IMO, the match/feud on ppv would've been as decorated, intense and athletic as the Benoit-Angle and Angle-Lesnar feud and should've happened on a PPV at least ONCE instead of the Lesnar-Taker repetition in 2003.

3)Rob Van Dam vs Shawn Michaels is another such match which needed to happen on PPV but never did. The WHC/IC could be used or not but they would've certainly told a great story. It's arguable how many would believe Rob Van Dam deserved this back in 2002/2003 but I've always been a huge Rob Van Dam fan and a big Shawn Michaels fan. They actually battled on Raw in probably the only one time they went one-on-one and it was for the WHC. Should've happened at Armageddon.

4)Edge vs HHH needed to happen on ppv at least once in 2004/2005 for the WHC to give Edge a sort of a rub which he needed at then much more than Shawn Michaels wrestling HHH for the WHC on PPV for the 5th or so time at Taboo Tuesday. Of course the fans didn't vote for Edge or Chris Benoit, but did Shawn Michaels and HHH wrestling again at this minor ppv matter?

Your thoughts? And what are some of the other such matches you can recall that happened/never happened on TV but should've happened on PPV?

 

[TheOneAndOnlyGOAT]

I'm not sure. What would be the point of having Goldberg vs HBK in a PPV?
I think Batista benefited more from wrestling HBK at Armageddon, it was the first PPV of his career and wrestling Shawn at the PPV was a smart idea.

Goldberg was WH Champ at the time, Triple H needed to win the title back and Goldberg's contract expired at WMXX.

I don't think it was a bad thing they did that match on RAW.


I think Angle vs Benoit on SD 2001 in Benoit's hometown is a match I would've liked to see on PPV.

Also, Brock Lesnar vs Hulk Hogan in 2002 at a PPV instead of Smackdown.

I would've liked to see Rock and Austin vs the nWo on PPV or Rock and Hogan vs Nash and Hall at Backlash 2002.

Austin vs Bret (Street fight) in 97.

Taker and Show vs Rock N Sock in 99 (when Rock N Sock won the tag titles).

Stratus vs Lita (their main event match) in 04.

Recently, Punk vs Cena on RAW 2013 at Elimination Chamber.

 

[Jack-Hammer]

I had no issue whatsoever with Lesnar & Angle having such a classic match for free on television. As the OP already pointed out, they'd wrestled quite a few times in 2003, so the novelty of having a 60 minute Ironman match on free television was worth seeing. Given that Raw is 3 hours and has been for quite a while now, I wouldn't mind having an Ironman match. Between Angle vs. Lesnar back in 2003 on SD! and Cena vs. HBK in an hour+ classic on Raw back in late April 2007, I think we're overdue for an epic bout like that.

As for Benoit vs. Lesnar, I agree that there could've been some intense matches, but even with Paul Heyman running around, I think there'd have been some difficulty having a solid build. We know Heyman can talk and even Lesnar can pop in every so often to deliver a few lines that helps push things along, but talking on the mic was never Benoit's strong suit. It may have worked if, rather than talking all that much, Benoit simply let his actions speak for him and had a couple of brawls with Lesnar. If the matches were the stuff of legend, it would've been able to balance out the general lack of charisma and personality from Benoit. At that particular time, Benoit may well have been a step down for Lesnar when you consider that he'd gone over most of the biggest stars in the company by the time he left. Had he stayed, the feud may have happened and I think it could have turned out very strong when it was all said and done.

RVD vs. HBK probably would've been a pretty solid program overall with some classic matches. I could see a classic ladder match between them closing out the feud. Like Benoit, mic work has never been a particularly strong skill for RVD. However, as with Benoit vs. Lesnar, a series of strong matches between RVD & HBK could have made up for what the promo build may have lacked.

Edge vs. Triple H never really had that much appeal to me, though I'm a little surprised myself this feud never took place. I liked Edge but, personally, I thought Christian was the better overall wrestler. Edge had the better look and has definitely aged better than Christian, but Christian's just as good on the mic as Edge ever was and can put on strong matches with just about anyone.

If I had to pick a program that I think WWE should have gone with but didn't, my first choice would be:

1. The Undertaker vs. John Cena at WrestleMania - Cena & Taker did have a couple of matches back around Cena's earlier days, including a great match in 2003 at Vengeance. I know that it may not technically count considering that they did have at least one match at a ppv but, as I said, that match took place approximately 13 months after Cena's debut. For several years, people have said that the streak is the one mountain left in WWE that John Cena had never attempted to climb. If they'd have had this match circa 2010 or 2011, which is just before Taker's body really, really started to give out, it could've been built as an epic clash.

 

[AegonTargaryen]

I'm not sure. What would be the point of having Goldberg vs HBK in a PPV?
I think Batista benefited more from wrestling HBK at Armageddon, it was the first PPV of his career and wrestling Shawn at the PPV was a smart idea.

Goldberg was WH Champ at the time, Triple H needed to win the title back and Goldberg's contract expired at WMXX.

I don't think it was a bad thing they did that match on RAW.

First of all, the rest of the matches that should've happened on PPV you enlisted were very brilliant. For example, Hogan vs Lesnar, Rock and Austin/Hogan vs Nash and Hall at Backlash , and so on. Not sure about Bret Hart/Austin street fight. But Kurt Angle vs Chris Benoit on SD and CM Punk vs Cena from Raw didn't need to happen because those two rivalries were already well-documented on PPV. Though if you think deep, in the context of the WWE title, John Cena vs CM Punk could've happened for the no 1 contendership or something at Elimination Chamber, giving The Rock some chance to rest/recuperate and maybe cut a promo at the PPV.

As to why Goldberg vs Shawn Michaels should have happened on PPV, the reason is obvious- it's Goldberg! Not that I'm a huge Goldberg fan but regardless of whether or not Goldberg was leaving, these two wrestlers had contrasting styles and could go at it for a good 15-20 minutes and give us a great match on PPV. I'm not sure why you underestimate it's potentiality but I'd like to believe Goldberg was a very big name in wrestling back then and him wrestling against any big star for the first time must seem like a big deal, including Goldberg vs Undertaker.

As for Batista I agree he got his big ppv match against HBK, but really, Batista could wait another ppv or two, couldn't he? Or may be it should've been Goldberg vs Shawn Michaels at Survivor series where Batista would cost HBK the match. I also believe were it not for the brand extension and branded ppvs back then, we'd have seen far too many novel matches on PPV because of the increased number of PPVS available to play out any feud. Lets say Vengeance 2003 was the first SD ppv after the brand extention. Had it been a combined PPV, we could've seen Chris Jericho vs Goldberg in a steel cage rematch from Bad Blood, HHH vs Kevin Nash vs Shawn Michaels/Booker T, and so on.

 

[AegonTargaryen]

I had no issue whatsoever with Lesnar & Angle having such a classic match for free on television. As the OP already pointed out, they'd wrestled quite a few times in 2003, so the novelty of having a 60 minute Ironman match on free television was worth seeing. Given that Raw is 3 hours and has been for quite a while now, I wouldn't mind having an Ironman match. Between Angle vs. Lesnar back in 2003 on SD! and Cena vs. HBK in an hour+ classic on Raw back in late April 2007, I think we're overdue for an epic bout like that.

The novelty is not in their encounter itself, but the potential list of manoeuvres, suplexes, submissions , and even high-flying moves such as Brock Lesnar's Shooting Star Press and Kurt Angle's Moonsault and so on would've been 60 hellacious minutes only made much more worthy and memorable because of having happened on a PPV instead of SD. It's always easier to locate/remember/relive a wrestling match that happened at a PPV over those happened on Raw/SD simply on account of the fact that the PPV will be up on DVD, youtube, torrent, or other means. I agree that we've not seen a 60-minute ironman encounter in a long time but if I remember correctly, Randy Orton and John Cena wrestled at Bragging Rights.

As for Benoit vs. Lesnar, I agree that there could've been some intense matches, but even with Paul Heyman running around, I think there'd have been some difficulty having a solid build. We know Heyman can talk and even Lesnar can pop in every so often to deliver a few lines that helps push things along, but talking on the mic was never Benoit's strong suit. It may have worked if, rather than talking all that much, Benoit simply let his actions speak for him and had a couple of brawls with Lesnar. If the matches were the stuff of legend, it would've been able to balance out the general lack of charisma and personality from Benoit. At that particular time, Benoit may well have been a step down for Lesnar when you consider that he'd gone over most of the biggest stars in the company by the time he left. Had he stayed, the feud may have happened and I think it could have turned out very strong when it was all said and done.

Agreed. But I believe even though talking was never Chris Benoit's forte, he would've been endurable and fun if he said "I'm the best damn technical wrestler in this business today and not you, not Kurt Angle". Their physical/submission encounters would've been memorable.

RVD vs. HBK probably would've been a pretty solid program overall with some classic matches. I could see a classic ladder match between them closing out the feud. Like Benoit, mic work has never been a particularly strong skill for RVD. However, as with Benoit vs. Lesnar, a series of strong matches between RVD & HBK could have made up for what the promo build may have lacked.

Yes! Even an IC title ladder match between RVD and HBK back in 2002/2003 would've made HHH's WHC matches seem insignificant and trivial. They should've at least had one of two matches on PPV, championship or no championship.

Edge vs. Triple H never really had that much appeal to me, though I'm a little surprised myself this feud never took place. I liked Edge but, personally, I thought Christian was the better overall wrestler. Edge had the better look and has definitely aged better than Christian, but Christian's just as good on the mic as Edge ever was and can put on strong matches with just about anyone.

Yeah for some strange and inexplicable reason, even I never found Edge and HHH to have any singles feud chemistry or potential, much unlike Edge-Taker, Edge-Cena. Even Edge and Randy Orton or Edge and Shawn Michaels has never been much decorated feuds despite their long tenure on the same show. HHH and Edge did have a month-long feud in 2008 for the WWE championship.

If I had to pick a program that I think WWE should have gone with but didn't, my first choice would be:

1. The Undertaker vs. John Cena at WrestleMania - Cena & Taker did have a couple of matches back around Cena's earlier days, including a great match in 2003 at Vengeance. I know that it may not technically count considering that they did have at least one match at a ppv but, as I said, that match took place approximately 13 months after Cena's debut. For several years, people have said that the streak is the one mountain left in WWE that John Cena had never attempted to climb. If they'd have had this match circa 2010 or 2011, which is just before Taker's body really, really started to give out, it could've been built as an epic clash.

Nice choice! Their 2003 feud was good and the Vengeance match is one of the best matches, despite Taker seeming desolate and grim on account of his real-life father having passed away 4 days ago. But this one was certainly a big mistake because John Cena should've already faced Taker for the Streak at WM before 2011 and now it's too late. If this match does take place in the future, Undertaker will really not be the same Undertaker from 2010 but one from whose biology and conditioning much has been detracted from, with withered spirit and hollow cheekbones.

 

[shooter_mcgavin]

People are talking about The Lesnar/Angle Iron Man Match and Goldberg/Shawn Michaels should have been on PPV. Keep in mind at that time WWE was doing brand exclusive PPV's and their plan was that when one brand has a PPV that week, the other brand would have a PPV caliber match on their telecast that week.

Lesnar/Angle happened during the week of RAW's Unforgiven while Goldberg/Lesnar was done in the week of No Mercy.

So yeah WWE acknowledge that these matches are PPV level matches but I think they needed to book these matches on free TV to keep the fans interested in the brand considering there would be 8 weeks before the talent in that brand would work a PPV event.

Of course this experiment was short lived.

 

[Wolf Pac]

I remember an episode of Smackdown from 2002 where Hulk Hogan defended the Undisputed Championship against Chris Jericho, and thinking that should've been a PPV match. Not a title match or a main event match though, just a match on the undercard of a PPV. I thought it was a decent match, and they could've built a feud between the two off of Jericho being held down in WCW by the likes of Hogan and him feeling that Hogan is doing it again in the WWE, similar to his feud with Goldberg the following year. Hogan was the one who got a title shot at Backlash, not Jericho, and Jericho nearly cost him the belt at the PPV. The story writes itself. Maybe this could've happened at Vengeance, and Edge could've teamed with John Cena instead, defending the Tag Team Titles against Christian & Lance Storm, with the storyline being that Edge has taken the rookie Cena under his wing and as his tag team partner (something they could bring up later in their 2006 feud).

I'll be back if I can remember some more.

 

[Kliq69]

This isn't a WWE match, but since they own the library, why not:

Goldberg vs Hollywood Hogan for the WCW title... WCW panicked when Raw beat Nitro and ended up putting arguably the last big money match they ever had on free television. The ramifications speak for themselves and the lack of proper capitalization of ending the nWo and the magnitude of what they had created in the Streak all contributed to the demise of the company.

 

[daddyJ_t]

ok since everybody has jumped on the bandwagon and went warrior crazy(ive been a fan since before he won the ic title) what about warrior vs undertaker? they had a body bag match at msg at a superstars tapeing or house show but never had a big payoff at a ppv. imagine at survivor series or summerslam that type of match

 

[FitFinlay4Life]

Having felt he had oversaturated it on the house show circuit, Vince never pulled the pin on Flair/ Hogan on PPV something I will never comprehend - the two most dominant wrestlers of the 1980s never had a one on one PPV match in the WWF!