BillGoldberg made his first appearance on ABC‘s hit show The Goldbergs.
The former World Champion was featured on the hit sitcom Wednesday night in an episode titled ‘Goldberg on the Goldbergs’ … playing Nick Mellor, the brother of Coach Rick Mellor (played by Bryan Callen).
The brothers’ strained relationship was a focal point of the episode, with Wendi McLendon-Covey‘s charactertrying to make them get along again.
The show’s creator Adam F. Goldberg praised the wrestler’s performance on the show and called him a “legit comedic genius.” He also promised Bill would be in future episodes.
Check out a clip from Goldberg’s appearance below:
In an interesting twist on the situation between WWE and The Young Bucks, the brothers were contacted to do WWE 2K19 work just one day after they received their cease & desist letter from WWE following the recent “invasion” outside of a RAW TV event in California. The Wrestling Observer Newsletter reports that the company in charge of the WWE 2K franchise contacted The Bucks to ask them about doing motion capture work for next year’s video game. The game creators felt like they needed all of the signature YB moves in the game because so many people playing last year’s edition were using the Create-A-Wrestler mode to play as the brothers.
Stephanie McMahon spoke at the Fortune Most Powerful Women Summit in Washington D.C. on Wednesday, and she revealed some details about just how much the WWE Universe impacts the company’s strategy.
McMahon, the Chief Brand Officer for the WWE, described how audience feedback can force the company to adjust its plans. She said that plans for WrestleMania are set a year in advance, and then they can be changed based on how the WWE Universe reacts to the storylines.
“Our audience tells us what they love, what they don’t like and worse, what they don’t care about. And you have to be listening, and in WWE, yes, we do, we pivot on the fly,” McMahon said. It’s an advantage that we’re live. We do set our storylines out a year in advance, WrestleMania being our Super Bowl and then we program backwards, but things happen. The audience might not be invested in a character that we think they will be invested in for whatever reason. There could be an injury that happens, because we really are an incredible athletic event as well. Anything can happen, so that ability to pivot and twist is really important.”
So if the audience doesn’t respond to a wrestler the way the company had predicted, it could lead to a halted push. On the flipside, it’s possible for a lower-tier superstar to be given a chance if the audience clamors for it lout enough.
McMahon pointed to NXT as a clear example for how the audience affects programming. The NXT Universe is the most passionate fan base in all of WWE, so their reactions help determine which superstars are ready for a call-up to the main roster.
“And when you think about NXT, for example, our audience is actually determining who makes it to the next level, who goes to that main roster,” McMahon said. “And they know it, they know that they are a part of that person’s success, so they are that much more invested in it. And again, I just think that engagement is really important.”
The current contract for WWE Universal Champion Brock Lesnar has an option that would renew the deal and most expect that it will be renewed after it expires at WrestleMania 34, according to The Wrestling Observer Newsletter. Lesnar’s last dates under the current deal would be WrestleMania 34 in New Orleans or the post-WrestleMania RAW the next night. WWE also has certain rights with Lesnar that will go through the first week of August 2018 if a new deal is not signed.
Regarding the rumors of Lesnar possibly returning to UFC to fight Jon Jones, the feeling among just about everyone is that the fight will never happen. If Lesnar does decide to return to UFC for another fight, it likely would not happen until August since WWE would have no rights to him.
The Observer adds that while WWE has ties to WME IMG, the owners of UFC, that things aren’t smooth between the two sides. UFC President Dana White has noted that he has a good business relationship with Triple H but it’s a more difficult situation with Vince McMahon.
MMA Weekly noted that White appeared on The Dan LeBatard Show this week and said he doesn’t believe WWE would allow Lesnar to fight again while he’s under contract. Vince allowed Lesnar to work the UFC 200 event in July 2016 but WWE ended up looking bad after Lesnar tested positive for a banned substance. White commented:
“They didn’t want to do that again. You saw what happened last time he was under contract and it doesn’t look good for anybody.”
Regarding Neville’s WWE status, sources have confirmed that he walked out of Monday’s RAW in Indianapolis before the show hit the air. The plan was for Neville to lose to WWE Cruiserweight Champion Enzo Amore in the non-title Lumberjack main event. The match ended up having Enzo drop the title to Kalisto.
The Wrestling Observer Newsletterreports that Neville walked out when he learned of the loss he was to take. This was a last minute decision made by Vince McMahon, reportedly because no one could come up with a better idea at the last minute, they put the title on Kalisto instead of having Enzo defeat another cruiserweight. The Observer adds that the current plan is to get the title back on Enzo. The title change could come at the October 22nd TLC pay-per-view when Enzo receives his rematch.
Neville’s status with the company is still up in the air but it’s believed that he’s gone. One source close to the situation insists that he’s 100% gone. As noted yesterday, WWE is officially denying that he quit and the official word is that he’s still with the company. His profile remains on the WWE website as of this writing.
73 year old WWE Hall of Famer and hardcore legend Terry Funk got busted open and bled all over the place after getting spiked in the head with a giant nail at a recent PCW show.
It all went down on Friday at PCW ‘Demonized’ in Wilmington, California when Funk got involved in a match pitting Sandman and Masada vs. PCW tag team champs Warbeast.
Josef from Warbeast spiked Terry in the head multiple times for helping the ECW icon.
Funk will return to PCW on December 1 as part of a team with Sandman to face Warbeast in a revenge match at Refuse to Lose. Tickets are available at PCWLive.com.
There are rumors of Neville quitting WWE and walking out before Monday’s RAW in Indianapolis hit the air. The original plans for the Lumberjack main event had Neville losing to WWE Cruiserweight Champion Enzo Amore but plans changed and Kalisto ended up defeating Enzo for the title.
In an update, F4Wonline.com confirms that Neville did walk out of RAW before the show began and that his future is up in the air. WWE has officially denied that he quit the promotion. F4Wonline.com also notes that the originally planned Neville vs. Enzo match was supposed to be non-title.
The first Kalisto vs. Enzo match wasn’t supposed to happen until the October 22nd WWE TLC pay-per-view, as announced just a few hours before RAW began. As noted last night, WWE has confirmed that Enzo will get his rematch for the title at TLC.
Neville did not appear on WWE 205 Live last week and his profile remains on the WWE website as of this writing.
Neville’s last TV appearance came last Monday during the segment that saw RAW General Manager Kurt Angle announce that he had signed Kalisto to the cruiserweight Division. His last TV match came on the September 26th edition of WWE 205 Live, a win over Ariya Daivari. He did not work any weekend live events but cruiserweights rarely work the non-televised events besides an occasional singles title match.
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