Goldberg has opened up about the less than warm welcome he got from Vince McMahon and the WWE locker room when he joined the company in 2003.
Despite his undefeated streak being a thing of the past, and his booking chipping away at his megastar aura, when WCW closed it’s doors in 2001, Goldberg remained one of the biggest names in wrestling.
When WWE acquired the company and launched the invasion storyline, fans hoped that the star would be heavily involved, setting up dream matches with The Rock and Stone Cold Steve Austin to name just two. However, there was still a significant amount of time left on Goldberg’s deal with Time Warner so he didn’t sign with the company until 2003.
Many former WCW stars have since claimed that they were made to feel unwelcome upon entering WWE, explaining that they were still seen as the enemy, despite the ‘war’ being long over.
During an appearance on Talk Is Jericho, Goldberg opened up about his initial year-long run with the company. The WWE Hall of Famer said that his welcome from Vince McMahon was far from “warm and fuzzy” adding that he felt like an outsider.
“It was not warm and fuzzy by any stretch of the imagination. No, it was not. The first year that I was at the WWE from what I can remember was one of the most stressful years of my entire life. And like I say, some of the things may have been fabricated in my own mind to lobotomize me but I felt as though I was still the enemy walking in the locker room. You know, everybody going What the hell is this guy doing here? And I’ve always felt like an outsider but never as much as I did then.”
Elsewhere during the interview, Goldberg revealed why he thought his dream match with Steve Austin never took place. The WCW legend explained that fears over the condition of Austin’s neck meant that a match was never seriously discussed.
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