IWC Scum — The Ring General, An Old Veteran and Their Monday Night Chore of a War
Welcome back to the column that puts the incessant whining and complaining in IWC. I’m SkitZ, and the rough draft for today’s topic has been wasting space in my Google Docs for long enough.
Despite current world events, the only bombing going on here in America at the moment is this feud. Fortunately, Goldberg need not make the trek to Saudi Arabia this time around. Between The Undertaker and Bray Wyatt, WWE’s already suffered enough casualties out there thanks to boorish Bill. Nearly nine months have passed since Gunther turned the wrestling icon’s appearance at Bad Blood into a roast, and without a shred of storyline continuity to bridge that gap. Fan reactions have been mixed at best, which isn’t much of a surprise considering Goldberg is basically an older version of CM Punk at this point; a chanty name and a broken down body with even more mileage on those old bones. Gunther received more praise for the promo he cut alone in the ring this past week than he did while standing face-to-face with his upcoming challenger… Speaks volumes, doesn’t it?
Okay, so it hasn’t been that terrible. Compared to Sting’s sendoff in AEW however, the whole thing feels predictably plain and plodding. I have mixed emotions about Goldberg’s sudden return and hastily thrown together title bout against Gunther. Younger me would’ve raged over the build and execution like a nerdy teenager who just caught his girl cheating, but looking at it through older eyes, a marginally more mature SkitZ can see the bigger picture. I understand the situation, the motivation, the thought process behind it. And honestly, what harm is it really doing in the grander scheme?
Gunther and Goldberg will have their little 4 week program, which coincidentally is about how many minutes their match at SNME will last. WWE’s giving the Hall of Famer a fitting finale against a top guy for a World Championship in Bill’s adopted backyard of Atlanta. It gives The Ring General a wrestling icon to soundly defeat and kayfabe retire in his first title defense since ending Jey Uso’s 51-day trial run. What’s so egregious about that? Sure, it’d be more entertaining to watch someone like Rikishi resurface and challenge Gunther, but he’s far too preoccupied pimping out his family to anybody who will listen.
Plenty of criticism has been aimed at Goldberg’s confrontation with the 2-time World Heavyweight Champ on RAW a couple weeks ago. Fans even picked apart Bill’s clunky climb up the turnbuckle to pose for the crowd. Of course he struggled… This dude is closing in on route 60! He’s also never been the most nimble athlete either. I swear Goldberg gets more nervous and shaky-legged these days from cutting a promo than wrestling an actual match. The former football player sweats harder with a microphone in hand than he does squeezing into those old tights. And forgive me for yet another lowblow, but Bill Goldberg injuring himself multiple times while training for his last match is the most Goldberg thing ever. Meanwhile, Brett Hart’s sulking in his home theater room thinking about how absurdly unfair all this is while his old matches play on loop in the background.
Keep in mind that Triple H & Co. were merciful enough to run Goldberg’s retirement match on a quasi-PLE in July instead of hogging up a spot on WrestleMania or SummerSlam with it. That counts for something, right? Bear with me, folks. I’m trying to approach Goldberg’s goodbye with a glass half full type of mentality; much like our collective mindset towards this half-assed Karrion Kross push. There’s a gnawing suspicion down deep though that Saturday Night’s Main Event in Atlanta isn’t the end of the road for Bill. I can’t help but notice how SummerSlam takes place a mere 3 weeks later, which has me naturally wondering if that’s Goldberg’s final destination. As far as it receiving the same amount of love as the movie franchise’s latest film, I wouldn’t hold my breath when it comes to Bill’s conditioning. He might get blown up so fast that it takes the air right out of the audience.
Initially I thought it was pointless having Gunther regain the World Heavyweight Championship just to make his showdown with Goldberg a title match, given the obvious nature of the outcome. One guy just won the belt back, the other’s on his way out, and thus the end result is a foregone conclusion. So much so however that there’s gotta be a plot twist in the works. With the likelihood of Cody winning this year’s King of the Ring tournament and seeking revenge on Cena, that leaves little time for The Ring General to kickstart a completely new feud between SNME and SummerSlam. Is it so out of the realm of possibility that Goldberg receives his feelgood moment in the form of dethroning Gunther in Atlanta; only to drop the gold back to The Austrian inside MetLife Stadium shortly before Seth cashes in? This shit writes itself I tell you. Doesn’t mean WWE should do it solely for the shock value.
If anything, the whole scenario just draws more attention to Gunther’s quizzical booking as of late. Compared to The Ring General’s gradual ascent and consistent character growth throughout his first 2 years on the main roster, everything over the past 12 months has felt wildly random and underwhelming. It’s as if mapping out Gunther’s rise to the top of WWE was a breeze, but then once he reached it, Triple H hadn’t the slightest clue as to where to go from there.
It was all running so smoothly up until SummerSlam last August. Then next thing you know, Gunther is eating a rare loss to Cody in an inconsequential Saudi showdown, extending a rivalry that nobody wanted to revisit with Priest, getting slotted against Jey Uso at WrestleMania when there were a handful of more intriguing options on the table, randomly feuding with Pat McAfee afterwards to recapture some of his heat, and then abruptly reclaiming the big gold belt from the poor guy he just put over huge not even 2 months earlier.
And as if 2025 hadn’t been enough of a head scratcher for Gunther, he’s confronted by Bill Goldberg the very next week and challenged to a match which we’d completely forgotten was coming down the pipe. TKO era booking at its finest ladies and gentleman. At this rate, I’m half expecting Naomi’s crazy ass to try cashing in on Gunther next. Or the latter to wrestle Gage Goldberg instead at SummerSlam. Hell, maybe even Corey Graves with his 15 kids acting as lumberjacks. The sky’s the limit as far as potential Gunther opponents are concerned, which is fitting since WWE’s Creative Team has gotta be high with some of the hotboxed ideas they’ve been manifesting recently.
If the plan is strictly for Goldberg to come in, put over The Ring General on July 12th and then fade off into retirement, I’m all good with that story arc (despite how dull it reads by modern wrestling standards). Gunther deserves better competition, and Bill deserves a better final chapter to his career, but I doubt many people will be clamoring for a rematch between the two at the second biggest show of the year. Has Goldberg earned the right to go out on top? Perhaps if it wasn’t at the expense of one of the company’s brightest stars. Gunther must leave work some days wondering whether they’re trying to make or break him given the schizophrenic nature of his booking. It’s been a page turner alright, but more like a Saraya selfie after you’ve scrolled through her entire online catalog.
Goldberg’s won what – one match over the past 5 or 6 years? He’s overdue for a win, yet you really can’t justify him defeating any of WWE’s biggest names at this stage. Not when there’s bound to be so little physicality between him and Gunther during the leadup. Why? Because Bill can barely make it through an entire segment without hurting himself. We might see a spear one week, followed by Gunther choking him out the next, and that’s about it. The Ring General’s been tasked with carrying this old one-trick pony to a worthwhile performance, and I fail to understand how that does Gunther any favors. Win, lose or draw, it’s still a losing battle for him no matter how you slice it.
So much for me approaching Goldberg’s last match with some optimism, eh? Hey I tried for a few sentences godammit. The quicker our World Heavyweight Champion returns to his regularly scheduled programming, the better. All this sideshow bullshit just takes away from what made Gunther special in the first place. An extended squash at SNME would be ideal, but I’m beginning to doubt whether he makes it out of there with a victory of any kind. This year has been an endless wave of mindfuckery.