Although he was out of action with a shoulder injury when WCW closed its doors in 2001 Goldberg remained one of the company’s biggest stars.
While his popularity had dipped from its 1998 zenith, Goldberg was still one of the more marketable stars in the wrestling world. However, while many of his colleagues immediately headed to WWE who had purchased WCW, the company balked at buying out Goldberg’s monster Time Warner contract. As a result, the former World Champion didn’t sign with WWE until early 2003.
What’s Goldberg Doing In The IMPACT Zone?!?!
Following the slow death of WCW, Jeff Jarrett had his own plans, a brand new promotion in TNA. The company which has since become IMPACT Wrestling launched in 2002 and signed a number of former WCW and WWE stars, however, Goldberg wasn’t one of them.
Speaking on his podcast, My World, Jarrett has revealed that there weren’t any serious discussions between the two sides, at least initially. Although he did confirm that Dixie Carter spoke to the star years later.
“Not at this point,” Jarrett said. “Dixie [Carter] had a lunch with him several years later that I think you could classify on Dixie’s part for sure, substantially. I don’t think on Bill’s part,”
“Bill made a lot of money in WCW and made a lot of money at WWE. Bill’s a businessman first and foremost. I never viewed any of the conversations with Bill as substantial strictly off of there isn’t enough money for Bill to come.”
Although Goldberg signed with WWE in 2003, he lasted only a year with the company before leaving after WrestleMania XX. The WWE Hall of Famer didn’t return to the ring for 12 years, only rejoining WWE in 2016.
H/t to Wrestling Inc