12 Ups And 16 Downs For WWE In 2021

7. Goldberg Passes Sell-By Date

WWE SummerSlam 2021 Goldberg Lashley
WWE.com

When Goldberg returned to professional wrestling in 2016, it was a true feel-good story of a legendary performer getting one last run in the sun.

Since then, he’s significantly damaged his brand, as Goldberg has become synonymous with in-ring botches, faded power, and diminishing returns. 2021 was another slide for the Hall-of-Famer, as Goldberg started the year challenging WWE Champion Drew McIntyre weirdly for “not respecting legends,” which had no basis in fact. McIntyre dispatched with him in less than 3 minutes.

He then engaged in a feud with WWE Champion Bobby Lashley this summer, losing to him at SummerSlam while looking old and broken down. Then his son Gage got involved, which led to Goldberg turning homicidal, repeatedly threatening to murder Lashley.

Goldberg would defeat Lashley at Crown Jewel, cashing a big fat paycheck while beating one of the most dominant wrestlers of the year – and then promptly disappeared again. We’re sure he’ll turn back up again, probably in the lead-up to WrestleMania 38, for one more payday. But they might have to turn up the piped-in chants.

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Contributor
Contributor

Scott is a former journalist and longtime wrestling fan who was smart enough to abandon WCW during the Monday Night Wars the same time as the Radicalz. He fondly remembers watching WrestleMania III, IV, V and VI and Saturday Night's Main Event, came back to wrestling during the Attitude Era, and has been a consumer of sports entertainment since then. He's written for WhatCulture for more than a decade, establishing the Ups and Downs articles for WWE Raw and WWE PPVs/PLEs and composing pieces on a variety of topics.