The Story So Far: Goldberg Vs. GUNTHER At WWE Saturday Night's Main Event

Goldberg will enter "WWE Saturday Night's Main Event" with his decades-spanning career functionally on the line, wrestling WWE World Heavyweight Champion GUNTHER in what has been treated as his final bout. However, Goldberg himself noted that things could get a little more interesting should he manage to dethrone the "Ring General," who will be making his first defense since wresting the title back from Jey Uso on the June 9 episode of "WWE Raw." 

This will be Goldberg's first bout in three years — having last challenged Roman Reigns for the Universal Championship at Elimination Chamber, losing via referee's decision — and his 13th bout since returning to the ring in 2016. Seven of those matches had a world title on the line, with Goldberg winning and losing the Universal title on two occasions before challenging unsuccessfully for the WWE and Universal Championships twice and once respectively. However, this will be the first time that GUNTHER and Goldberg will step in the ring with one another, with the reigning champion boasting a near-decade-long record with the company and only five losses via pinfall or submission, and also up until this stage never having had a title reign that didn't hit triple digits.

The stage is set for Goldberg to either go out on his sword or collect a fourth WWE world title reign, while GUNTHER will be looking to make a statement by snuffing the flame of a monster from a by-gone era. With that in mind, let's take a look at the tale that led us to this point — the story of Goldberg vs. GUNTHER so far.

Having spent the years since his loss to Roman Reigns making it clear he wanted his career swan song in WWE, Goldberg and his son, Gage, were in attendance for Bad Blood 2024 in their hometown of Atlanta. That came into play during the event, with CCO Paul "Triple H" Levesque coming down to the ring to announce the Champion vs. Champion bouts for the Crown Jewel Championships at the namesake event in Saudi Arabia. With the announcement pitting him against WWE Champion Cody Rhodes, who would be in action later on, GUNTHER then came down to the ring to cut a promo touting his confidence in beating his counterpart. 

GUNTHER spotted Goldberg in the crowd, shifting his attention to slamming Goldberg for his parenting and prompting the veteran to jump the guardrail and confront him in the ring. Officials separated them as GUNTHER was then attacked by Sami Zayn, with Goldberg closing the segment with his signature warning, "You're next!"

After months of training and injury setbacks, Goldberg finally emerged on the June 16 episode of "WWE Raw" to confront and formally challenge GUNTHER for the World Heavyweight Championship he had pried from Uso the week before. The match was then announced for "Saturday Night's Main Event," emanating from Atlanta, on July 12. GUNTHER has since proclaimed his intent to quash the legend of Goldberg and demonstrate that his time has passed before himself asking, "Who's next?" After he called out Goldberg on the July 7 episode of "Raw," however, the living legend showed up in person to run the champion out of the ring, with GUNTHER only just managing to roll to the outside before Goldberg could hit his signature Spear. If he connects with that move on Saturday, Goldberg might find he has another match or two in him after all.