How WWE Will Spoil Goldberg’s Return

In an era when ratings matter above all else, the WWE won’t let fans be surprised anymore because they can’t afford it, and Goldberg’s possible return could be affected.

Were you shocked when Seth Rollins or John Cena came back on RAW? Of course not, because WWE made sure that you knew weeks in advance about their pending return. Why? Because the worst thing to the creative team would be allowing fans to be pleasantly surprised at the sight of a beloved superstar returning to in-ring action.

The same will hold true if and when Goldberg makes his return to the WWE.

More wwe: WrestleMania 33 Match Card Projections

One night in the not-too-distant future, you will be watching RAW or Smackdown and a strange new commercial will appear. Cut to the image of a lonely, shadowy room, backlit only by a faint strobe. Smoke fills the room as a blurry figure walks slowly, but purposefully towards the camera before stopping just out of focus. Sparks engulf his body from both sides and just as they begin to subside, we get a quick cut to black. A placard appears that reads:

“FIND OUT, “WHO’S NEXT?” MONDAY NIGHT RAW. (FUTURE DATE)”

More from WWE

• Trish Stratus on WWE NXT would help elevate that women’s division
• Randy Orton signs with SmackDown to go after The Bloodline
• WWE and AEW will put on a full court press for Kazuchika Okada in 2024
• The Judgment Day is the top faction story in WWE
• Liv Morgan vs Rhea Ripley is perfect for WWE Royal Rumble 2024

And that will be the story of Goldberg’s WWE return. No mystery. No surprise. Did you want a satisfying pay-per-view run-in? Too bad. Were you expecting an explosive and shocking confrontation between Goldberg and (INSERT HEEL NAME HERE) on RAW? Well stop expecting those things because it is almost a guarantee that this is not the way WWE will choose to bring Goldberg back. The real question is why?

The answer may be simpler (and more unfortunate) than we’d like to imagine: Ratings.

Above all else, the WWE relies on sponsors to survive the wasteland that is network television. Sponsors rely on ratings to ensure their products are seen by as many people as possible and they pay good money to the network and WWE to ensure this happens week in and week out. Higher ratings means more sponsors means more money for the network and the cycle of capitalism begins anew.

More from Daily DDT

• It’s time for Adam Cole and MJF to drop the ROH tag team titles
• Tom Lawlor talks MLW return, AEW opportunity, CM Punk’s WWE return and more
• Eddie Kingston stands to gain the most from the AEW Continental Classic
• Trish Stratus on WWE NXT would help elevate that women’s division
• Randy Orton signs with SmackDown to go after The Bloodline

Because of this, the WWE cannot simply assume that we will tune in every week; they need to ensure we are enticed. This pavlovian necessity could have been avoided if the writers and creative department put out consistently good storylines and entertaining segments that kept us intrigued. After all, that’s the reason we kept tuning in to both WCW and WWE during the height of the Monday Night Wars.

So in the name of ratings and profit, WWE will tease us for weeks about Goldberg’s return. The tickets will sell and the fans will cheer and that particular episode of RAW will undoubtedly receive a ratings bump. Then it goes back to business as usual with steady, albeit lower ratings until they tease us with the next “surprise” return from whichever superstar had been inevitably injured months prior.

Related Story: A Two-Sided Story of Redemption

It’s a shame that WWE would rather rely on these ratings band-aids instead of fixing the gaping wound left by years of poor booking decisions and messy storytelling. It doesn’t have to be this way.