Brock Lesnar vs. Goldberg and the Most Disappointing WrestleMania Matches Ever

Although WrestleMania is WWE's biggest show of the year, the event isn't immune to the occasional disappointment.

Throughout the pay-per-view's illustrious history, plenty of matches have looked great in theory, only to fizzle out when the competitors step inside the ring. In other instances, WWE ran into a problem it largely created for itself in terms of how it constructed a certain WrestleMania contest.

The clash between Brock Lesnar and Goldberg at WrestleMania XX is an example of the latter, though one could argue the former distinction applies as well.

This article provides a look at some of the most disappointing matches—including Lesnar vs. Goldberg—through the first 33 editions of WrestleMania.

Hulk Hogan vs. Andre the Giant: WrestleMania IV

Hulk Hogan vs. Andre The Giant at WrestleMania III might be the most important match in WWE history, and it helped draw more than 93,000 people to the Silverdome in Pontiac, Michigan. The rematch between Hogan and Andre in February 1988 led to the highest rating ever for a wrestling program.

It's against that backdrop that Hogan vs. Andre 3 was such a major disappointment.

The match was in the second round of an overcrowded tournament to crown a new WWE champion, which diminished its importance somewhat. Adding to that, it was the ninth bout on a card that featured 16 matches.

The finish also made little sense, as the referee called for a double-disqualification despite the fact Hogan was the first wrestler to use a steel chair Ted DiBiase had brought into the ring. 

WrestleMania IV was all about building up Randy Savage as the next big star in the WWF, but much of the hype surrounding the pay-per-view focused on Hogan and Andre. Their rivalry proved to be largely a footnote in the event.

Hulk Hogan vs. Sid Justice: WrestleMania VIII

In different circumstances, a WrestleMania main event match between Hogan and Sid Justice would be OK—if somewhat underwhelming considering the stature of Hogan's previous WrestleMania opponents.

But this was after Ric Flair had signed with WWF, giving the company the two most renowned wrestlers in the world at the time. Pitting the pair against one another at WrestleMania VIII was seemingly the obvious play, and Flair and Hogan had wrestled one another at house shows from fall 1991 through January 1992.

Instead, WWF had Flair face off with Randy Savage and Hogan feud with Justice. Although Flair vs. Savage is one of the most underrated WrestleMania matches, one can't help but wonder how big a main event between Hogan and Flair at The Showcase of the Immortals could have been.

Not even the Ultimate Warrior's return to come to Hogan's aid could compensate for a main event that featured a mistimed Papa Shango run-in. The fact Shango was even supposed to interfere in a WrestleMania main event is damning in its own right.

'Stone Cold' Steve Austin vs. The Rock: WrestleMania XV

"Stone Cold" Steve Austin and The Rock had one of the most legendary feuds in WWE history, and they helped define the Attitude Era more than any other in-ring competitors from that period. Because of that, their match at WrestleMania XV feels so underwhelming.

They weren't helped by the fact WrestleMania played out more like an episode of Raw rather than the biggest PPV of the year.

Chyna appeared to rejoin D-Generation X, only for Triple H to double-cross X-Pac and become the newest member of The Corporation. The tag titles match included a team (Test and D-Lo Brown) that had been formed earlier in the night. The Big Show also turned face by punching Mr. McMahon.

The main event included some shenanigans too, as McMahon rid of referee Earl Hebner, only for Mankind to arrive and take charge of proceedings.

Considering the stage, the spotlight should have been on Austin and The Rock, and WWE would have been much better off adhering to the principle of less is more. Just watch their contest at WrestleMania X-Seven to see a far superior matchup between the two.

Triple H vs. Chris Jericho: WrestleMania X8

Not for the first time, Triple H wrestled in a main event that was overshadowed by a match earlier in the card.

The Toronto crowd was electric for Hulk Hogan vs. The Rock, and while their bout wasn't a technical chess match, it more than delivered on expectations. The problem is, it felt like the show should have ended right then and there, but there will still two more matches to come.

Even a great match can suffer from a dead crowd, which isn't to say Triple H vs. Chris Jericho was a five-star classic. They were also hampered by the fact the feud centered more on Triple H and Stephanie McMahon, with Jericho, the undisputed champion, more of an afterthought.

Everything about this angle failed to do justice to WWE's biggest title.

Brock Lesnar vs. Goldberg: WrestleMania XX

This was the right matchup at the wrong time.

On paper, Lesnar vs. Goldberg should be a great spectacle and a match befitting an event as grandiose as WrestleMania. Plus, this was right in the middle of Lesnar's in-ring peak, and the former WCW champion was still close enough to his prime he could be the Goldberg wrestling fans remembered.

Instead, Lesnar and Goldberg were both on their way out of WWE—a fact of which many in the WWE Universe were aware. As a result, the Madison Square Garden crowd were openly hostile to both wrestlers, who largely went through the motions in an otherwise forgettable match.

At least WWE got things right when Goldberg returned to the company in 2016.

Triple H vs. Randy Orton: WrestleMania XXV

Triple H and Randy Orton did a great job of making The Game a sympathetic character, with Orton attacking Stephanie McMahon on Raw while Triple H was handcuffed to a ring rope. Things kind of went off the rails from there, though, with The Game famously attacking The Viper at his home.

The match between Triple H and Orton never felt like the stakes were so personal. It played out like every other encounter between guys who didn't like each other but weren't engaged in a blood feud.

And as was the case seven years earlier, a midcard match overshadowed everything else that happened at WrestleMania.

The Undertaker and Shawn Michaels had two of the best matches in WrestleMania history, and the fact they main-evented WrestleMania XXVI was, to some extent, WWE's acknowledgment the veterans should have closed out the PPV a year prior.

Bret Hart vs. Vince McMahon: WrestleMania XXVI

The feud between Vince McMahon and Bret Hart was a classic case of overthinking things.

Simply announcing a match between McMahon and Hart should have been enough, but WWE decided to complicate matters by including a storyline about Hart suffering a leg injury that was all a ruse.

McMahon's claims to have bought off Hart's family members at WrestleMania was a nice touch and could have been a source of drama in the match if The Hitman didn't undercut it before the match began by saying the Hart family double-crossed McMahon.

Thereafter, Hart's beatdown of McMahon was so long and one-sided it removed a lot of joy from the visual of Hart's long-awaited revenge against the guy who screwed him at the 1997 Survivor Series. At 11 minutes, the match was also only two minutes shorter than the WWE Championship battle between John Cena and Batista.

John Cena vs. The Miz: WrestleMania XXVII

It's a main event wherein the biggest focus is on a guy who isn't even wrestling.

Bringing back The Rock to host WrestleMania XXVII sounded like a good idea until you realized how much his mere presence would linger over everything, especially the feud between Cena and The Miz.

WWE treated the WrestleMania XXVII main event almost entirely as a tease for The Rock's inevitable battle with Cena, and The Miz was seemingly just along for the ride. During the match, The Rock delivered a Rock Bottom to Cena, which allowed The Miz to get the pinfall.

The night after WrestleMania, Cena challenged The Rock to a match at WrestleMania XXVIII, setting them on a collision course for a "once in a lifetime" battle—until they wrestled again at WrestleMania a year later.

And for anybody who might argue being in the WrestleMania XXVII main event helped elevate The Miz, he was in the 12-man tag team match between Team Teddy and Team Johnny at WrestleMania XXVIII. He was then on the pre-show at WrestleMania 29.

Brock Lesnar vs. The Undertaker: WrestleMania XXX

It's hard to imagine a more underwhelming end to The Undertaker's WrestleMania streak than what happened at WrestleMania XXX.

The Undertaker and CM Punk had a great 'Mania match a year earlier, but The Deadman looked like a shell of his former self against Lesnar. All of the punishment he had put on his body over his near-25 years in the ring had caught up with him.

The feud between Lesnar and The Undertaker felt rushed too. In retrospect, The Undertaker's first WrestleMania defeat should have been the culmination of a long-term storyline—not something that transpired over slightly more than a month.

Then there's the question as to whether Lesnar should have been the guy to end the streak. He was already one of the biggest stars in WWE, and he didn't need to add anything to his legacy. As much as WWE fans have turned against Roman Reigns, his win over The Undertaker at WrestleMania 33 felt like a much more appropriate way to end the streak.

Dean Ambrose vs. Brock Lesnar: WrestleMania 32

This might seem like an odd inclusion, but WWE had an opportunity to do something cool with Brock Lesnar vs. Dean Ambrose at WrestleMania 32.

Ambrose didn't fit the profile of Lesnar's typical opponents, and if his match with Lesnar were good, it would have seemingly opened the door for The Beast to interact with a wider range of stars on the WWE roster. Unfortunately, Lesnar had little interest in going above and beyond, something Ambrose acknowledged on Austin's WWE Network podcast.

"Artistically, Brock didn't want to do anything, if we're going to be perfectly honest," Ambrose said on the Stone Cold Podcast in November 2016 (h/t FoxSports.com's Nick Schwartz). "Brock's gonna Brock. He's all about Brock. I had a vision for that match to be the craziest thing imaginable, you know what I mean, and I was trying to pitch everything to everybody and had every idea. I put so much effort in and so much work in, and other people did too, and I was met with laziness."

Lesnar vs. Ambrose all but assured fans they were going to get the bare minimum from the five-time world champion whenever he was in a marquee singles match.

Roman Reigns vs. Triple H: WrestleMania 32

WrestleMania 32 had 12 matches and lasted seven hours if you include the two-hour Kickoff that preceded the main broadcast. The last thing a weary crowd wanted to see was a 27-minute, psychological back-and-forth affair between Triple H and Roman Reigns.

Reigns is a great and often underrated worker, but he's not the kind of wrestler who excels in longer matches—at least not to this point in his career.

The WrestleMania 32 main event and his feud with Triple H came off as WWE trying too hard to build this up as the moment Reigns would essentially take the throne John Cena was abdicating by winding down his full-time wrestling career.

The story lacked an organic rise a la Daniel Bryan's surge from overlooked midcard wrestler to world champion. There are few wrestlers more ill suited for an underdog role than Reigns, but that's exactly what WWE tried to turn him into.