WWE WrestleMania 36: Every Match Star Ratings (Night 1)

2. Universal Championship: Goldberg (c) vs. Braun Strowman

Bill Goldberg is a 53-year-old man who walks very slowly down to the ring, repeatedly tackles men in the stomach, and then fails to get them over for a suplex. We have known this for a year now, and yet it was still all WWE could think to book here.

That's not to say The Goldberg Match isn't an entertaining proposition. It lit up WrestleMania 33 and produced one of the most shocking moments in the company a few months prior to that, but the problem is that we've just seen it all before at this point. To go through everything we did with the Fiend, just to have a rinse and repeat match a mere 6 weeks later, feels like a waste of all 3 men involved in this equation.

While it's easy to get suckered into some positivity purely for Braun's sake (this result is long overdue and a fitting reward for some of his previously unacknowledged work in the company) the match itself was not something he'll look back on with too much fondness. A quick flurry of spears from the champion, followed by a not-as-quick-but-equally-flurried succession of powerslams from the challenger, and that was it.

A predictable blast of adrenaline, but one that no longer has the power to take us by surprise.

Result: Braun Strowman defeated Goldberg via pinfall (2:10)

Star Rating: ⭐1/2