Former WCW and World Heavyweight Champion Bill Goldberg was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame on Friday night in New Orleans. And while the man had plenty of people to thank for helping him throughout his career, he couldn’t help but take a couple of jabs at himself and one member of the current WWE roster.
When describing his early days in the business, Goldberg discussed how his character was a combination of multiple different wrestlers, including Road Warrior Hawk and Bruiser Brody.
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Then when he got on the subject of his move set, he pointed out how Roman Reigns uses his same signature spear in matches.
“…With a setup move so awesome, so devastating, and obviously so easy to copy. Where’s Roman?” Goldberg asked as he looked around the room, earning a big laugh from the crowd.
Goldberg went on to thank many people who helped him first break into the business in WCW in the late 1990s, including Diamond Dallas Page, Eric Bischoff, Sting, Hulk Hogan and Ric Flair.
Once he got to the subject of his yearlong stint with WWE in 2003-04, Goldberg blamed himself for what he described as a “miserable tour of duty.”
“It sucked, I sucked and talking about it sucks, so let’s move on,” Goldberg said.
But he admitted it wasn’t all bad.
“It can only be so bad when you get to work with The Rock, you get to share a locker with Taker and you get to spend time with guys like Booker, (Dean) Malenko, Goldust, guys who really care about helping the young guys. And although I resent it to this day, I must thank Steve Austin for helping me out all along the way.”
Goldberg went on to tell a number of funny stories, from his grueling training when he returned to WWE last year, to when he broke his hand on the locker room door after Stephanie McMahon told him he couldn’t headbutt the doors anymore.
He closed out his speech with his iconic catchphrase “Who’s Next?” after saying never say never when it comes to him stepping in the ring again.
Goldberg returned to the WWE after spending over a decade away from the business, feuding mostly with Brock Lesnar. He managed to shock “The Beast” with a quick victory at the 2016 Survivor Series pay-per-view, then captured the Universal Championship from Kevin Owens shortly after. Lesnar managed to finally get a win over Goldberg at WrestleMania 33, capturing the Universal Championship for the first time in his career. Lesnar has been champ ever since.
