Journalist Ariel Helwani appeared on Busted Open to discuss his viral interview with Bill Goldberg, admitting he was surprised by the WWE Hall of Famer’s negative tone just days after his retirement match. Helwani, who conducted the interview, told Dave LaGreca and Tommy Dreamer that he went into the conversation with different expectations.
“I will be 1,000% honest with you. I was not expecting that,” Helwani said. “I got the sense maybe that because the post-match interview got cut off, that maybe he was a little perturbed. But I didn’t think that that would cloud the entire thing, because I do agree with you, it’s very rare… to get an opportunity like that.” Helwani praised the presentation of Goldberg’s sendoff, citing the walkout with figures from his past like Doug Dellinger and Josh Barnett as an “amazing touch.”
Defending Goldberg’s Feelings
While acknowledging that the sendoff seemed great from an outsider’s perspective, Helwani defended Goldberg’s right to his own feelings and offered a personal story to empathize with him. “I sort of, I get it,” Helwani explained, comparing it to his own “awful experience” at his dream job with ESPN. “To us, we could sit around and be like, ‘you know why you got it? Go shut up’… And he’s like, ‘No, I had other plans.’… I have a hard time telling someone how he should feel.”
Helwani also noted that Goldberg may have been dealing with other personal issues. “He mentioned his father-in-law passed away a week ago,” he said. “Maybe he’s still dealing with that… he’s going through some stuff and I have a hard time faulting him for feeling that way.”
Is It All A Work?
Helwani also floated the possibility that Goldberg’s apparent unhappiness could be part of a work. “I will say at one point I was like, ‘Is he working me right now? Is this like, part of the story that he’s upset?'” Helwani wondered aloud. “Maybe he does pop up in two weeks on AEW and say ‘these guys screwed me’ and all that stuff, you know, where workers work, so who knows? I’m not putting that one past them either.”
Ariel Helwani is one of the most prominent journalists in combat sports and has made several on-screen appearances for WWE. He hosts The MMA Hour and recently launched the sports media site Uncrowned in partnership with Yahoo Sports. Listen to the entire Busted Open podcast by clicking below.
If you use any portion of the quotes from this article please credit Busted Open Radio with a h/t to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription.
