I utterly despised Goldberg's comeback for a number of reasons. First and foremost, Goldberg couldn't wrestle and when you get right down to it, he never really could. Eric Bischoff knew how limited Goldberg was and was able to brilliantly hide his limitations by keeping the vast majority of his matches under 2 or 3 minutes with most of his opponents being outright jobbers or low card members of the roster. The long term effect of that turned out that Goldberg's streak was vastly overrated and hyped into being something it wasn't and that Goldberg himself was some phenomenal talent.
Goldberg's return further highlighted some massively fundamental flaws in Vince McMahon's decision making: he was, to some degree, sacrificing WWE's long term stability over the nostalgic spectacle of older wrestlers going at it who aren't a fraction of what they once were. Goldberg was one of the biggest examples of Vince using modern guys, guys who should be the focus of his company as they're the ones who actually carry it, as fodder for 2000s and Attitude Era stars. We'd already seen it for years: Stone Cold popping up every so often for a promo segment, he gets into something with a modern guy, winds up hitting the Stone Cold Stunner and poses around the ring while pouring beer all over himself or the Rock making trained monkeys out of Daniel Bryan, Rusev, the Wyatt Family, etc. all for the sake of nostalgia rather than using these mega names to actually help build up these younger wrestlers. And now, there are reports that Batista might be coming back for another run and if he does, I'd be willing to bet that he has it written into the contract that he's truly there to be a 100% TOP level guy; no putting over young guys this time around. WrestleMania looks to have become the haven for the part timer looking to be in the spotlight and collect a massive paycheck. Based on how the lay of the land in WWE looks as of right now, we can expect matches featuring Triple H, John Cena, Randy Orton, Brock Lesnar, Kurt Angle, POSSIBLY the Undertaker and POSSIBLY Batista; at least half the fucking card will be made up of part timers who'll be the focus of the show while Vince McMahon is inexplicably in the dark about how WWE just isn't really cool anymore.
If you're an older fan in your 30s, 40s or even 50s and you hear a fan in their 10s and 20s say how many top guys today don't stack up to the top guys of 20 years go, how they've been sacrificed to the part timers and nostalgia acts is one of the top reasons why.
As much as I enjoyed the nostalgia pop that the Goldberg return had, I have to agree with most of what you are saying.
It's been a reoccurring theme in WWE over the last 10 or so years. Vince still leaning to heavily on the massive stars of the AE and early 2000's but, I believe, at the
expense of building current stars today.
However, I believe, if done right there can be a happy medium.
For example, John Cena vs The Rock (the first time), and if it wasn't billed "Once in a Lifetime" I would have accepted the 2nd match a little more easily. But the first match was a good idea. The Rock was hot, big blockbuster movie star and John Cena was the main guy in WWE. The match pretty much sold itself. And what was the best part? It WAS NOT for the WWE Title. Because it didn't need to be.
Same way I think Goldberg's return could have been better, actually, if it was NOT for the WWE Title against Brock Lesnar. Sure, it probably would have got top billing on the card over whatever WWE title match went on like the Cena vs Rock situation but
at least the WWE title match would be contended by current WWE stars not age-old ones.
Even the Sting return was pretty cool, of course I don't agree at all with the booking of his WrestleMania match. He should have matched up vs The Undertaker and
then if he lost that match to 'Taker it would have been still a great WrestleMania moment and acceptable. But Sting losing to Triple H over some garbage with DX coming down and NWO
helping Sting which they notoriously didn't do in WCW was just misguided. But let's say in the Sting return; he returned, built a non-title storyline towards a match at WM against Taker or Triple H and then either lost to Taker or beat Triple H and then rode off into the sunset ... that would have been perfect!
Because the truth of the matter is even if these former massive stars come back to WWE and do draw a bit more viewers and PPV buys, it still never lasts long and goes away once they go away or, even, if they stay too long and have worn out their welcome. It shows you that nostalgia acts are OK, but in moderation and they should not be at the expense of current stars.
Now, the whole build up to Raw 1000 with Heath Slater (jobber-extraordinaire) making various former Raw stars look great was actually really fun. That, I believe, was done perfectly. It gave the fans a great nostalgia pop, and hey, Slater even got to win one match (against Doink!) and it was NOT at the expense of a current WWE star who had all sorts of main event potential (sorry Heath, but he does great at what he does).
WWE has had a wishy-washy track record of bringing back legends, sometimes done really well, sometimes not.
WWE brought back New Age Outlaws a few years ago, I believe a main feud was against The Shield, it was actually pretty cool and you could tell it was done to boost the CURRENT WWE stars.
However, not long ago The Dudley Boyz came back and while their pop was huge and the initial buzz once they returned was good, the rest of their time wasn't all that memorable, at that's a problem if you bring back stars. I think they feuded with Enzo & Cass and I think Enzo & Cass won but the details are not clear, and they SHOULD be, it should have been a VERY memorable moment if Cass & Enzo won. Then after that D-boys did not much else until there was nothing left for them to do.
Now we have Hardy Boyz back and yes, their WM return was at the expense of current stars but we now know it wasn't just a one-off thing like that joke of a segment with Rock vs Wyatt Family. Hardys were back full-time and ready to go. They had some good matches and LOST the Tag Titles to help build up current stars and now Matt Hardy gets to try out the Broken Hardy gimmick which, at the very least, should be MEMORABLE, and that should be the point. Why do anything if it won't be memorable?
So to sum it up:
- I thought the Goldberg return was pretty cool, the first match back was a cool surprise and the RR. But, wasn't a fan of Goldberg vs Brock being for the title. The match did redeem their previous poor WM match.
- There should be a happy medium in WWE between nostalgia acts, moments and returns and still pushing current talent to be stars
- WWE has had some success finding the balance, but I believe have also, at times, over done it and it has cost their current stars and the company more current long-term success
- So the result? Don't STOP having past stars come back but try not to do it at the expense of current talent that could or should be built to be main event stars.
