Drew McIntyre was challenged by Goldberg this week on RAW, which wasn’t a swerve by the company. The decision was made just two days before RAW on the previous Saturday because ‘they had nobody ready for anything’ according to Dave Meltzer on the latest Wrestling Observer Radio. This was also a case of Mr. McMahon overriding WWE creative, because the creative team isn’t particularly high on Goldberg main eventing the Royal Rumble event with Drew McIntyre.
After all, WWE is Vince McMahon’s company, so he has the freedom to override the creative team whenever he pleases; maybe become a bit of a Jerry Jones-type owner. There are plenty of similarities between he and Jerry Jones of the Dallas Cowboys. Both men insist on being heavily involved in the inner workings of their respective businesses and are not necessarily content to just merely be the owner.
Roman Reigns was the most logical opponent for Goldberg next, whose contract runs through 2023 on at least two matches per year. Goldberg was originally supposed to have a match with Reigns at WrestleMania 36 but that was nixed when Roman made the decision to step away from WWE during the initial months of the pandemic to care solely for his newborn twins (completely understandable). The Head of The Table, as far as I’m concerned, should be applauded for putting his family first and having his priorities in line).
In the meantime, Braun Strowman served as the substitute for Reigns as Goldberg’s opponent for WrestleMania 36. As it turned out, some good did come of WWE’s top dog not competing at Mania – which is ironic because on the surface, that appears to be a bad thing. WWE ironically created a brand new main-event superstar, and Strowman came into his own during his four months as Universal champion.
Braun was told by Vince McMahon at the beginning of 2019 that he was not yet ready to become Universal champion. He was not 100% sure of himself – he was still thinking a little too much about the moves he made. The methodology of the business had not become implicit to The Monster.
It’s now set in stone that Goldberg will challenge McIntyre at Royal Rumble. If McIntyre were to retain the WWE championship, he would almost definitely go on to defend it at Mania, and in the process he would become nearly as big a star as Roman Reigns. On the other side of the coin, if Goldberg wins the WWE championship from Drew McIntyre at Royal Rumble (which I believe is most likely); he most likely does not have the stamina anymore, at age 54, to be a viable champion past WrestleMania 37.
Bill Goldberg is probably fully aware of this; we can look at his recent track record as champion. In March 2017, he won the Universal title from Kevin Owens (ending his reign of over six months) and dropped it at WrestleMania 33 to Brock Lesnar. Goldberg followed the same pattern in 2020 when he won the same title from The Fiend (that’s another story in itself as the booking in that match was questionable) in February 2020 and held the title until WrestleMania 36 before putting over Braun Strowman.
If Goldberg wins the WWE championship from McIntyre at Royal Rumble, history would dictate that he would drop the title at WrestleMania 37. He has followed that path the last two times as champion. This brings up the question of who Bill Goldberg would face at the biggest show of the year. That’s where someone like Randy Orton would fit perfectly for two reasons. It makes sense within the context of the story because Orton could wrap up his current storyline with The Fiend/Bray Wyatt right before Mania and immediately segue into a rivalry with Goldberg.
Second, and more importantly, Bill Goldberg has spoken about how much of an honor he would view it if he had the opportunity to work with Randy Orton at this stage in his career – because Orton is clearly working at another level right now. Orton is coming off the best year of his career in 2020, so it makes sense that Goldberg is interested in engaging in a rivalry with The Viper, and hopefully some of that positive momentum Orton has going for him can rub off on Goldberg. Goldberg worked indirectly with Randy Orton in 2003 when he was primarily feuding with Triple H. Bill Goldberg would view it as an honor to have the privilege of putting over Randy Orton as a 15-time world champion.
It is also worth noting who Goldman mentioned when asked who he would like to work with in the future. His top list was: Roman Reigns, Drew McIntyre and Randy Orton. The McIntyre program has already begun with others on the radar in the future. Some people in the business, like John Cena, do not even like to acknowledge all the hypothetical possibilities that may exist. Some people often take the perspective of “control the controllable” and to let the rest work itself out. John takes the grounded perspective of just taking what is in front of him and making it the best possible outcome.