Ric Flair: I don’t think Goldberg is physically up for a Brock Lesnar match

Goldberg returned to WWE after 12 years away on this week’s episode of Monday Night Raw to accept Paul Heyman’s challenge for a match against Brock Lesnar at any time in any place. It will almost surely be at Survivor Series on Nov. 20, 2016, in Toronto, though it hasn’t been officially announced just yet.

While that segment was a hit, both in execution and in the ratings, there are very real questions on whether or not these two can deliver a decent match once they get to it. Count Ric Flair among those who believe they cannot, and his thought is it’s because Goldberg may not be physically prepared for the toll a match with Brock Lesnar takes on the human body (from The Ric Flair Show via Wrestling Inc):

"The t-shirt and it's all over everywhere, he sells that t-shirt, Suplex City. Whoever is going to work with Brock Lesnar, whether he [has] gotten smarter, he's not going to change his style and he's going to get suplexed, not just once, not twice, but at least 10 times and I don't know if Bill's ready for that. You're off for a couple of months, much less 10 years, you're going to get in the ring and you're going to wrestle Brock Lesnar the first time around? Ha! Good luck with that! That's just the way it is. His body is not used to it and Brock is a whole different can than spearing Ric Flair, okay? Correct? I mean, I just don't think Bill is going to be physically up for that, myself. I mean, it might look good on paper, but, God, because Brock is 10 times more aggressive now than he was the last time he wrestled Bill."

Goldberg is a 49-year-old man who looks better than the average man even 20 years younger, sure. That doesn’t speak to his gas tank and the punishment his 49-year-old body can withstand, however, and perhaps that’s the more interesting angle in all this.

Whether or not Goldberg can perform well against the 2016 version of Lesnar.

Flair doesn’t seem to think he can hold up.

Do you?