MR. TITO: The Real Reason Why Bill Goldberg is Challenging Gunther for the World Title in WWE
Right now, hipster online fans are in a TOTAL PANIC because Bill Goldberg is not only back, but he’s receiving a World Heavyweight Championship title shot against Gunther at the July 12th, 2025 WWE Saturday Night’s Main Event. I think it’s a mixture of Bill Goldberg being 58 years old, Goldberg not exactly having great matches since his 2016-2017 Brock Lesnar feud, and the utter fear that Bill Goldberg could actually win. The match is being dubbed as his last, but if he wins the title, he’ll have additional matches…
This is Bill’s first match since 2022 and based on the way he’s somewhat limping to the ring, he definitely looks 3 years older. So why is he being pushed out there and receiving big billing to headline Saturday Night’s Main Event?
Well, look no further than a column that I wrote on 10/28/2020 on NoDQ.com entitled “1998 = Peak of Wresting and American Politics”. As I look back on that column almost 5 years later, I think that 1998 is indeed the peak of our society and entertainment. By the way, who was receiving his biggest career push during 1998? Bill Goldberg. Who is STILL wrestling for championships here in 2025, 27 years later? BILL GOLDBERG.
But if you look at how wrestling looks, acts, and feels, nothing has really changed since 1998. Every show starts with the 20-minute opening promo inside the ring, we have loads of backstage segments, and the matches are basically advertisements to get you to watch the bigger shows (Pay Per Views then, Premium Live Events now). WWE would boom during 1998 and essentially continue on fumes until Survivor Series 1999 when Steve Austin stepped down from injury. From there, WWE’s kept riding down the hill until attendance and viewership began to slide after Wrestlemania 16. RAW went from 6-8 million viewers per show to under 2 million by the late 2010s, and now with Netflix, we’re already under 3 million worldwide.
AEW reminds me of WCW with the way they’ve quickly burned through their top matches by giving away too much on free television, doing too many high spots, having Tony Shiavone announce, and not having a youthful developmental system to create new stars for the future. Little bit of ECW mixed in, but more so with the reliance on violent versus character development.
Look at other forms of entertainment through 1998 and then ever since.
For Music, the 1990s was a serious renaissance that beat down the 80s hairbands and the commercialized pop music scene. Both hardcore rap and grunge showed realism through music versus non-stop partying as the hairbands shoved down our throats. Competent female acts arrived such as TLC, En Vouge, Toni Braxton, Salt N Pepa, Alanis Morissette, Sheryl Crow, etc., while existing ones, such as Janet Jackson, evolved and became better. Metal scene got raw too, with Pantera dominating the airwaves and headbangers. Then, rap and metal mixed up to create several competent acts. However, by the late 1990s, the boy bands (N’Sync, Backstreet Boys, 98 Degrees) and girl pop acts (Britney Spears, Christina, Jessica Simpson) arrived and showed music executives how easily they could control the Billboard charts.
Eminem was the last of the real musical acts… His Marshall Mathers LP album scared the corporate executives and they worked to begin not just censoring him, but any male artist who followed. The tragic events of 9/11 saw Clear Channel censoring the hell out of music, which impacted male artists in the metal and rap industry the most, while the Janet Jackson nipple-gate controversy from the 2004 NFL season’s Super Bowl halftime show caused the FCC to really regulate what type of music made the air. The end result was a completely NEUTERED music industry that impacted any male artists who wanted to speak openly with their lyrics. Since this early 2000s backlash, fewer males are picking up guitars or drumsticks along with fewer wanting to become singers. What you have now is female artists dominating the scene, while the males are either wimpy on the pop/rock scene (Maroon 5, Benson Boone, Ed Sheerhan) or singing whiny sounds about the usual stereotypical stuff in country music (“hunting, fishing, & loving everyday”).
Music sales are WAY DOWN for the past 25 years. FACT. Even when you combine what is considered the equivalent of “sale” with Spotify plays, still way down. The stuff that is in the top sales charts of iTunes or Spotify makes me want to puke! Complete noise without any substance.
How about movies?
Some of the best films of all time happened during the 1990s. Shawshank Redemption, the Green Mile, Forrest Gump, The Matrix, The Fugitive, Seven, Jurassic Park, Pulp Fiction, Silence of the Lambs, Saving Private Ryan, many great Disney and Pixar films, and onward… But what did the late 1990s begin to bring us? Star Wars: Episode 1 – The Phantom Menace during 1999 and the beginning of many Marvel films in production. Movies went from creating a sense of adventure and being creative to whoring out the Star Wars franchise as much as humanly possible while flooding the screens with any Marvel comic character possible (then DC joined the game and sucked hard with Snyderverse). Yes, there are many bangers of superhero films made, with the Avengers stuff and Chris Nolan’s Dark Knight films, but they burned out the rest of the movie industry and took away studios ability to take risks and chances on newer source material.
The end result? Been a tough time in the box office since 2019’s Avengers End Game film and that’s a FACT. COVID delivered a major gut punch, but box office numbers were already trending downward for many years before that virus arrived and hammered nails into theater companies’ coffins like AMC. LOTS of debt run up by Warner Bros. and Disney for many failed blockbusters.
In contrast, do you know what is thriving? Television… But that’s a bi-product of actual innovation in the marketplace, thanks to HBO leading the charge and continually leading the charge with episodic shows. This sparked other channels to begin competing. However, the Cable/Satellite model began show its age and the streaming wars caused further debt for Warner Bros. and Disney. I worry that the great television series that we’ve enjoyed for the past few decades has already peaked and as you can see from what both broadcast TV and cable/satellite channels are NOT producing right now, content to pack those streaming services will not have as much of an impact as before. Netflix has had to get creative on where to find content, such as South Korea for the Squid Games.
And politics… Through 1998, you had a GOP led congress with Newt Gingrich as house speaker and John Kasich as budget committee chairman working well with President Bill Clinton. Then, the Monica Lewinski stuff hit the fan and suddenly, we had impeachment proceedings. For the first time since 1868, we had a President impeached (though Nixon would have been impeached if he didn’t resign). We went from working together to balanced a budget to wanting to forcefully remove a President elected by the people. Since this event, politics has been incredibly divisive where Republicans and Democrats will literally refuse to work together to make a point rather than balancing our budgets or enacting policy to help improve the lives of Americans. Everything has become conspiracy based, too, and this utter hatred of the other side has caused many WRONG people to enter this realm to become members of the House, Senate, or even try to become President. Our debt has ballooned from $5 trillion and declining to over $30 trillion and quickly escalating. Meanwhile, civil unrest keeps growing and growing while nobody cares that mass shootings happen.
Compare 1998 to right now… Is anything really that different?
Video games: Nintendo 64 and Playstation 1 ruled the land. 3D gaming was introduced during that era and aside from graphics and sound improving, games really haven’t advanced that significantly.
Internet was in place back then. Sure, you had to use dial-up mostly and had to mostly use a desktop computer to use it. Smartphones are better access devices, but they are on the same internet infrastructure that we used in 1998. Just a few quality of life enhancements…
We had Cable/Satellite providers and many channels to choose from (same channels exist today), while movies were readily available to record off of television, own as VHS or DVDs, or go to the video rental store. That’s what Netflix essentially killed and replaced, the rental stores which were everywhere during the late 1990s. Just more convenient to watch them with a remove or a phone, but essentially did the same thing back then.
Cars or planes haven’t changed that much since 1998, both in look and operations.
I can tell you that banking and stock trade hasn’t changed that much, other than utilizing more technology to enhance convenience. Cards have chips embedded, but they acted the same way 27 years ago.
We had Playboy back then and eventually, Maxim where clothing happened… But now, females just give it away for free on Instagram… Or if you wanted to pay for it, join their Only Fans.
Social media today, but we had instant messenger and email back then. Foul things are said on Facebook, X/Twitter, or elsewhere today, but I received rather threatening emails during the late 1990s and early 2000s. Early forms of message boards existed during the late 1990s, too, and were quite toxic too.
Clothing hasn’t changed that much since the late 1990s… Maybe with women, as they were beginning to wear things lower and now they wear things like Mom Jeans. But guys are wearing the same damn thing.
See, I grew up during the 1980s and remember it fondly… But I distinctly remember what the 1990s felt like and it was a totally different decade based on music, entertainment, fashion, politics, and of course, pro wrestling.
Looking back at the footage, pictures, and trends of the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s, things were totally different per decade. Hell, they were way different for the 1940s based on fighting World War 2 and then war was viewed differently in the decades afterward (Korean War, Vietnam, Desert Storm, and War in Iraq/Afghanistan). Technology, entertainment, fashion, transportation, and work life were way different as they evolved through each decade.
There’s no difference between 1998 and now. What you have now is nothing but Corporate Greed that just run things into the ground to make as much money as possible without trying something new. Look at how many sequels there are for films or remakes… Look at how much sampling and covers there are in music, along with outright stealing. Company like Apple hasn’t innovated squat since the iPhone and are just introducing newer versions of the same products. EA Sports just pumps out the same NFL and NHL games year after year. Remember when WWE joined THQ and we had GOOD WWE games for a while? Yeah, they began producing the same game every year with THQ, too, and then running out the same game with 2K now as well.
Look at WWE today… Sure, they got lucky with the Bloodline creating a newer boom to their business, but was it really that different from anything else ever tried? Heel stable… Yeah, like the Heenan Family, Four Horsemen, Dangerous Alliance, Hart Foundation, Degeneration X, New World Order, Evolution, and the Shield before them. And then what did the WWE do? Brought back the Rock, one of the stars that was blowing up during 1998 and won his first WWE Title during Survivor Series 1998. All we heard was “where is the Rock for Wrestlemania 41” this year, right? Nothing but complaints about the Rock not being at Wrestlemania 41…
I cannot stress this point enough… WWE’s shows are booked exactly like they were during 1998. Go binge watch them and tell me that I’m wrong. Long 20 minute promos in the ring, many backstage segments, and matches that tease you to buy a PPV/PLE. And AEW is stealing many pages out of WCW’s playbook, except they are a 1996 WCW without top-tier Main Eventers or a hot angle like the NWO. Lots of bad ECW bad habits mixed in there, too.
Everything you see in the business now, like ladders/chairs/tables, Hell in a Cell cages, Royal Rumbles, and the MAIN EVENT STYLE with MANY MANY FINISHERS still remains.
Oh, that’s right, that crap started during the late 1990s where it took multiple finishers to win the match, and hell, the opponents performing the other’s finisher as well.
Are you picking up what I’m putting down?
Bill Goldberg is being pushed in 2025 because the SAME Pro Wrestling business model exists since 1998 where Bill Goldberg PEAKED as a talent. WWE knows that their MAJORITY of their audience is 40 years or older who remember Bill Goldberg fondly from 1998. With NBC’s executives, they don’t watch current wrestling but remember the late 1990s when pro wrestling drew more eyeballs to cable/satellite channels than they do now. Hence, when Bill Goldberg comes back, those 40+ year-old wrestling fans and executives who remember past numbers GET HARD with 58 year-old Golberg limps to the ring. Why? Because the WWE won’t evolve beyond their 1998 creative model.
Same reason why WWE is always excited to have Stone Cold back, even though he embarrassed himself this year drinking and driving a 4-wheeler. Same reason why AEW is perfectly fine with having Jim Ross, Tony Shiavone, and Tazz call their AEW matches and featuring Edge, Christian, and Sting on their shows. Same reason why WWE kept allowing Triple H to work until his heart wouldn’t let him continue. Same reason why Undertaker kept wrestling and they got him to do an in-ring appearance at Wrestlemania 40 to attack, you guess it, the Rock as another guy they keep wanting to bring back. The late 1990s was the PEAK of pro wrestling and both WWE and AEW refuse to let it go and innovate something new.
Hell, the WWE struggles to give up the early 2000s… They ran Brock Lesnar into the ground and continue to milk everything out of Randy Orton and John Cena.
But 1998 is peak WWE, period, and the wheels began to fall off after Wrestlemania 15 during 1999. Storylines after WM 15 were just rehashing of Austin vs McMahon and then things go messy when Austin’s neck became worse and he had to leave for a while. Instead of innovating, WWE just kept the same business model and style with Triple H and the Rock who WERE NOT Steve Austin in terms of drawing power. Austin had to return with both HHH and Rock fighting over his top spot and it was never the same for Austin. The stupid heel turn from Wrestlemania 17 really ruined Austin, while the WWE shoved Triple H down our throats as a wrestler through 2004.
Thankfully, WWE had John Cena ascending to the top and became their top star during 2005… But even he fell prey to being stuck in the same creative model. Many, many 20-minute in-ring promos from John Cena and he wrestled the same formulaic matches that we saw from 1998-1999. Same style, same psychology, and same multiple finishers hit during the match. Then, when John Cena left and it became the overly dominant Brock Lesnar and babyface Roman Reigns show from 2015 through early 2020, the WWE’s older creative formula began to taste really foul without the personality, charisma, and promo skills of Cena.
Here through 2025, we still have Titantrons for entrances, 20-minute in-ring promos, empty calorie matches, backstage segments, and the same infomercial crap to hype the PLE. Except now, the shows are up to 3 hours long and there are 2 of them.
See, that’s the problem that wrestling didn’t figure out from 1998… A major issue for WCW during 1998 was the start of WCW Thunder, which introduced another Prime Time show. During the week during 1998, you had to watch 3 hours of Nitro and then 2 hours of Thunder. Instead of learning from this dilution mistake, WWE added their new 2-hour show with WWE Smackdown during 1999. WWE has been burning out wrestling fans since late 1999 with demanding them to watch 2 Prime Time shows during the week and at least 1 PPV/PLE per month (used to be 2 PPVs per month for a while with the Brand Extension during the 2010s).
FURTHERMORE, Triple H has too much pride to evolve… You see, he’s keeping together the Writing Team structure that his wife, Stephanie McMahon, invented during the early 2000s when she became lead writer and eventually EVP of Creative for the WWE. Stephanie stepped down during late 2013 as EVP of Creative and that position went to her husband, Triple H. HHH kept and maintained that group of writers through late 2019 when he was forced out of creative but many of those writers stayed on with Vince and Bruce Prichard until Triple H resumed his creative duties during June 2022. Trips is keeping the writing team structure that his wife invented because, well, as the phrase goes “happy wife, happy life”. Notice how there has NEVER been a mass firing of WWE writers, like ever?
Same Triple H/Stephanie creative ties + same writing team structure in place = same WWE storyline structures in the WWE for the past 25 years.
Meanwhile, our movies and music are getting worse, video games are only improving the same old franchises versus creating new, and our politics and leadership is getting worse. Seriously, we’re looking to repeat regime change in the Middle East, which has always gone wrong, and trying to implement tariffs, which made the recession of the late 1920s become much more painful through the mid 1930s. We’ve endured lots of inflationary spikes, lack of borders, expensive foreign wars, higher costs of healthcare and college education, and completely ignoring stagnant wage growth of the voting population. Meanwhile, everyone in government is “Party First” instead of enacting policies that help all Americans. Making matters worse, the terrible Citizens United ruling by the Supreme Court just lets corporate money pour into our political system.
So yeah, 1998 was the peak of damn near everything and thankfully, I have a good memory to appreciate how good we once had it.
Goldberg is getting pushed because WWE’s creative model hasn’t changed, but neither has its fans. Same old 40+ year-olds watching like they did during 1998 when Bill Goldberg got hot.
As someone who loved the Monday Night Wars, I’m rooting for Bill Goldberg. Yeah, I said it… While I want something new, Gunther already peaked with his Intercontinental Title run and lacks a Brock Lesnar feud to make him relevant again. That last Gunther title reign sucked and I was happy for Jey Uso winning it not so much for Jey but because Gunther was a lousy world champ.