WWE veteran casts doubts over potential Goldberg return: "He's not in wrestling shape" (Exclusive)

WCW legend and WWE Hall of Famer Bill Goldberg feels he has one more match left in him. However, veteran wrestling manager Dutch Mantell is unsure how the farewell match might play out.

Bill was at WWE Bad Blood last year, where he had a heated confrontation with then-World Heavyweight Champion, Gunther. This encounter got fans speculating about a possible matchup between the two. The WCW veteran further fueled the rumors by stating he wanted a retirement match in 2025.

This week on the BroDown podcast with host Mac Davis, Mantell claimed the match sounded good on paper, but he wasn't sure how it would pan out. He explained that the WCW legend was never the in-ring technician. Dutch felt most of Bill's matches barely went past the 90-second mark, and even when they did, the star was gassed out.

"Okay, Goldberg and Gunther. On paper, it looks good and probably at the box office and the buys, it looks good. I can't imagine what type of match they'd have. As long as Goldberg has been in this profession, he's never learned it. He's gone out there for almost a year and a half or around that time. It was ding-ding-ding, start the match, a minute, 90 seconds at most. He didn't learn how to operate and get himself over in a short amount of time because everybody started expecting that. When he goes five minutes or longer, now he blows up. And he's in shape, but he's not in wrestling shape." [9:58 onwards]

Look who just shut down all of Tony Khan's critics! More HERE.

Gunther will be in action this weekend at WWE Backlash, where he is scheduled to face Pat McAfee in singles contest. It will be interesting to see if Goldberg shows up during the event to cost the Ring General the match.

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About the author

Prityush is a WWE news writer for Sportskeeda Wrestling who started watching wrestling in the later part of The Attitude Era. Although he holds a Bachelor’s degree in Engineering, Prityush was a creative writer for his college, and his flair for creativity and love of pro wrestling eventually led him to the journalism field. After an initial stint in 2016-2017, he has been writing regularly for Sportskeeda since 2021.

As someone who loves and respects the business, he prides himself on factual, clean, and ethical reporting, free of plagiarism and AI usage. One of the ways he ensures this is by transcribing videos that he reports on.

Prityush had the privilege of interviewing superstar Matt Hardy in his career so far. Although, his favorite wrestler is CM Punk, as he relates to his Straight Edge philosophy.

When he is not reporting news, he loves reading and collecting WWE action figures. He currently owns over 500 wrestling figures and merchandise.

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Edited by Prityush Haldar