Super Showdown: Will Goldberg Win The WWE Universal Championship

WWE Hall of Famer Bill Goldberg announced back on Feb. 7 that he would be returning to the ring at the Super ShowDown event to challenge Bray Wyatt for the WWE Universal Championship. This news sent many wrestling fans into a panic mode for a number of reasons — a loss would derail Wyatt’s run as “The Fiend,” it would be an indictment on the company to have to rely on a 53-year-old wrestler to be its WrestleMania headliner and the less said about Goldberg’s last Saudi Arabia match against Undertaker the better.

But to Goldberg’s credit, his appearances on SmackDown have been bringing in solid ratings lately, and fans popped when he speared “The Fiend” last week.

So before the match gets underway, we’ve brought together ComicBook’s team of wrestling writers together to answer one simple question — will Goldberg win the WWE Universal Championship at Super ShowDown?

Connor Casey: You know what’s funny? So often I hear the argument that a particular wrestler “doesn’t need the belt” because they’re a big enough deal without it. And yet when it comes to Goldberg (and Brock for that matter), that argument magically disappears.

Here’s the thing, people are going to tune it to see Goldberg Jackhammer and Spear somebody whether he’s wearing the title or not. And if he winds up fighting Reigns at WrestleMania (which is reportedly the plan), that match will be a headliner regardless. So I’ll say he doesn’t walk out of Saudi Arabia as champion, whether it’s because of shenanigans on Wyatt’s part or because he legitimately beats Goldberg.

Matt Aguilar: While I think the spectacle of Goldberg and Fiend is amazing and will be a big highlight of the show, I don’t think they will ultimately give Goldberg the win here. If it were just about anyone else I would say yes, they would give Goldberg the Universal Championship, but they really seem to be protecting The Fiend (and rightfully so, he’s one of their biggest draws at the moment), so I just don’t think giving it to Goldberg gets them anything in the long run or even leading up to WrestleMania.

That said, there is one way they can spin this if they really want Goldberg to have it a for a bit, and that’s making a point to highlight that Fiend simply stops caring about the belt and somehow loses it because of that. Not sure how you do that, but hey, this is WWE, so maybe they’ll figure something out.

Evan Valentine: This is a tough one, mostly because a very good argument can be made for either one taking home the victory. Goldberg defeating Wyatt re-ignites his wrestling career, setting the stage for the “handing of the torch” at Wrestlemania to a new challenger, most likely Reigns. The Fiend winning continues to strengthen his streak, making him that much more of a name in the WWE and most likely, increasing the already phenomenal merch sales associated with him. When all is said and done though, I’ll go with the latter option and give this to The Fiend, as continuing to bolster Wyatt’s streak seems like the best play here, until Wrestlemania rolls around.

Ryan Droste: As the days have gone on, I have become more convinced that Goldberg may actually win the title here. Do I think that’s a good idea? Absolutely not. I think that Connor was spot on above with his rationale. Goldberg absolutely doesn’t need the belt for a WrestleMania match, but the same could have been said a few years back when he defeated Kevin Owens for the Universal Championship and dropped it to Lesnar at WrestleMania. That would have been a big match with or without the belt, so I hope they learned something. So all of this said, I hope that smarter heads prevail and they don’t take the belt off the Fiend, a character who has had months of build and booked to be unstoppable, for a less than part time legend. Make Goldberg look strong, but keep the belt on Wyatt. I’ll pick Wyatt. A full time member of the roster should get that first big victory over Wyatt.