You've gotta give it to the WWE – there's never a shortage of news to read, write, and consume.
Case and point, July 22nd, 2022; a day that will live on forever in the annals of wrestling history and may ultimately serve as an inflection point in the history of the sport(s entertainment). Not only has Vince McMahon reportedly opted to retire from the promotion entirely as his series of increasingly damning scandals tarnishes his legacy with each passing Wall Street Journal report. If that wasn't enough, this news reportedly upset Brock Lesnar so much that he has opted to leave the SmackDown taping entirely ahead of its 8 pm EST kickoff and may ultimately refuse to perform at SummerSlam for his Last Man Standing Match with Roman Reigns.
But what can the WWE do if that happens? Should they try to hotshot someone like A.J. Styles as a believable challanger for Reigns, or will they instead offer up one of the single largest payouts in wrestling history to convince “The Beast Incarnate” to set aside his differences and do the job one last time?
Well, while they will undoubtedly try to do the latter, if it ultimately doesn't work, the company has reportedly reached out to a Hall of Famer to take his place at the second-biggest Premium Live Event of the calendar year: Goldberg.
EXCLUSIVE: We can report that WWE will make overtures to bring Goldberg in to replace Brock Lesnar at WWE Summerslam after he walked out of Smackdown following Vince McMahon's retirement.
The source revealed that Smackdown plans are "in flux."
Read more down below. 👇 pic.twitter.com/6LQNzkI3xP
— Cultaholic Wrestling (@Cultaholic) July 22, 2022
Yes, you read that correctly; according to Cultaholic, WWE has been in contact with the former WCW legend about taking Lesnar's spot at SummerSlam. Does it make any sense from a storyline standpoint? Eh, no, not really. Does it negate about a month of hardcore promotion of a match being dubbed the final chapter of the feud of the decade? Yup. But hey, outside of digging up The Undertaker's grave – the character, Mark Calaway is still very much alive – or paying up to bring back Bray Wyatt in one form or another, what options are really left? Triple H can't wrestle again, CM Punk is in AEW, and any of the “unsigned” talents like Adam “don't-call-him-Braun-Strowman” Scherr would likely fail to meet the same level of prestige that Goldberg maintains, at least in the minds of the promotion.
According to the man himself via an interview with the New York Post, he remains under contract with the promotion until he gets that “one call,” as you can see from the following quote.
“I’m still waiting for that one [call] to happen one of these days,” Goldberg said. “But I suppose you never retire in the wrestling world until you’re dead, so who knows.”
“I have worked my ass off day, after day, after day to get to a point where I feel almost normal again,” he said. “I just kind of needed that break. I needed the mental focus of understanding that surgery wasn’t an option at the time, and I needed to put my ass to the grindstone.”
“Hey, I may never get the call, you never know, but you bet your ass I’ll be ready.”
So yeah… there you go, the fans who paid up for a chance to see the final chapter of the Brock Lesnar-Roman Reigns instead become Goldberg-Reigns II, a sequel to the match from Elimination Chamber that no one wanted or particularly liked – it was awarded two stars by Dave Meltzer – and there's nothing anyone can do about it save Nick Khan rolling up the Brinks Truck to pay up for Paul Heyman's former ward.
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