In just three weeks, Bill Goldberg will return to the ring for the first time in over a decade as he takes on Brock Lesnar at Survivor Series . Obviously, WWE is looking to make Goldberg the ultimate babyface while having Lesnar as the menacing heel with Paul Heyman as his mouthpiece. It sounds logical, but the WWE Universe is a fickle bunch, and it is causing a lot of problems right now that are really angering Vince McMahon .
Two weeks ago, Goldberg returned to WWE for the first time in more than a decade and accepted Paul Heyman’s challenge from Brock Lesnar. This past week on Monday Night Raw , Heyman and Lesnar showed up to respond to the match acceptance as recapped by the official website of WWE .
As usual, it was a brilliant promo by Heyman and one that resulted in the fans cheering loudly for his client Brock Lesnar. That wasn’t totally unexpected as the fans love Lesnar and Raw was taking place in his hometown of Minneapolis, Minnesota, so it worked even more in his favor.
Well, this did not seem to sit well with Vince McMahon backstage who was hoping that the fans were going to rain down on Lesnar with boos and hatred. Lesnar actually got a huge ovation, and it led to Heyman simply saying, “I will advise those of you who are chanting the name of ‘Goldberg’ to please refrain from doing so.”
“All of the chants in the world will be able to put @Goldberg back together again…” – @HeymanHustle #RAW @BrockLesnar pic.twitter.com/NVNzXv0BG4
— WWE (@WWE) October 26, 2016
As the in-ring promo went on, the segment ended quite suddenly with Lesnar’s music playing throughout the arena, and it was obvious that even Heyman was a bit shocked. The Sun reports that Vince McMahon was extremely angry backstage and that Heyman had simply gone too far.
The following day on Twitter, Heyman even took a bit of a shot at himself and apologized, sort of, to WWE for his promo on Monday Night Raw .
Thank God the reporters at @WWEonESPN @ESPN didn’t see my promo last night or they’d pull this story IMMEDIATELY! https://t.co/nzkPNmzs7t
— Paul Heyman (@HeymanHustle) October 25, 2016
Survivor Series is taking place in Toronto which is far away from the hometowns of either Brock Lesnar or Bill Goldberg. Lesnar will always get a great ovation from the fans, and that’s something that is hard to take away. It’s sort of the same way it was with “Stone Cold” Steve Austin and Ric Flair as even when they were heels, fans loved them.
Goldberg, on the other hand, has experienced being on both sides of things as fans loved him and hated him at different points in his career.
When Goldberg returned to Monday Night Raw two weeks ago, he got an incredible ovation from the crowd. They cheered him loudly and wouldn’t even be quiet at times so that he could speak. It was a great reaction from the crowd, but what if they turn on him when he faces off with Brock Lesnar?
Goldberg understands how the business works and he knows that the WWE fans may end up booing him at some point during this return. On a recent episode of The Ross Report , Jim Ross spoke with Goldberg about his return and the superstar is fine if the fans want to boo him.
“At the end of the day…I hope everybody has fun. If I just so happen to get booed, then, I am surely not going to go out and end my life because of it. At the end of the day, it’s other people’s interpretation on your act at that moment.
“So if I get booed, then, I’ll take it out on Brock more so than I’m doing already. And I believe that that’s what we wanted to do to each other when we were booed the last time we met. I think this time, the gloves, as we say, are off. So, this is going to be a war.”
Goldberg and Brock Lesnar are looking to have a better match at Survivor Series than they did at WrestleMania XX many years ago. Paul Heyman is doing whatever he can to go with the storyline of good guy (Goldberg) vs. bad guy (Lesnar), but he can’t help what the fans do. Now, Vince McMahon isn’t pleased with things, and Goldberg doesn’t really care what happens. Either way, the two powerhouses will collide in three weeks, and it’s going to be an epic battle.
[Featured Image by WWE]