What WWE Should Do With Bill Goldberg and Roman Reigns

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After his loss to Brock Lesnar at Wrestlemania 33, Bill Goldberg took to the microphone and gave a heartfelt promo that sounded like a retirement speech. He stressed his age, his desire to be a good husband, his love for his son, and his drive to be a good father. Bill Goldberg, at the age of 50, is a family man and deep in the heart of his promo was the desire to be just that. He knows his glory days are behind him. However, if there is anything the his feud with Lesnar has proved, there is still a lot of money WWE could make with Goldberg as a part timer. Also, Goldberg didn't not say, "I am retiring." He simply said, and I am paraphrasing, "You might not see me for a long time." You could translate that as, "I am going home, but I COULD come back some day." He left the door open. And if Goldberg is the family man he claims to be, turning down a lot of money for not a lot of work would be silly. Adding a few more high profile pay per view events would go a long way in adding a lot more financial security for his wife and child. It's not that he's broke, but if he really is of the "breadwinner" mindset, having one or two more PPV matches with a fat paycheck would be hard to turn down.

Here is the most logical way to bring him back: put him in a feud with Roman Reigns. The writing is on the wall for Wrestlemania 34. It looks like WWE wants to have a big showdown between Reigns and Lesnar. Both men are the only men to have defeated The Undertaker. Brock can claim to have ended the streak, but Reigns can counter with, "I retired him." As of this writing, Reigns is currently locked in a program with Braun Strowman. If you count in the retiring the Undertaker, feuding with Strowman all seems part of a long-term strategy on WWE's booking team to make Reigns appear credible against larger than life man-monsters. In the end, that might make Lesnar jobbing out to Reigns in the future all the more credible. What better way to add to that credibility with an eventual win over Goldberg -- the man who humanized Lesnar by kicking his ass so badly at Survivor Series.

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There is a way to book Reigns vs. Goldberg, and part of it follows the same path that led to Wrestlemania. In their first match, Goldberg needs to absolutely destroy and humiliate Roman Reigns. There is a way to do this without repeating the same spear-spear-jack-knife power-bomb formula that worked so well in Goldberg's first outing against Lesnar. Bill Goldberg is a man of only two moves. Give him a new one; give him one nobody would expect out of him. Goldberg is an old man, so keep him off the top or middle ropes. High flying just would not be believable from him. It's not his in-ring personality. Instead, give him something people wouldn't expect, but make it easier for him to do. Give Goldberg a submission hold.

The most logical would a standing guillotine choke. Here is a picture ...

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It has to be the standing version. That way, Goldberg can look directly into the WWE cameras and make this face while selling his own ferocity AND choking people out  ...

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Since Reigns has been booked to be tough and resilient even after the most brutal beat downs, he can't tap out to this. He fights it as much as he can, he sells it as devastating, and then he passes out. This way, he saves face by saying "I never tapped," and the brutality of Goldberg's new submission hold is confirmed because it still absolutely humiliates Roman Reigns. The contingent of the WWE fandom who hate Reigns will would go bananas over this. To them, the superstar Vince McMahon and company have been trying to ram down their throats got his violent comeuppance. Reigns haters would hi-fiving each other all over the place, and now Goldberg seems like a  savior.

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Completely humbled, much the same way Lesnar was after Survivor Series, Reigns calls for a rematch at another pay per view. Make it a "retirement match" where Goldberg has to leave WWE should he lose.  In the meantime, WWE should send Goldberg on a winning streak on TV (it's an established thing with him back in WCW) where he does nothing but choke everybody out with this new move that nobody saw or expected from him before. And, I don't mean they tap. All of them pass out and drop like lifeless rag dolls in the middle of the ring. 

Eventually, in the rematch, when Reigns finds a way to break or counter the hold, it actually means something huge. Reigns goes on to win, and proceeds to get booed even more than before. Here is now a man who took The Undertaker away from then fans, and now he has taken Goldberg, too. That bastard! Boooooooo! Roman sucks! In the meantime, he rolls into Wrestlemania against Lesnar having defeated the same two legends Lesnar has. Add to that overcoming Braun Strowman, and Roman Reigns seems like the one of the few in the WWE locker room that plausibly could get a clean win over Brock Lesnar.