Goldberg On Joining WWE In 2003: I Was The Enemy
After spending years battling WWE as one of the top stars in WCW, Goldberg finally joined WWE in 2003. Like many big names when WWE purchased WCW in 2001, Goldberg rode out his guaranteed contract rather than join WWE — who didn’t buy out the big-money deals — and take part in the Invasion storyline.
“I had a guaranteed deal. Why would I go back and work for half my money when I had a guaranteed deal to stay at home and recover?” Goldberg asked when discussing the Invasion storyline with Steve Austin on the Broken Skull Sessions.
The likes of Goldberg and Sting decided to sit out the remainder of their WCW/Time Warner contracts while guys like Diamond Dallas Page and Booker T took part in the Invasion angle in 2001.
In 2003, Goldberg did join WWE, immediately entering into a program with The Rock. However, many fans commented that the Goldberg of WWE was not the Goldberg they grew to love in WCW.
“I was the enemy,” stated Goldberg. “I came in and here are all these guys that I’ve been saying bad things about and trying to beat and kick their ass. Now I’m one of them. ‘Boy, this is gonna go over well.’ Oh, by the way, [Triple H] and I didn’t get along to begin with. Things were said from afar and now I’m there and he’s part of the office. ‘Oh shit.’ Talk about putting myself out on an island. And I didn’t do nothing but make it worse in the beginning. It’s tough because people can’t empathize if they haven’t been in your situation. As great as the situation is, or was, I was still at the mercy of the next person who gave me advice. I really didn’t know who the good guy and who the bad guy was.”
Goldberg did win the WWE World Heavyweight Championship at Unforgiven 2003, holding the title for 84 days. He would leave the company following WrestleMania XX, but returned in 2016 and entered the WWE Hall of Fame in 2018.
Elsewhere during the interview, Goldberg talked about the end of his undefeated streak in WCW. You can view his full comments by clicking here.
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