Sunday’s WWE Survivor Series pay-per-view ended in perhaps the most surprising way possible. After over a month of tremendous hype, the main event rematch between Brock Lesnar and Goldberg ended in less than 90 seconds, when Goldberg shocked the world and pinned The Beat Incarnate following two quick spears and a Jackhammer. After Survivor Series, we learned that Goldberg will be sticking around until at least the Royal Rumble. That means there will likely be more matches in this feud, and there are some very good reasons why that match was so short — and it doesn’t have anything to do with an injury.
On Sunday night’s episode of Wrestling Observer Radio following the Survivor Series, Dave Meltzer elaborated on why the main event was so short and what this means for the Goldberg vs. Brock Lesnar program going forward.
“I’m trying to find out more. [Goldberg] is definitely going to be back and he’s definitely going to work with Brock Lesnar in a rematch. That was a deal that was put together this week. It was something that Lesnar, among others, pushed for, because I think Lesnar saw that there’s money in Bill Goldberg, and didn’t want to blow it off [in the first match]. I think Vince saw that as well, and I guess Bill was up for it.
“I’m still trying to find out [how many more dates Goldberg will do]. I would presume that he’s going to work Royal Rumble and WrestleMania. Royal Rumble, I think, is pretty much a given. I would think WrestleMania’s a given if he’s going to work Royal Rumble, but I don’t know that factually, it’s just a presumption. And as far as from there, I don’t know. I don’t know what the agreement was that they signed this week, how long he’s willing to go, how long they want him to go.”
Bryan Alvarez then speculated that the match was so short because Goldberg is injured, but Meltzer emphatically stated that was incorrect, and the length of the match was for a specific purpose.
“That much I do know, and that is not the case. When Bill agreed to stay, the idea was, ‘Let’s book the match to get Bill over.’ And the match to get Bill over is the match that got Bill over when he [originally] got over. And that was the decision that was made. The finish, Bill winning, changed when Bill agreed to come back. And at that point, the idea was, we’ve got to get Bill over, Brock can afford a loss.
“And the other thing is, is that it’s better for Brock to lose this way than for Brock to lose in a long match. If he loses in a long match, number one, Bill might have gotten hurt in a long match. There’s a lot more danger and things could have fallen apart. But they are going to have to do a longer match next time, I think.
“If you remember all those guys in WCW, whether it was Raven or Scott Hall or whoever — even Hogan, whatever — all those guys who lost to Bill, none of them were over less because they lost to Bill. It didn’t hurt them.”
Meltzer explained that the length of the match was a risk, but it was far less of a risk than working a long match knowing the feud and the series was not over. He also said that WWE wanted WCW Goldberg, they didn’t want 2003 Goldberg, when they changed the formula and it didn’t work.
These are all pretty great points that you can’t really argue with, so let’s just wait for the Royal Rumble and see whether they go longer than 90 seconds the next time around.
