A few days after a better-than-many-expected match with WWE World champ Gunther at Saturday Night’s Main Event, Bill Goldberg spoke to Ariel Helwani about his experience.
The Hall of Famer didn’t have any notes on the match itself, but was clearly perturbed with how much of the rest of the evening in Atlanta was handled by WWE. The biggest thing was the fact that the show wasn’t timed to give him more time to talk on the NBC/Peacock broadcast before the show ended (Goldberg’s speech was released online
the afternoon after SNME).
Asked if doing the match on SNME was always the plan, Goldberg said yes but that he couldn’t say he “was too thrilled about part of that.” Asked which part, he answered:
“Saturday Night’s Main Event. Live TV in Atlanta. You always have your dreams of how you’re going to do things, and ultimately to have a little bit more control over the time and the space would have been much more preferred. Let’s just put it that way. To be given that opportunity on such a special show with the lineage of the show to be able to go against the World Heavyweight champion Gunther. It was an honor and a privilege to be given that opportunity. I had to make the most of it.”
But Bill says he “100 per cent” would have preferred the match happen on a premium live event so they wouldn’t have had a two-hour time limit on the show:
“They cut me off in friggin’ 20 seconds with a microphone in my hand. I got two weeks before I can really spill the beans and make my feelings known about the entire rundown from the inception of the idea to its delivery.
“It was a little less than to be desired. I’m not going to complain because not many people get that opportunity. There are a number of variables where such, you get put behind the eight ball and to be able to perform a 12-13 minute match — what felt like 115 minutes — it was a great opportunity and Gunther was an unbelievable guy to work with. It was awesome. I had a good time. I was laughing in there when he was chopping me*. I actually had fun.
“In two weeks I’ll be telling everybody about the whole story.“
Asked if the “two weeks” comment was in reference to a non-disclosure agreement he’d signed, Goldberg replied, “Let’s just say that.”
Plans for the match were apparently put in place as far back as last November, and Helwani asked why the match was only set-up and announced three weeks ago. Bill said:
“I would have loved for them to announce it in January and had a build up to it and do something like that — that I thought was maybe worthy of my career. Let’s just say they chose to do it with three weeks notice. It is what it is. It’s part of the package. It’s part of the meal you get dealt and I would be remiss in thinking I thought the meal would be different, but shame on me for thinking it would be different.”
Helwani moves their dialogue along by observing that Goldberg seemed to be “battling mixed emotions” and asked if Saturday was something he wasn’t “sure how to feel about in the immediate aftermath”. Goldberg responded:
“Let’s just say I’m pissed off at the way I went out. I put so much into it, and I don’t feel as though the effort was reciprocated to put a stamp on what I’ve accomplished.
“Again, I’m not gonna say that I’m not ecstatic about the opportunity that I got, but you know — I was a WCW guy man, and, I don’t know, man, I don’t know — I think it could have been done a little bit differently. That’s all. I’m happy with my performance. I’m happy with the setting, you know, but could it have been better? Absolutely. It can always be better.”
Asked what specifically, and Bill said:
“Well, there’s about a hundred things. I did three interviews beforehand, Ariel. I did three — in six months. You know, it’s just... they cut me off 30 seconds into my speech, bro. You don’t do that. But you know, it’s all good. It’s all good. I think it doesn’t matter [if it was WWE’s call or the network’s] because it’s live television and you can plan for it, that’s all.
“And I know it is what it is. The match might have gone long, and the this, and the that, and whatever it is, but I just think it could have been a little classier prepared than it was. And I’ll just say — that’s a mild understatement [laughs]. Yeah, man — c’mon.”
He told Helwani that WWE “100 per cent” knew he was speaking after his match, and mused that cutting off may have been the final payback from WWE to a “WCW guy”:
“But I never heard I was gonna speak for like 28 seconds. It is what it is, man... I got the opportunity to speak for 28 seconds... not many people get that. But just — everything throughout the years have built up to something like ‘nyah’ [gestures as if he’s poking someone in the side] the ultimate rib. I guess that was the ultimate rib.”
Asked if he believes it was purposeful, Goldberg replied:
“I’m not saying it was done on purpose by any stretch of the imagination. I’m saying that it wasn’t prepared for on purpose — that’s all... they wouldn’t do that to Taker, right? I don’t think. They’re not gonna do that to Cena. Cena’s going around the world doing his retirement thing.
“Mine was just a World Heavyweight championship match. And to be honest with ya — and I’m gonna catch hell for... I don’t care — dude, I had World Heavyweight matches all the time. That doesn’t do anything for me. I mean, it does. But make it different than just an angle at least at the end. Do something, say something — I don’t know. It just felt a little ‘eh’ for me. That’s all. That’s it.
“And like I said, I’m not here to bitch and moan, cause I don’t do that. And I’m not complaining by any stretch of the imagination. You asked me a question and I’m answering it.”
Asked about his future, it doesn’t sound like it will be in WWE. It also sounds like he’s not as locked into retirement as perhaps he was heading into SNME:
“I don’t think I’m lingering anywhere around the WWE anytime in the future, by any stretch of the imagination. But like I said, man — wrestling world, you’re never retired until your dead. And I ain’t dead yet, man. It was reinvigorating, it was a lot of fun. It taught me that I can do things that I never thought that I could do...”
Goldberg said that he didn’t speak much with WWE Chief Content Officer Paul “Triple H” Levesque on Saturday, and that they speak “infrequently” in general, but says he believes they currently have a good relationship despite that not being the case for years.
We’ll see what Bill has to say in a couple weeks, and what this all means about what’s next.
Check out today’s entire episode of The Ariel Helwani Show here.
* Elsewhere in the interview, Goldberg apologized for laughing when Gunther chopped him the first time, saying, “I laughed when he chopped me, but I didn’t know what to expect... It’s a great work punch, but I thought it was gonna hurt more, that’s all. It just startled me and I didn’t mean to do that. I really apologize because I didn’t mean that. That’s not a rib. I’m not trying to downplay his move, but it caught me off guard and I completely broke character.”
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