Are you really surprised?
I’m not.
I don’t say that to pat myself on the back. I’ve never been one of those guys that talks endlessly about predictions I’ve made concerning professional wrestling that actually came true. In fact, I prefer predicting these things wrongly. I’d rather be pleasantly surprised than win a pick ’em contest where there’s no money involved.
It just seemed obvious to me. When I saw that Goldberg was going to return to in-ring competition in Saudi Arabia and challenge for the Universal Championship; I had a really good idea of what was going to happen. We saw it happen in 2017. There was a Universal Champion that had been champion for awhile, and he got beat by Goldberg at Fastlane. Kevin Owens was a solid talent and a good champion, but it was decided that he wasn’t really WrestleMania headlining material. Goldberg had a name, and a match between him & Brock Lesnar seemed easier to market than anything they could have thought of for Owens.
(Yes, I know he wrestled Chris Jericho that year. As much as we all love Jericho, WWE didn’t see Jericho vs. Owens being on the same level as Lesnar vs. Goldberg as a draw.)
What seemed so obvious to me seems to have come to a lot of wrestling fans as a surprise. Perhaps their fandom got in the way of their common sense, as Bray Wyatt’s Fiend character has attained quite the online fan following. A lot of folks out there dig Wyatt’s new persona & the work he’s done to revitalize his career over the past several months. That’s all well & good, but this is WrestleMania Season. This is when the big guns come out.
This when Goldberg spears & jackhammers people into oblivion.
Did The Fiend deserve a better ending? Probably. But as we’ve found out in the past, success in WWE isn’t always about “deserve”. It’s about your ability to draw money. If you have a long track record of drawing money, your chances of drawing money in the future are pretty good.
The Fiend can main event SummerSlam or Survivor Series. WrestleMania? That’s a different ball of wax.
We all know how WrestleMania Season works, right? It’s WWE’s biggest event of the year. The biggest stars come in for the biggest matches. Sometimes that includes the full-time talent, and sometimes it doesn’t. It’s been this way for awhile now, and it’s tough to argue with the success rate.
Goldberg isn’t a great in-ring wrestler here in 2020. Hell, he wasn’t exactly a workrate marvel in 1998. What he has going for him is an aura that can’t be replicated. WWE has tried. Remember Ryback? Goldberg’s game is going out there, hitting a few big moves & winning. It worked in 1998, and it’s worked during his recent WWE appearances.
Are there downsides? Sure.
This is when everybody tells me about how WWE doesn’t make new stars. The reason the company’s on a downfall is because they treat their full-time wrestlers like jabronis. They’re used as cannon fodder for the Goldbergs, Brock Lesnars & Undertakers of the world. My main argument against this idea is the same argument WWE executives would make against it. WWE’s making money. Goldberg pops ratings, as do these other special guest stars. It’s easy to see why the Saudis want all these people on their shows.
There is something to be said for the point that Fiend losing to Goldberg in two minutes or so makes him look like a goof. Maybe, but Goldberg did hit the dude with like four spears, and Wyatt kicked out of all of those. It was your typical Fiend match for the most part. I really don’t see it hurting Fiend’s popularity that much in the long run, at least no more than the annoying red light during his early matches did. If Wyatt’s fans have stuck with him this long, through his various ups & downs, it’s tough to see them abandoning ship now.
Bray will be OK.
Maybe he doesn’t acquire new fans through this, but, to be honest, “The Fiend” Bray Wyatt is one of those cult-following characters. People that love it are all about it. But the majority of the audience…well, I know I’m not the only one scratching my head about some aspects of the character. As for his matches, well, outside of the Daniel Bryan match at Royal Rumble, I can’t think of a Fiend match that I’ve liked. So if we’re making the argument for the Fiend over Goldberg based off of workrate, I can’t see it.
Bray’s great at that character-work, though. One loss isn’t going to sink him, especially on a show that many people made a point of not watching. For a lot of us, these Saudi shows take place in an alternate universe where Shawn Michaels & Undertaker are still the top regular stars.
We all know that Saudi Arabia is a bit behind the times with many of their laws & policies. Why wouldn’t their wrestling be the same way?
Listen, Goldberg’s Universal Championship run won’t last past WrestleMania. He’s not like Brock Lesnar, who will just hang onto a strap forever because he’s Brock Lesnar and WWE doesn’t have the stones to tell him otherwise. He’ll probably put over Roman Reigns at WrestleMania, or hell, maybe he’ll lose it at Elimination Chamber to really shake things up.
Calm down. It’ll be ok. Things like Goldberg winning Universal Championships in his 50s are what WWE is all about. If you didn’t know that already, what have you been watching? Goldberg being Universal Champion isn’t the end of the Universe. In fact, it’s the Universe we’ve been living in.
