Goldberg-McIntyre Update, Matt Hardy Blasts Hardy Bros, Cardi B Talks WWE

Bleacher Report catches you up on the latest news from the WWE Universe.

How Goldberg vs. McIntyre Came to Be

Goldberg shocked the WWE Universe on Monday when he appeared on the Legends Night edition of Raw and challenged WWE champion Drew McIntyre to a title match at the Royal Rumble.

According to Dave Meltzer of Wrestling Observer Radio (h/t WrestlingInc.com's Sai Mohan), the decision to go with Goldberg vs. McIntyre at the Rumble wasn't made until Saturday.

Goldberg showed up after McIntyre's successful title defense against Keith Lee and laid down the challenge because of his belief that The Scottish Warrior was disrespecting the legends. Goldberg then shoved McIntyre down as Raw went off the air.

Meltzer noted that WWE decided to book Goldberg vs. McIntyre since the company had "nobody ready" to face the champion at the Royal Rumble.

While Goldberg vs. McIntyre is undoubtedly a major attraction to supplement the two Rumble matches, it is a surprising development given the belief that WWE was more likely to build toward Goldberg vs. universal champion Roman Reigns.

Goldberg vs. Reigns was supposed to happen at WrestleMania last year, but it was changed to Goldberg vs. Braun Strowman after Reigns pulled out of the show because of concerns related to COVID-19.

In recent months, Goldberg has called out Reigns and talked about a potential match against him, but his first order of business appears to be McIntyre.

It remains possible that Goldberg could go on to face Reigns at WrestleMania like he was supposed to last year, although WWE would have to get creative in terms of protecting Goldberg in a loss to McIntyre at the Royal Rumble.

Matt Hardy Criticizes Hardy Bros Team

Matt Hardy is no longer part of WWE, but the AEW star chimed in this week regarding a WWE storyline involving his brother, Jeff Hardy.

In a video on his YouTube channel (h/t Mohan), Matt discussed the new partnership between Jeff and Riddle, which has been dubbed The Hardy Bros:

Matt suggested that The Hardy Bros are a product of WWE Chairman Vince McMahon trying to find a replacement for The Hardy Boyz:

"There is no doubt, if someone ever asked you who the greatest tag team of all time is, it is The Hardy Boyz. As a matter of fact, Vince McMahon is so obsessed with the greatness and popularity of The Hardy Boyz, he's created the Hardy Bros. And he's put together another guy named Matt with my brother, to try and recreate the magic that we once had."

Hardy added: "He's [McMahon] trying to confuse the marketplace because he's so vicious, he still wishes he had the Hardy Boyz. The Hardy Bros? That's not gonna work. You would have had a better chance with fake Razor and fake Diesel."

The Hardy Boyz are unquestionably among the greatest teams in professional wrestling history, and they had nine title reigns in WWE.

Matt departed WWE last year after being unfulfilled creatively and has since landed in AEW. Meanwhile, Jeff continues to be a focal point in WWE and even held the Intercontinental Championship in 2020.

While Jeff and Riddle have interacted quite a bit, teamed on occasion and thrown the "Hardy Bros" moniker out there, they aren't an official tag team and are both focused on singles competition.

Hardy faced Randy Orton on Monday's Raw, while Riddle beat United States champion Bobby Lashley in a non-title match.

An alliance between Jeff and Riddle can be a good thing for both Superstars, though, and having them team here and there as The Hardy Bros is fun for the fans to get behind as well.

Cardi B Tweets About WWE After Raw Mention

After getting mentioned Monday night on Raw, rap megastar Cardi B fired off several tweets about WWE and her past fandom of professional wrestling.

On the Legends Night edition of Raw, Torrie Wilson tricked Angel Garza by telling him there were several female celebrities in a nearby room, and she specifically mentioned Cardi B. Instead, Garza was met by The Boogeyman.

Following the segment, Cardi B tweeted about people tagging her in WWE-related tweets:

That led to Cardi B replying to several Twitter users, including her revealing some of her favorite all-time wrestlers:

Cardi B also praised Sasha Banks and made mention of Carmella before noting that it had been years since she last watched wrestling:

She interacted with fellow rapper Wale as well and joked that she would be at WrestleMania to collect her check:

Wale has appeared on WWE programming several times and also wrote Big E's new theme song, so perhaps his interaction with Cardi B could open the door for something between WWE and Cardi down the road.

Even if nothing like that comes to fruition, mentioning Cardi B on Raw was a smart move on WWE's part since it netted the company plenty of free publicity on social media.

Listen to Ring Rust Radio for all of the hot wrestling topics. Catch the latest episode in the player below (warning: some language NSFW).