A former WWE Superstar has explained why they have issues with Goldberg.
Despite being a multi-time World Champion and a Hall of Famer, Goldberg’s matches are not to everyone’s taste. Not known for technical proficiency, the matches were mainly about high-impact moves and displays of power. Much like a UFC first-round knockout match, the Hall of Famer catered to fans who wanted to see something big and something quick.
No stranger to angering veterans, Matt Riddle has criticised the former World Champion on a number of occasions in interviews, which led to a backstage argument between the two at SummerSlam 2019. Annoyed with what Riddle said, interactions between the two remained minimal.
Speaking with Chris Van Vliet, the former United States Champion addressed his heat with Goldberg and what their relationship is like in the present day. Riddle stated that he has a huge amount of respect for what the Hall of Famer has accomplished in wrestling and beyond, just not his bell-to-bell work:
“Goldberg, I’ll say this. Me and Goldberg have talked, I’m not gonna say we’ve hashed everything out. Because I’m me, he’s him, and I’m not a huge fan of his work. I’m not a huge fan of his wrestling style, per se. That’s all I’m gonna say. I think he’s great at drawing money. I think he’s great at sports entertaining. I think he’s an awesome action star, playing Santa Claus in a horror movie. I told him all this, I like a bunch of stuff. I’m just not a fan of his work and that’s that.”
Riddle continued, stating that fans will likely seek out a devastating Spear of Jackhammer from Goldberg, but not watch the full match:
“Now I think if we wrestled, I would want to do a couple of things differently. And I think it could be better, but that’s a whole different can of worms. But at the end of the day, me and Goldberg don’t get along, because I talked some trash about his wrestling. He didn’t like it, he took it as disrespect. And I said it’s not disrespectful because it’s true. And then he didn’t like that and told me how successful he’s been. And I know you’ll be more successful than I’ll probably ever be in my life. But nobody’s ever gonna tune back in to watch a classic Goldberg match.
You might watch the Spear compilation, Jackhammer compilation, cool. Maybe one or two matches. But you’re not going back like you go back to watch Shawn Michaels versus Bret Hart in the Iron Man match. Or Razor Shawn in the first-ever ladder match. I could keep continuing, you’re not gonna go back like that, because he doesn’t have any of those in his arsenal. But he’s still one of the best of all time. And I’m not going to argue that I’d say that to his face.”
In a separate interview, Matt Riddle is still hopeful that the match could still happen.
Goldberg Reveals Origin Of Finisher
More often than not, the Hall of Famer would win his matches with the Jackhammer as no star would prove to be too big to be hit with the finisher. In a previous interview, Goldberg stated that he borrowed the move by accident from a WCW legend.
In July 2024, Matt Riddle gave a further update about his relationship with Goldberg.
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