Brock Lesnar, Paul Heyman Talk Goldberg WrestleMania 33 Match on WWE Raw

Brock Lesnar returned to WWE on Raw Monday night in an effort to start building up his match against Bill Goldberg at WrestleMania 33.

With manager Paul Heyman doing the talking, he informed WWE announcer Michael Cole that Lesnar has one thing currently on his mind, per WWE Universe: 

When asked if Goldberg will defeat Kevin Owens and win the Universal title at the Fastlane pay-per-view, Lesnar and Heyman had different opinions, per WWE Universe: 

It was a good setup to help rebuild the Beast Incarnate, as Scott Fishman of the Miami Herald noted: 

Lesnar's appearance was somewhat of a surprise since he's essentially in a holding pattern until WrestleMania 33 in April. During the Jan. 30 edition of Raw, Heyman challenged Goldberg to a rematch after his quick defeat to the former WCW champion at Survivor Series.

Goldberg showed up a week later to accept and also wound up receiving a shot against Owens for the WWE Universal Championship at Fastlane.

Following Lesnar's return to the company in 2012, the terms of his contract have significantly limited his usage on WWE programming, which has both positives and negatives.

On the plus side, the scarcity of his presence adds more intrigue and importance when he actually shows up on television. One of the downsides, on the other hand, is that he almost operates in his own bubble where he is constrained to talking about only a small group of fellow wrestlers.

One of Lesnar's more underrated moments in recent years came when he wrecked Heath Slater during Raw in August 2016. It was an entertaining reminder that every WWE wrestler exists in one ecosystem—a fact that can be somewhat lost when marquee stars are almost exclusively interacting with other marquee stars.

Considering Lesnar is only committed to a relatively low number of dates during the year, it's understandable, however, why WWE is selective with the Beast Incarnate.

One wouldn't expect an interview to be a great use of Lesnar's time, but they've often been effective in conveying how much of a monster he is and how little regard he has for his coworkers. As an example, look no further than his pre-taped promo before Extreme Rules 2012.

With that said, one might question the timing of Monday's interview with Cole.

Lesnar has plenty of time to hype up his battle with Goldberg, and to a certain extent, doing the interview now takes some of the spotlight away from Owens vs. Goldberg at Fastlane. There isn't exactly a pressing need for fans to hear Lesnar's thoughts about Goldberg when he's not wrestling him for another month.

WWE will likely keep the face-to-face confrontations between Lesnar and Goldberg to a minimum until Fastlane.