John Cena

It feels like the Goldberg era in WWE is sputtering to a stop.

Some might classify it as a merciful stop, as the legendary wrestler has become something of a parody of his former self in recent years. There was the botch-filled match with Undertaker at Super ShowDown in 2019, forgettable feuds (remember when he had the world title and fought Braun Strowman?) and now there's this mostly boring, random rivalry with Bobby Lashley.

So what can WWE do to salvage what might be the end of Goldberg's WWE run?

The move—and idea—is simple: Put over others on his way out.

And it would seem that's what the man himself has in mind. In a recent interview with Sports Illustrated's Justin Barrasso, he reflected on his career to date and where it's going: "Serving the business is a responsibility. That includes getting butts in seats and making sure people invest in the product, but it also means you have to give back. I didn't always do that before. But that's my duty, and that's a big reason why I am here. I owe the business a lot more than I have given."

He followed that up with an interview on The Bump in which he revealed he only has a couple of matches left on his contract and that he would like to stand opposite John Cena or Roman Reigns in the ring.

That works, right?

A self-contained feud with Cena would be a way to put over other performers on the roster because it would keep two part-timers in their own feud and not derail other storylines and momentum.

That, plus it would just be amazing to see the two square off in a match that fans have fantasy-booked for more than a decade. WWE flopped when it had the chance to give fans, say, Sting vs. Undertaker and other dream feuds, so why not make this one a reality?

Perhaps even better is the Reigns idea. SmackDown doesn't have many, if any, realistic challengers to Reigns' throne. While the rest of the programming works on building up actual challengers, why not throw him into a feud with Goldberg?

The idea there is Goldberg taking a brutal loss on his way out the door in a passing-of-the-torch moment. It wouldn't exactly be the most entertaining in-ring match we have ever seen, but the symbolism of Reigns being the one to put down the legend one last time—like he should have done with Undertaker—would speak volumes.

That sort of outcome as Goldberg says goodbye would be one of the only ways to build up the mythology of this Reigns run as it heads toward legendary status. And it would help to dramatically build up whoever ends up dethroning Reigns.

Granted, much of this hinges on WWE properly handling Goldberg between now and then. His taking down Lashley would ruin things. It wouldn't make much sense, either—not after the company tripped up Drew McIntyre's momentum just to build up this long Lashley run in the first place. But other recent usage—like his brief squash matches against Strowman and McIntyre—hints that this won't end up being a problem given how rare his appearances are these days.

The counterargument to this sort of usage for Goldberg is that he could be more useful by propping up younger talents like Big E or even Keith Lee. But the forgettable nature of all of Goldberg's recent matches says otherwise. His matches with Brock Lesnar early on were legendary stuff. His defeating The Fiend, on the other hand, is remembered for all the wrong reasons. And the losses to Strowman and McIntyre didn't do much for those guys.

The reality is that we are talking about a 54-year-old legend with a limited in-ring skillset. At this point, it's more about the story. Part of that is why the Lesnar feud was so memorable and most everything else not so much.

To that end, Goldberg giving fans the must-see showdown with Cena or going out on his back for Reigns is the only sort of move that makes sense as his run comes to an end. And in many ways, if it sticks the landing like that, many of the past missteps will go overlooked.

In a perfect world, Goldberg's run would have reached legendary status—but there's no reason the finale can't do so.

Roman Reigns waded into the long-running debate about WWE's reliance on older part-time stars to carry major cards, and CM Punk was an unfortunate bystander in the conversation.

Reigns told BT Sport he understood different opinions but ultimately believes having established legends enter the fold can benefit everybody. He also took aim at Punk, saying he "was not as good or as over as a John Cena, wasn't as good or over and moved the needle like The Rock."

Few fans would probably put Punk in the same category as The Rock or Cena because they're the biggest names of their respective eras. There aren't many in the history of wrestling who can match the overall contributions of those two.

Reigns' argument also downplays Punk's popularity during his WWE run, especially during the 2011 "Summer of Punk" after his attention-grabbing promo that June. Nobody in the company was hotter at the time, and for some, it was evidence of a talent WWE had been failing to capitalize upon for years.

Independent of his thoughts on Punk, Reigns' comments illustrate how the part-timer discussion will probably never go away and continue to create partisans on both sides of the aisle.

Bleacher Report catches you up on the latest news from the WWE Universe. 

Seth Rollins Addresses Cena's SmackDown Promo

As part of the build for the SummerSlam main event, John Cena and Roman Reigns have been incorporating elements of real life into their promos on SmackDown in recent weeks. 

One of those real-life aspects involved Cena namedropping Dean Ambrose on Friday's episode of the show. 

The third member of the Shield, Seth Rollins, was also referenced in the promo. But it was the mention of Ambrose, who left WWE and has been wrestling in AEW as Jon Moxley since 2019, that caught everyone's attention. 

"I had a good chuckle about it," Rollins told Riju Dasgupta of SK Wrestling. "John likes to cross some lines occasionally if you look at his history of promos in the ring, especially his face-to-face promos heading into big matches. He likes to cross the line."

This isn't anything new for Reigns and Cena in the build up for the match. Reigns has made multiple references to Cena's previous relationship with Nikki Bella. 

WWE normally doesn't like to include references to wrestlers in other promotions, but Cena has more than enough clout with the people in charge that he will be allowed to get away with more than a typical superstar in the company. 

Besides, everything has worked out well for all parties involved. Moxley is one of the top stars in AEW. Reigns is currently in the midst of the hottest streak of his career. Rollins continues to be one of the top stars in WWE. 

Goldberg's Contract Status 

As he prepares to challenge Bobby Lashley for the WWE championship on Saturday, Goldberg dropped a little nugget about his current contract with the company. 

Appearing on The Bump (starts at 1:00 mark), Goldberg said he's "only got two more matches on my deal here":

The topic came up as Goldberg was discussing who he would like to see win the other men's title match at SummerSlam between Reigns and Cena. 

Goldberg did reveal last year that his contract with WWE calls for two matches per year. His first match in 2021 was against Drew McIntyre at the Royal Rumble for the WWE title. 

Two more matches would imply that Goldberg can become a free agent after next year. Given the amount of money he can earn and the limited schedule he is allowed to work, it wouldn't be a surprise to see the 54-year-old re-sign if WWE wants to keep him. 

Tyler Rust Addresses NXT Changes

Tyler Rust was among the 12 wrestlers released by WWE last week, with all of the departures coming from the NXT brand. 

The move was certainly a surprise to outside observers, as it continued a recent trend by the company of cutting costs. It was also the latest indication that Vince McMahon is trying to take NXT in a different direction. 

Appearing on Wrestling Inc. Daily with Nick Hausman (h/t PWMania.com), Rust said he doesn't believe the NXT roster changes are related to the brand losing the Wednesday ratings war with AEW: 

I know there's a lot of rumors now as far as Vince wanting to overhaul the NXT product and everything. Sometimes, rumors, maybe they're right. We'll see how it is going forward from there, but from my experience there, there wasn't really many eggshells as far as upper management not being happy.

NXT was increased to two hours and put on the USA Network on Sept. 18, 2019, giving the brand a two-week head start before the launch of AEW Dynamite on TNT. 

The decision to put NXT on television was seen as McMahon trying to destroy AEW before the company ever really got going. It didn't pay off, as AEW regularly won in the ratings. 

USA moved NXT from Wednesday to Tuesday earlier this year after the two sides agreed to a multiyear extension to keep the show on the air. 

Whatever the reason for the roster changes in NXT, the future direction of the brand will likely start to come into focus starting next week. Tuesday's show marked the final build for Sunday's Takeover that will be headlined by a two-out-of-three falls match between Kyle O'Reilly and Adam Cole. 

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