Speaking on Insight with Chris Van Vliet, Nic Nemeth recounted the backstage battle he fought over his SummerSlam 2019 match against Goldberg. The former World Heavyweight Champion revealed that the original plan was for an immediate squash, a plan he was so against that he threatened to quit the company on the spot.
“I was told no, ding, ding, ding, spear, jackhammer,” Nemeth said of the initial pitch. “I said, ‘Vince, why am I in this match when anybody could take a spear and a jackhammer?’ I go, ‘If I can’t be in this match doing something, then I have to leave this company right now.’ If this is purely for a scarecrow to take a spear and a jackhammer, I don’t want to work here.”
Nemeth argued that the match needed some back-and-forth to build drama for the live crowd. “I’m fighting. I’m like, it should be something. I should kick him. I should hit him with my finish. I should do something,” he recalled pitching. “There should be something other than a bell, because then there’s no little ride.”
The SummerSlam 2019 match ultimately played out with Nemeth getting in his two superkicks before being decisively defeated by Goldberg. Instead of leaving as planned, Nemeth remained with WWE for another four years before his eventual release in September 2023.
A compromise was eventually reached. “Finally it was a superkick on the bell, get a false out of it. Superkick him again, and then get broken in half. And I go, ‘Yeah, okay, that’s something, at least,’” he said. Nemeth also made the surprising revelation that the match was supposed to be part of his exit from the company. “I was pitched the idea to go with Goldberg because I was going to leave the company… I’ll lose there to Mike [The Miz], and then I was out of the company and on a handshake deal, I was out. And that day I was told that I would not be allowed to be out.”
If you use any portion of the quotes from this article, please credit Insight with Chris Van Vliet with an h/t to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription.
