Plus, columnist Rob Pasbani talks about the latest developments in the Bloodline story and previews all the wrestling on TV this week.
Fightful Select reports that WWE Hall of Famer Bill Goldberg is now a free agent. Goldberg’s deal expired at the end of 2022, and WWE chose not to renew it. Goldberg’s last match was in Saudi Arabia last February losing to Roman Reigns.
Goldberg returned to WWE in 2016 after demand from fans reached a fever pitch following Goldberg being involved in the promotion of WWE’s video game that year. Goldberg ended up beating Brock Lesnar in a shocking twist, leading to a rematch for the World Title the following year at WrestleMania. Goldberg worked programs with Undertaker, Lashley, Drew McIntyre and Dolph Ziggler while in WWE.
Earlier this month, Goldberg told Sports Illustrated that he felt WWE owed him a retirement match. “You never say never, especially in wrestling, and they owe me one. That’s all I can say. I made a deal with the devil and I did my job, and they owe me a retirement match. At the end of the day, at 56, it’s not something where I’m sitting by the phone waiting for a call. I’ve got a few ideas of how to do it on my own, possibly in Israel. So never say never.”
While I personally think Goldberg’s best days are behind him and found most of his WWE matches skippable (notable exceptions being the Brock matches, his Reigns match and the Lashley match in Saudi Arabia), I can still see why AEW would find it very appealing to bring the 56-year-old in for a match or two. It might not create a bump like CM Punk had, but it would create a unique interest where new people would certainly tune in. The trick is that all the other action has to be compelling enough for people to stick around after Goldberg is done.
Goldberg would need to get a win and then give the win back to one of their top stars. Imagine a brief showdown with Wardlow. Or Powerhouse Hobbs? Goldberg vs. Keith Lee could be fun too! Plus, it would give AEW a much-needed publicity boost. Who knows if Tony Khan feels the same way, but time is running out as Goldberg is not getting any younger.
If you’ve been reading this column, you know what a big fan of the ongoing Bloodline story I have been. The main event story has consistently been the most entertaining part of WWE television every week, and with WrestleMania around the corner, there is no more holding back on where things are headed.
Last Friday on Smackdown, Cody Rhodes showed up and called Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens into the ring for a final plea for Kevin to forgive Sami and for the duo to reunite. Kevin wasn’t going for it.
At the end of the night, Sami confronted Jey Uso in the ring, and the duo went back and forth airing their grievances. But, when Sami made the point that Jey wasn’t mad at Sami for attacking Reigns, Jey was just mad that he didn’t attack Roman himself. That was enough to set Jey off, and bring Jimmy Uso into the ring for a beatdown of Zayn. Who would come to Zayn’s aid? Finally… it was his best friend, Kevin Owens. Listen to that crowd reaction:
On Raw last night, Owens explained why he finally accepted Zayn’s apology, and the duo, now a strong unit, challenged the Usos to a tag title match at WrestleMania. Jey accepted and the four of them fought it out, with the Usos getting the worst of the exchange.
Roman Reigns makes a rare appearance on Raw, and Reigns and Jey Uso finally have a discussion about what’s been going on the last few weeks in the Bloodline. Jey reinforces his allegiance to the Bloodline, but it didn’t seem like Roman was so sure.
The final segment of the night had Cody Rhodes and Roman Reigns confronting each other in the ring. The two traded disses with Roman saying “You didn’t wanna do Stardust, so you ran away. You started another promotion that you couldn’t get over in… and then you ran away.” Cody didn’t flinch, predicting that after he wins their showdown at WrestleMania, the Bloodline will disband. The Usos would leave. Solo would leave and even Heyman. “There you’ll be. A man without a family, a Roman with no more reigns, a Chief without a tribe.” Cody clapped back.
This build has been really really good!
Building up the Hell in a Cell match, Edge cut a promo on Raw this week telling Finn to bring his demon to WrestleMania. The expectation is that Edge will be performing under his Brood moniker.
On Smackdown last week, when a number one contender for the IC title couldn’t be determined, it was declared a triple-threat match with Gunther, Sheamus and Drew McIntyre.
Here is the WrestleMania lineup as it stands:
WWE NXT is on tonight at 8pm on USA Network:
MLW Underground tonight at 10pm on REELZ has:
AEW Dynamite is on TBS tomorrow night at 8pm:
Impact Wrestling on Thursday has announced
WWE Smackdown hasn’t announced much for Friday:
Impact has their iPPV, Sacrifice on Friday night at 8pm on FITE and Impact+ with this lineup:
Andy Kaufman is the latest inductee into the WWE Hall of Fame. Jerry Lawler was expected to induct him, but his status is questionable after suffering a stroke a few weeks ago.
Mercedes Mone, the former Sasha Banks, was interviewed at Planet Comic Con this weekend and was asked about possibly returning to WWE and she said “First of all, nobody knows the story. You don’t know the story, you’re reading whatever you want to read and believing whatever you want to believe. Nobody knows the story because I haven’t said anything and I’m not going to say anything because that’s just the classy boss that I am, the CEO.” She continued that she’s following her dream of wrestling in Japan. “You have to follow your heart and follow your soul and follow your dreams and this was always, always, always a dream of mine that I never got to accomplish. So, as I’m growing in my career, I’ve like been in the WWE for almost 10 years. I had to have a change, I had to feel something different in my heart and soul so I had to go after a whole new dream and a whole new chapter and a whole new destiny for me. And this is where I want to be and this is what I want to make happen for me.” You can watch the whole interview here.
Steve Austin told The Wrestling Classic that WWE has not reached out to him for WrestleMania “You know, I haven’t heard anything. We’re literally, as we speak right now, it’s about two weeks away and it’s the biggest show of the year. Right now, I think WWE has got as good a roster that they’ve had since the Attitude Era. They got a deep roster. So, I think so many guys and gals need those coveted sports. They’ve got plenty of names to draw from. Plenty of talent to draw from. I think they should shine the light and the cameras on their current Superstars.”
Booker T said on his podcast that he expects that Bray Wyatt vs. Lashley is no longer happening at WrestleMania.
Kevin Nash said on the Kliq This podcast that Dark Side of the Ring is working on an episode for Scott Hall. “Dark Side of the Ring, so, they want to do something and they want to involve me and they want to involve Sean Waltman, Cody [Hall], Cody’s going to be involved and you and I had this conversation yesterday, you know the thing that we want to do is – we just did the misconceptions of Kevin Nash as an episode – just tell people who Scott really f***ing was and I just don’t think that the A&E perspective is ever going to cover the post-traumatic stress of Scott and the shooting that happened at The Dollhouse on Orange Avenue. There’s a reason why so many of our warriors come back from combat and they take their lives because they’ve taken a life. Scott’s thing was always – because he was so highly religious – Scott would say, ‘but you don’t understand, I’m not going to go to heaven. I’ve broken one of the Ten Commandments, thou shalt not kill. I’ve killed, I’m not going to heaven, my soul will be in limbo.'” Hall fatally shot somebody in self-defense after that man killed another person due to a dispute with his wife.
In New Japan news, SANADA has left LIJ and is now in the faction led by Taichi (former Just Four Guys, now Just Five Guys.) SANADA, who is now clean shaven, ended up winning the New Japan Cup.
Will Ospreay is out a few weeks with a shoulder injury. Tanahashi is taking Ospreay’s booking during NJPW’s crossover show with Impact next week.
AEW Head of Talent Relations Christopher Daniels recently told WrestlingInc that the relationship between AEW and AAA is in a good position. “Konnan and Tony Khan recently had a meeting and tried to suss all that out, and I feel like we’re in a good position,” Daniels said. “We’re in a good place right now, obviously, because I’m going to AAA to wrestle. So yeah, I feel like whatever miscommunications or misunderstandings, whatever that was, I feel like that’s in the past and we’re going to move forward and not dwell on that and try and be available. Each promotion is trying to be available for the other as its schedule permits.”
Buff Bagwell revealed in a recent interview that he’s been sober since last August.
Sheamus appeared in last night’s episode of NCIS: Los Angeles. You can briefly see him in the teaser below:
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