Posted in: Sports, TV, WWE | Tagged: Drew McIntyre, goldberg, Raw, wrestling, wwe

WWE Botches Ending of Raw as Goldberg Challenges Drew McIntyre

Published Mon, 04 Jan 2021 22:26:34 -0600

Last updated Tue, 05 Jan 2021 14:19:49 -0600

WWE apparently messed up the ending of the first Raw of 2021 when the show ran long and the ending had to be rushed, resulting in an incoherent challenge from Bill Goldberg in response to comments made by Drew McIntyre about WWE's legends that Goldberg interpreted as disrespectful. The only problem is, McIntyre didn't make any comments about the legends whatsoever.

Goldberg challenges Drew McIntre over a promo McIntyre never actually cut on WWE Raw.

The main event of tonight's special Legends Night episode of Raw was a match between Keith Lee and Drew McIntyre for the WWE Championship. The match went nearly a half hour, with all of the legends who appeared on Raw tonight including Mark Henry, Torrie Wilson, Ric Flair, The Big Show, Hulk Hogan, and others watching from seats on the stage. McIntyre won after hitting a Claymore on Keith Lee. There were just a few minutes left in the show.

That's when things got weird. McIntyre grabbed a microphone, presumably about to offer some platitudes about respect to the legends. But Goldberg's music played and he walked briskly to the ring, with no long, backstage entrance. Goldberg got in the ring and accused McIntyre of being insincere in his address to the legends (that never happened) and of lacking true respect for them. Goldberg challenged McIntyre to a match at the Royal Rumble. McIntyre told Goldberg that would be like fighting his dad. Goldberg shoved McIntyre to the ground and Raw immediately cut off the air.

It seems likely that McIntyre was meant to have actually given his speech to the legends, but Goldberg was sent out immediately after the match because, again presumably, it ran too long. But partially because he's Goldberg, and partially because WWE is reaping the fruits of over-scripting every single word of every promo, Goldberg went on with the script as planned instead of improvising, resulting in an incoherent challenge.

Is Goldberg supposed to be senile? Did he hallucinate Drew McIntyre cutting a promo on the legends? Exactly how pissed off was Vince McMahon as Raw went off the air tonight? Maybe we'll learn more in the coming days. The important thing is, the whole affair was so confusing, for a brief moment, everyone forgot about how much a match between Goldberg and Drew McIntyre for the WWE Championship at the Royal Rumble is going to suck, especially because it's totally plausible that Goldberg walks out of the Rumble with the belt. Desperate ratings times call for desperate measures, after all.

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