Bill Goldberg recently spoke with RollingStone.com. Here are some highlights:
You’ve teased a return in some form to the ring. Would that be at this kind of exhibition or perhaps an emerging promotion like Global Force Wrestling?
When I was speaking of that, I wasn’t speaking of my correlation with any organization. This is an event I’m gonna put on myself. Not in association with Global Force or anyone. It’s an opportunity I’ve been given through a number of influential people to fulfill a dream of mine – to let my son watch me wrestle. I don’t want anybody telling me what to do in any capacity anymore. Therefore, I’m gonna do it on my own.
So, to clarify, there is something in the works.
There is an actual date in a stadium in this country that is set up with entertainment to put on an event like nobody’s ever seen. And it’s in my court. It’s all about timing, it’s all about the right opponent. There’s so much that goes into this, especially if it’s my last time. And I honestly don’t know if I’m 100-percent willing to do it, because I’m seriously considering kickboxing right now.
You’re saying you might not be able to balance both.
Yeah, one is fictitious and one couldn’t be any more real. If I was to consider, which I seriously am, the fight for GLORY [kickboxing promotion], I need to put the six-month training camp in and do it like a real fighter does it, so that may push the other thing.
Are you weighing whether you’ll enhance or diminish your legacy?
There’s an inherent risk of that always, especially when you consider I built my legacy on size, strength and ferociousness. When you get older, all of the above seem to dwindle, except for my ferociousness and my mental capacity. So you’re always rolling the dice. There’s a lot of things that go into a decision like this, and taking my legacy into consideration, that’s a lot on the line.
Your stance about not going back to WWE has been very clear, but do you appreciate how Brock Lesnar’s returned on his terms?
Brock and Ernest Miller are the only two [wrestlers] that I talk to since I left. I talk to Brock once [every] couple months. He’s a genius, but he’s a little younger than me, and he can tolerate a little more than I can. I refuse to do it. The one year that I [joined WWE], I’m so mad at myself for doing it, but I owed it to the fans to try it. I put myself on that platter and I got slaughtered. That’s how I feel, and I shouldn’t feel like that. I should think wrestling is the most positive thing in the world. The fact is, behind the scenes, there’s stuff that goes on that’s bush-league. It’s laughable. So to see a guy like Brock do what he’s doing, are you kidding me? I admire him whole-heartedly, and I like to think that I taught him a thing or two. I’d love to wrestle Brock again.
All told, do you want your time in wrestling to define your legacy?
My character is just an extension of me. The in-ring work, the things that will always be said about me: Big, overbearing, powerful, in-your-face, couldn’t wrestle – I never needed to wrestle. Why did I need to learn how to wrestle? Did Hulk Hogan need to learn how to wrestle? Nope. Is Hulk Hogan a good athlete? Nope. I don’t know what my legacy’s going to be in the wrestling world, except I kicked ass and I took names. I want wrestling to be the thing that opens the door for people to look inside the world of Bill Goldberg. If it took professional wrestling for people to recognize me as a person, then all the other endeavors I embark upon will explain me as a person, define me as a person, but wrestling will not define me.
