WrestleMania is a week away and the Showcase of the Immortals is one of WWE’s biggest show of the year. However, there is a major problem leading into the show.
Reports have circulated that the WWE Universal Championship match between Goldberg and Brock Lesnar will main event the show. The WWE will tell you there are multiple main events at WrestleMania as the final three matches of the show could be looked at as main event matches. But as CM Punk said on Colt Cabana’s “Art of Wrestling” podcast a couple of years ago, the main event is the final match on the card and this year, Goldberg and Lesnar will most likely be in that final match.
The winner of the Royal Rumble is supposed to main event WrestleMania against the champion of their particular brand. This year, Randy Orton was the winner of the 30-man, over the top rope battle royal and he was granted a WWE Championship shot against Bray Wyatt. For years the WWE has pushed that the Rumble winner gets to main event WrestleMania and that is the dream of many wrestlers in their careers.
This year, and in other cases in past years, the WWE went against their own decree. Instead of a match between two major talents that shared a long and entertaining feud, we get a main event between two guys who only show up once a month and whose feud is lukewarm at best.
Before the Survivor Series in November, I wrote an article that explained a Goldberg/Lesnar match would be a disaster. Instead of a long, drawn out match where both men would be close to death, fans got a little over a minute of a squash match where Goldberg destroyed Lesnar. It wasn’t good at all, but at least it was brief. Unfortunately, we now get the rematch at WrestleMania and almost no one seems to be excited about it.
Goldberg sweats profusely just from walking into the ring. The WWE has done a good job of not overexposing him because of his age and skill level, but in the brief glimpses we’ve seen, it’s not good. EVOLVE superstar and former MMA fighter Matt Riddle gave his honest opinion about Goldberg in an interview with Sporting News.
“Bill Goldberg can’t wrestle. That’s it. He knows it. The fact that the guy is very bold and claims he does MMA training and I know that’s bullshit. I saw him throw a knee on Rusev his first night back on Raw and he almost broke his hip when he fell on his back and they had him spear him and jackhammer him quick. His work in the ring — people always go it’s Goldberg, he can have a one minute match or whatever. Yeah, it’s one minute because he can’t work more than one minute.”
Goldberg believes that this match with Lesnar at WrestleMania will be his showcase to “bring out some stuff that I haven't shown, that I haven't been able to do because of constraints.”
Yeah, and I’m going to become WWE Champion this year. This match will go no more than ten minutes, including entrances. Goldberg can not go long in the ring and everyone, including himself and the WWE, knows that. Enough about Goldberg, let’s move on to Brock Lesnar.
Lesnar is not the draw he was when he first returned five years ago. There was a level of mystique to Lesnar when he returned to the WWE. And when he broke The Undertaker’s streak at WrestleMania XXX , that mystique increased. I’m not sure whether it was the positive steroid test in his last UFC bout or him not being around as much, but something changed over the last year. Lesnar is not the same performer that he was from a couple of years ago.
Add in Goldberg, and we have ourselves the makings of a crappy match. Instead of having them co-main event and putting the Orton and Wyatt match on last, the WWE once again will lean on part-time guys that come and go as they please. If the WWE continues to do this type of thing, they may face the possible wrath of the fans. There’s no telling how the fans will react to this match and it’s the WWE fault for what happens.
Goldberg’s contract reportedly comes up after WrestleMania and it’s not a moment too soon. The focus of the WWE after WrestleMania needs to go towards the full-time wrestlers and away from part-time guys. The Goldberg/Lesnar match should be the beginning of the end of WWE’s part-time wrestlers and while we should appreciate the contributions that those wrestlers have given to the WWE, don’t let the door hit you where the good lord split you guys.
Here’s hoping that Goldberg vs. Lesnar is not as bad as I think it will be...even though it probably will.
