The D'Amore Drop: Goldberg was right, which makes his public spurning of AEW all the more ironic

Yahoo

17-07-2025

The D'Amore Drop is a weekly guest column on Uncrowned written by Scott D'Amore, the Canadian professional wrestling promoter, executive producer, trainer and former wrestler best known for his long-standing role with TNA/IMPACT Wrestling, where he served as head of creative. D'Amore is the current owner of leading Canadian promotion Maple Leaf Pro Wrestling.
The biggest weekend of wrestling since WrestleMania certainly didn't disappoint. What an incredible series of shows we had, with AEW's answer to WrestleMania — All In — drawing a record-breaking crowd for the best show of 2025, and WWE running three action-packed events, all in 24 hours!
AEW's All In Texas was an amazing show — the best of the year so far. The crowd — all 26,000-plus of them — were electric. The visuals on television were massive, and everything felt big. AEW is here to stay, and I'll keep on banging this drum: We are all better off for it.
I get that online trolling can be fun, and I understand that rage-bait is rewarded by YouTube algorithms, but if there's anyone appearing on the apps on your phone telling you AEW isn't massively successful — and entertaining — you need to block them from your feeds.
Those people are ruining your enjoyment of professional wrestling. Get them out of your life and just enjoy the sheer amount of great wrestling we have today.
I am going to start with my favorite match of the weekend: Kazuchika Okada vs. Kenny Omega de-liv-ered! As we knew it would. It was fitting the feud that was such a part of AEW even coming into existence was also a major part of the biggest U.S. show in company history. This match had everything — and it had everything from the moment they shot the angle to reignite this rivalry weeks ago.
Kenny Omega, to whom I will forever be grateful for what he did for TNA Wrestling during the COVID era, had been very open about his physical struggles. The end of his career isn't too far off. But, diminished in body maybe, he still has a mind and a feel for wrestling like only a handful of others have ever possessed.
The finish, with Okada going over after Don Callis saved him from Kenny's One-Winged Angel, was absolutely the right call.
These two icons are 2-2-1 against each other in a series that will be enjoyed for generations to come. I can't wait for the next — and likely final — chapter.
AEW boss Tony Khan says all future Unified Title defenses will be fought under Continental Rules, meaning no interference.
Hey, let's have that go retroactive, and suspend that dastardly Don Callis — and his ugly shoes — from AEW for a week or two!
For a wrestler who does a gimmick of being a silver-screen icon from the 1920s, Toni Storm controls the emotions of the crowd like she has some sort of app on her cell phone. The homegrown AEW star is rapidly becoming one of the very best all-around performers in the business.
For reasons I went into last week, I felt it was the right call to have Toni beat Mercedes Moné. Theirs was a memorable match even on a night full of incredible in-ring action.
Jim Ross, the voiceover artist for so many people's childhoods, returning from a bout with cancer to call Okada vs. Omega had a generation (D-Generation?) of grown men tearing up.
Will Ospreay and Swerve Strickland beat the Young Bucks, with the gimmick that the Bucks are no longer AEW EVPs. You had the top stars of tomorrow beating the guys who helped build the company.
The Bucks — Matt and Nick Jackson — have done everything there is to do in AEW as characters AND as real-life executives.
Hmmm…
It's no secret that WWE wanted the Bucks badly before they helped form AEW — and I can see Matt and Nick, not tomorrow, but at some point — maybe deciding it is time to go have a WrestleMania moment like fellow AEW founder Cody Rhodes did.
Fans rightly want Adam Copeland — aka Cope, aka Edge — to finish up his career teaming with Christian Cage. We need that, and AEW is going to give us that.
The AEW title is in the hands of Hangman Adam Page, another true AEW original, after he came through a bloody, violent brawl against Jon Moxley.
Their match wasn't the kind of wrestling that I, as a fan, prefer, but I've promoted those matches for the fans who do love them.
Mox vs. Page was a festival of violence for AEW's so-called 'sickos.'
With Page and Storm holding the two biggest titles in AEW, the company has underlined again that it is 100% capable of growing its own superstars.
What a moment for Dustin Rhodes at All In. I met Dustin more than 30 years ago in WCW and we've crossed paths many times since. He's a great guy, and I popped big for him getting a win like this. Think about it — at his age, and needing surgery soon, he wrestled three times in 24 hours in the Texas heat.
The Casino Gauntlets aren't my type of wrestling, but it was great to see Athena win. She's been overlooked for far too long.
All in all, including the pre-show, watching All In was an eight-hour marathon. Nevertheless, I don't regret watching the 'Zero Hour' pre-event presentation. Renee Paquette, Jeff Jarrett, RJ City and Paul Wight were a great panel, and it was great to see former TNA staffers Madison Rayne and Josh Mathews also get airtime.
Maybe next year this show could air on Turner as a final push for pay-per-views?
Ant Evans, an insider friend of mine and occasional teammate here at Uncrowned, asked me if All In should become a two-night event in 2026. It's a great question. AEW could do it — they have enough talent to do two four-hour cards. But I don't think that's the right move.
Not next year — and maybe not for a few years.
While the cost of running two back-to-back shows is far less than double — TNA took advantage of this fact, we'd run three nights in the same venue — I wonder how it would affect ticket sales.
Besides, AEW All In already has some of the trappings of a WrestleMania week: We had Dynamite on Wednesday, Collision on Thursday, ROH Supercard of Honor Friday, plus All In. There was the Starrcast fan experience run by podcast king Conrad Thompson, plus indies like TJPW starting to run shows alongside All In.
That's enough for now.
Seth Rollins' injury has thrown a wrench into WWE's mid-term plans.
Paul Heyman's onscreen, in-character statement that Rollins has until June 2026 to cash in his Money in the Bank title shot seemed to indicate that WWE doesn't expect him gone for that long.
There was a report by respected Canadian journalist John Pollock that he'd been told on Thursday before the wrestling weekend that Rollins would be doing an injury angle. The truth may be it was an angle to take Rollins off television for a while to fix a legit injury. I sensed Rollins was going to face Roman Reigns at SummerSlam but, clearly, that's unlikely now.
WWE has to pivot on Rollins' (still unnamed) group with Heyman, Bron Breakker and Bronson Reed. They could riff off the memorable angle where the evil Vince McMahon appeared in a wheelchair for months a generation ago, always protected by his loyal thugs.
That would allow Seth to remain an active character and, once he's healed up, be a dramatic moment when he suddenly stands up — back to 100% seemingly overnight — and shocks everyone by cashing in the briefcase.
Or maybe someone else joins Breakker and Reed in the interim. Whichever direction they go, zero chance WWE wastes all the heat they've built with the group since WrestleMania 41 and disbands it now.
The second-best show of the weekend was WWE's all-women Evolution event. Despite pre-event concerns, they pulled a full building, and those who bought tickets late made a wise decision.
The wrestling was outstanding. It feels somehow disrespectful to point that out, because you worry someone will interpret that as, 'It was surprisingly great, y'know, considering it was an all-women's card.' But I loved it — and I want to say I loved it.
Obviously, Naomi (Trinity when she was with us in TNA) cashing in her Money in the Bank briefcase to 'steal' the title from Rhea Ripley, who had Iyo Sky beaten, was executed so well.
Naomi came to TNA to rebrand herself after leaving WWE, and prove herself as one of the very best in the world. She's now WWE Champion at a time when WWE has its greatest ever roster of women's talent.
Point proven, Naomi.
Goldberg's final match vs. Gunther for the WWE World Title at Saturday Night's Main Event was better than anyone could have expected.
Gunther is rightly getting credit for the match being so compelling, but respect is due to Bill Goldberg too. Bill may have been helped, but he wasn't carried. The fact that his longest match in more than 20 years — and first match in three years — was by far the best he's had, I think, since he was in WCW, shows how hard he worked in there.
The match was tough, hard-hitting, and made sense.
However, I would have booked it totally differently. I'd have had Bill hit his spear immediately and get a very close near-fall, and do all he can to get the three-count … then, exhausting himself chasing the early finish, his age would kick in and Gunther would take over. Then, Goldberg hits a desperate spear! One … two … and Gunther kicks out, and this time Bill's too tired to respond.
I understand watching Ariel Helwani's show that Bill isn't happy with aspects of his sendoff. I agree with Bill — it wasn't enough. There were some nice touches, but it didn't feel 'big' enough. It wasn't special.
It's ironic that Goldberg chose to not only turn down AEW's offer to end his career there, but elected to throw shade at them in public. Goldberg's final match, bluntly, will be forgotten in three months. Compare that to the final run Sting got in AEW.
Sting's retirement speech also aired in full.