WWE's rumor mill recently churned up some new information about the backstage politics surrounding one of WrestleMania 36's biggest matches. According to WrestleZone, Bill Goldberg's Universal Championship victory over "The Fiend" Bray Wyatt at Super Showdown was a last-minute decision spurred by Goldberg's refusal to lose the match to Wyatt -- and he's been in hot water with the powers-that-be at WWE because of it.

Now, while every wrestling rumor should be taken with a fair degree of salt, the ramifications of this particular story are far-reaching -- IF it's true, of course. First, there's the Goldberg aspect of the story. There's an old saying in wrestling that the biggest marks of all are the wrestlers themselves -- and if Goldberg actually refused to put Bray Wyatt over because he thought it would hurt his image, not only is he a mark of epic proportions, but he's delusional to boot.

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Supposedly, Goldberg didn't want to lose to Wyatt because he views his character as a "superhero," and he was concerned that if he lost to a "monster" character like Wyatt, it would destroy his character's credibility for younger wrestling fans. Putting aside the fact that Wyatt has arguably the most popular character in WWE right now, with legions of young fans cheering on "The Fiend," Goldberg seems to have a severely skewed vision of his fan base's demographics. Goldberg's biggest run in WCW came at the tail end of the 90's, and he hasn't been in a regular in WWE since 2004. Newsflash, Bill: most "younger viewers" have no idea who you are! Anyone younger than 16 wasn't even born yet the last time Goldberg could be seen wrestling on weekly television. He's kidding himself if he thinks child-age viewers would be devastated to watch him lose to "The Fiend."

Despite the mind-boggling selfishness that supposedly motivated Goldberg's decision to take the championship belt for himself, its fallout could actually lead to a number of positive consequences both in storyline and backstage. The most immediate benefit of Goldberg's selfishness is that it led to Bray Wyatt being put into a WrestleMania program with John Cena culminating in their Firefly Fun House match, which was probably the single most consequential WWE match of the last decade -- and is likely to be the single most influential match of the next decade. Without the loss to Goldberg freeing him from the Universal Championship picture, it seems highly unlikely that WWE would have given Wyatt and Cena the green light to put on a match that went so far outside of the box. One loss to Goldberg seems like more than a fair price to pay to make the Firefly Fun House Match happen, both for Wyatt and the WWE universe at large.

Another side benefit of the whole mess is that Wyatt supposedly came out of it with an even higher standing backstage. While he was understandably reluctant to drop the title at the apex of his championship run, Wyatt's willingness to go along to get along and job for Goldberg increased his esteem both with management and with the rest of the locker room. If Wyatt proving he can act like a professional even when his opponent can't gets him any more creative leeway in the future, that has to be considered a net positive -- especially with Vince McMahon rumored to be just about the only person in WWE who was lukewarm on the Firefly Fun House match.

The other consequence to this story that should end up being a win for the WWE universe centers on Goldberg himself. Goldberg's insistence on acting the diva has supposedly drawn huge heat for him with WWE management -- heat that could very well keep him off of television for a long time to come. According to rumor, WWE's initial plans for the Universal Championship once Roman Reigns was forced to pull out of his planned WrestleMania match with Goldberg were to save the Reigns vs. Goldberg match-up for the future. Goldberg would defeat a placeholder opponent at WrestleMania -- who turned out to be Braun Strowman -- and eventually take on Reigns at a later PPV (possibly SummerSlam) where he would presumably drop the title to Reigns.

The only fly in the ointment for that plan turned out to be Goldberg himself. He'd only been contracted up through an appearance at WrestleMania, and allegedly didn't want to commit himself to any further dates after that point. Since every Goldberg appearance costs WWE a pretty penny to meet his fees, WWE pivoted instead to putting the title on Strowman. While it's essentially a slap in the face to Wyatt that Goldberg had no problem putting over a lower-profile wrestler in Strowman, anything that keeps Goldberg off television and out of the championship picture is a good thing at this point in time. Outside of the Saudi crown prince, nobody has been particularly clamoring for Goldberg appearances lately, especially since every Goldberg title program takes a high profile match opportunity away from active WWE talent.

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While one can't really blame Goldberg for taking advantage to make big money for brief in-ring appearances, his most recent matches have all been disastrous from a wrestling standpoint. Goldberg hasn't shown that he's had the stamina to last more than a few minutes in the ring or the physical ability to safely perform his big moves without botching them. He somehow managed to injure both himself and the Undertaker at Super Showdown 2019, and could have seriously injured Bray Wyatt with the botched jackhammer that won the championship at Super Showdown 2020. With Goldberg becoming a potential danger to both himself and others inside the ring and not bringing anything noteworthy to his programs from a storyline perspective, a long hiatus from wrestling is a win for everyone involved.

Bill Goldberg at WrestleMania

While the rumor mill floated the notion that his match against Strowman might end up serving as a de facto retirement match, it still seems unlikely that the WWE universe has seen the last of Goldberg. Regardless of the present state of his in-ring skills, Goldberg remains a big name that draws viewers for WWE and commands large paychecks for each appearance. But if his selfishness in refusing to lose to Bray Wyatt actually ends up inadvertently raising Wyatt's profile while keeping Goldberg on the shelf for a while, then it might have actually been the best development that the WWE has seen since "The Fiend" first won the championship.

Further Reading: Braun Strowman is the Luckiest Champion in WWE History