Goldberg defeated Kevin Owens at the WWE Fastlane PPV in less than 25 seconds. Chris Jericho provided the distraction, Goldberg hit a spear and a jackhammer to win the match. As a result, Goldberg is the brand-new WWE Universal Champion heading into Wrestlemania 33.
Since Goldberg has returned to WWE, we have only seen him in the ring for a limited amount of time. He squashed Brock Lesnar at Survivor Series in just over a minute. He was in the 2017 Royal Rumble match for a few minutes and now he defeated Kevin Owens in less than 25 seconds.
Why did it happen?
Dave Meltzer on the latest Wrestling Observer Radio (subscribe here) speculated on the possible reasons why the match at Fastlane was so short.
The first is that WWE didn’t want to risk Goldberg getting injured in the match. Only a few weeks out from Wrestlemania, it would have been a disaster if Goldberg was unable to compete at the event. Given his age, the chances of an injury were very high.
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The second reason is that a longer match would have exposed Goldberg. If him and Owens put on a bad 5 minute or so match at Fastlane, the luster of Goldberg at Wrestlemania would have been affected. WWE didn’t want to risk Goldberg getting exposed so close to Wrestlemania 33.
Love or hate the decision for Goldberg to win so quickly, it protects him heading into Wrestlemania and his match against Brock Lesnar.
Let us know what you think in the comment section below. Do you think WWE made the right decision? What did you think of what happened?
Well, it’s Goldberg. He was protected even in his peak, so makes sense that they would protect him now that he’s older. Dude just can’t wrestle.
What I want to know is why they had to send that message that “Owens will never be world champ again-DEAL WITH IT!”
So if Goldberg might get injured or might get exposed, why put him in a TITLE MATCH? If he’s just going to squash people, just book him against Jindar Mahal.