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Bill Goldberg has made it clear since returning to WWE in 2016 that he does not have the backstage power to choose his own opponents.
The WWE Hall of Famer told DAZN’s Steven Muehlhausen in August 2021 that he simply does as he is instructed when he appears in WWE.
“I'm not a booking agent,” Goldberg said. “I'm not on the booking committee. They don't pay me to be in creative. Now, if they ask my opinion on something, I'm sure as hell going to give it to them, or an idea, a direction, or a list of who I'd like to face. No one's ever asked me.”
While Goldberg currently competes in two matches per year as part of his WWE deal, he used to work a full-time WWE schedule in 2003-2004. During that time, the WCW icon allegedly spoke up on several occasions about certain storylines and matches that he was not particularly fond of.
In this article, let’s take a look at five ideas that Goldberg apparently disagreed with.
#5 Goldberg did not want to face Test after WWE SummerSlam 2003
Triple H defeated Goldberg, Chris Jericho, Shawn Michaels, Randy Orton, and Kevin Nash in an Elimination Chamber match at WWE SummerSlam 2003. Following the match, Triple H repeatedly hit Goldberg with a sledgehammer during a three-on-one attack with Orton and Ric Flair.
The next night on RAW, Goldberg was originally booked to defeat Test in a squash match. However, he thought the storyline would make more sense if he did not compete and sold the injuries from SummerSlam instead.
WWE executive Bruce Prichard was asked about the Goldberg vs. Test rumor on his Something to Wrestle With podcast in 2018. He confirmed that Goldberg quite rightly raised concerns about facing Test, leading to the match getting canceled.
“I actually do [remember that],” Prichard said. “That was his feeling and it [selling injuries] was the right thing to do.”
Instead of competing one night after SummerSlam, Goldberg returned to the ring eight nights later on the September 1, 2003, episode of RAW.
The WCW legend joined forces with Maven and Shawn Michaels to defeat Randy Orton, Ric Flair, and Triple H in a six-man tag team match.
#4 Goldberg allegedly did not want The Rock to leave him laying in the ring
On the March 31, 2003, episode of WWE RAW, the debuting Goldberg left The Rock laying in the ring after hitting him with a spear.
In another story from Bruce Prichard’s Something to Wrestle With podcast, details emerged about an alternative idea for the WCW legend's introduction to WWE. Prichard’s podcast host, Conrad Thompson, explained that Goldberg was apparently reluctant to return the favor to The Rock on the next episode of RAW.
“Allegedly there were two different plans for these first two appearances,” Thompson said. “The first one being that Goldberg just destroys Rock in the ring… instead it’s just one spear. And then the following week, Goldberg was gonna be left laying by The Rock, and supposedly Goldberg didn’t want to do that.”
Thompson added that people backstage were allegedly concerned about Goldberg being exposed as “rusty” if he was asked to do too much on television.
“Correct,” Prichard replied. “So the thing about leaving Goldberg laying, I had no idea Bill refused to do that, but that was something that Vince [McMahon] was like, ‘God damn, it’s tit for tat.’ He [Vince McMahon] didn’t wanna leave Bill laying. He didn’t want to take the mystique of Bill Goldberg away at that point.”
Goldberg and The Rock did not end up having a physical altercation on the following week’s episode of RAW. Instead, The Rock quickly escaped the ring after telling the WCW legend that he did not want to face him in a match.
#3 Goldberg did not want to end Rodney Mack’s undefeated streak
Prior to joining WWE, Goldberg burst onto the scene as one of WCW’s most featured stars in 1997. He put together an undefeated streak of 173 matches before finally losing against Kevin Nash at WCW Starrcade 1998.
Three months after his WWE debut, Goldberg ended another superstar’s undefeated streak on the June 23, 2003 episode of RAW. The person he defeated, Rodney Mack, had won five consecutive White Boy Challenge matches against white superstars before going one-on-one with Goldberg.
The 26-second match began with a ringside brawl and ended with Goldberg picking up a quick victory after hitting his Jackhammer finisher.
Mack told Wrestling Inc’s Nick Hausman in 2021 that Goldberg did not want to end his White Boy Challenge undefeated streak.
“We just hit it off right off the bat, but it’s really easy to do that since Bill’s a great guy,” Mack said. “You know, he didn’t really want to do it [end the streak]... But I’m like, ‘I’m not in position to make a decision on that.’”
Mack worked for WWE between 2002 and 2004 and returned for another short spell with the company between 2006 and 2007.
Following the loss to Goldberg, he became Mark Henry’s tag team partner before suffering a knee injury which forced him to be removed from television.
#2 Goldberg allegedly did not want to face Gillberg
In the late 1990s, WWE made fun of Goldberg by creating their own version of the destructive WCW star: Gillberg.
Gillberg, played by former WWE enhancement talent Duane Gill, wore the same attire and performed the same moves as Goldberg. The highlight of Gillberg’s WWE run came when he held the Light Heavyweight Championship for 445 days between November 1998 and February 2000.
In 2020, Gill told Lewis Nicholls that he saw Goldberg at a convention in 2016. He pitched the idea of facing the WCW legend in a first-time-ever clash, but his dream match suggestion never came to fruition.
Gill also explained how Goldberg treated him when they met for the first time before their WWE segment with The Rock on RAW in 2003.
“We had a little segment that night and he did a bunch of pictures with me,” Gill said. “He was kind of cool about it but you could tell that he didn’t like me at all. All the boys always told me, ‘Goldberg really wants to kick your a**.’”
Goldberg said in an interview with Gamespot in 2018 that he “wanted to cut his head off” when he first saw Gillberg on WWE television. However, over the years, he has learned to appreciate the humor in WWE’s creation of the character.
#1 Goldberg allegedly refused to let Chris Jericho kick out of his spear
It is no secret that Chris Jericho and Goldberg did not get along during their time together in WCW and WWE.
Their first televised WWE match took place at Bad Blood 2003, where Goldberg defeated Jericho in a match lasting 11 minutes.
Speaking on Something to Wrestle With, Conrad Thompson quoted a report from PW Torch’s Wade Keller about Jericho wanting to kick out of Goldberg’s spear. The WWE Hall of Famer allegedly rejected Jericho’s request even though he had already allowed The Rock to kick out of the same move.
“Keller reported that Jericho asked if he could kick out of Goldberg’s spear, so he’d have something to hang his hat on since he’s doing a clean job [loss] at the end,” Thompson said. “And Goldberg said no. Jericho pointed out that Rock kicked out of the spear, and Goldberg implied that Jericho wasn’t at Rock’s level.”
Back in WCW, Jericho wanted to lose against Goldberg in what he believed would have been “the greatest squash match of all time.” However, as he recalled on Steve Austin’s Broken Skull Sessions show in 2021, Goldberg was not keen on the idea.
The two men also became involved in a real-life backstage fight after Goldberg joined WWE in 2003. Jericho grabbed him in a front face-lock before the fight was broken up by Arn Anderson, Booker T, Christian, The Hurricane, and Terry Taylor.
