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WrestleMania XX was a historic night for many reasons.
Not only was it the twentieth edition of what had now become a wrestling milestone, it was a celebration of a dream that Vince McMahon had conjured up twenty years earlier. It was a night for WWE to showcase what the company had grown into from its beginnings as a territory in the northeastern United States decades earlier. It was a night to come back to Madison Square Garden, WWE’s home arena, to put on a show for their loyal New York audience who had watched the company grow to unimagined heights.
Twelve matches were promoted for the night’s card, with nearly half a dozen of them worthy of being a main event and the final match of the evening in their own right. But two of them in particular ended up being more final than anyone had originally thought.
WrestleMania XX was the night that three former World Champions, The Rock, Goldberg and Brock Lesnar, all had their final WWE match. And in The Rock’s case, it was his final professional wrestling match ever.
The Rock, who already had himself mostly into movies at this point anyways, came back for one last match to help his former tag team partner Mick Foley battle the forces of Evolution, who were the young Randy Orton, the enforcer Batista and the legend Ric Flair. Despite The Rock’s help, Foley couldn’t stop Evolution and the duo (formerly known as the Rock ‘n’ Sock Connection) lost the match.
The Rock never made an official announcement about that being his last match it just came to be that way. He made a couple sporadic appearances for WWE through the summer of 2004 before his contract with WWE lapsed and he officially became a full-time movie star. In the build-up to WrestleMania 23 he made a pre-taped appearance on Monday Night RAW to hype up the “Battle of the Billionaires†feud between Vince McMahon and Donald Trump. And last year before WrestleMania 24 he made a one-night stop in Orlando the night before WrestleMania XXIV to induct his father Rocky Johnson and grandfather “High Chief†Peter Maivia into the WWE Hall of Fame. He hasn’t been seen since.
Later on in the same show, the two bulls of WWE, Brock Lesnar and Bill Goldberg, met to determine the age-old question of who’s bigger, badder, stronger. Unfortunately in the build-up to the match it was revealed that Goldberg had only signed a one-year contract with WWE and this match with Lesnar would be his last, as he was unhappy with the company and would not be re-signing. It seemed as if it would be a no-brainer for victory for Lesnar, until he too announced just weeks before the show that he would also be leaving World Wrestling Entertainment to pursue a professional football career, despite not playing competitive football since high school.
The entire plan for the match was turned into disarray and what was going to be a monumental power match was now turned into an afterthought. The retired Stone Cold Steve Austin was inserted into the match as the special referee to add some intrigue, and possibly to keep either departing man from doing anything “fishy.†WWE never publicly acknowledged either man’s departure, but the Internet-savvy wrestling fans and the jaded New York crowd were already aware that this was both men’s swan songs, and reacted in kind to the match.
Goldberg and Lesnar, to their credit, knew this would be their final matches and neither wanted to go full out for an unappreciative crowd and risk injuring one another. So the match, while terrible from a technical standpoint, is a masterpiece with the volume turned up to hear the crowd turn on both men and the match, and to hear both Goldberg and Lesnar mouth off to the fans, all the while the announce team is trying to hold the match together as a coherent piece of business. The match finally falls apart so bad that the announce team has no choice but to finally address the chants and admit that both men will be leaving for “greener†pastures.
Since Goldberg left WWE after that match he has stayed primarily away from wrestling, instead choosing to focus on his acting career and his love of mixed martial arts. He has since commentated on mixed martial events and done his best to promote the sport. He has stated publicly that if he were younger he would pursue a MMA career himself.
Speaking of MMA, Brock Lesnar has now found great success in the mixed martial arts world, winning the very prestigious UFC Heavyweight Championship in only his fourth professional fight. His foray into pro football ended quickly when he was hired by the Minnesota Vikings before the 2004 season, only to be cut just weeks before the regular season was about to begin. He also tried his hand as a professional wrestler in Japan, where he won the IWGP Heavyweight Championship, but realized that wasn’t just WWE, but pro wrestling in general he no longer enjoyed. Lesnar is an athlete who craves legitimate competition and between the pre-planned nature of WWE, combined with its hectic schedule, no longer wanted to be a part of the business.
That night at WrestleMania XX was supposed to be a night of new beginnings and a night to welcome new stars to the scene, but ultimately it was a night to say goodbye to some of the company’s biggest stars. Along with the departure of these three that night, and the untimely deaths and dismissals of other big stars on this show, what was supposed to become one of WWE’s most fondly remembered nights has now become one of its most bittersweet.
