There’s no shortage of WrestleMania 33 rumors and potential spoilers right now, but for some potential match-ups, the writing is pretty clearly on the wall. Brock Lesnar vs. Goldberg is already official, and when Goldberg challenged Kevin Owens to a Universal Championship match at Fastlane, a bunch of WWE fans collectively went, “Oh.”
Because yeah, Bill Goldberg is probably going to capture Raw’s top prize and defend it against Lesnar at WrestleMania. Some people are grumbling about that, but others thing it makes a lot of sense. Others like Hall of Famer Jim Ross.
In his latest blog post over at JR’s BBQ, Ross went on record as saying he thinks having the two part-timers duke it out for the Universal Championship would not only be big business, but would be the right call for both the match and the title if WWE is interested in drawing the most eyeballs to their biggest event of the year. (And, uh, yeah. They totally are. They always are.)
“Smart money seems to be leaning on the WrestleMania main event being Goldberg defending the Universal Title against Brock Lesnar. You can do the math on this one. I like the booking if it goes down this way as it adds a viable wrinkle to the expected main event that was born under surprising and unlikely circumstances in November. The argument that WWE is building around two, older talents is feasible but no promotion can ‘save’ an epic match that already has a short shelf life. Get it while one can is my way of thinking. Plus, the more eyeballs on WrestleMania the better it is for ALL talents to turn in memorable performances in their respective matches so that they can vie for the main event spot next year in NOLA. Because the Lesnar-Goldberg storyline likely has a sooner than one would like to admit shelf life, I agree in getting all one can out of these two now, as in 2017. Seriously doubt that there will ever be another opportunity to promote Lesnar vs Goldberg which obviously has cache now.”
From a business perspective, sure. Casual fans are going to want to see Goldberg vs. Lesnar III with some actual stakes behind it, and the world title makes it an easy WrestleMania main event. The only problem is: who takes the belt off Lesnar (or Goldberg) to make sure a part-time player isn’t Raw’s top wrestler once WrestleMania is in the can?
(Just kidding; it’s Roman Reigns.)
