Ex-World Champion Threatened To Leave WWE Because Of Goldberg

A former WWE World Champion wasn’t happy with how their match with Goldberg went down.

In late 2016, Goldberg kicked off a remarkable WWE comeback with a stunning win over Brock Lesnar at Survivor Series. The former WCW star had been out of the ring for 12 years, and during his time away from WWE, he’d been less than complimentary about the company.

What many thought would be a one-off quickly steamrolled into something much more, and Goldberg won the Universal Title in March 2017 before losing it to Lesnar a month later at WrestleMania. He followed that up with another loss to The Undertaker, so by the time SummerSlam 2019 rolled around, he needed to get some shine back.

This set up a match with Dolph Ziggler, but not everyone was happy with how it went down.

Dolph Ziggler Threatened To Quit WWE

During a new interview with Chris Van Vliet, Ziggler revealed that he tried to quit the company when the match was laid out. Far from playing a key role in building some tension or anticipation, Ziggler was destroyed in under two minutes. And that was only a compromise was reached.

“I assumed it would be two minutes of heat, but like me moving out of the way and him taking himself out to a turnbuckle and a couple moves for him, and then we go to finish. I was told no, ding, ding, Spear, Jackhammer.

I go, ‘If I can’t be in this match doing something, then I have to leave this company right now, and I am not kidding’. If this is purely for someone, a scarecrow, to take a spear and a jackhammer, I don’t want to work here.'”

Ziggler was eventually released by WWE in September 2023, while Goldberg officially retired following a defeat to Gunther at Saturday Night’s Main Event in July 2025.

H/t to Sportskeeda