6 Ups & 6 Downs from WWE Raw (23 June - Results & Review)

3. Goldberg Sells His Last Stand

Throughout nearly his entire career, Goldberg has been a consistent character, an intense, fire-breathing beast who only knows how to run directly through opponents rather than tactfully dealing with situations.

That reality made his sit-down interview with Michael Cole on Monday an interesting prospect, especially when Cole said they spoke for a half-hour. Was this going to be some introspective musing from Goldberg on the eve of his retirement?

Nope. While he was much more restrained than he was during his return last week, Goldberg very matter-of-factly explained why he returned: he wasn’t going to let Gunther’s insults and efforts to embarrass him in front of family and fans slide. Goldberg came to Bad Blood “as a fan” and was disrespected by the World Heavyweight Champion, so he waited for his moment to seek revenge.

Goldberg acknowledged his age – saying he didn’t care if he had “one foot in the grave,” he wasn’t going to let the Ring General get away with that – which was an important consideration in this match. And he naturally closed the interview by swearing, because that’s always cool in the proper context.

This doesn’t excuse making it a world title match. There was no real justification for a guy who’s lost his last four world title matches - it’s not like this is going to be a good match; it’s going to be a car crash, a spectacle - but knowing that, and hoping that WWE leans into that reality, this could be the perfect fodder for Saturday Night’s Main Event, a pure popcorn match.

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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.