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The 411 Wrestling Top 5: The Top 5 Desired Goldberg Matches
Credit: WWE
The 411 Wrestling Top 5: Hello everyone and welcome to 411 Wrestling’s Top 5 List. We take a topic each week and all the writers here on 411 wrestling will have the ability to participate and give us their Top 5 on said topic. So, onto this week’s topic…
Week 341 – The Top 5 Desired Goldberg Matches
If Bill Goldberg returns to WWE as a part time wrestler, who are the five people you’d book him against?
Bradley Hargett
5. AJ Styles – We can sit and talk all day about how TNA is the minor leagues of professional wrestling, and I would be inclined to agree. However, what we can’t argue on is the fact that TNA gave opportunity to guy’s who may have not gotten it elsewhere, and due to this they nurtured some of the brightest stars in the industry. AJ Styles is one of those guys. He’s just got it, and Styles Vs. Bill Goldberg is a marquee match in its own right.
4. Kevin Owens – Kevin Owens is more a personal choice than anything else. I’ve went on record on more than one occasion stating that I believe he is the best heel in WWE today. KO is a man deserving of a main event spot on the card, and say what you will about Bill being one-dimensional, it doesn’t change the fact that he left a lasting impact on the world of wrestling. Facing off against a man who left such an imprint on professional wrestling…that could be one of the pieces to the puzzle that pushes KO where I believe he should go.
3. The Undertaker – If the wrestling world ever saw a match-up between these two I’m not privy to it. I did a quick YouTube search and only found video game and edited footage. Undertaker is legendary, he’s proved that he’s still more than capable in the ring. I can envious a hard hitting match that might just rival Goldberg’s bout with Steiner from 2000.
2. John Cena – Obvious choice here. Say what you will about John Cena, but the main consistently has good to great matches with nearly everyone he steps in the ring with…minus Randy Orton of course, but I digress. That alone should be enough reason to place him on this list, but if you need more reasoning…he’s John Cena, he’s the ‘face that runs the place’ and frankly the story writes it’s self.
1. Brock Lesnar – This one is pretty self-explanatory. WrestleMania 20 presented us with what should have been a dream match-up but ended up being nothing more than a disappointment….to say the least. With both men on their way out of WWE at the time, and sporting bad attitudes to boot, fans never got the outcome that many of them craved for. For that reason alone, if Bill Goldberg were to return to the WWE, this match is a must.
Robert S Leighty Jr
5. Kevin Owens – Owens has a fantastic character and would be perfect for Goldberg. The story is easy with the prize fighting bully against the intense ass kicker. I think match would be rock solid too.
4. AJ Styles – I just want to see what kind of match AJ can get out of Goldberg and you know he will bump all over the ring. His new cocky, heel persona would be fantastic up against Goldberg as well.
3. Ryback – Just so crowd can get all the “Goldberg” chants out of their system. Ryback would be all for it even if WWE would want Goldberg to squash him.
2. Brock Lesnar – Their match at Mania was all kinds of wrong for various reasons. A rematch would be tremendous as it would be fun to watch two monsters try to kill each other.
1. John Cena – Any dream match in WWE starts and ends with Cena for the last decade or so. The crowd reaction would be great and Cena knows how to work a big match as well as anyone.
Mike Chin
5. Rusev – Rusev is doing so, so well now as his in-character trash talking game evolves, and as WWE has seemingly gotten serious about pushing him again. In terms of in-ring match quality, I don’t think there are many guys who could serve up a better battle of the hosses opposite Goldberg than Rusev.
4. Heath Slater – I’m sure this pick will seem way out of left field, so let me explain. I’m not a big fan of the idea of Goldberg returning to WWE. I thought he was great in his initial run in WCW, but that his previous lackluster run under McMahonagement did disservices to both the WWE product and Goldberg’s legacy. While I’m open to being proven wrong, I don’t foresee Goldberg succeeding much better in WWE a decade and change later.
I do, however, see potential in a one-off appearance, and would mark out to see him squash Heath Slater in the style that guys like Vader and Sid did in the build to the thousandth episode of Raw. Slater generates just the right type of heat for these types of segments, besides selling like a champ, and a one-off spot like this seems like one of the better, short-and-sweet uses for Goldberg in WWE.
3. Roman Reigns – If Goldberg is to return for more than a one-off appearance, I’d want to see his run centered around dream matches. Goldberg-Reigns represents a generational clash that we never thought we’d see, with the built in storyline of them battling for Spear supremacy. If carefully planned by the right agent, and worked in a true smash-mouth style, this could be a good one and another step toward getting over Roman Reigns (or perhaps as a satisfying victory for Goldberg if WWE leaned into making Reigns a heel).
2. The Undertaker – Now that we’re focused on dream match scenarios, there would be few more intriguing possibilities than Goldberg coming back for the express purpose of challenging ‘Taker at WrestleMania. Some additional intrigue: despite only having worked one previous ‘Mania match, Goldberg is one of the very, very few big names WWE could plug in this spot who could actually say that he is still undefeated at WrestleMania, which might create an interesting dynamic of ‘Taker as his challenger.
Here, I’ll even write the script for their face-to face promo–
Undertaker: [something, something] You will rest in peace.
Goldberg: Yeah, well I’ve never lost at WrestleMania. How ’bout you?
1. John Cena – When we talk full-time talents to plug into dream matches, no one on the contemporary landscape really compares to John Cena–the guy with the best established name, longevity, and an ability to more often than not pull out serviceable-to-great matches opposite just about any other performer. I know some of my colleagues are pushing for Lesnar in this spot, and I get that, but there’s something way more appealing to me about a first-time match-up and Goldberg-Lesnar already had its shot (in Madison Square Garden, at WrestleMania no less), so I’d advocate for this showdown instead.
Kevin Pantoja
5. Rusev – Man, I’ve really grown to love Rusev. You’ll notice a trend for most matches on this list and it’s that I want to see a good hoss battle when it comes to Goldberg. I didn’t watch Goldberg in his prime to see him have technical classics anything like that. Let him and another guy beat the shit out of each other. Rusev and Goldberg would do that and I’m pretty sure it would be all kinds of awesome.
4. John Cena – I’d say this is the one match I selected that wouldn’t be a traditional hoss fight. Truthfully, a lot of Cena’s best work came against guys that were known for being very good in the ring (Bryan, Punk, Owens, Michaels, etc.). However, Cena has a tendency to get the best out of some lesser workers (Khali, Lashley, etc.). Not only would Cena/Goldberg be a big money match featuring two top names, but I think they could pull out a surprisingly good match.
3. Cesaro – For some reason, this really sticks out as a potentially good match. Cesaro is a freak of nature. If you looked at him and Goldberg side by side, you would just assume that Goldberg was the more powerful guy. Not that Cesaro doesn’t look powerful, but he is probably the strongest guy I’ve ever seen in a wrestling ring. I would just love to see him overpower a guy that was known for his power and it would be great.
2. Samoa Joe – One of my favorite things about Samoa Joe has been his nonchalant attitude towards a lot of things. The way he casually walks out of the way from a diving opponent or something like that always gets me. Just picture Goldberg snarling across the ring from Joe and Joe just acting completely unfazed. That image is enough to want to see this. Two badass dudes that are very intimidating just trying to match each other.
1. Brock Lesnar – This has to be number one right? When this match was set up for WrestleMania XX, I remember being blown away at the idea. I badly wanted to see it and was super pumped. Unfortunately, we all know what went down. Both guys were out the door, phoned it in and delivered one of the worst WrestleMania matches ever in front of a very hostile crowd. If Goldberg were to return, they have to right this wrong. Considering Brock’s new killer style after his UFC run, this could be all sorts of special.
Rob Stewart
5. Samoa Joe – This was a toss-up for the last spot between Joe and the Wyatt Family. And while I WOULD love to see Goldberg destroy the Wyatts in the war after losing some mind game battles, it would be more fun to see Joe and Goldberg lock horns. I want to see a Goldberg get in there against a guy who just wouldn’t be impressed with him at all and would be willing to take everything Bill has to offer just to get in close and choke him out. Joe and Goldberg would just be two legitimately terrifying dudes just beating the holy hell out of each other until one of them couldn’t possibly get up any more, and that sounds great. Sign me up!
4. Cesaro – Battle of the Superhumanly Strong Bald Men! I’m not sure how good this match would actually be (I mean, we all know Cesaro doesn’t really have bad matches, but I’m having a hard time envisioning Bill bumping well for Cesaro’s offense), but the visual of it would still be fascinating. Out of all the options I’m choosing here, this is the one I least see as a drawn-out program, but for a single night story on Raw or Smackdown? Hell yeah, Cesaro vs. Goldberg. Make it happen.
3. Roman Reigns – Joe and Cesaro required some thought on my end to round out this list, but options #3-#1 are as obvious as can be. This would purely be a passing-of-the-torch moment, but if Goldberg made a return, it would basically have to culminate in this encounter. I think Goldberg should have bigger fish to fry for his first several months of a comeback (see #5, #2, and #1 here), but on his way back out the door, he should totally get a big match full of Spears out of his system and put over Roman.
2. John Cena – One of the most dominant forces of the late 90’s/early 2000’s vs. one of the most dominant forces of the late 2000s, early 2010s. This match would be the equivalent of taking your Superman action figure and your Silver Surfer action figure and smashing them against each other. Goldberg’s last WWE match took place the same night as Cena’s first WrestleMania match, so these two huge freight ships passed so close in the night back in 2004. No better place, for my money, for them to finally wreck into each other than at WrestleMania 33.
1. Brock Lesnar – Right? I mean, this one is obvious. Only Cena is even close to this choice, but the bad taste of WrestleMania 20 has stayed lodged on our tongues for over a dozen years, and probably no match in history deserves a do-over as much as that one. If these two guys gave even one tiny shit between them, this match would still be fantastic. I don’t know that I see this as a WrestleMania encounter (I’d rather see Cena/Goldberg at ‘Mania), but this would certainly work at, say SummerSlam or The Royal Rumble. But, yeah… if Goldberg comes back, WWE absolutely needs to get correcting one of the biggest letdowns in its history.
List your Top Five for this week’s topic in the comment section using the following format:
5. CHOICE: Explanation
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1. CHOICE: Explanation
