It’s almost as good as confirmed — Bill Goldberg vs. Brock Lesnar at WrestleMania 33. But while that seems to be the plan at the moment, WWE had another man in mind to face “The Beast” at the company’s biggest pay-per-view event of the year, and that man would have been the boss’ son himself, Shane McMahon.

Last month, rumors of Brock Lesnar vs. Shane McMahon at WrestleMania 33 had been swirling, even as fans were already watching Goldberg on television, hyping up his match against Lesnar at Survivor Series. SEScoops cited Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, who said that Lesnar vs. McMahon would serve as a follow-up to an angle that had started at this year’s SummerSlam.

That angle was connected to Brock’s match against Randy Orton, where he had kept attacking Orton after beating “The Viper” by technical knockout. At that time, Shane had entered the ring to check on Orton, but ended up eating Lesnar’s finisher, the F5, instead. This showcased McMahon’s impressive ability to take “bumps” in the ring, an ability that helped him get over with fans in the late-’90s and 2000s.

It’s almost as good as confirmed — Bill Goldberg vs. Brock Lesnar at WrestleMania 33. But while that seems to be the plan at the moment, WWE had another man in mind to face “The Beast” at the company’s biggest pay-per-view event of the year, and that man would have been the boss’ son himself, Shane McMahon.

However, what would have happened had Bill Goldberg not signed that “real big money deal” to make more appearances in WWE? Who would have been Brock Lesnar’s WrestleMania 33 opponent, if not his old adversary Goldberg? As it turns out, it would have been Shane-O-Mac all along, with the Lesnar vs. McMahon program teased at SummerSlam continuing where it had left off at some point before WrestleMania 33.

WrestlingNews.co again used Dave Meltzer as its source, as the respected wrestling journalist talked about the original plans for Brock Lesnar at WrestleMania 33 on Tuesday’s episode of Wrestling Observer Radio. Just as it had been rumored, he would have faced Shane McMahon at the big event, but that’s no longer a possibility due to the planned Lesnar vs. Goldberg match at WrestleMania.

Responding to a question from co-host Bryan Alvarez, Meltzer commented on the rumors of a Brock Lesnar vs. Braun Strowman match, though no event was specified for that rumored encounter. The fearsome Strowman is currently in a program with the much smaller Sami Zayn and has been enjoying a quick rise to main event status, as the Inquisitr had reported earlier today.

“Meltzer noted that Strowman was never in the plans for a match with Lesnar,” wrote WrestlingNews.co, citing Meltzer’s remarks. “He also noted that there were people pushing for Shane, but Vince McMahon overruled everybody and there were politics involved. There were also people not in favor of Lesnar losing to Goldberg the way he did at Survivor Series, but Vince also signed off on the finish of that match.”

As it seems, it may have been a case of fatherly concern preventing Vince McMahon from allowing his son Shane to compete against the physically-imposing Brock Lesnar. However, with WrestleMania 33 coming in just a few months, it would also appear that the WWE wants nothing less than the biggest pay-per-view event when it comes to “blowing off” the Lesnar vs. Goldberg feud.