3 Reasons Goldberg is Returning to WWE

Professional wrestling is something that people enjoy for different reasons. Some love the in ring action over everything else, some prefer the story and journey to that in ring conflict while others love it for the connection it gives to other fans. It’s something that has an intense fandom, and brings people together just as quickly as it can tear them apart as they argue over what is better, worse and so forth. One thing that often divides the fans is a return of a former star, and that’s what we have with the return of Bill Goldberg. Once he was announced for the video game there were those in favor and against a possible return, with another side saying it would never happen. Those three sides again battled in arguments with the rumors of the return started. And now that his return is a fact, the divide continues. Today I want to discuss the three major reasons I feel that it makes sense that Goldberg is returning.

It’s Football/Election Season

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you are well aware that this is not only Monday Night Football season, but it is also an election year. Every year Monday Night Football takes a chunk away from the Raw audience, and last year the company never really recovered from the Monday Night Football season. Now while Monday Night Football is down from recent years, there are still a lot of people opting out of some if not all of WWE Raw, due to their team playing or simply because they are bigger football fans. The election always causes a boost for network and cable news programming, but this year’s ratings are up even more than usual because of all of the drama surrounding Mr. Trump and his past comments. Cable news in particular is booming, and that is because of that drama. Add in the fact that he’s facing a woman (lots of female interest) and that she is the wife of a former scandal ridden President and it is must see TV. With the competition of Monday Night Football and the election, WWE needs to do anything that they can to try and bring in viewers. A former star, who was a big deal during the biggest TV period in the history of wrestling, fits the bill for that. When WCW and ECW shut down, millions of people turned out and stopped watching. While we can all agree that writing better shows and working harder to create new stars over the past few years would have been a better solution, it is understandable as to why the choice was made to bring Goldberg back. Sting bumped ratings a bit as well as the NOC traditional PPV buyrate, they are hoping that Goldberg still has some magic in that regard as well.

Lesnar Won’t Be Crucifying a Regular Member of the Roster

One of the bigger criticisms of Brock Lesnar is the fact that he hasn’t put anyone over since coming back to WWE. Outside of losses to Undertaker and Triple H, Lesnar’s return has been scorched Earth for the WWE roster both on TV & PPV, as well as on live events. He got to destroy Cena, Big Show, Kofi, Orton, Sheamus Rusev and the Wyatts two at a time (at live events); I have no issue with Lesnar being used as a dominant figure, a special attraction and a destroyer of men, but I finally had my fill at this year’s WrestleMania. They had a huge chance to make Ambrose into a player (he was still looked at as a goof then because of his comedy routine) and he didn’t even had to beat the beast, all he had to do was give it his all in a glorious tale of a warrior going out on his shield who came close to slaying the beast and people would have loved it. But Brock had other plans, because he has already set the wheels in motion for his UFC return. And with that being the case, Lesnar wasn’t about to do any more than he had to in the match, and it was a failure. Lesnar looked as if he wasn’t interested I being there at all, he gave Ambrose next to nothing and their match failed just as badly as the Triple H vs. Roman Regina main event; both matches were bad and no one looked good when they were complete. So the second best reason that Goldberg is returning is because his not a regular roster member. It’s an added bonus that Lesnar and Goldberg have history going back to WrestleMania 20, but the thing that I love about this is that Lesnar can destroy him, no sell all of his shit and quite literally drive him through the mat and it doesn’t matter. Goldberg is an added attraction that they are hoping will get them some attention, but at the end of the day, they are giving their in house attraction a win over a guy with a name ,without sacrificing anyone on the active roster.

The Success of His & Other WCW DVDs, The Video Game And The Aging Demographic

The final reason has to do with business, sure the previous two points had some relation to the business aspect, but this point is all about it. Say what you will about the WWE 2K video game series, but it has allowed for WWE to mend fences with Warrior, Sting and now Goldberg. The WWE 2K video game series wants to sell games, they look to bring back names from the past (which folds into a point below) and that has led to them reaching out to these guys I spoke about. Once the buzz from the game announcement started, and how it had snowballed, it makes sense for them. The WWE 2K video game series got a lot of attention, just as they had desired.

Another big reason that Goldberg is returning us due to DVD sales; while DVD dales have overall been soft the past 4-5 years, especially since the release of the WWE Network, WCW DVDs, and specifically the Goldberg release did great numbers. The last time I say the numbers (which WWE is no longer releasing) the Goldberg DVD was only outsold by WrestleMania the year it came out. Whiel the DVD market is down, when you’re only second behind WrestleMania in the sales that is a great accomplishment. And these two points feed directly into my final discussion point.

Finally, the demographic is aging; during the Attitude Era WWE specifically targeted that 18-35 demographic and did everything they could to play to them. Steve Austin drinking beer and flipping people off, DX crotch chopping and getting chicks to flash them, the WWE chicks; if you were 18-35 and had a functioning penis WWE did everything they could to separate you from your money. But again, since the loss of WCW and ECW, the fan base has diminished. The casual fan has largely left, they haven’t cultivated a lot of new fans and the demographics prove this. 18-years ago the key demographic was 18-35, but now the age group watching is 36-52 and growing older. A lot of Attitude Era fans still remain, they have kids that they may or may not be raising as wrestling fans. When you bring back a Sting or a Goldberg; names big when they were rabid fans that spent money, you not only may get them back but you may get their kids involved and if you do you hopefully gain a new group of wrestling fans. The funny thing is that the move to PG has led to less children watching the shows over the years, the exact opposite of the company’s goal.

You can hate Goldberg as a wrestler, you can have no desire to watch him, but from WWE’s side of things it makes sense. I don’t think it makes it right, because they continue to have issues building real new stars, but I get why they are doing it.

Jack McGee is an aspiring investigative journalist with interests covering TV, Movies, Wrestling, MMA and Sports. When not hunting the Incredible Hulk, Jack works on his surfing, his Johnny Utah like throwing motion and origami.