WWE Rumors - Complications about Goldberg losing the Universal title to new WrestleMania opponent
The most pushed match on the WrestleMania card between Roman Reigns and Goldberg will not be happening after The Big Dog was forced to pull out of the show due to the coronavirus threat.
WWE is expected to air the replacement angle on the next episode of SmackDown and Braun Strowman will take Reigns place in the Universal title match.
According to wwe news and rumors the fans have begun to wonder whether Goldberg will drop the title to Strowman, however, there are various complications regarding the match, as explained by Dave Meltzer on the post-RAW edition of the Wrestling Observer Radio.
WWE's plan was to put the title on Reigns and they can still make that happen by booking Goldberg to retain the belt and wait for The Big Dog to return. The issue here is that there is no definite timeline regarding Reigns' return to TV as he should ideally not be back until the COVID-19 pandemic is brought under control.
WWE can wait to have Reigns vs. Goldberg but that may take some time as we still don't know when the coronavirus situation will cool down.
Meltzer personally would not like to see Strowman go over Goldberg but WWE may book it for WrestleMania for a few reasons.
The first and most important reason is that WWE has been advertising Goldberg vs. Reigns, which, as we all know, will be changed this weekend. An old practice amongst bookers is to give the challenger a win in such cases, as the fans would be happy about witnessing a title change and not feel cheated about not getting the bout they originally paid to watch.
Another factor that was noted by Meltzer is that Goldberg charges a high figure for his appearances and WWE would ideally not want to pay that kind of money to have him for another show. Despite Strowman losing considerable steam in the past few months, WWE could end up making him the new Universal Champion.
Meltzer explained:
This is a complicated one. Obviously, their idea is for Roman Reigns to be Champion at some point, and obviously, this match is not happening now. I think Bill Goldberg should beat Braun Strowman. Since they are both babyfaces, it's not like you're going to have a heel win. So, I would have Goldberg win, and then have him face Roman Reigns. The problem is that when is it healthy for Roman Reigns to be out there again and that's a really good question. It's not like Roman Reigns can't do WrestleMania because we've got this thing but, you know, until the virus is gone, Roman Reigns and Daniel Bryan are significant risks to be out there.
I would not put it on Strowman but I think that they might just because of the idea that we've been advertising this match, so, therefore, since we're cheating, you know one of the mentalities that you do when you're a promoter, when there is a no-show in the main event or in the Championship match, you put the other guy over so that people at least feel, 'hey, we got to see a title change even though we didn't get to see the match we paid for.
Plus Bill is so expensive, and they probably don't need to pay Bill that kind of money for another show. Strowman is cold and I wouldn't put him over but there is a good chance that they would.
Hence, there's is a slight chance that Goldberg will drop his title to Strowman but that would severely affect the 'Spear vs Spear' match that WWE has been building up.
Get the full List of wwe events affected by Corona Virus Panademic