Bill Goldberg is one of many who have made a career out of the pro wrestling business after originally setting out to have a life in the world of football.
During an interview with Memphis In May, the WWE Hall of Fame legend reflected on the toughest part of making the transition from football to pro wrestling.
“I think the hardest part, there were two very difficult things for me,” Goldberg began. “First and foremost, it was not to hurt people. Because you go from a sport that’s 100% full contact to more of a drama-filled kind of profession, right?”
He then went on to address the second difficult part about making the transition.
“The second thing was kind of blending with the existing wrestlers,” he continued. “Because- I’m coming in from a professional background trying to take the job of one of these guys who have aspired to do that their entire lives. For me, I was born in a football helmet, and I’ve wanted to be a football player my entire life, and I transitioned to wrestling because I had to retire from football because I got hurt. I had to figure out something first and foremost that I would be passionate about and that I could translate all the things I’ve been doing with my life and my body for the past 20 years prior, and it’s tough to enter a profession as an outsider. There was a lot of pressure on me, but the reality is I came from a sport where I got two guys that are 320 pounds trying to kill me at the same time. So for me, anything beyond the football field was easy.”
Bill Goldberg also spoke about the biggest obstacles in his career.
“The biggest obstacle I had when I was wrestling was a guy named The Big Show, Paul Wight, and he was the biggest obstacle because he was literally the biggest obstacle,” he said. “He was a 525 pound man who ultimately I had to beat in the ring, which meant that I had to pick him up and walk around the ring with 520 something pounds on me, and that was tough, but I enjoyed it, and to give you a little behind the scenes info, he hated being upside down. Obviously a man that size, it’s very rare that anybody could do that to him, but he had never been up in that move, and I tried to hold him up in the air as long as possible to where he would squeal and I’d let him down, right? So that was the only way that I could have any control over a guy that big. So he, no question, was my largest obstacle.”
Also during the interview, Gage Goldberg spoke about living in his father’s shadow.
“I mean, I’ve been having to deal with it my whole life,” Gage stated. “So I mean, I’ve just been overcoming it and just trying to do exactly what he’s been doing and live up to that legacy and then hopefully get over the shadow and become a better badass than he was.”
