Gunther Breaks Silence On Retiring Goldberg
In a career-defining moment, Gunther successfully defended his World Heavyweight Championship against Bill Goldberg at WWE Saturday Night’s Main Event in Atlanta, Georgia.
The highly anticipated match marked the end of Goldberg’s legendary run in WWE, as the Hall of Famer stepped into the ring one last time in front of his hometown crowd.
The match was intense, physical, and longer than most fans expected, around 14:23 minutes. Gunther ultimately won the bout by submission, forcing the Hall of Famer to pass out as he locked in a tight chokehold, sealing both the win and Goldberg’s retirement in dramatic fashion.
Gunther Reflects on Retiring the Legendary Goldberg
Following the match, Gunther joined Sam Roberts and Megan Morant on Saturday Night’s Main Event Recap to share his thoughts on the monumental bout. The champion acknowledged that taking on Goldberg was no ordinary challenge, even for someone with his level of dominance.
“Yes, I agree to that (it was a task handling Goldberg), and I feel like that’s something about Goldberg in general. He’s not a Mount Rushmore wrestler of this business or anything. But him as a person, as a character, as a brand in this business… he’s a Hall of Famer already but a Mount Rushmore character, Mount Rushmore personality in this business.”
The reigning World heavyweight Champion emphasized that Da Man never needed technical finesse to succeed. His power, presence, and straightforward style, something Gunther himself relates to, made him a tough opponent for anyone. Despite expecting a short match, Gunther admitted Goldberg pushed him much harder than he anticipated.
“And that’s what made him just special, is he never needed to be a good technical wrestler, he never needed to have a lot of finesse. Everything he did — and it’s almost a little bit similar to what I do — he’s very straight to the point, he’s very straightforward.
“So that guy was not easy to handle for anybody he ever stepped in the ring with. So, I expected that. But, to be honest, today, it caught me by surprise. I was out there with him for 15 minutes or maybe a little bit longer. I don’t think anybody really expected that out of the match, and I expected it to be shorter, so that was a big surprise to me.”
The Ring General also gave credit to Goldberg’s intentions, saying the former champion returned for something deeper than just title glory.
“And so that being said, after it’s all said and done, I can pay my respects to him, to Bill Goldberg. He came back for the right reasons. To fight for what’s near and dear to him.”
“Obviously, it was for the World Heavyweight Championship, but I would say, going into that, you could tell it was about something way more personal than a championship so I gotta pay my respect to him.” [H/T Fightful]
With this victory, Gunther not only solidified his place as the most dominant World Heavyweight Champion in recent memory, but also closed the book on one of wrestling’s most polarizing careers.