Does Goldberg Deserve a WWE Universal Title Opportunity?

Is Goldberg the right man to face Kevin Owens for the WWE Universal Championship at Fastlane?

Monday Night Raw’s road to Wrestlemania is gearing for a pitstop to Fastlane, and the powers behind the scenes might be making a huge mistake in strapping Goldberg to that championship match against Kevin Owens.

Kevin Owens successfully defended his WWE Universal Championship against Roman Reigns at the Rumble and barely survived his encounter against Braun Strowman last week on Raw. You can say that KO already has a built-in feud against those two men since they each cost one another of becoming the Universal Championship.

The obvious step would be to have RAW GM Mick Foley announce a triple threat match for the WWE Universal Championship at the main event for Fastlane.

Instead, Bill Goldberg interrupts Jeri-KO’s promo to accept Brock Lesnar’s call out to a match at Wrestlemania 33 and goat Chris Jericho into accepting Goldberg’s challenge for Owens’s Universal Championship at Fastlane. That clearly doesn’t make sense at all. Goldberg jumps ahead of both Reigns and Strowman for a title shot, even though he has a Wrestlemania match scheduled against Brock Lesnar.

Having a part-timer who won’t stick around past April shouldn’t potentially be winning RAW’s marquee championship at Fastlane and then face another part-timer in Brock Lesnar at Wrestlemania 33 for that championship. It logically doesn’t make sense for a number of reasons.

First, having Goldberg defeat Kevin Owens at Fastlane for the title would be a heartwarming moment for the WWE Universe but where would be the rub for KO? He wouldn’t be able to get his title rematch since Goldberg is a part-time talent and won’t be wrestling on Monday Night RAW anytime soon.

Second, Goldberg would be forced to defend his newly won championship against Brock Lesnar at Wrestlemania 33. That right there would put a magnitude of pressure on those men to deliver a fantastic match for that title. Let’s be frank here, both men are not capable to deliver a 15-20 min match that would burn the house down and garner a 5-star classic. That would slowly turn the fans against both men just like they did back in Wrestlemania 20. Trust me on this one, Stone Cold won’t be there to deliver stunners on both those men on behalf of the WWE Universe.

Third and final point on why it logically doesn’t make sense for Goldberg to become Universal Champion at Fastlane is because he has to win his match against Lesnar at Wrestlemania 33. Goldberg can’t play hot potato with his newly won title against the Beast because it would cheapen his title reign and force Brock Lesnar to hijack the championship as another part time talent. It would keep the title in limbo and all the full-time superstars won’t be able to face the champion on a regular cycle.

The WWE Universal Championship will turn from the richest prize on Kevin Owens’ shoulder to a baked hot potato between 2 part-time superstars at Wrestlemania 33 and the RAW brand will suffer because of this travesty.

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It’s hard to book that match between Lesnar and Goldberg because both men would need to look strong in order carry the championship after Wrestlemania. But who would be able to topple either man for the championship afterward will be an extremely hard question to answer.