They already tried using the Rock to get him over

They tried using a lot more than The Rock to get him over.

CAN WE PLEASE TALK ABOUT GOLDBERG GOING OVER ON BROCK AGAIN!

I don't understand it. The only reasonable explanation that I have heard is they are punishing brock for the UFC drug failure. But even that seems like a stretch.

HOW DO YOU book a guy like brock for 3 years to be a monster. Break the UT streak, have him squash everyone including Cena on the card for over a year, just to job to 50 year old goldberg.
Am I missing something? How does that make any business sense? WHAT AM I MISSING?

Gotta make Oldberg look strong

Well you see, Brock is 0-3 vs. Goldberg now so that really drives the anticipation up to see if Brock can finally mount any offense and make it 1-3. It makes perfect sense.

Goldberg's entire appeal is/was his unbeatable mystique, so I can see why they've had him crush Lesnar while not having him get overexposed in the ring. It's terrible to watch though, and I don't get how they justify another match in kayfabe.

His WWE run during HHH presents Monday night raw successfully killed the idea that he was unbeatable and that was over 10 years ago

Not gonna lie, if Ownes loses the title to Goldberg, I have no reason to watch RAW. But yeah, hard time believing it.
I don't understand what's the deal with these part-timers tho... Let them have their Rumble/WM/SS/SS appearance, but ffs don't give them any titles.

There's no other reason for Goldberg to be at Fastlane. Certainly not facing Brock there. Maybe Brock interferes and costs him the belt. That seems more reasonable than having Goldberg/Brock for the ****ing title at Mania.

I would literally rather Big Show go over Owens at Fastlane and defend the title vs Shaq at WM than either of Laser/Dadberg go anywhere near it

Lol, at least bring back the mini-rings if you're going to go that route.

The worst part about the interminable Cena/Orton matches is that I literally don't remember a single one of them. I couldn't tell you one spot that they have done together that I remember. I can't remember any promos that they have done together that had something interesting happen. It's like the Men in Black erased all memories of every Cena/Orton interaction from my brain. I remember lots of things Cena has done that entertained me. Same with Orton. But none of them together.

I was at rumble last night, here's my mini trip report/observations. But first I want to chime in on some of the comments above about Goldberg's unbeatable mystique. I think there's some disconnect between how the IC interprets losses and promos and how general fans do. I remember that entire Goldberg run from when I was in my pre-teens. I never once had the impression that Goldberg was not unbeatable. It didn't matter how many times a heel attained victory through cheating, interference, or even using a weapon in a no-dq match. I didn't find a heel stronger than a face unless he beat him cleanly with no outside help, weapon, or nonsense with a ref being knocked out during a count. Goldberg was only beaten during that run by every member of evolution being involved in the match using weapons, and Goldberg being injured due to previous attacks by Evolution, and Goldberg still won quite often.

On to the rumble, the tv really doesn't do justice to just how much Roman Reigns is hated. The crowd erupted when Strowman interfered in the title match. Crowd was completely deflated when Reigns entered and depressed at the idea of him winning. I think a lot of us didn't even care that it was Orton who won and were just thrilled Reigns didn't win. In my section complete strangers were high-fiving and hugging to celebrate Reigns being eliminated.

One of the large screens (the one in front of my section) above the ring was having major difficulties during the Royal Rumble match much to the ire of that segment of the crowd. I went to Wrestlemania last year and there was an issue of fans not being allowed on to floor seats until after the event had started. I know it's only 2 times, but I'm pretty annoyed that every time I've gone to one of these events there's been some type of issue like this that I've never seen at, say, a basketball game.

Another factor against "WWE is booking Roman to be a heel"--Strowman (clearly a heel) interfered in KO's behalf (clearly a heel).

After a day to think about it, it was pretty smart of them to throw Roman out there #30 to get the best possible reaction to an Orton win. That said, Vince has no balls anymore. He wanted to surprise the fans, but did it the worst and safest possible way. What are they going to do 10-15 years from now when they have no stars and want today's stars to be the part-timers headlining Mania? There won't be any. There was a time Wrestlemania would have one old-timers match on the middle of the card. Now the entire thing is an old-timers game.

Worked for Cena against Styles last night.

Maybe Reigns takes the belt of Owens at the next PPV, then faces Taker in a career vs. championship match. Reigns cheats to beat Taker, and finally turns heel.

Just watch the arrogant stare down Reigns has with Taker after he eliminates him. It was made to look like a big deal and there's definitely something there.

None of the Reigns-centric booking makes any sense at all.

If the plan is Braun-Reigns at Mania (which the title match suggested) why have Reigns enter 30 and eliminate Taker.

If the plan is Reigns-Taker, why have Braun cost RR the belt? What is the plan now for Braun? Wasting him in the pointless Battle Royal?

Braun vs Reigns at Fastlane and then moving the **** onto Reigns vs. Taker. Why do both last night? It just gives a reason for the match and something for the video package at WM w/Taker.

Great, so Reigns squashes Braun in a two week feud, moves onto Taker and buries Braun leaving him directionless as Mania approaches. Bravo, WWE

I'll try to explain this, but I'm sure some will still **** on it. The original plan to according to anyone and everyone with inside knowledge was that it was a one shot deal at Survivor Series. However in the lead up to the match, WWE got Goldberg to sign on for additional shows. Most people think it will be until Mania, but no one knows for sure.

Anyway the booking went from Lesnar winning to having Goldberg win as a way to generate more interest in a match at Mania. They went with a squash for a few reasons. One was that that was how his matches went when he was at his peak, so play off of that. Another reason was that it hadn't been in the ring for 12 years and I highly doubt he could do much more than that. I also doubt he will be able to do much more than that at Mania, but that's a different discussion.

From there the next big show was last night. They needed something to help generate more interest in the match at Mania, and give them something to work with in the build to that match. Last night I think was the perfect way to do that. I think everyone agrees that Lesnar was just awesome on the RAW after Mania when he lost his belt to Rollins, and while I doubt he will show up tonight and rip **** up like that and continue to do so until April, the way he went out last night does give him the opportunity to ramp up the intensity when he shows up on RAW. If he were to eliminate Goldberg, that opportunity just isn't there. Sure he could do it anyway, but having it go this way makes it look more authentic.

Just curious, since you were so against this last night, what would your alternative idea look like?

I think it would be fair to say most of this forum's ideal alternative would have been for Goldberg not to have ever re-joined the WWE.

Lesnar's monster push was overdone as it is. To de-push him in order to get a 49 year old part timer over is a waste.

And if WWE's argument is that Goldberg/Lesnar will juice up buyrates among casuals in a way that Samoa Joe vs AJ Styles would, well, who's fault is that?

Wonder if KO will get squashed just as easily by Dadberg - it's one thing to make a part-timer look bad (albeit it's Lesnar), but a full-time up-and-coming champion, I don't see how that plays well