Goldberg On Why He Thinks WWE Signed Him In 2003, Past Heat With Triple H

WWE Hall Of Famer Goldberg was a guest on The Broken Skull Sessions with WWE Hall Of Famer 'Stone Cold' Steve Austin this week. Among many other things, Goldberg talked about his WWE run in 2003. Goldberg noted that his transition to WWE was difficult and that he had longstanding heat with Triple H.

"I was the enemy and I came in," Goldberg said of his mindset when debuting for WWE in 2003. "'Here are all these guys that I've been saying bad things about and trying to beat, kick their ass, move for move, segment for segment, and now I'm one of them? Boy, this is going to go over well.

"Oh, and by the way, Hunter 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 s–t, talk about putting myself on an island. I didn't do [anything] but make it worse in the beginning. But it's tough because people can't empathize with you unless they've been in your situation. And as great as a situation is or was, I was still at the mercy of the next person who was giving me advice."

Goldberg also discussed his poorly received match against WWE Champion Brock Lesnar at WrestleMania 20. Goldberg said he was afraid that Lesnar was going to take out the negative crowd reaction on him.

"Vince just hated me a little less than he did [Lesnar]," Goldberg laughed. "I thought Brock was going to kill me because he was so mad at everybody else! I thought he was going to take it out on me. I'm like, 'what? Where am I? What's going on?'"

Goldberg admitted that his WWE run bothered him for a long time and he had a figurative axe to grind against WWE.

"It did not sit well with me for a long period time," Goldberg acknowledged. "I had nothing but animosity towards the WWE and anybody and everybody associated with it. I mean, I had my friends that were kind of excluded from that, but it was just a really bad taste in my mouth. And I spent the whole year there being defensive and it translated as offensive."

Interestingly, Goldberg claimed that WWE brought him in just to undermine his WCW run and bolster Austin's top position.

"Well, it felt like they accomplished what they wanted to accomplish with me through the years, which is completely discount what I gained here till that and then have me next to [Austin] and have me fail miserably," Goldberg said. "And have [Austin] be the king."

Goldberg, who was famously very hard on himself during his preparations for his Survivor Series match versus Brock Lesnar, confirmed that he is a pessimist because he is always trying to push himself to be the best.  

"Absolutely, that makes you who you are," Goldberg declared. "You're only as good as your next performance. Living in yesterday and all that s–t is for people who don't strive to be the best. I'm only as good as I strive to be in the next five minutes."

To watch this episode of The Broken Skull Sessions, subscribe to the WWE Network. If you use any of the quotes from this article, please credit The Broken Skull Sessions with an H/T to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.