The main news coming out of Friday Night SmackDown was that Bill Goldberg will be challenging The Fiend Bray Wyatt for the Universal title later this month.
Goldberg appeared on the show discussing his time as Universal champion in 2017 and never receiving a rematch before issuing the challenge, which was accepted by Bray Wyatt during his Firefly Funhouse segment.
The two will meet for the Universal title at Super ShowDown on Thursday, February 27th in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Goldberg won the Universal title in March 2017 from Kevin Owens and lost it the following month to Brock Lesnar at WrestleMania 33, which was the end of Goldberg’s run at that time. He returned in 2018 to enter the WWE Hall of Fame and had his next match in June 2019 against The Undertaker at Super ShowDown in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. After a disappointing match with The Undertaker, Goldberg won a short match against Dolph Ziggler last August at SummerSlam in Toronto.
Wyatt won the Universal title in Saudi Arabia last October defeating Seth Rollins in a Falls Count Anywhere match.
During Friday Night SmackDown, a steel cage match between Roman Reigns and King Corbin was also added to the Super ShowDown card.
That’s just an anime fight. It would be like One Punch Man (The hero who ends his fights very quickly with one punch) vs Meruem of Hunter X Hunter (The unbeatable monster who doesn’t feel pain).
Call me crazy but I have Goldberg winning this in very similar fashion to how he won the title from Owens to set up a Title match with Brock; this time to set up Goldber v Reigns
WWE changed Rumble plans to not be so telegraphed; would they do the same with Mania and what everyone assumed was the Fiend story arch and getting back to Roman? I say yes. Puts Goldberg on Fox to help draw for Mania. Undoubtedly a better marketing move to promote Mania to the Fox audience. And also probably helps with selling Mania to a “Major”.
Booking wise - Goldberg was an unstoppable force forever. He should run through Fiend in a place that will absolutely love that (it would get potential bad reaction in America but we know Saudi audience is different) and it also doesn’t kill the Fiend if it’s done in such a shocking way to get the title off him. Sad for Bray but The Fiend is going to be killed as a hot character losing in any way other that absolute shock where there is some curiosity of how he handles loss and losing the title.
That would actually be good but are they willing to risk people cheering for Goldberg over Reigns at Mania? I’m sure they believe Reigns sixth coronation over a heel at the big show will be the charm.
I see Fiend squashing Goldberg and Reigns saving him after a post match beat down
God I hope not. I had the same thought but I hate the idea because it is once again WWE booking old stars as way stronger than current talent. The Fiend has been basically no selling for your top guys, if he then gets trashed by Goldberg it makes the current roster look so weak. It won’t be a long match so a Goldberg win would essentially be a squash. This is why I hate the Fiend, I cannot guy him losing. I think he no sells the Jackhammer, and puts Goldberg down. I think eventually someone is going to rip his mask off in a match and that will be his weakness and he will lose.