Every 2017 WWE PPV main event ranked by in-ring value
By Luke Norris
16. WWE Fastlane: WWE Universal Championship Match
Kevin Owens (c) vs. Goldberg
If you’ve ever read any of my work, you know that I’m just not a Goldberg guy. I have never been and never will be. Even at the height of his popularity in WCW, I just couldn’t get into it. I understand his place in the Monday Night War and all, and understand why he was so over with people, but I just wasn’t one of them.
His first run in WWE didn’t help matters for me, and although I can be man enough to admit that he was finally decent on a microphone upon his return at the end of 2016, I still couldn’t get excited about him coming back to face Brock Lesnar at Survivor Series. I knew the match wouldn’t be good, and that at close to 50 years of age, he wouldn’t be able to do very much in the ring — which is probably why that match didn’t even make it to 90 seconds. Sure, the surprise factor was there but I hated the booking (still do) and hoped (but knew better) that would be the end of it.
Fast forward a bit and Goldberg now wants another title run. Great. After not winning the Royal Rumble, we knew a rematch with Lesnar was coming at WrestleMania and we knew that Vince would want a title to go along with it. Enter WWE Universal Champion, Kevin Owens. He was going through his amazing program with Chris Jericho, and with Y2J holding the United States Championship, it was clear to see that KO was just going to be fed to Goldberg and that’s exactly what happened.
At WWE Fastlane, the match between the two was set and forget 90 seconds, this one didn’t even go 30. After teasing an actual start to the match, Owens left the ring for a moment, jumped back in and then Jericho’s music hit. KO gets distracted and Goldberg does the spear and Jackhammer thing and we’ve got a new champion. Sure, the booking worked in that Jericho got his revenge on Owens for the Festival of Friendship and Goldberg-Lesnar was now a title match but Kevin Owens vs. Goldberg, which actually could have been fun, never really happened and was just another joke.