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Last night on SmackDown, it was revealed that Braun Strowman would be the man replacing Roman Reigns in his Universal Championship match against Goldberg at WrestleMania this weekend.
The former Intercontinental Champion hasn't featured in WWE storylines over the past few weeks. Yet, he has found the time to take to Twitter and Instagram, where he decided to call out independent wrestlers who were struggling in the current climate.
Michael Cole announced the new match without even mentioning Reigns in a brief, unspectacular segment last night. It seems that WWE could think of no other way of slotting the Monster Among Men into a show that had already been pre-recorded, especially since Reigns made the announcement on Instagram this week that he had made the difficult decision to pull out.
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Whilst Braun Strowman was a good pick when it comes to a match with the Universal Champion, there are a number of other options that WWE could have looked into.
#5 Big E
Big E was the unsung hero throughout Kofi Kingston's reign as WWE Champion. Since the former Tag Team Champion was at the WrestleMania tapings anyway, nothing was stopping him from stepping into this match with Goldberg.
It has yet to be announced that The Miz has been forced to pull out of WrestleMania and that the Tag Team Championship triple threat ladder match will instead see one man on each team representing both members.
This means that Kofi Kingston could be the one representing New Day in the ladder match, which would allow Big E to cash in the World Championship match that he has spent years proving that he deserves. Before KofiMania took the world by storm last year, many fans believed that Big E would be the member of New Day to eventually receive the big singles push that we saw Kofi receive last year. WWE would have been well-served to take this as the opportunity to make a star out of Big E.
#4 Cesaro
Sami Zayn will defend his Intercontinental Championship against Daniel Bryan this weekend at WrestleMania, and it's highly likely that Shinsuke Nakamura and Cesaro will be in his corner for the match.
Based on recent TV appearances from the Performance Center, it seems like Cesaro was probably on hand for the WrestleMania tapings, which would make the Swiss Superman available for WWE to slot him into the Universal Title match. The former United States and Tag Team Champion is one of the best wrestlers in WWE and could pull off a fantastic match against Goldberg if he was given the chance.
Goldberg's style is based on strength, speed, and explosiveness. Being placed in the ring with Cesaro would allow him to flourish, because while Goldberg's power and speed has significantly diminished with age, the most important factor of his in-ring ability, that explosiveness, is as strong as ever. Cesaro is one of, If not the strongest wrestlers in the company, and his strong suit is making others look great. If there's anyone who can make it look like Goldberg is as fast and powerful as he ever was, it's the big man from Switzerland.
Cesaro has never had the backing of officials when it comes being moved up to a higher spot on the card, but given the circumstances, this could be one good thing that comes out of the black cloud that has engulfed WrestleMania. Cesaro could become a major star if he becomes Universal Champion -- if not, they can take the title from him just as easily as he got it. On top of that, it's not guaranteed that Goldberg has to lose the belt. They could just use this as a way to create a memorable WrestleMania match, and even give Goldberg that elusive great match that he's been trying to have since the Undertaker debacle.
#3 Kevin Owens
Kevin Owens already has a match at WrestleMania this weekend, plus he's a RAW Superstar while the Universal Title is SmackDown's biggest prize. He is, however, someone who has a history with Goldberg -- the current Universal Champion is the man who ended Owens' first and only Universal Title reign back in early 2017.
Owens would go on to have a match with Chris Jericho at WrestleMania to close out their feud, and later on that night, Goldberg lost the title to Brock Lesnar. The stars never aligned properly for Owens, and has never received a rematch for the title he held for the majority of 2016. Whilst Owens obviously has a score to settle with Seth Rollins, WrestleMania is two nights this year! That means he could take out Rollins on Saturday and challenge Goldberg to a match on Sunday. Owens gets his rematch, Goldberg gets an opponent, and WWE is able to make lemonade out of lemons by taking advantage of a situation that allows them to tie up the loose end that is the story of the end of Kevin Owens' Universal Title reign.
Sure, he's a RAW guy, but he doesn't have to win the title for the story to finally have an ending. Alternatively, he could win and find himself moved to SmackDown in due time, as post-WrestleMania season often sees the return of the WWE Draft.
#2 Matt Riddle
When it was revealed that Roman Reigns had been forced to pull out of his WrestleMania match with Goldberg and a replacement was needed, one man's name immediately jumped into the minds of many members of the WWE Universe: Matt Riddle.
The current NXT Tag Team Champion has made it clear that he has put a target on Goldberg's back, and he has called out the legendary Superstar on social media on many occasions, even going as far as to make light of his, to put it politely, disappointing match against The Undertaker in Saudi Arabia.
It's been noted in the past hat Riddle and Goldberg have real-life heat, and the former UFC star has said himself that he wasn't told by WWE to use Twitter to set up a feud. Instead, it seems abundantly clear that every Tweet and other online jabs at Goldberg was just Riddle sharing his genuine, personal opinions.
It's unknown as to whether or not Goldberg and Riddle would be able to work together given their issues, but this is a match that the WWE Universe wants to see and one that WWE could have made happen so the two men could have put their issues aside to have a memorable WrestleMania match.
#1 Dolph Ziggler
Goldberg has returned to WWE a number of times in recent years. His last stint with WWE before he returned to win the Universal Championship took place in the build to SummerSlam 2019. He made quick work of Dolph Ziggler on WWE's second-biggest event of the year. The Showoff was another victim of Goldberg's explosive offense, and because he refused to stay down after losing the match, he received a few extra spears for posterity's sake.
Whilst Ziggler has a scheduled match against Otis at WrestleMania this weekend, when the news was leaked that Roman Reigns was going to be unable to be part of the biggest event of the year, Ziggler's match had yet to be officially announced.
The entire storyline between Mandy Rose, Otis, and Dolph Ziggler could have been pushed back and built up ahead of SummerSlam or any other pay-per-view in between, which would therefore have allowed Ziggler to attempt to gain some revenge against the man who embarrassed him at SummerSlam last year. Once again, this would have given the Universal Championship match a backstory, which simply is not something WWE has with a match between Goldberg and Braun Strowman.
