Jim Ross Blames 'Social Media' For Crowd Reaction To Notorious WrestleMania Match
One of the marquee matches at WrestleMania XX was the much-hyped clash between Brock Lesnar and Goldberg — a dream match of sorts for the era. Unfortunately, the match is remembered far more for the Madison Square Garden crowd that turned on the bout than any action that took place in-ring. "This match was impacted more by social media than any match I could remember until that point," said Jim Ross recently on the "Grilling JR" podcast. "The issue is the crowd was ready to kill those guys, because they were leaving them."
Goldberg's one-year contract was up that night so many figured Lesnar was going over. That changed at the talent meeting of the go-home "SmackDown" show. Citing burnout and the travel schedule, Lesnar announced that WrestleMania would be his last night in the company and that he wanted to try out for the NFL with the Minnesota Vikings.
"Brock was just being Brock," said Ross. "They don't understand how to manage a high-strung athlete at that time. Vince [McMahon] didn't because he wasn't around too many athletes in the sense that — I'm not saying the boys he hired weren't good athletes – he never took it on himself to study the true athlete, and Brock Lesnar is a true athlete."
After nearly 14 minutes of chants — "You Sold Out!" and "Na Na Na Na, Na Na Na Na, Hey Hey, Goodbye!" and "This Match Sucks!" — Goldberg finally emerged victorious. Speculation was that McMahon had Goldberg beat Lesnar, because he was upset with Lesnar for quitting; longtime WWE official Bruce Prichard denied that notion on the "Something to Wrestle With" podcast. "You got two guys leaving. Put the babyface over. Have a happy finish," he said.
The MSG crowd did indeed get their happy finish when special guest referee "Stone Cold" Steve Austin gave post-match stunners to both Lesnar and Goldberg, bouncing them out of WWE for years.
If you use any quotes from this article, please credit "Grilling JR" podcast with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.