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TORCH TALK EXCLUSIVE: Goldberg talks nearly signing with WWE over WCW in 1990s, reveals details of meeting "car salesman" McMahon for the first time

May 5, 2013 - 12:30:12 PM
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PWTorch exclusive Torch Talk Flashback - Bill Goldberg
Originally Published: January 20, 2001
Torch Newsletter #637


While on a media tour for his autobiography, "Goldberg: I'm Next," in 2001, former WCW champion Bill Goldberg talked to PWTorch editor Wade Keller about his career, WWE vs. WCW, a run-in with Triple H, and other topics. In this excerpt, Goldberg reveals how close he was to signing with WWE in the 1990s prior to signing with WCW and becoming a household name.

Keller: At the beginning of your career you came really close to signing with the World Wrestling Federation before deciding to sign with Eric Bischoff and WCW. Your book went into detail on that. I don't know how you look at these things, but do you think it was random chance that Bischoff called you just literally hours before you were about to commit to the WWF, or was it fate intervening?

Goldberg: Yeah, it wasn't that he found out that it was a time constraint (with the WWF), and if he didn't get me within three hours I would be at the WWF and be a big star up there by any stretch (laughs). That's not it. It was a sheer coincidence. I'm a firm believer that I've been at the right place at the right time a lot of times.

Keller: At that moment, did WCW offer you more money, more opportunity, or more assurances? What made you more comfortable with them than the WWF?

Goldberg: Mostly because it was here in Georgia. Well, I'm here in California right now, but mostly then because it was in Georgia. Mostly because I had the buffer of having some friends of mine that were there who could help me and I wouldn't immediately think it would be an adversarial thing where they thought I was going to take their jobs. That meant a lot, man. Believe me, I like going out on my own and doing my own thing, but at that point, I was in a very shitty spot. I had been out of football. I had to totally change my life. My dream was over and I was embarking on something that I knew absolutely nothing about. To be frank, I thought I would be embarrassed to call myself a professional wrestler even if I made it to the top level. But fortunately, I've been able to do something positive with it.

Keller: Before you signed with WCW, you had the meeting with Vince McMahon. Having been in the business for a few years now, looking at that meeting, how do you think Vince McMahon presented himself to you given your perspective today?

Goldberg: He's the ultimate professional, the consummate professional, no question. You couldn't pay me to say anything bad about him because he and Hulk Hogan are this business. Come on, there are only a certain number of people in this business who could do it. Those guys have done it.

Keller: When you wrote the book you said that he came off like an "authoritative, carny-like car salesman sort of guy." You meant that in a positive light?

Goldberg: Absolutely. He's the man just like Hulk Hogan. He made Hogan. Hogan is wrestling. He (Vince) was taught by his father... I don't know much about the history of it, but that to me sounds like a logical lineage of the history of wrestling (laughs).

VIP members get access to volumes of Torch Talk exclusive interviews conducted by Wade Keller over the past 20+ years with names such as Hulk Hogan, The Rock, Steve Austin, Kevin Nash, Scott Hall, Goldberg, Jim Ross, and all of the major players during the Attitude Era. Find out how to go VIP by CLICKING HERE - PWTorch.com/GoVIP.

[Torch art credit Joe Borzotta (c) PWTorch.com]


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