Original subtitles

Not many people were privy to the transformation of Goldberg the human to

Goldberg the character.

When you're a kid, you fantasize about power.

Goldberg getting the spear, that's a power.

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.

Twelve years, ladies and gentlemen.

Never thought I'd be in this ring again.

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.

Automatic voice message system.

Not the tone. Please record your message.

Hey, baby. Just letting you know I'm going to your gauge.

I'm doing a tone -up real quick.

Good footage for you guys.

I 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 older 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

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

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.

That was my story.

There are many things 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, You

compete one -on -one with another person.

My love for football dates back to the first picture I ever saw of me.

And I 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.

To be able to do that without being thrown in jail is an unbelievable

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

Welcome to Stanford Stadium, one of the shrines of college football.

Being able to play major college football at the University of Georgia

of the biggest honors I've ever been bestowed.

Watch number 95, Bill Goldberg. Carolina ball is fumbled. They call Bill

Goldberg the best defensive lineman in the South.

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, but he's wild and woolly. Goldberg with a body

And Bill Goldberg is pushing and shoving.

Look at this. Looks like Foreman Cooney.

Big hole in the middle. Lost the ball.

Georgia and it's a 33.

Bill Goldberg, number 95, the sophomore from Tulsa, Oklahoma, makes the

recovery.

Bill Goldberg was a violent football player.

Extremely aggressive.

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

in the state of Oklahoma.

Okay, let's go.

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

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 it. Think I've been working in the yard? No

kidding.

This thing is bigger.

See the size of that now?

Yeah, it's 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.

because it took until the second day of 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 until the last preseason game, tore my hamstring, got

worked the rest of the year to rehab, get ready, got signed by the Rams again

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

like 30 pounds. That didn't last very long.

And so I signed with the World Football League. We won the world championships

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 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... 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

supplemental draft.

Carolina picked me.

Unbeknownst to them, I had had surgery like two weeks before, repairing my

abdomen and reattaching it to my pelvis.

Let's just say that my physical condition and the trajectory of the

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.

The tibia is rotated a little bit on this foot. Yeah. So it's more posterior.

I'll tell you what, man. When I just... 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.

But I know that one was pretty extensive.

Any kind of rehab that you're going to do for a torn abdomen is going to be

strenuous. It's going to be...

monotonous, and it's going to be painful as hell.

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

Yeah, you're on it.

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've 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 gotten 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.

Goldberg needed a job.

The person that told me to give wrestling a shot was my accountant.

Because 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 got

is clip out a photo of Bill Goldberg.

So he looked the part, and that's a big step in the right direction. You've got

to 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.

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.

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. 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.

Five, six days a week, nine to five, just busting your ass, trying to learn

to get off the ropes, hit the ropes, how to do flips, how to take break falls,

how to not hurt people.

It's a must, and it's a grind.

Good. Excellent.

The fact that Bill started his professional wrestling career at 30

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, Skidberry, head -to -head Monday night TNT against WWE.

The Monday night war is...

by far the most exciting time to ever be a pro wrestling fan.

We've got two big wrestling companies, WWE, which is a 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

back and forth. Every time one show goes to commercial, you're immediately on

the other show, so they are actively competing in real time to keep you glued

your TV screen.

These two monoliths were just fighting tooth and nail for your attention.

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. It was a signal that the tide had turned.

WCW was outperforming WWE each and every week. It wasn't even close.

We are the champions!

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.

We were 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.

And typically when you would bring new talent out, sometimes they'd get into

sometimes they wouldn't. Most of the time they didn't care.

Bill Gobert grabbed everybody's attention.

Nobody knew who he was.

It was just a guy walking out in his underwear that captured everybody's

imagination.

How about that backflip?

And that's a lot to lift, over 300 pounds of Hugh Morris. And he did it

ease that time. He's going to pick it up again.

Scoot, put him down.

I'm a lessons more guy.

I wanted to be the Mike Tyson of Redwood.

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

Next.

Muscles, he moves.

Combination slam, one, two.

The plan was to be so simple and so devastating and so quick that people

like, did you just see that?

No? Well, damn.

Got to wait another week to see it.

Wrestling at its very core is an 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.

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

Jogging! Count him out! He wins again!

What do you want to know?

50! 60!

He's my favorite!

Put another mark in the wind column for that man right there!

Goldberg was a down and dirty and very easy to figure out persona.

Fear.

Jackhammer.

Ha!

Pin audience reaction.

Who's next?

You're next.

That's it.

We saw him last night at Spring Stand Pete, and he goes down!

That's a 10 on the Richter!

I want it to be something completely different than people have ever seen

before.

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 going to run out of guys for him to eat.

And you're getting to that point now where we're looking at Bill and going,

okay, what do we do?

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.

Against what I feel is the number one contender, Goldberg!

I remember I was

in L .A.

And I remember exactly where I was. I was on the 90.

Taking an exit in the Marina Del Rey.

My phone rang.

It was Hulk Hogan.

He said, brother, I got to talk to you. I 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? He goes, he's going to

beat me.

I did what you're doing just right now.

I went.

Whoa, what?

Listen up, 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!

I look 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 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

Oklahoma, Goldberg.

straight A's for Goldberg.

We've talked about a home ring advantage, but think of the pressure

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? It was the best night of my

wrestling career, my athletic career, my life.

And, you know, I mean, it was an extremely emotional night in a lot of

respects.

I was nervous to the nth degree because I had just gotten

in the business.

Goldberg has passed every test to date.

106 consecutive straight A's for Goldberg. And am I right? There has

a world champion undefeated. You are right.

That was in pretty decent shape back there.

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.

The thing that fans loved about Goldberg is he was intense.

And I'm here to tell you, it was intense when you're in the ring with him.

Technical wrestling and all that gaga doesn't mean a thing if you're not

out every building you're in.

It's the biggest crowd ever to see a televised wrestling event on cable TV,

you're a part of it.

And it could be the night where Goldberg walks away with the gold from arguably

the greatest champion.

That's Hulk frickin' Hogan right there. And he knows what he's doing more than

anybody in the business.

I ain't doing shit that he doesn't call.

So he's in control of everything.

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 is who's going to win or lose.

It's about creating emotion, having people cheer and hate you, and taking

on that rollercoaster ride.

There's a complete arc from beginning, middle, to end, and you're telling an

amazing story that everybody understands.

Despite the fact that this was the story for Goldberg, Hogan had been here for

so long that it just seemed impossible that, then he would lose.

We needed another attraction.

We needed another Hulk Hogan.

What better way to beat Hulk Hogan than beating Hulk Hogan right in the middle?

is what we make.

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

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 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.

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

face of your company. And as the world champion, you are the face of the

company.

Are you going to put somebody out there that pisses themselves every time they

have to do a live interview? Or are you going to put somebody who's the face of

your company that is telegenic, charismatic, totally at ease with non

media? And Bill Goldberg had all of those attributes. Now, were your parents

wrestlers?

They were the famous Jewish tag team from 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

title around your waist.

Ready to go?

Don't get that cocaine in there. They don't pay me.

All right.

We'll go for it. Okay, Bill?

Shoot. What is the deal?

I mean, what is the connection?

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.

Nice shirt.

Good to see you.

Bought you a picture.

It gave me the opportunity to be the guy that I was always planning to be in

professional football.

I couldn't wait to go out there and be introduced and grab a kid and give him

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?

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

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

You, me, in the ring.

Let's go.

Yeah.

You're next.

I'm going to 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.

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 10 extra matches between appearances, and the

got higher and higher.

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

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 going to be.

This is what's going to happen, and we're going to have a streak.

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.

I mean, there's a reason why.

Roth and Rachel didn't get together on season one of Friends, right? Because

that was the story that people kept coming back for to find their resolution

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've got to have the steak, you've got to

the vegetables, you've got to have the whole presentation.

You've seen it enough times, it's not as exciting as it used to be. So what are

you going to do now?

I'm Goldberg, and I fear no man.

Goldberg, you can't survive my jackknife powerbomb. Nash, get ready for the

jackhammer. You can't survive my jackknife powerbomb. I fear you, Nash.

Let's get ready for the powerbomb!

We talked about the anticipation level for this matchup being so high. We don't

have to anticipate anymore. It's here.

It stands at 173 -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.

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. Not supposed to be here.

Send him to jail.

Meanwhile, it's a break.

What was that? That's one of those tasers the police use.

It's like a stun gun.

It was my idea to use a real taser. Absolutely.

Because I wanted that one that would shoot out of the gun and that would

in you. And then they could light you up like a Christmas tree. Because if

Goldberg's going down, I want it to be going down.

And they wouldn't let me use it.

Oh, no.

Wait a minute.

Oh, Jack Knight powerbombs. Look at this fit.

One, two, three. The streak is over.

And we have a new world champion.

The streak is over.

173 -1.

And a new world champion, Kevin Nash is crowned.

And basically what I'm going to be doing is I'm going to be standing five feet

away and I'm going to 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.

We have witnessed professional wrestling history.

Kevin Nash will always go down as the first man to stop the streak of

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

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,

only context for Goldberg's existence was the win streak.

The ideal of the Bill Goldberg story is to get swept up in it.

As soon as the shine comes off, you're not swept up in it anymore, and you

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 19th at Starcade, the two of you are going to

be facing each other for the WCW heavyweight title.

However, tonight... 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

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

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.

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,

Bret Hart.

Oh, shit.

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 is actually performance art.

Wrestling is all about trust, and it's all about respect. Nobody said, hey, you

can't really hurt these guys. You need to go back to wrestling school and learn

how to wrestle. But WCW, nobody ever called out Bill for any of that stuff.

one time, ever.

Wrestling is a dance.

And the more senior person in that dance is the one that ultimately has to make

certain decisions.

Guys who are as good as Bret in the ring, part of their job every single day

to make guys like Goldberg look good in a match.

Good wrestlers are tasked with this.

Let me say one thing.

I'm going to take any chance I get.

become the world champion. If I've got to go through Goldberg, and maybe I'll

suffer the consequences tonight, but I'm going to show one thing, that I'm going

to go in there, and I'm going to do my best, and I'm going to give Bill

a match that he's not going to forget. He's going to know he's in for 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.

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 going to try to teach you. I'm going to try to help you so much with your

career. I'm going to teach you and help you become the wrestler you really can

be.

Don't hurt me.

He's going to 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 got to

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've got nothing to stop me.

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 lets go of my foot.

really fuzzy, like the whole world spinning.

I get in the ring after that with Bill, and he calls for a kick, 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.

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?

Because 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?

Bill made contact.

Okay? It's on 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 Bret Hart.

Because Bret was such a master from a technical perspective, he knew what he

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 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

Hart's career is over.

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.

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.

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 the fact that you buy into your own mythos.

You have to get caught up in it.

It has to be you.

You have to blur that line.

I put my hand through a limousine window.

I have to become...

a completely different human being to be that guy that people pay their money

for.

I have to go from choir boy to damn Godzilla within a flip of a

switch.

That's not easy. And it's taxing on a human being.

I came within a centimeter of hitting that main artery.

How'd it feel last night?

Didn't feel real good, but I felt a lot more comfortable with this bandage on it

now that you put on there. Looks like the swelling went down some.

Yeah.

See if you had much drainage.

A little bit, I think.

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 going to be swinging a mallet. I'm going to

be swinging this. So everybody take heed.

Internet pioneer American Online announced today it is buying big,

Time Warner, creating the world's largest media conglomerate.

I remember when the Time Warner AOL merger was announced, it was, oh, this

going to be magnificent.

This is going to be the greatest thing that ever happened to this company.

About two months later, someone told me they had a lot more experience in

corporate mergers than I did. You've got mail.

I'm going to 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

WCW has new owners.

Nobody, no one other than Ted Turner wanted WCW within the TBS

return broadcasting platform.

The writing was on the wall for WCW.

I told you I'd talk to the man, and that man is Eric Bischoff. So shut up and

listen. I want to make an announcement now.

That next Monday night at 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 time

slot. And the TV time slot 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 one 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.

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 going to do.

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 express myself as a professional wrestler is just an

alternative form of the way that my idols express themselves as professional

football players.

Hey there.

Can you turn around and take a picture with me?

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 BBDs 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.

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.

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?

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.

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

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 give it

shot.

Bill had a tough transition coming there.

There's only so many main event slots.

He's trying to take somebody's job.

So consequently, he wasn't the most popular guy in the locker room.

I've 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 because I looked at it as a businessman and I was at an

accelerated age of my career to where I had already been a professional at

something.

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.

I only had a one -year contract.

I had no desire to sign again.

I wanted to get the wrestling business over with.

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 chat room 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 20, if

were trying at all, you knew every rumor about what was going on backstage.

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 smash mouth.

High impact matchup. And these two men, one representing Raw, one representing

SmackDown. Goldberg versus 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.

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.

The audience was going to hijack the match.

And what was going to be most memorable about the match, 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.

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.

The fans rebelled in the garden that night at WrestleMania 20 because they

thought they were being deserted.

Two of their favorites were taking a hike.

Mom and Daddy are getting divorced, and we're not going to be living with either

one of them.

It's the worst feeling in the world.

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

And no matter what you do, how hard you work, no matter what sacrifices you

make, they're going to teach you a lesson.

when that match ended, WrestleMania 20, 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 20 I'd ever step foot in the wrestling

ring again.

What's up, kid? No clue who I am. I've been watching you since... I don't care

who you are. You're a nice -looking kid in a nice suit. You got great style.

Why not come over to you? You ain't any research for your role?

Um, no.

No research? No, man. I've played five years in the NFL, and I've seen you on

the chart about 10, 15 times, so no.

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 kind of cool to work with Goldblum.

I'm like, okay, I'll do this then.

So I show up in Edmonton on the movie set, and I'm in full wardrobe, and he's

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.

There is a Santa Claus.

I love chubby guys. I love Santa

Claus. I'm like, well, 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.

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

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.

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.

When I met him, he was already emotionally detached from wrestling.

Three weeks after we met is when he officially retired.

I had never seen him wrestle.

He really shut that part of his life off.

So everybody's wondering what we've done for the last 12 years off TV.

We're getting a little glimpse of him right now.

We're living life, ladies and gentlemen, as my goat eats my pants.

So I'm married to the legend.

And I hear stories, and I know he's a big deal because when we go out in

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, right? This is incredible.

But I never, ever shared that world with him.

Okay, don't be all goofy and everything and try to throw the ball through me.

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

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

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?

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'm not talking about that.

talking about, like, everything emotionally, and it's a different deal.

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

Swing all the way through it, bud.

Smash it.

Possibly following 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.

And in order to do that, I can't shut out sections of my life.

And so I think...

In his own mind, he knew that the older he 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?

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.

I retired from the wrestling business. I can't ever do this again for this kid.

And it's like, you know what?

Just throw all this away. Let's just go show. I'm going to 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 Paul Heyman.

Advocate for the Beast, Brock Lesnar!

We were living our quiet little life, and then we start to hear these

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...

Both behind the scenes and in front of the camera, an obvious opponent for

Lesnar would be Goldberg.

Huge box office potential here.

Because, as I said on television, everyone, even Brock Lesnar, has that

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?

I don't want to come back.

Goldberg!

You, sir, are hereby challenged to a fight.

Bill went through this real big emotional rollercoaster about it. Kind

I left it behind. I don't want it to come back in.

I needed to come back in because I want Gage to see, I want you to see being me.

So then we talked about it, rationalized it, and, you know, the rest is

history.

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.

When Bill has to transform into Goldberg, it's a very serious thing for

Yes, he's fit, and he's in incredible condition, and he's got this amazing

physique that he worked 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, um...

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 zero to a hundred back to zero 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 against.

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, trying to make it

to 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 going to do this? You're going to look like a

fool.

And that weighs a lot.

That weighs heavy on you.

Okay, ladies and gentlemen, the Goldbergs just arrived in Denver.

Honey, your first trip in the world of professional wrestling, what do you

think? Two thumbs up so far.

Gage?

Yay!

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 fame 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.

You send her home.

It's been a long time.

And he didn't forget.

Twelve years, ladies and gentlemen.

You never say never, eh?

Never thought I'd be in this ring again.

So thank you for the humble return.

What makes it so special is

that my wife and my son are here to see me live for the first time ever.

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 kicking ass, is

being a superhero for the kids all around the world.

Lesnar challenged me to a fight.

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

He made Paul Heyman his fat little studes do it for him.

So, Brock Lesnar.

Please, Brock Lesnar, you're last!

You're thinking, okay, this is going to be a pretty cool experience. Going back

to wrestling.

I've been married to him for 12 years.

I've 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

for.

It'll be fine. It'll be fine. You know, no big deal.

A surreal moment.

Goldberg heading to the ring for the first time in 12 years.

You can't breathe.

Like you just can't emotionally encompass the feeling of standing there

hearing this.

Two titans about to clash.

When I came back, I was actually trying to have a good time.

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

To see him really live in action, like I knew he was amazing, but this is

like... I don't think anybody expected this sort of dominance right out of the

gate from Goldberg.

The beast is beyond the verge of getting slayed.

Goldberg again.

He's got less than a bit of a rank. Goldberg's looking for a jackhammer.

looking for a jackhammer!

I look over and Gage is tearing his shirt off.

He tears his shirt off. And I'm like, oh, okay, we're just going to roll with

it. And so he completely tears his shirt off and then Bill comes and grabs him

and takes him.

You see Goldberg bringing his son Gage into the ring to celebrate.

Now what a moment for Goldberg and his family.

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

And 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.

I tried to tell you about my wrestling experience.

You just lived it.

Oh, my God. How was it?

It was unbelievable.

Other than that goofy name, it won't be on there anymore.

It's heavy.

That's what a reel looks like.

So did you have fun?

Yeah. Sure.

That was so awesome. Oh, my God.

Oh.

You're a big boy.

13 years and 4 months since your daddy has had a title.

I wear belts all the time.

That's different.

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

Well, reminiscent of my matches, ladies and gentlemen, do not worry. This will

be short.

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 fire.

I don't know another way to say it. Intensity is going to be Bill's legacy.

Goldberg's legacy was the feeling that you got when the music started playing.

That was Goldberg's legacy. It was that feeling of anticipation and excitement.

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.

I don't think Goldberg fits any cookie cutter vision of what a hero in

is 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.

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.

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.

He could make you believe that he's Goldberg and that there's not a human on

face of the planet that can stand up to him.

Goldberg might be like the last superhero in pro wrestling.

Wrestling brings us all together.

Never really thought it would.

I always wanted to follow a football dream.

My inability to pursue the dream of myself opened the door to my opportunity

being a superhero for others.

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 realized...

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

This has been one hell of a journey, which leads me to my one final question.

Who's next?

Thank you very much.