WWE Rumors: Officials Reportedly Unhappy With Hall Of Famer For ‘Reckless’ Work In Recent Match
Recent rumors have been suggesting that WWE Hall of Famer Bill Goldberg will be returning to the ring once again for a match against Dolph Ziggler at SummerSlam. However, new reports suggest that the supposed match won’t be taking place, as WWE officials have allegedly been asking Ziggler to make unflattering comments about Goldberg in his promos for a completely different reason.
As pointed out by WrestlingNews.co, some of Ziggler’s recent promos have seen him take potshots at Goldberg, including one where he called this week’s “Raw Reunion” episode “as embarrassing as Goldberg in a wrestling ring,” and another from last week’s Monday Night Raw where he described his quick defeat versus Kevin Owens at Extreme Rules as “Goldberg bad.”
These mentions of the former WWE Universal Champion led to reports suggesting that he might be facing Ziggler on August 11 at SummerSlam, though the outlet added that WWE currently has “no plans” of booking Goldberg in another one-off match.
Citing Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, WrestlingNews.co noted that Ziggler was apparently instructed to make the disparaging remarks, most likely due to WWE’s unhappiness with Goldberg following his match against The Undertaker at last month’s Super ShowDown pay-per-view in Saudi Arabia. Meltzer also recalled that he was previously told that WWE has no plans to book Goldberg on SmackDown Live‘s upcoming debut on Fox in October.
Dolph Ziggler says Michaels "shuffling" out and waving to the crowd every chance he gets is embarrassing. As was Michaels' last match.
"It was as embarrassing as Goldberg in a wrestling ring."
Michaels doesn't disagree.#SDLive pic.twitter.com/crDF6yrWPl
— WrestlingINC.com (@WrestlingInc) July 24, 2019
Additionally, WrestlingNews.co‘s Paul Davis wrote that per unnamed WWE sources, people within the company have been “upset” with Goldberg because of how “reckless” he was when he faced The Undertaker.
“One person I spoke to told me that they were more upset about the fact that Goldberg could have seriously injured Taker,” Davis continued. “The feeling is that the match was seen as a disaster and Taker got equal blame for things going wrong when, in fact, the match only fell apart because Goldberg concussed himself.”
As recalled by Comic Book, the Goldberg vs. Undertaker match turned out to be a “disappointment” as Super ShowDown‘s main event due to a number of reasons, particularly the multiple botches committed by both wrestlers. The Undertaker won the bout with what Sportskeeda described as a “horrible-looking” chokeslam, as video footage later showed Goldberg collapsing as he was being led backstage by ring personnel.
After the match, Goldberg took to Twitter to apologize to his fans for letting them down and hinted at wanting to make up for his performance at Super ShowDown by returning to the ring at some point in the future.