WWE News: Goldberg Considered One Of The Most Bankable Stars in WWE
When the WWE news hit that Bill Goldberg was facing Kevin Owens for the WWE Universal Championship at Fastlane, there were murmurs that he was another part-time star who would bury a full-time WWE superstar. According to Forbes, the biggest reason that Bill Goldberg is getting such a big push right now over established WWE stars has to do with money.
What worries WWE fans is that Kevin Owens was built into a world title wrestler and instead of having another young star get over by finally beating him, the WWE looks like they will put the title on Bill Goldberg in a quick squash match.
Then, Bill Goldberg will fight Brock Lesnar at WrestleMania in a match where they don’t need a title to make it special. However, if Bill Goldberg heads into WrestleMania as the champion, that takes a big chance away from full-time WWE superstars who could use a world title match to push their stock.
According to Forbes, this all started back in 2013 when the WWE released the DVD WWE: Goldberg – The Ultimate Collection. In what had to take Vince McMahon by surprise, the Bill Goldberg DVD outsold the Triple H DVD that came out at the same time.
According to SE Scoops, in 2014 there were only four superstars who had DVDs sell more than 100,000 copies in 2014 and those were CM Punk, The Rock, The Undertaker, and Bill Goldberg. What had to really surprise the WWE was that Sting had a DVD released as well and it only sold 66,000 units.
Despite leaving the WWE on bad terms over a decade ago and staying out of wrestling, and despite only having a few limited years on top of the wrestling business, Bill Goldberg was one of the most sought-after WWE superstars when it came to DVD sales. That made the WWE seriously consider bringing back Bill Goldberg.
The WWE reached the agreement with Bill Goldberg. Much like they did with Ultimate Warrior, they started with announcing him as an unlockable character for the WWE 2K video game. Unlike Ultimate Warrior, they brought Bill Goldberg back for a match.
When Bill Goldberg returned on Oct. 17 to Monday Night Raw, the episode brought in 3.13 million viewers, which was 372,000 more than the week before. After that, the WWE pulled the trigger on the Bill Goldberg push, signed him for a longer period of time, and had him beat the formerly unbeatable Brock Lesnar in two minutes.
There was no backlash. The Monday Night Raw after Survivor Series saw the WWE pull in 2.985 million viewers and a 2.13 rating against Monday Night Football, their second best numbers this NFL season. Bill Goldberg was back on Monday Night Raw on Jan. 2 and Jan. 23 and both weeks saw a big increase in viewers than the week before.
WWE fans want the product to remain strong for years to come and that means building young stars into wrestlers at the level of John Cena, The Rock, and Bill Goldberg. While putting the Universal Championship on Bill Goldberg seems like a backward move, the ratings show that many fans still want to see the 49-year-old star.
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One thing to keep in mind is that putting the Universal Championship on Bill Goldberg might not help a guy like Kevin Owens right now but it helps everyone in the long run. If Bill Goldberg pops ratings every time he is on Monday Night Raw, the younger talent has a chance to show why fans should continue to watch them after Goldberg leaves.
Fastlane takes place in a few weeks. If Bill Goldberg heads into the event and squashes Kevin Owens in less than two minutes to win the WWE Universal Championship, many fans might rebel. However, if the numbers look good, the WWE still wins.
[Featured Image by WWE]
