WWE Botching the Stardust vs. Goldust Feud Should Come as No Surprise

Since the seeds were planted for a breakup in the 2015 Royal Rumble match, all signs pointed to a Stardust vs. Goldust match at WrestleMania. Longtime fans of both competitors had waited for years to see this match and were happy to know it appeared to be finally coming to fruition.

The subtle teasing of tension between Stardust and Goldust in the weeks that followed the Rumble was well done, with Stardust walking out on his brother after each of their losses. It culminated in the younger sibling turning on Goldust on the Feb. 16 edition of Raw, cementing the split in the process.

Instead of logically building to the first ever match between the brothers, WWE opted to give it away at that Sunday's Fastlane pay-per-view. Unfortunately, it backfired.

To their credit, Gold and Stardust contested a decent matchup, but the Memphis crowd was relatively silent for it. Worse yet, the referee screwed up the three count for Goldust, leaving the audience confused as to how to react.

They continued to feud for another week before the storyline was dropped altogether. An explanation was never given as to why Stardust and Goldust never resolved their rivalry with both instead moving on to other things going into WrestleMania.

From what it seemed, the story was that Goldust was trying to bring back Cody Rhodes from the Stardust character. It was likely leading to Stardust getting his big win over his older brother on the grand stage, but that is sadly out of the cards at this point.

All that said, WWE dropping the ball on the Stardust and Goldust angle shouldn't come as any surprise.

WWE is notorious for starting something and then giving up on it almost instantly: The New Day is a prime example. They were originally put together as a heel stable over the summer, but were randomly removed from TV a short time later before resurfacing with all-new characters in the fall.

However, it's a completely different case with Goldust and Stardust. This is a rivalry fans have been aching to see not only for the last few months but rather for the last few years. To think they were on the cusp of getting their WrestleMania moment together makes it even worse.

What isn't shocking about this move, however, is this is the fourth consecutive year this has happened with the brotherly duo. If history has been any indication, you can't ever expect WWE to do right by them at The Show of Shows.

Their initial match against each other nearly came at WrestleMania 28 where Cody was riding high as the Intercontinental champion. Goldust, as Dustin Rhodes, confronted him on the December 30, 2011 edition of SmackDown, apparently foreshadowing a match between them down the road.

It was around this time Goldust was heavily petitioning (h/t 411Mania) facing his brother at the event, only for his ideas to get shot down by management. Cody ended up working against Big Show in a mediocre match instead that killed any momentum he had going, while Goldust was released from the company a few short months later.

The following year, Goldust made his shocking return to WWE in the 2013 Royal Rumble match, briefly battling his brother before getting tossed out by him. WrestleMania 29 would have been the perfect place to do that long anticipated one-on-one match, but again, Creative had other plans for the second generation star: a mixed-tag team match that ultimately never took place.

Goldust later came back to the company to take part in an angle that fall that saw the Rhodes family feud with The Authority. During that period, he did some of the best work of his career and won the WWE Tag Team Championship with Cody in the main event of Raw.

Third time's the charm with WrestleMania 30, right? Regrettably, no.

After dropping the belts to The New Age Outlaws at the Royal Rumble, Cody and Goldust were wasted for the entire road to WrestleMania. I wrote an article shortly before the event saying why they deserved better than the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal, and one year later my stance on that hasn't changed a bit.

As noted, their originally planned match for WrestleMania 31 being scrapped is an even bigger crime considering Goldust is nearing the end of his wrestling career. How fitting would it have been for Stardust to finally get his win over Goldust only to embrace him afterward as Cody?

Instead, Stardust will be one of seven combatants in the Intercontinental Championship Ladder Match. Surely, he'll have a stellar performance, but his involvement in that match isn't necessary and the match would be just fine without him.

Meanwhile, Goldust will be competing in the mostly directionless Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal for the second straight year. Needless to say, he deserves much better on his way out of the company.

I'd be content if we got the resolution of the rivalry at all coming out of 'Mania, but they missed their chance and failed to strike when the iron was hot. Based off their track record to underutilize the Rhodes boys, their latest flub with them isn't astonishing, but that doesn't make it any less disappointing.

Graham Mirmina, aka Graham "GSM" Matthews, is a journalism major at Endicott College. Visit his website at Next Era Wrestling and "like" his official Facebook page to continue the conversation on all things wrestling. 

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