5 biggest surprises from 2016 WWE Survivor Series

1. Goldberg squashes Brock Lesnar

Sorry, Bray. While you finally got the big win that you deserved, people weren’t leaving the building talking about you. They left the Air Canada Centre talking about how Bill Goldberg squashed Brock Lesnar in less than 90 seconds. That seems about right.

They called it a match 12 years in the making. They called it fantasy warfare. They called it the main event of Survivor Series. And now we’ll call it one of the biggest surprises in Survivor Series history. Yes, Bill Goldberg defeated Brock Lesnar in a squash match. WHAT?

Maybe there’s a bigger picture here that I don’t see just yet but as I sat and watched this match last night on the WWE Network, I was in absolute shock. Where’s that surprised guy from when Lesnar beat The Undertaker’s streak when you need him, am I right? I’ve been trying to think of something all day that makes this okay but I just can’t do it. Look, I knew the match wasn’t going to be very good. The first one at WrestleMania XX wasn’t good and that’s when they were both much younger. Lesnar’s matches haven’t been enjoyable for quite some time anyway and putting him in there with a 49-year-old man, albeit the fact that Goldberg is in much better shape than most 49-year-old men, and I figured it would be very slow. I thought it might get a little physical given the types of athletes they are but Goldberg has never been able to really help carry a match, even in his prime.

This wasn’t Goldberg vs Brock Lesnar. This was Goldberg vs any of the jobbers he beat in WCW during his initial streak on Monday Nitro. Sure, there was going to be some ring rust but give us something. With word getting around that Goldberg will be in the Royal Rumble, which will help sell tickets in the Alamodome, Lesnar will be looking for revenge and will either get it there or possibly at WrestleMania, which is maybe where they wanted this match to happen in the first place. Maybe that’s the payoff. But last night was ridiculous. To have that kind of buildup for that kind of payoff was a travesty, especially since Goldberg doesn’t need the rub of going over Lesnar that some other guys would benefit greatly from, much like Lesnar didn’t need the rub of ending The Undertaker’s streak. And this all happened in the final spot of the night. There was a 5-on-5 match, arguably the best in Survivor Series history, that went 52 minutes and 55 seconds right before this one that was the real main event of the night and yet the night will be remembered as the night that Goldberg squashed Brock Lesnar. And unfortunately, that’s not a surprise.

Next: 10 best Survivor Series moments of all time

And I didn’t even mention Shane McMahon getting knocked out by Roman Reigns. And on a quick note, how cool was it when Randy Orton when over to his son to let him know that he was okay? One thing that Survivor Series showed was that WWE can still surprise us…whether we like it or not. What was your favorite moment from Sunday night?