Original subtitles

[somber music]

- Not many people were privy to the transformation

Of goldberg the human to goldberg the character.

[film projector whirring]

- When you're a kid, you fantasize about powers.

Goldberg hitting the spear, that's a power.

[crowd cheering]

- Oh!

Reese is down!

Reese is down, and goldberg's up!

- When you get older you care about overcoming adversity.

You care about the substance of the character

That defines the man,

What he has been through to get to where he is.

♪ ♪

- Goldberg in the ring

Is the ramped-up alter ego of bill the person.

[crowd cheering]

- 12 years, ladies and gentlemen!

Never thought I'd be in this ring again.

All: Goldberg! Goldberg! Goldberg!

- The biggest thing that I miss is being a superhero

For the kids all around the world.

- If a superhero is defined ultimately

By the obstacles he or she overcomes

In the course of their journey,

Goldberg's legacy

Should be defined by the fact

He overcame his biggest challenge...

♪ ♪

Bill goldberg, the person.

♪ ♪

[line trilling]

- Your call has been forwarded

To an automatic versus message system.

At the tone, please record your message.

[tone beeps]

- Hey, baby, just letting you know I'm going to get gage.

And I'm doing a doughnut real quick.

[engine revving]

Good footage for you guys.

Figured you might like that.

♪ ♪

I was born in tulsa, oklahoma,

Nice jewish kid in the middle of nowhere, in tulsa.

And father was an obstetrician-gynecologist.

My mother was a concert violinist

And a united states orchid judge.

So how I came out of that combination

Is completely beyond me.

I had two older brothers and an old sister.

They're much older, 14, 16, and 18 years older than I am.

I was the only one at the house,

The only kid at the house growing up.

As a kid, I was kind of a loner.

I kind of grew up on my own, myself and my best friend,

Which was the rottweiler that I would have at the time.

Rocky was his name.

I went to hebrew school.

Yes, I did, temple israel.

I was ridiculed day after day after day for being jewish.

Not a lot of jewish people will tell you that,

Because we internalize it.

We don't like to tell people about it.

But it happened.

And the only way that I can tell you

That my life changed is,

If you look at the movie "a christmas story,"

When he finally jumps on the bully outside in the snow,

And he's yelling obscenities as he's punching him

With both hands in the face...

- You rotten, no-good, damn...

[indistinct].

- Come on, ralphie! - Did you hear what he said?

- That was my story.

[bell tolling]

There are many things that I like about football.

One thing that really sets it apart from anything else

That you do is the feeling of competition.

Not only does it pose one team against another,

But on each and every play it--

It--you compete one-on-one with another person.

♪ ♪

My love for football dates back to the first picture

I ever saw of me.

And it had "bill goldberg, all american,

1989," whatever it was.

♪ ♪

I played nose guard.

And I tried to inflict as much bodily harm

On every human being in front of me as humanly possible.

[crowd cheering]

- Oh, he was stuffed by bill goldberg,

The nose man, who had 107 tackles last year.

- To be able to do that without being thrown in jail

Is an unbelievable outlet.

And I think that's why I liked it so much.

- Welcome to sanford stadium,

One of the shrines of college football.

- Being able to play major college football

At the university of georgia

Was one of the biggest honors I've ever been bestowed.

- Watch number 95, bill goldberg.

- The ball is fumbled.

- They call bill goldberg

The best defensive lineman in the southeast.

- 95, bill goldberg.

- That's the most comfortable place that I could ever be.

I'm going to be a football player

Until the day that I die.

- They say bill goldberg has a screw loose,

That he's wild and wooly.

- Goldberg with a body slam.

- And bill goldberg is pushing and shoving with one of the...

- Look at this. Looks like foreman-cooney.

- Big hole in the middle. Lost the ball.

Georgia has it at the 33.

Bill goldberg, number 95,

The sophomore from tulsa, oklahoma, makes the recovery.

[cheers and applause]

- Bill goldberg was a violent football player,

Extremely aggressive.

- Hell, yeah, baby. Whoo!

- I officiated high school football for 20 years.

That's how I came across bill goldberg.

My football crew was officiating a game

That his high school team, the edison eagles, played in.

And, of course, he was the talk of the town,

Because he was the number one player

In the state of oklahoma.

♪ ♪

- Okay, let's go.

I got, like, 15 minutes for you to make me...

- Let's do it. - Make me cry. Ugh.

♪ ♪

- He had a nice career. He had some injury issues.

But he had a decent career.

- How's the knee?

- You know what, man? I'll tell you, this thing,

It's the root of the--think I've been working in the yard?

- No kidding. Hunting mountain lions.

- This thing is bigger. See the size of that now?

- Yeah, it feel good?

- I mean, you can never do as good as you want to do.

To give you the mindset of bill goldberg,

When I was drafted, I was pissed,

'cause it took till the second day and the 11th round.

So I took it personally.

And immediately I was like, "okay, when do we report?

I'm ready to rock."

♪ ♪

I played for the rams till the last preseason game,

Tore my hamstring, got cut,

Worked the rest of the year to rehab, get ready,

Got signed by the rams again in the offseason,

Got cut again.

♪ ♪

Did it make me start questioning myself?

Yes. Did it piss me off to the point

Where I wanted to work my ass off

To make sure that I showed them that they were wrong?

Yes.

I went to the canadian league to check it out.

I didn't like the pay scale.

Nor did I like the fact that they wanted me

To drop, like, 30 pounds.

That didn't last very long.

And so I signed with the world football league.

We won the world championship

And then went straight from there three weeks later

To the atlanta falcons right into their training camp.

♪ ♪

I never really had a backup plan.

I didn't want to--

I didn't want to face reality in that...

I didn't want to know what if.

Needless to say, I love football.

♪ ♪

- Good evening.

I'm very pleased to announce that the carolina panthers

Have been unanimously selected as the--

[cheers and applause]

- For the first time since 1976

The nfl opened its doors to expansion.

- When the expansion teams came to be

The jacksonville jaguars and the carolina panthers

Each existing nfl team put up four people on their roster

That went to the supplemental draft.

Carolina picked me.

Unbeknownst to them, I had had surgery

Like, two weeks before

Repairing my abdomen and re-attaching it to my pelvis.

Let's just say that my physical condition

And the trajectory of the carolina panthers

Were going in opposite directions.

It wasn't the right fit.

It wasn't the right time in my life.

And I actually asked for my release.

♪ ♪

- Tibia's rotated a little bit on this foot.

- Yeah. - So it sits more posterior.

- I'll tell you what, man, when I just--augh.

- Yeah. - That hurts really bad.

I've hurt myself so many different times

And had so many different surgeries.

They all kind of run together.

Augh!

But I know that one was pretty extensive.

Any kind of rehab that you're gonna do for a torn abdomen,

It's gonna be strenuous, it's gonna be monotonous,

And it's gonna be painful as hell.

- We getting close I feel--

- Oh yeah, yeah. You're--you're getting close.

Yeah, you're on it. Yeah.

- Okay. - Uh-huh.

When I got hurt, I thought my career was over.

I thought that my lifting was over.

I thought my life was over,

Because that's what I was--

That's the human being that I am.

I'm a physical guy.

♪ ♪

I worked my ass off for 20, 30 years--25 years on my body.

There has to be something I can apply it to.

- Football had gotten him a college education.

Football had got him a cup of coffee or two in the nfl.

He made teams. He was on rosters.

You know, let's cut to the chase here.

- Ahh!

- Goldberg needed a job.

♪ ♪

- The person that told me to give wrestling a shot

Was my accountant.

♪ ♪

'cause he called me one day and told me to get off my ass

And go do something.

♪ ♪

- If you drew a picture of what a pro wrestler

Should look like,

All you gotta do is clip out a photo of bill goldberg.

♪ ♪

So he looked the part, and that's a big step

In the right direction. You gotta look the part.

- One of the most interesting questions I get,

Whether I'm on a plane

And someone recognizes me or finds out who I am,

Or someone that I've known for a long time,

I get the question,

"how do you get into the wrestling business?"

- The wcw power plant will help you reach your potential.

They'll train your body, work on your moves,

And motivate you to be your best.

The wcw power plant,

The number one wrestling facility in the world.

Call now to set up...

- Wcw in the '90s

Started something called the power plant

That was where they would train people to become wrestlers.

And usually they were pretty green.

They had a bunch of trainers, former wrestlers,

Current wrestlers who would teach them all the skills

They needed to become an on-screen performer.

- Wcw power plant, the place to be

If you want to be a serious athlete,

You want to be a serious...

- Coming out of football and then learning

How to become a great professional wrestler

Is not an easy transition,

Because you're having to unlearn many aspects

Of what made you a successful football player.

In the nfl your intent is to go out

And hit them as hard as you possibly can.

And then you show up at the power plant and go,

"oh, no, no, no, no, no.

"that's not quite what we do here.

We kind of dance, but we just make it look like it hurts."

- [inaudible], you piece of [bleep].

- Five, six days a week, 9:00 to 5:00,

Just busting your ass trying to learn

How to get off the ropes, hit the ropes,

How to do flips, how to take break falls,

How to not hurt people.

It's--it's a must. And it's a grind.

- Now a little bit more, "ahh!"

- With a maniacal laugh.

- Ha-ha-ha. - Ha-ha-ha.

- Good. Excellent.

- The fact that bill started

His professional wrestling career

At 30 years old... - One more time.

- The deck is stacked against you.

That is a very, very late stage in life

To enter into professional wrestling.

It takes a long time

To get good at professional wrestling.

- Since we first put wrestling

On turner network many years ago,

It's been exciting entertainment programming

For all our viewers. World championship wrestling

Has always been one of our most popular programs.

And now wcw is about to dominate the globe

In professional wrestling.

♪ ♪

- Ted turner decided that he wanted to go head-to-head

And compete with wwe.

Ted turner said, let's give a head-to-head,

Monday night, tnt against wwe.

♪ ♪

- The Monday night wars by far the most exciting time

To ever be a pro wrestling fan.

We got two big wrestling companies,

Wwe, which is the sort of institution,

And wcw, which is the underdog.

It's these two wrestling institutions that are vying

For your eyeballs.

This is the '90s.

You were physically flipping channels

With your remote control back and forth.

Every time one show goes to commercial

You were immediately on the other show.

So they are actively competing in real time

To keep you glued to your tv screen.

♪ ♪

These two monoliths were just, like, fighting tooth

And nail for your attention.

[cheers and applause]

But it became this sort of proxy battle, right?

It was like, who wins the ratings every week

Became the talking point.

That became a huge moment in time

That was a signal that the tide had turned.

- Wcw was outperforming wwe each and every week.

Wasn't even close.

- ♪ we are the champions ♪

All: ♪ we are the champions ♪

- Here we go, the next bout here on wcw,

A newcomer here in bill goldberg,

A man we know absolutely nothing about,

But he is making his debut here.

- Two or three months in the power plant, if that,

Bill had enough fundamentals

That we could take him out of the power plant

And now put him out in front of a live crowd.

[cheers and applause]

And typically when you would bring new talent out

Sometimes they'd get into it, sometimes they wouldn't.

Most of the time they didn't care.

Bill goldberg grabbed everybody's attention.

Nobody knew who he was.

This was just a guy walking out in his underwear

That captured everybody's imagination.

♪ ♪

- How about that backflip? And a big power slam!

- And that's a lot to lift,

Over 300 pounds of hugh morris.

- And he did it with ease that time.

He's gonna pick him up again.

Scoop slam put him down.

- I'm a less-is-more guy.

I wanted to be the mike tyson of wrestling,

Black tights, black boots, knock people out, leave.

- Serious trouble, and down he...

- Next.

- Muscles him over. Combination slam.

One, two, three. - He got him!

- Oh! Bill goldberg!

- The plan was to be so simple and so devastating

And so quick that people are like...

♪ ♪

"did you just see that?"

♪ ♪

- Oh!

- "no? Well, damn.

You gotta wait another week to see it."

- Wrestling at its very core is a interactive experience.

It's less like a boxing match and more like an election.

You're standing up in front of a giant crowd

And trying to get that crowd to go crazy.

You're trying to get them behind you.

To get that reaction is the game.

That's the contest.

♪ ♪

- Bill came out breathing fire,

Spitting smoke,

And the crowd just went, "whoa! What is this?"

And we were all sitting backstage going,

"whoa! Look at them react."

- Adding moves all the team [inaudible]. Oh!

- Bill was now going to be on a very accelerated flight path.

- Yes!

- Count him out! He wins again!

- 21 and 0.

- 56 and 0.

- 60. He tied babe ruth.

- Put another mark in the win column

For that man right there.

- Goldberg was a down-and-dirty and

Very easy to figure out persona.

Spear...

Jackhammer...

"ahh!" - ahh!

- Pin. Audience reaction.

Who's next? You're next. That's it.

- Goldberg. There's the spear!

- You saw him last night at spring stampede,

And he goes down.

- That's a ten on the richter!

- I wanted to be something completely different

That people have ever seen before.

[crowd cheering]

All: One. Two. Three.

[bell dinging]

- Goldberg is the united states

Heavyweight champion!

And he won it in grand style!

- And chalk up victory number 75 in a row.

- 75 and zero!

[cheers and applause]

- We didn't want to put bill in the position

That ultimately we did.

The fear was, if we're going to keep

Pushing this guy this fast

On this accelerated flight path and trajectory,

We're going to reach a point

Where we're gonna run out of guys for him to eat.

♪ ♪

And you finally-- you're getting

To the point now where we're looking at bill

And going, "okay, what do we do?"

[cheers and applause]

- Hollywood hulk hogan, the wcw champion,

Is contractually obligated to be in the georgia dome

This coming Monday night, for "nitro"

To defend the wcw heavyweight title belt...

[chuckles]

Against what I feel is the number one contender,

Goldberg!

[cheers and applause]

- I remember I was in la.

And I remember exactly where I was.

I was on the--I was on the 90

Taking an exit into marina del rey.

[phone ringing]

My phone rang.

It was hulk hogan. He said, "brother,

I gotta talk to you. Got an idea."

And hulk said, "I know what we need to do with bill."

I said, "okay. I'm all ears, brother.

What do you got?" and he goes,

"he's gonna beat me."

I did what you're doing just right now.

My--I went, "whoa! What?"

He said, "no, brother, it's time."

- Hulk hogan's here!

- Hulk hogan is in the building!

- You're damn right he is!

- Go get him, hulkster!

- At that point, hulk hogan is the institution.

He's also seen as being kind of past his prime,

So people are happy to see him deposed from that spot.

And for goldberg to take it was a natural fit

Based on the story they were telling.

- Hulk hogan, what in the world are you thinking?

- I looked at the sum of all the parts.

So all of a sudden, I'm looking at this thing

Of bill goldberg, and I feel this crazy momentum coming.

If I could get him as big as hulk hogan was,

Now I got somebody to work with.

Now I got somebody to make money with.

And I'm looking around and going,

"hmm, how can I create another monster?"

- Every bad guy needs a good guy.

Hogan needed somebody.

And they wanted it to be this nice

Jewish boy from tulsa, oklahoma, goldberg.

- "nitro" is on the air!

And you are looking live as we come to you

From the professional wrestling capital

Of the world, atlanta, georgia,

Where over 30,000 fans are jammed in the georgia dome

In what will go down as the biggest night

In the history of this grand sport!

- 106 consecutive straight as for goldberg.

We've talked about a home ring advantage.

But thing of the pressure involved.

Among the 40,000 fans on hand

Former teammates at the university of georgia

As well as the atlanta falcons.

Will goldberg be able to measure up to that pressure?

- It was the best night of my wrestling career,

My athletic career, my life.

And, you know, I mean, it was a--it was

An extremely emotional night in a lot of respects.

I was--I was nervous to the nth degree,

Because I didn't--you know,

I had just gotten in the business.

♪ ♪

All: Goldberg! Goldberg!

Goldberg! Goldberg!

Goldberg! Goldberg!

Goldberg! Goldberg!

Goldberg! Goldberg!

Goldberg! Goldberg!

- Goldberg has passed every test to date.

106 consecutive straight as for goldberg.

- And am I right?

There has never been a world champion undefeated.

- You are right.

All: Goldberg! Goldberg! Goldberg! Goldberg!

- I was in pretty decent shape back then.

All: Goldberg! Goldberg! Goldberg! Goldberg!

- Ahh! Ah!

♪ ♪

Hulk hogan was a mentor. There's no question.

So I walk into hogan's locker room prior to the match.

And it's commonplace to go over, you know, the dance.

Well, I go in there, and I look at hogan,

And he looks at me, and he goes,

"don't worry, kid, we'll call it in the ring."

- This is the biggest one.

That heightened sense of anticipation is now over.

Let the match begin.

- Gentlemen, start your engines.

- The fans erupt at the bell.

I've never seen that, never heard that in our sport.

- The thing that fans loved about goldberg is,

He was intense.

And I'm here to tell you, it was intense

When you were in the ring with him.

♪ ♪

You know, technical wrestling all that gaga

Doesn't mean a thing if you're not selling out

Every building you're in.

- It's the biggest crowd ever to see

A televised wrestling event on cable tv.

And you're a part of it. And it could be the night

Where goldberg walks away with the gold

From arguably the greatest champion

Our sport has ever had.

- That's hulk frickin' hogan right there.

And he knows what he's doing

More than anybody in the business.

'cause I ain't doing [bleep] that he doesn't call.

So he's in control of everything.

Both: Oh! - I don't know if I'd do that.

- Charles robinson, hand to the back [indistinct].

They'll let the match go on.

And goldberg's got the belt!

- If you're really good at what you do,

You don't need writers, you don't need to rehearse.

All you need to know, who's gonna win or lose.

It's about creating emotion, having people cheer

And hate you and take them on that roller-coaster ride.

And it's a complete arc from beginning, middle, to end,

And you're telling an amazing story

That everybody understands.

- Can you imagine the shot

In the arm world championship wrestling?

- Despite the fact that this was the story for goldberg,

Hogan had been here for so long

That it just seemed impossible that--that he would lose.

- So dangerous is hogan

Driving goldberg face-first into the steel guardrail.

And now he's got the chair from behind!

- We needed another attraction. We needed another hulk hogan.

♪ ♪

And what better--better way to be hulk hogan

Than beating hulk hogan right in the middle?

- Where gotta dig down deep, where you gotta suck it up,

Where you gotta prove beyond a shadow of a doubt

That you belong here.

For goldberg, the time is right now.

Because the champ is leveling with everything.

- Yes! Yes!

Malone can use the diamond cutter.

And look at goldberg! He's ready!

- He's poised! Hogan down!

- Okay, there's part one.

Now finish him off! Finish him off!

- He's calling for it.

- This is it! This is it!

Your career's on the line here.

Do it! Do it!

This place will erupt when he picks him up.

- He's got him up!

- Oh, hell yeah!

One! Two! Three!

- Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!

We've got a new heavyweight champion of the world!

The first undefeated man in the history of this sport

To ever win the world championship

And have a record of 107, 108...Who cares?

- I mean, that was pretty cool.

♪ ♪

To have my friends, to have my family,

And to have, you know, fans that I've acquired

In the short period of time of me being in the business

In quote-unquote my hometown at the time, atlanta.

And then, oh, my god, to have my teammates there,

I mean, what a cool deal that was.

♪ ♪

It was--it was the coolest night of my wrestling career.

♪ ♪

I remember it like it was yesterday.

♪ ♪

The guys that I revered, the guys that I looked up to,

The guys that I idolized...

♪ ♪

They wanted to be me that night.

♪ ♪

- There's an old expression that I like to use:

What works works, what doesn't doesn't.

Look at the footage of goldberg spearing hulk hogan

In front of 40,000-plus people in the georgia dome

And then hitting the jackhammer

And pinning hulk hogan for the title.

Did the audience rebel against it?

Was there a quasi-okay reaction?

No. There were 40,000 people

Going out of their [bleep] minds.

Why? Because goldberg had hit.

He had become a major attraction,

And the audience loved him.

I don't see what's so difficult about that to understand.

Goldberg needed to rise to the top.

- Please welcome goldberg!

♪ ♪

- Looks like a star, carries himself like a star,

Looks like a badass.

The audience thinks he's a badass.

You marry those two together,

You have an attraction in this industry.

♪ ♪

- A lot of things go into making a decision

About who you're going to put as the face of your company.

And as the world champion,

You are the face of the company.

- Bill goldberg. Bill.

- Are you gonna put somebody out there

That pisses themselves

Every time they have to do a live interview?

Or are you gonna put somebody as the face of your company

That is telegenic,

Charismatic, totally at ease with non-wrestling media?

And bill goldberg had all of those attributes.

- Now, were your parents wrestlers?

[laughter]

- They were the famous jewish tag team from the midwest.

- The jewish tag--of course.

The jewish tag team of the midwest.

- When you're the champ, you're at least a half-inch taller.

♪ ♪

There's a reason why you have the belt on you.

There's a reason why you have the title around your waist.

- Ready to go? - Yeah.

- Don't get that coke can in there. They don't pay me.

[laughter]

- All right. All right. We'll go for it, okay, bill?

- Shoot. - What is the deal with--

I mean, what is the connection that you have,

That wrestling has with the young people in america today?

- You know, I like to think

That we're superheroes, in a sense.

We're like real-life comic book heroes.

[indistinct chatter]

Nice shirt. Good to see you.

Brought you a picture.

And it gave me the opportunity to be the guy

That I was always planning to be

In professional football.

[blows]

- [laughs]

- I couldn't wait to go out there and be introduced

And grab a kid and give him my belt.

I mean, I couldn't wait to do that.

Because I realized how big a moment

That is to the person on the receiving end.

I looked up to professional football players

Like these kids do professional wrestlers.

And I got that instantly.

- Ready when you are. - Ready?

- Yep. Stand by. Rolling.

- So you want to win this wcw t-shirt or 12,000 bucks?

Well, you're gonna have to take me on.

You, me in the ring. Let's go.

Yeah. You're next. I'm gonna ring your bell.

- Bill showed up at the power plant,

Punched in one morning, and 24 months later

He's one of the biggest stars in the world.

- You, me in the ring!

Let's go! You're next!

- That's where it became the most difficult.

Because at that point bill as the champion

Now has to face some of the other top stars in wcw.

- You're next!

- Bill still doesn't have the skill set

That will enable him to go out there

And have a match that will satisfy

The audience's expectations

Of a world heavyweight champion at that level.

- Ahh!

- Meaning he can't just go out there

And eat scott hall, kevin nash, roddy piper,

Ric flair, eat them all, and then what?

♪ ♪

- Oh, look at him with that belt.

- Perfect fit.

- It had started to turn a little bit.

Wcw had inflated his undefeated streak along the way.

He would mysteriously win ten

Extra matches between appearances,

And the numbers got higher and higher.

- 121 and 0!

- 131 and zip!

- It is a milestone! Number 150!

- I have a vivid memory of wcw cameras lingering

On a sign in the crowd by accident that said,

"this is getting oldberg."

- When we were in the middle of the streak,

It was a really cool thing to be a part of.

♪ ♪

What people also have to understand

Is that I didn't walk in there and go,

"hey, this is goldberg.

"this is the way it's gonna be.

This is what's gonna happen, and we're gonna have a streak."

Who's the man now, boys?

Both: You're the man!

- You're the man, bill! - Holy smokes!

- You're the man, no doubt about it!

- Please, come on.

- I showed up every week waiting for them

To tell me what to do.

- It takes three, four, five, six, seven, eight years

To really develop the level of skill set

That you need to be able to survive

In a main event environment.

Bill didn't have it.

- Who's next? That's all I got to say!

Who's next!

- So that was when the idea of bill coming out

And just eating everybody alive

In very short order became his trademark.

- As effective as it was,

It does paint you into a corner, you know?

I mean, there's a reason why ross and rachel

Didn't get together on season one of "friends," right?

Because, like, that was the story

That people kept coming back for to find the resolution of.

- Ahh!

- What goldberg had been giving us was sort of

Like an artificial high. It was like a sugar rush.

To really get behind somebody,

You gotta have the steak, you gotta have the vegetables,

You gotta have the whole presentation.

You've seen it enough times,

It's not as exciting as it used to be.

So what are you gonna do now?

- I'm goldberg, and I fear no man.

- Goldberg, you can't survive my jackknife power bomb.

- Nash, get ready for the jackhammer.

- You can't survive my jackknife power bomb.

- I'll spear ya, nash.

- Let's get ready to rumble!

[cheers and applause]

- We've talked about the anticipation level

For this matchup being so high.

We don't have to anticipate anymore. It's here.

[bell dinging]

- It stands at 173 and 0.

♪ ♪

- Was it the right time?

Hell, it wasn't the right time.

It was on my frickin' birthday.

Come on. Give me a break.

[cheers and applause]

- What is this?

What is he doing here?

- Was it the right time career-wise? I don't know.

But I wasn't the right guy to ask that question.

I didn't have enough knowledge of the business around me.

So I went with what everybody thought.

- And bigelow once again uninvited.

- Whoa. - Not supposed to be here.

Send him to jail.

- Meanwhile, nash gets a break.

[taser zapping]

- What--what was that?

- That's one of those tasers that police use.

- It's like a stun gun.

- It was my [bleep] idea to use a real taser.

Absolutely.

'cause I wanted that one that would shoot out of the gun

And that would stick in you,

And then they could light you up like a christmas tree.

'cause if goldberg's going down,

I wanted to be going down.

And they wouldn't let me use it.

- Oh, no.

- Wait a minute. He--oh, jackknife power bomb!

- Could this be it? One! Two! Three!

- The steak is over!

- And we have a new world's champion!

- The streak is over!

173 and 1 and a new world's champion.

Kevin nash is crowned.

♪ ♪

[engine revving]

- And basically what I'm gonna be doing is,

I'm gonna be standing five feet away,

And I'm gonna be trying to hit this hole with each round.

And every time it deviates, I try to adjust.

So you want to make the hole completely disappear.

[cheers and applause]

- We have witnessed

Professional wrestling history.

Kevin nash will always go down as the first man

To stop the streak of goldberg.

- We have a new heavyweight champion of the world!

[gunshots]

- After my first loss,

I didn't really know how to feel about the character.

You've got a guy who's never lost before,

And now he loses for the first time.

Sure, it presents a different dynamic.

There's always a beginning, and there's always an end

To anything that's good.

♪ ♪

The gun that goldberg should have.

- There are a lot of ways that you can make a loss

Add value to a character.

The character they had presented of goldberg

So far was so one-dimensional,

The old context for goldberg's existence was the win streak.

♪ ♪

[gunshot]

The ideal of the bill goldberg story

Is to get swept up in it.

[gunshot]

As soon as the shine comes off,

You're not swept up in it anymore,

And you start asking all these questions,

And you start identifying all the blemishes.

♪ ♪

- There we go.

- The same things that got him up there are the reasons

That we point at for everything that happened afterwards.

- Bret hart, goldberg,

On December the 19th, at starrcade

The two of you are gonna be facing each other

For the wcw heavyweight title.

However, tonight it's gonna be...

- Now we're in a different world.

Now we're in a world where you have to tell a story,

And you have to work with people

Who are at a very elevated position in the company,

And you can't go out there and eat them.

The challenge that that presented is being able to have

A long enough match with enough layers

From a storytelling point of view

That didn't expose bill's lack of experience.

- Ladies and gentlemen...

- There he is!

- Bret "the hitman" hart has arrived to "nitro."

- Bret hart comes from a wrestling family.

Bret is literally born and bred

To be a professional wrestler.

In that ring, I don't know that anybody's

Ever done it better.

- He arguably was one of the best

And is still one of the best professional wrestlers

Ever in the history of the business.

I looked up to him exponentially.

When he came down from wwe,

I was honored to have him teach me anything,

Even talk to me. I mean, that's bret hart.

- [exhaling] - boom. Whoosh!

- Bill never learned to wrestle.

That's the problem.

Bill was zero, didn't have a clue.

He just seemed to think that I was a practice dummy.

He didn't understand. I don't think anyone ever taught him

That wrestling's actually performance art.

Wrestling is all about trust, and it's all about respect.

Nobody said, "hey, you can't...

Bill had zero.

"really hurt these guys for real."

You need to go back to wrestling school

And learn how to wrestle. The wcw...

And nobody ever called out bill for any of that stuff,

Not one time ever.

- [exhaling]

- Wrestling is a dance.

And the most senior person in that dance

Is the one that ultimately has to make certain decisions.

♪ ♪

- Guys who were as good as bret in the ring,

Part of their job every single day

Is to make guys like goldberg look good in a match.

Good wrestlers are tasked with this.

- Let me say one thing.

I'm gonna take any chance I get to become the world champion.

If I gotta go through goldberg--and maybe

I'll suffer the consequences tonight,

But I'm gonna show one thing, that I'm gonna go in there,

And I'm gonna do my best,

And I'm gonna give bill goldberg

A match that he's not gonna forget.

He's gonna know he's in for a fight.

This is gonna be a fight.

- There's an old saying about guys like bret hart,

Is that they can go out there and have a match with a broom

And make the broom look like a superstar.

That was bret hart.

That didn't happen that night.

[crowd shouting]

- The match was all set, and everything was in order.

And I remember, I said, "bill," I said,

"just remember one thing.

"don't hurt me.

"I'm gonna try to teach you. I'm gonna try to help you

"so much with your career. I'm gonna teach you

"and help you become the wrestler you really can be.

Don't hurt me."

[crowd shouting]

- He's gonna soften up those legs for that figure four.

- I had done the figure four spot

On the ropes with him.

And I told him how important it was that

When I put the figure four on the post

That he's gotta grab my foot.

If he grabbed my foot just before I fell back,

I could do a sit-up and slowly lower myself to the ground.

But if I just jump up and fall backwards,

I got nothing to stop me. It's just dead weight.

Bill's pulling on my foot just like he's supposed to.

I jump up, and as soon as I start to fall

He let's go of my foot.

- Oh!

- Really fuzzy. Like, the whole world's spinning.

I get in the ring after that with bill,

And he calls for a kick.

It's thrown with no sense about what it could do to me.

♪ ♪

I was concussed and totally, totally messed up.

I knew as soon as I hit the ground.

♪ ♪

I get up, and he mows me down

Like a car driving me over in a parking lot.

- [indistinct].

- Oh, the spear!

- For that man to think that I intentionally

Kicked him in the head,

He has no idea who I am.

What good would it have done

If I would have dropped him with that kick?

'cause I would have been on my own.

I would have had to run the match.

I don't know what the hell I'm doing, right?

[crowd shouting]

- Bill made contact. Okay? So I'm bill.

It's not like bret hart stepped into the ring

With bill goldberg thinking that bill goldberg

Was even close to a level of a bret hart.

Because bret was such a master from a technical perspective,

He knew what he was getting into the ring with

And has to take a certain responsibility

For what happened in the ring as a result.

So I understand the bitterness and the angst,

But there's a certain amount of responsibility

That both participants in a match like that have.

♪ ♪

- History has not been very kind to goldberg

On the bret hart match.

I think if that match had happened

When goldberg was on the rise,

I don't think he would have gotten the reaction

That he would have gotten.

It's really easy to say, "goldberg

"for all of his good stuff

"never learned how to be a wrestler in the ring,

"and because of that, a to b,

It's his fault that bret hart's career is over."

[cheers and applause]

- When I'm coming off the ropes,

I trust you, bill goldberg,

To kick me properly and not hurt me.

And when you do it wrong, you cost me four years

At 3 million a year. My career was over.

- Hey!

- That intensity that you saw walk through the curtain

The first time that he did his very first dark match,

Or the night that he beat hulk hogan

In the georgia dome,

Or any time that you've seen bill goldberg since,

That's real with bill.

- There he is.

- Every professional wrestler with some level of success

Begins to believe that they're that superhero? Right?

I mean, that's part of what makes you that great,

Is that fact that you buy into your own mythos.

- You have to get caught up in it.

You--it has to be you.

You have to blur that line.

♪ ♪

I put my hand through a limousine window.

Ahh!

I have to become a completely different

Human being to be

That guy that people pay their money for.

♪ ♪

I have to go from choirboy to damn godzilla

Within a flip of a switch.

That's not easy.

And it's taxing on a human being.

- The powers that be,

They've gotta be shaking in their boots in there.

- Yeah, if I'm bret hart, if I'm the nwo,

I'm gonna have second thoughts.

- Smashing in the windshield.

If I'm bret hart, I'm worried about Monday

When we're in houston, texas, for "nitro"

If goldberg gets his hands on the hitman.

- I came within a centimeter of hitting that main artery.

[siren wailing]

- Hold it up here.

How'd it feel last night?

- Didn't feel real good,

But it felt a lot more comfortable

With the bandage on it, now that you put it on.

- Looks like the swelling went down some.

- Yeah.

- See if you had much drainage.

- A little bit, I think.

- All right, let's see here.

Hold it up.

Not bad.

- You know, this is truly an unfortunate moment

For me right now because

Not only am I not able to wrestle in the ring,

But the only bells I'll be ringing lately

And in the near future

Will be the bell at the stock exchange.

So, everybody at the nassau coliseum, take warning.

When I get back...

I ain't gonna be swinging a mallet.

I'm gonna be swinging this.

So, everybody take heed.

[clanging]

[cheers and applause]

- Internet pioneer america online announced today

It is buying big, sprawling time warner,

Creating the world's largest media conglomerate.

- I remember when the time warner-aol merger

Was announced, it was, oh, this is gonna be magnificent.

This is gonna be the greatest thing

That ever happened to this company.

But two months later, someone told me,

That had a lot more experience

In corporate mergers than I did...

Automated voice: You've got mail.

- It's not gonna be like that.

It'll feel like that for about six months or a year.

And then eventually,

One culture is going to eat the other culture.

- Many of you may already know that wcw has new owners.

- Nobody, no one, other than ted turner,

Wanted wcw within the tbs

Or turner broadcasting platform.

The writing was on the wall for wcw.

- I told you I talked to the man,

And that man is eric bischoff, so shut up and listen.

- I wanna make an announcement now

That next Monday night in panama city

Very well could be the last night of wrestling

On the turner networks.

♪ ♪

- When they were looking to sell it,

They weren't looking to give away the tv timeslot,

And the tv timeslot was, like,

Most of the value of the company.

Vince mcmahon was able to go in and just say,

"I don't care about the tv. I just want to own it."

- Imagine that. Here I am on wcw television.

How can that happen? Well, there's only way.

You see, it was just a matter of time

Before I, vince mcmahon,

Bought my competition.

That's right, I own wcw.

- In 2001, the decision is made to sell wcw.

Wwe buys all the assets.

Goldberg's contract is so lucrative,

He'd be a fool to go to wwe for lesser money.

So he sits it out.

And he gets paid to do nothing.

- [indistinct], come on.

Sit. Sit.

Sit, sit, sit, sit. Not on me.

Good boy.

My contract was guaranteed.

I could sit at home for two and a half years

And still be paid 100% of my money,

Whereas 90% of the people that went up to wwe

Were paid 50 cents on the dollar.

Doesn't take a rocket scientist

To figure out why I stayed home.

As far as the day after that two and a half years was up,

I had no clue what I was gonna do.

[indistinct chatter]

What's up, buddy? Come on over here, man.

- How you doin'?

- I was a pro football player.

I wasn't a wrestling fan.

I didn't grow up aspiring to be a professional wrestler.

- I came to see goldberg.

- I think the way that I expressed myself

As a professional wrestler is just an alternative form

Of the way that my idols expressed themselves

As professional football players.

What's up? Hey there.

Can you turn around and take a picture with me?

Well, come over here real quick.

If I got the ability to wear a helmet and shoulder pads

And do what I did, I would have done it in two seconds.

But unfortunately, that wasn't the situation.

I had to run around the ring in some bvds

And a pair of leather boots.

♪ ♪

I think we both accomplished the same thing.

While one was doing it with something that they loved...

♪ ♪

I did it to replace something that I loved.

♪ ♪

That's not really him.

[laughter]

And that's definitely not really me.

And prayed that it filled the void

Of that said love activity that I couldn't do anymore.

[crowd cheering]

And again, this is not a slight

Against the wrestling business or the fans.

It's just true.

I'm a football player.

♪ ♪

I really didn't know what I wanted.

♪ ♪

- We start with a story of mystery.

You've probably seen the promo.

Months of speculation.

Two years in exile.

The man everyone wants to see,

And now he's back.

Goldberg. But why has he come to the wwe, and why now?

[truck engines roaring]

- I felt as though I took so much

From the business in the beginning,

And I didn't really understand the giving back part

As much as I should have.

But I did fully understand it when I left.

- Goldberg!

- Whoo! - Goldberg!

- I was appreciative of seeing kids

When I was walking down the street going,

"when are you coming back to wrestling?

"when are you coming back to wrestling?

When are you coming back to wrestling?"

- There you go. - Number one, brother.

I always feel like I owe the fans something.

And you should, as a performer.

[cheers and applause]

That is what it's all about, guys.

The fans, they love it.

They love what we do. They love what they do.

Part of my responsibility and part of the reason

For me coming back and giving wwe a try

Was I wanted to give them what they wanted.

I put my feelings to the side, and I'm like, you know what,

Let's just-- let's give it a shot.

[goldberg's theme playing]

[cheers and applause] - wait a minute.

Oh, look!

- Oh, my god! - Look!

It's--it's him!

- No, wait! Where is he?

♪ ♪

- Goldberg is here! - It is him!

- And goldberg is coming to the ring!

[tense music]

♪ ♪

- Bill had a tough transition coming there.

There's only so many main even slots.

He's trying to take somebody's job.

So, consequently, he wasn't the most popular guy

In the locker room.

- I always felt like I was on the outside looking in.

And because I think I looked at it as a business venture,

Then a lot of people resented that.

"oh, you don't have the love for it?

Then why are you here?"

You better have more than that, punk ass!

You better have more than that!

Strike me down, 'cause I looked at it as a businessman,

And I was at an accelerated age in my career,

To where I had already been a professional at something.

[crowd cheering]

[grunts]

[crowd cheering]

- These egos are something you have to deal with.

They're not seasonal.

It's not the wrestling business.

It's every day.

- I didn't see eye-to-eye with a lot of the guys.

[crowd exclaims]

I only had a one-year contract.

- What do you say? - [screams]

I had no desire to sign again.

♪ ♪

I wanted to get the wrestling business over with.

♪ ♪

- So, the biggest thing that happened

In the span of goldberg's career,

In terms of the way that we watch professional wrestling,

Was the rise of the internet.

At the very beginning of goldberg's career,

You know, maybe, if you had tried really hard,

You could have found an aol chatroom

That had some reference to who was coming out of

The power plant or something.

By the time that goldberg and brock lesnar

Faced off at wrestlemania xx,

If you were trying at all,

You knew every rumor about what was going on backstage.

[exhales, grunts]

- There was already public knowledge

That goldberg was leaving

And already public knowledge

That a very dissatisfied brock lesnar

Wanted out of his contract

And wanted to go pursue other ventures.

♪ ♪

- Ladies and gentlemen,

We are about ready to set the stage

For the goldberg-lesnar one-on-one matchup.

Special referee "stone cold" steve austin.

This is going to be, no doubt,

A smashmouth, high-impact matchup.

And these two men, one representing "raw,"

One representing "smackdown"--

- Goldberg vs. Brock lesnar is a great idea on paper.

When the fans know that both of them are leaving the next day,

That is, like, what failing at wrestling looks like.

[goldberg's theme playing]

- [grunts]

Everyone knew I was leaving.

They also knew that brock was leaving.

♪ ♪

And how dare us go on with our lives and leave...

The fans?

- There's nothing fans hate more

Than feeling like something's a foregone conclusion.

[all chanting] you sold out!

You sold out! You sold out! You sold out!

- The audience was going to hijack the match.

And what was going to be most memorable

About the match was the negative reaction

That both goldberg and brock lesnar

Received from the audience.

And to this day,

The audience's desire to be remembered that way

Is exactly how that match is remembered.

All: ♪ hey hey hey, goodbye ♪

♪ na na na na na na na na ♪

♪ hey hey hey, goodbye ♪

- It was hard to watch, because, again,

I at least had a hand in building

The bill goldberg character

And being a part of the team that was there when bill

Got the best seat in the house

On a rocket ship ride to the moon.

- [grunts]

[crowd exclaims]

All: Goldberg sucks! Goldberg sucks! Goldberg sucks!

Goldberg sucks! Goldberg sucks! Goldberg sucks!

Goldberg sucks! Goldberg sucks!

- The fans rebelled in the garden that night,

At wrestlemania xx because they thought

They were being deserted.

Two of their favorites were taking a hike.

Mommy and daddy are getting a divorce,

And we're not gonna be living with either one of 'em.

All: This match sucks!

This match sucks! This match sucks!

This match sucks!

This match sucks! This match sucks!

This match sucks!

[cheering]

- It's the worst feeling the world.

No matter how hard you try, you got 20,000 hecklers live.

And no matter what you do,

Or how hard you work,

No matter what sacrifices you make,

They're gonna teach you a lesson.

[somber music]

[crowd booing]

- [grunting]

All: One! Two! Three!

[bell dings]

[crowd jeering]

- When the match ended at wrestlemania xx,

I would have bet everything that I owned

Or ever would own

That we would never see bill goldberg

In the wrestling ring again.

- I didn't think, after wrestlemania xx,

I'd step foot in the wrestling ring again.

All: Goldberg sucks! Goldberg sucks!

Goldberg sucks! Goldberg sucks! Goldberg sucks!

Goldberg sucks! Goldberg sucks!

- Quick interview. All right.

Oh. Bill.

- What's up, kid? - You have no clue who I am.

I've been watching you since-- - I don't care.

- Hey, no, you-- - you're a nice looking kid

In a nice suit, you got great style.

Why not come over to you?

- Did you do any research for your role?

- No. - No research.

- No, man. I played five years in the nfl, and I've seen...

- I know you've played football.

- And I've seen "the longest yard"

About ten, 15 times, so no.

- Guys, looking right here. - Back in 2004,

I was a stuntwoman in the movie industry.

And I get a call to do a movie

In edmonton, alberta.

No problem.

Who's in the movie?

They say goldberg.

I don't know who goldberg is.

I somehow hear goldblum.

So I'm like, oh, it might be kinda cool

To work with goldblum.

I'm like, okay, I'll do the stunt.

So, I show up in edmonton, on the movie set.

And I'm in full wardrobe, and he's in full wardrobe.

He's dressed as santa claus, of all things,

So he's got a big, fat stomach,

Big, long beard, long gray hair pulled back.

- Ahh! - Whoa!

[screaming] - oh, god!

- My stockings.

Is that-- - [gasps]

- There is a santa claus.

[dog growling]

[dog yelps]

♪ ♪

[screaming]

- Whoa!

- Ahh! - Daddy!

- [screaming]

- I love chubby guys. I love santa claus.

So I'm like, oh, he's-- he's cute.

- I don't think so.

- So I have three rules in dating.

I won't date a stunt guy,

A professional athlete,

Or an actor. [laughs]

You see where I'm going with this, right? Yeah.

So we meet. I'll leave out all the details.

It was basically love at first sight.

And he asked me out for dinner.

I shocked myself and said yes,

And we went out for dinner.

And three months later, we were engaged.

♪ ♪

- Whatever I had done prior in my life...

♪ ♪

I was rewarded by meeting her that night.

It was the start of a new beginning.

♪ ♪

There you go. [indistinct].

Nice catch.

I knew right once I met her that if I didn't ask her out

And if I didn't eventually ask her to marry me,

I would regret it the rest of my life.

♪ ♪

[indistinct chatter]

- When I met him,

He was already emotionally detached from wrestling.

Three weeks after we met is when he officially retired.

So I had never seen him wrestler.

He really shut that part of his life off.

- [laughs]

So, I'm married to this legend,

And I hear stories, and I know he's a big deal

Because when we go out in public, everybody goes crazy.

- Study hard, boys. You're very welcome.

My pleasure. Very nice to meet you guys.

- And I'm like, wow, this guy's amazing.

Like, this is incredible.

But I never, ever shared that world with him.

- Okay, don't-don't be all--all goofy and everything

And try to throw the ball through me.

- [laughs]

- Yeah, we almost got-- he almost got one.

- At what--has anyone found out at what age they turn on you?

- Anyone who's had children know

That children change your life.

You can say they're not going to.

They just do.

And it's always for the better.

You know, we all have these little edges to us,

And when you have a child, those edges all soften.

And the focus changes.

And your world just becomes

Based on this little human being,

And how you're going to mold and create them

And make them this awesome person.

♪ ♪

You put that baby in those big,

Muscly tattooed arms,

And you watch a man turn into a puddle. [laughs]

I mean, it's magical.

♪ ♪

- I thought I was prepared for it, but I wasn't.

Changing diapers and feeding and being up all--

I--I'm not talking about that.

I'm talking about, like, all the--everything emotionally.

And it's just, it's a different deal.

♪ ♪

I mean, it was a dream come true to have my own kid.

Swing all the way through, bud. Smash it.

Possibly follow in my footsteps

In some way, shape, or fashion?

You know, I mean, that's pretty cool.

- He started to think,

"I want to share all of these memories

And these experiences with this child."

- Okay.

- "and in order to do that,

I can't shut out sections of my life."

And so, I think he-- in his own mind,

He knew that the older gage got,

The more the curiosity would build.

♪ ♪

- He knew who I was when he could understand

What his name was, because we'd always go out,

And, "why are all these people coming up?"

And, you know, so you have to explain it to him,

And then you have to show him a picture,

And then he gets excited, and then you're like,

Oh [bleep], I retired from the wrestling business.

I can't ever do this again for this kid.

And it's like, you know what, [bleep].

Just throw all this away.

Let's just go-- I'm gonna show you.

Right?

And so, you go to youtube.

♪ ♪

Then he's like, "that's not you."

I'm like, "yeah, it really is."

- Ladies and gentlemen, my name is...

All: Paul heyman.

- And I am the advocate for the beast...

All: Brock lesnar.

- We were living our quiet little life,

And then we start to hear these rumblings.

- For 12 years, everyone in the wwe universe

Keeps on asking the same question:

What if, even if it's just for one more night,

We could all experience...

All: Goldberg.

[indistinct chatter]

- Huddle up!

- Both behind the scenes and in front of the camera,

An obvious opponent for brock lesnar

Would be goldberg.

Huge box office potential here.

Because, as I said on television, everyone,

Even brock lesnar, has that, "yeah, but" on their record.

Brock lesnar is the baddest dude on the planet.

Yeah, but there's goldberg.

- Everyone has a responsibility.

"well, what do you think about coming back?"

I'm like, "you're kidding, right?

Like, I don't wanna come back."

- Goldberg, you, sir,

Are hereby challenged to a fight.

- Bill went through this real big emotion roller coaster

About it, kinda like, "I left it behind.

"I don't want it to come back in.

"I need it to come back in, 'cause I want gage to see.

I want you to see," being me.

All: Goldberg! Goldberg! Goldberg!

- So, and then we talked about it, rationalized it.

And, you know, the rest is history.

[weight machine squeaking]

- [grunting]

No one on the planet can understand

What I went through

Getting back into the business,

After having such a long hiatus,

Of being goldberg.

Being believable in that you can eat

Just about any human being alive

Is really difficult to do at 45 to 50 years old.

- Good. Bigger eyes, bigger eyes.

Yep, you got it, bill.

- When bill has to transform into goldberg,

It's a very serious thing for him.

Yes, he's fit, and he's in incredible condition,

And he's got this amazing physique

That he works very, very hard for.

He's dedicated to that.

But the cerebral part of that character,

What he puts himself through, on a stress level,

To prepare for these matches is--

No one could even begin to understand.

♪ ♪

- I wanted to walk away from the business

Because everything it took to be that guy,

Week after week after week, was stressful on me.

It just takes a lot of energy.

Sporadic bursts of fanaticism,

From 0 to 100, back to 0 again.

- I'm like, "honey, you gotta, like,

Take it down a notch, right?" but he can't.

- It's just tough. It's stressful.

- He only knows how to do it one way,

And that's 110% every single time.

♪ ♪

- When I was in the best shape of my life,

I was not in very good shape, in my eyes.

So, imagine what putting yourself through--

Trying to get in shape again-- [crowd cheering]

Performing in front of all these people,

Who haven't seen you in a long time,

And the only time they saw you

Was this fire-breathing dragon.

Yeah!

Trying to make it the point

Where you impress your kid

After you've hyped yourself up,

♪ ♪

And then, most importantly, being able to live

With yourself when you look in the mirror,

And go, "really? You're gonna do this?

You're gonna look like a fool."

♪ ♪

And that weighs a lot. It weighs heavy on you.

♪ ♪

Okay, ladies and gentlemen,

The goldbergs just arrived in denver.

Honey. - Yes?

- Your first trip in the world of professional wrestling.

What do you-- what do you think?

- Two thumbs up so far.

- Gage?

- Yay!

- [laughs] - okay.

- Oh, goldberg came back so that his son

Could see him in the ring.

Goldberg came back so that his son could experience goldberg.

It's not the same to see it on youtube.

It's not the experience.

It's, "oh yeah, there's my dad when he was younger.

And look at everybody chanting his name."

But when you're in an arena full of people,

And they passionately, intensely, chant,

"goldberg. Goldberg," [crowd chanting]

And you're sitting there going, "holy [bleep]."

All: Goldberg! Goldberg! Goldberg! Goldberg! Goldberg!

Goldberg! Goldberg! Goldberg! Goldberg!

[cheers and applause]

[chanting] this is awesome!

This is awesome! - Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you, ladies and gentlemen.

It's been a long time.

And you didn't forget!

[cheers and applause]

Man.

12 years, ladies and gentlemen!

[cheering]

You never say never, eh?

I never thought I'd be in this ring again.

So, thank you for the humble return.

[cheers and applause]

What makes it so special is that my wife and my son

Are here to see me live for the first time ever.

[cheers and applause]

Now, as I said, it's been 12 years.

There's a lot of things I miss in this business.

The biggest thing that I miss, other than kickin' ass...

[cheering]

Is being a superhero for the kids all around the world.

[cheering]

All: Goldberg! Goldberg! Goldberg! Goldberg! Goldberg!

Goldberg! Goldberg!

- Now, brock lesnar challenged me to a fight.

[cheering]

But he didn't have the balls to do it himself!

[cheering]

He made paul heyman, his fat little stooge, do it for him.

[cheering]

So, brock lesnar,

Not only does that mean that you're next.

[cheering]

But most importantly, it means,

Brock lesnar, you're last!

[cheers and applause]

- You're thinking, okay, this is gonna be

A pretty cool experience.

He's going back to wrestling.

I've been married to him for 12 years,

Have never seen this happen.

I've never been in a room

Where everybody's doing the chant.

And it's my husband they're chanting for.

It's my son's father they're chanting for.

It'll be fine. It'll be fine, you know? No big deal.

[explosions boom]

[imitates explosion]

[cheers and applause]

- A surreal moment.

Goldberg heading to the ring

For the first time in 12 years.

[cheering]

- You can't breathe.

Like, you just can't emotionally encompass

The feeling of standing there and hearing this.

- Two titans about to clash.

[bell dings] - more pay-per-view victories

Over brock lesnar, that's john cena.

Goldberg looks to do it tonight.

And brock lesnar looking to establish dominance.

And goldberg dropping lesnar!

- Goldberg was unfazed.

- When I came back,

I was actually trying to have a good time,

Whereas before, I hadn't even considered having a good time.

- No fear from goldberg. Spear!

Goldberg hit lesnar with a spear!

A spear from out of nowhere!

[crowd cheering]

Goldberg again with a spear!

Two spears to lesnar!

Brock's in trouble!

- To see him really live in action--

Like, I knew he was amazing, but this is, like, whew!

- I don't think anybody expected

This sort of dominance right out of the gate from goldberg.

- The beast may on the verge of getting slayed.

- Goldberg again.

He's got lesnar center of the ring.

- Goldberg's looking for a jackhammer.

- He's doing another jackhammer!

Goldberg gonna do the jackhammer!

[cheering]

Jackhammer on lesnar! And the cover!

All: One! Two! Three!

- Oh, my god! [bell dings]

Goldberg beat brock!

[cheers and applause]

- Here is your winner, goldberg!

- A monumental upset!

After 12 years, goldberg returns to the ring

And absolutely destroys the beast!

[cheers and applause]

- At the end of the match, I look over,

And gage is tearing his shirt off.

He tears his shirt off.

And I'm like, "oh. Okay, we're just gonna roll with it."

So, he completely tears his shirt off,

And then bill comes and grabs him and takes him.

[sentimental music]

- You see goldberg bringing his son gage

Into the ring to celebrate.

- Man, what a moment for goldberg and his family.

♪ ♪

There's goldberg's muse, his inspiration, his son.

♪ ♪

- You can just see gage couldn't be prouder.

This is his dad.

Bill couldn't be prouder.

This is his son. And he's back.

♪ ♪

- [chuckles] that's my boy.

[light piano music]

♪ ♪

[cheers and applause]

♪ ♪

- Oh, incredible.

- Well, guys, I tried to tell you

About my wrestling experience.

You just lived it. - Oh, my gosh.

- How was it?

- It was unbelievable. - Good.

- Other than that goofy name. It won't be on there anymore.

- It's heavy. - Yeah.

That's what a real one's like.

[exhales] so, did you have fun?

- Yeah. - Sure?

- Mm-hmm.

- It was so awesome. Oh, my god.

Ohh.

- You're a good boy.

13 years and four months

Since your daddy has had a title.

I wear belts all the time. That's different.

- That's gotta be a record, though, right?

- I don't know.

All I know is y'all are the reason why I did it.

All: Goldberg! Goldberg! Goldberg!

Goldberg! Goldberg!

Goldberg! Goldberg! [cheers and applause]

- Wow.

How the hell did this happen?

Well, reminiscent of my matches, ladies and gentlemen,

Do not worry, this will be short.

[laughter]

I owe thanks to so many people.

I truly don't believe that there was ever a character

That depended upon so many moving parts for its success.

♪ ♪

- He breathes smoke and [bleep] fire.

I mean, I don't know another way to say it.

You know, intensity is going to be bill's legacy.

[explosions booming]

- Goldberg's legacy was the feeling that you got

When the music started playing.

Like, that was goldberg's legacy.

It was that feeling of anticipation and excitement.

Like, that is bill goldberg.

- His intensity, his power,

And the emotion that he brought to an arena,

It'll be hard to take that away from him.

[explosions booming]

- I don't think goldberg fits any cookie cutter vision

Of what a hero in wrestling's supposed to be.

I think goldberg's a very unique character.

I think he's a very unique persona.

I think he's a very unique man.

- [exhales] wanda.

Me erasing my wrestling demons

And finding my peace in the business

Was your only goal for my comeback.

I can safely say, as I steal a quote from you,

It's all good, baby.

[cheers and applause]

- Yes, I know it's hard on him.

Yes, I know he ages every single time he does a match.

But will I say "don't do it"?

Never. I married goldberg.

- I worked my ass off.

Because I wanted it again.

It meant something to me.

It wasn't just a job.

I love you people.

I love being that guy for you.

[cheers and applause]

- He could make you believe that he's goldberg

And that there's not a human on the face of the planet

That can stand up to him.

♪ ♪

- Goldberg might be, like,

The last superhero in pro wrestling.

[explosion booms]

[cheers and applause]

- Wrestling brings us all together.

I never really thought it would.

I always wanted to follow a football dream.

[grunting]

♪ ♪

My inability to pursue the dream of myself

Opened the door to my opportunity

To being a superhero for others.

- Do it! Do it!

- Oh, my god!

- One! Two!

- My dream was--

Of being a member of the nfl hall of fame

Could not have gotten me nearly as far

In being the superhero for kids

As being inducted into the wwe hall of fame.

And I realize...

More so than ever before, this is where I belong.

♪ ♪

[cheers and applause]

This has been one hell of a journey.

Which leads me to my one final question:

Who's next?

[cheering]

Thank you very much.

[goldberg's theme playing]

♪ ♪