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Report: More on WWE's Plans for Bill Goldberg Heading into WrestleMania 31

Posted: May 3rd 2014 By: Sharon Glencross - BleacherReport.com

More news has leaked out about the possibility of WCW icon Bill Goldberg performing at WrestleMania 31 next year.

Bryan Alvarez writes in this week's (subscribers-only) F4W newsletter that the company is planning to slowly reintroduce the star to the product before trying to sign him as a participant in a major bout at Levi's Stadium.

"The working plan for trying to get Goldberg for WrestleMania 31 is to follow a similar path that the Ultimate Warrior took: Put him in the video game, announce him around SummerSlam, and then use that to build to Mania. Being a focal point of the video game promotion on top of a WM booking is the most financially beneficial way that it can go for him, so we'll have a much better idea of whether or not he's doing anything after SummerSlam weekend."

On paper, this all sounds very shrewd on Vince McMahon and WWE's part.

If the company is in fact serious about getting him to wrestle at WrestleMania 31?which, by all accounts, it seems to be?then building the lucrative and high-profile video game franchise around him and his legendary character is a smart way to do that.

Goldberg will presumably be seeking reassurances that WWE intends to use him well this time around?unlike during his disappointing run in 2003 and 2004?and something like that would probably go a long way toward smoothing over his occasionally rocky relationship with America's No. 1 promotion.

Similar to Warrior, Goldberg could also have a starring spot in next year's Hall of Fame class. OK, so as noted, his WWE run wasn't particularly good, but he did still hold the WWE Championship for a while.

That makes him more qualified than a lot of people who are in there already. He's as good of a candidate as anyone. (Who knows? Maybe Sting can go in too, giving the whole class a "WCW" theme.)

Of course, whom the performer would face, assuming he does agree to wrestle on the show in Santa Clara, is a tantalizing question.

We can probably rule out Brock Lesnar after their WrestleMania XX debacle (yeah, WWE won't want to dredge up those memories). So who else could the bookers put him against? John Cena? Triple H? Possibly The Rock? There's no obvious candidate, in all honesty.

It will be interesting to see where this one goes.