Back in late February Goldberg defeated “The Fiend” Bray Wyatt to become the new WWE Universal Champion at Super ShowDown. The move came as quite a shock to most wrestling fans given Goldberg’s age (53) and the momentum Wyatt had heading towards WrestleMania where he’d likely defend his title against Roman Reigns. Goldberg then unceremoniously dropped the title to Braun Strowman in quick fashion at WrestleMania, while Wyatt wound up seemingly destroying John Cena in the Firefly Fun House match.
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This week a new report came out via Bill Pritchard at WrestleZone which clears up why the original title change was made.
“We were told that Goldberg going over was a last-minute decision, apparently because Goldberg didn’t want to risk damaging his image,” Pritchard wrote. “It was noted that Goldberg bargained for creative control and pushed for the title win because ‘The Fiend’ was a monster and the younger fans needed to see him come out victorious, or it would ruin his character.”
This is far from the first time “creative control” has played a role in how world championship storylines are booked, but it’s the first one to affect WWE in a while.
Goldberg has been making sporadic appearances for WWE ever since the 2019 Super ShowDown event, where he had a rather infamous match against The Undertaker. His title defense at Mania was supposed to be against Reigns, but “The Big Dog” back out of the show over concerns related to the coronavirus pandemic.
Here are the full results from both nights of WrestleMania 36:
Night One
- Cesaro def. Drew Gulak (Kickoff Show)
- Women’s Tag Team Championships: Alexa Bliss and Nikki Cross def. The Kabuki Warriors
- Elias def. King Baron Corbin
- Raw Women’s Championship: Becky Lynch def. Shayna Baszler
- Intercontinental Championship: Sami Zayn def. Daniel Bryan
- SmackDown Tag Team Championships: John Morrison def. Jimmy Uso and Kofi Kingston (Ladder Match)
- Kevin Owens def. Seth Rollins
- WWE Universal Championship: Braun Strowman def. Goldberg (New Champion)
- Boneyard Match: The Undertaker def. AJ Styles
Night Two
- Liv Morgan def. Natalya (Kickoff)
- NXT Women’s Championship: Charlotte Flair def. Rhea Ripley (New Champion)
- Aleister Black def. Bobby Lashley
- Otis def. Dolph Ziggler
- Last Man Standing Match: Edge def. Randy Orton
- Raw Tag Team Championships: The Street Profits def. Angel Garza and Austin Theory
- SmackDown Women’s Championship: Bayley def. Lacey Evans, Naomi, Sasha Banks and Tamina
- Firefly Fun House Match: “The Fiend” Bray Wyatt def. John Cena
- WWE Championship: Drew McIntyre def. Brock Lesnar (New Champion)
