Bill Goldberg was a recent guest on Busted Open Radio talking about his upcoming WWE Hall Of Fame induction; you can read a few highlights (transcription credit to Bill Pritchard for Wrestlezone.com) and watch the full clip below:
Goldberg comments on his Hall Of Fame speech, being thankful for the people who helped him through his career:
It’s going to suck, because the worst thing in my repertoire are my promos [laughs] but at the end of the day it’s not going to be a promo. It’s going to be from my heart, it’s an opportunity for me to take the stage again and have that select audience glued to every word that you say. It’s a rare occurrence to be in the public and be in that setting and be out of character and be human and be yourself. It’s a huge advantage to that happening, you have to take advantage of that, and my journey is a storied journey. It’s a completely different path than Bully [Ray] took, and it’s a completely different one than 99.9% of the people have taken.
Don’t think for one second that I’m not greatly appreciative of that path. It’s so much different compared to most everybody who’s going in [to the 2018 WWE Hall Of Fame] and who been in. Like I’ve said, I don’t feel worthy of it, I’m just lucky that I was in the right place and the right time. I think [WWE] is throwing some bones out to some old WCW guys and making sure they’re taken care of, because back in the Monday Night Wars there was a huge competition going on. I think we helped set the stage for the Monday Night Wars, and WCW played a big part in it.
Like I said, I’m honored and privileged, and I don’t feel worthy, but at the end of the day it gives me an opportunity to go up and thank all of the people who made it happen. This is an accolade given to ‘Goldberg’ but the reality is there is a hell of a lot of people along the way that made it happen. If it wasn’t for those people I wouldn’t have the opportunity to accept this accolade by any means. I don’t know if there’s many characters that success could be predicated towards the people that built the character moreso than any other character out there. My success was dependent on the people that I was dancing with and making me look good, and there were a lot of professionals along the way that did one hell of a job, and I will forever be indebted to them.
Goldberg comments on how well his last WWE run was received:
It was all a dream come true and I was able to come back and try and vindicate the character in the WWE setting to the WWE fans. The first run was a bit tumultuous for many reasons, and to be able to come back 13 years removed, and to get an opportunity to get in front of the people who made you who you are and ask for their acceptance again—I’ll be honest, it was nerve-wracking. I assumed everybody was going to boo me. You have these impressions about what’s going to happen, but you never know. It’s a mystery, and thank God it went well. It was for all the right reasons; the character coming back at 50 years old had to have a chink in his armor because he was 50 years old. I’m not 285 [pounds] with veins on my traps anymore. The fact that my family was the storyline, which truly was the storyline in real life, was something that was needed. It was the truth; I was able to come back and be Bill for the first time. Whether that worked in the setting, I guess it did.
I’ll be forever grateful for guys like you [Bully Ray] and guys in the locker room—they didn’t have a choice but you welcomed me with open arms. At the end of the day we’re all a team. As good as we all do, you know, one person does well, we all do well. I’ve always been a big believer in that, and you’re only as good as your weakest link. I’m not going to admit I didn’t skip a beat; I came in and I was welcomed with open arms. For that, I’ll forever be indebted, for Vince [McMahon] to agreeing to bring me back, and Brock [Lesnar] to nudge him to do it. Again, right place, right time.
