Goldberg never hot his big WWE retirement match, but as he tells it, he thought he would — until Vince McMahon backed out of his end of the deal.
That’s the way the former WCW and WWE star remembers it, at least. The disagreement involved what until now has been his last pro wrestling match: a loss to Roman Reigns last year at Elimination Chamber in Saudi Arabia.
As Goldberg told the Steve & Captain Evil podcast, his understanding was that if he went overseas and lost to Reigns, he’d get his big retirement match in return. That’s not what happened, however, and he blames McMahon for it (h/t Fightful for the transcription).
Vince is like Dana White. He’s the big boss and he makes everything happen, and in all honesty, he gave me the opportunity to put my wife and son on the front row and gave me the ability to perform again in front of them. So, I owe him everything, until we went to Saudi Arabia and he asked me to put Roman Reigns over, and I had COVID. I remember calling him from my house and said, ‘Listen, here is the deal. I’ll do it if you give me a retirement match.’ I did what he asked. As a performer, I was 56 years old. As a human being, you’re conscientious about how you look in a bathing suit, especially two months prior to being in that bathing suit, you couldn’t work out because you had COVID. I put myself in a horribly shitty situation to get what I wanted to, but to satiate him and give him what he wanted. Problem is, he never held up his bargain. Vince is a piece of shit as far as I’m concerned.
It’s not clear exactly when or where Goldberg might get the final match he seeks. There have long been rumors of it happening in AEW, and Tony Khan has confirmed he’s spoken to Goldberg on several occasions but has never promised they’d work together.
Goldberg has also suggested he might organize his own retirement card, possibly in Israel with Sting. But now Sting has his own final match plans set for March, making that appear unlikely.
It will be interesting to see if Goldberg might pivot back to WWE to take his final bow since Vince McMahon is in a position of less power these days and pretty much any reunion seems possible (see also: CM Punk). For now, however, there doesn’t appear to be a spear and Jackhammer combo in anyone’s immediate future.