Bill Goldberg recently appeared on SB Nation’s Submission Radio. The full interview can be heard at this link. Below are some highlights:
Almost going to WWF instead of WCW:
“I approached WCW, well they approached me a number of times, and then I actually called Jim Ross and I had a meeting with Vince McMahon. I did not like that meeting with Vince McMahon. The next day I called Eric Bishoff and I said “listen, you know I’m going to make a decision here and the World Wrestling Federation has a contract on the table for me and that’s not where I want to be”. So push came to shove, I told him; I remember the quote like it was yesterday, I said “I’m not going to be one of those 500 dollar a week throw-around-the ring dudes. I’m gonna come in and make a difference.”
Beating Hogan in a sold out Nitro and winning the WCW World Title, and confrontation with Raven on the bus:
“Well the deal is…it’s like this, I heard about the announcement watching it live on Thursday Night Thunder when JJ Dillon announced it. And I was like “what? Okay I guess”. And as far as [Hulk] Hogan and they ‘Icy Hot’, absolutely. That’s one of those tricks that they do to rookies or young boys or whatever the hell you want to call them, you know to try and catch them off guard and see how they handle the pressure. It didn’t bother me. It pissed me off, but it didn’t bother me. I mean, stuff like that didn’t have to be done to me because I’d been there and done that in another [field] and I’ll never forget; I’m riding with Kevin Nash and…what’s his name, one of the wrestlers……. god he had the flock….Raven. Raven was riding with us, and I go to sit in the front seat and he goes “oh hold on a second”. He goes “you gotta pay your dues”. And I turn around and I said “listen b—h. I payed my dues by being on the football field and having two to three hundred pound dudes trying to rip my head off every play. So if you don’t want to consider that as paying my dues then you and I, we’re going to have to throw down.”
Vince Russo:
“I believe a part of the demise of WCW was the dips–t that we got from WWE. The writer, Vince Russo. I mean he was a moron through and through. He may have been successful at putting, you know wrestling shows together in the past, but I believe he was a plant. I think he was sent down to turn us, you know to make us go downhill. And I thought some of his ideas were, some of his ideas were asinine and ridiculous. And he and I, we didn’t see eye to eye on anything whatsoever. And so I think he was a contributing factor to the demise of the company.”
Not being used right in his run with the WWE, being told not to use his Spear finisher and what it felt like being there:
“I mean let’s be honest, let’s look at it right now. Let’s look at it in real time. You know wrestling moves are hollowed entities. You know, you don’t take moves from other people. Now when I was at the WWE and they wanted people to start spearing people and they wanted me, they actually had the nerve to ask me to stop spearing people. And now you look at the company and it’s the set up move for, I don’t know, 40 percent of the guys, girls included you know, part of the McMahon family for god’s sake. So I don’t believe that they took that from me or chose to use that because it was a great move. I think they wanted to water down my legacy. So looking at that from today’s stand point and then looking back at how they used me, with me being one of the guys that was kicking their ass in the Monday Night Wars, and being on the other side, and me telling Vince ‘no’ in the beginning and going to the opposing team, and then when he buys them out then I’m acquired; you know It was just a totally different deal. I wasn’t the product of Vince McMahon. At the end of the day they may be the best business entity in the wrestling business, but they’re not the end all. Because of their ego, they forwent a bunch of opportunities that we could have made a lot of money in. And lets be honest, I mean I beat Brock Lesnar in my last match and if I had any desire to stay there whatsoever, if there was any type of a positive, I would have stayed. But it wasn’t. So it just was a negative part of my life. I just didn’t enjoy being there.”
