Ahead of his return to the ring this Sunday at WWE Royal Rumble, Golberg was interviewed on “After The Bell with Corey Graves” to talk about his upcoming match with Drew McIntyre, what he is doing to prepare, his thoughts on The Undertaker’s recent comments about the current state of the wrestling business, and more.
Here are some highlights from the interview:
Goldberg was asked: “How do you have to prepare for someone like Drew McIntyre?”
Goldberg answered: “In all honesty, my biggest issue is getting myself ready for anybody or getting myself ready for my own standards before I put my BVDs on and get back in the ring to wrestle with anybody. Now you take a Drew McIntyre into consideration, obviously, he is a different beast. He is a beast but he is extremely athletic at the same time. He can move. He’s fast. He’s nimble. He’s a good looking kid. He has every box checked off. I want to see if he has the intestinal fortitude to be able to take me down.”
“What do you have to do to prepare for a mega match like we are about to see on Sunday?”
“I don’t even know where to begin. It’s like shoving 50 pounds of crap into a 10 pound bag at 54 years old. If I didn’t think I could do it, if I couldn’t do it, then I wouldn’t be putting myself through all of this. The conundrum is at 54, your metabolism is not like it used to be. Your muscles don’t respond like they used to. You have a short period of time. You try to get as much done possibly in that short period of time that is humanly possible. My issue has always been gaining weight. To gain weight, it really cuts down on the amount of cardio you can do, so do I get in good shape, or do I look big? In three weeks or four weeks, it’s really difficult to do that, especially if you took a couple months off because of my shoulder or whatever. I’m not going to b**ch. I’m not going to moan. I’m not going to cry. I’m ecstatic to be in the position I’m in and it’s my job to come in and make sure that these kids are worthy of doing what they’re doing. I’m not only going to be answering the question for myself but I’m going to answer it for everybody else.”
Goldberg was asked if he shares Undertaker’s view that the business today is soft:
“Maybe so. When you hear the comments of me coming back and doing one or two matches a year and people are like, ‘He doesn’t deserve it. He doesn’t pay his dues. He was never on the road.’ People forget very quickly what all of us did back in the day to earn the spot that we’re in now. I’m one of the luckiest guys in the world, but yes, I believe comparatively the business is soft, but the business is in 2021 so things have to change and things have to be different. Mega Superstars that are bigger than life, it’s hard in this generation seemingly to build those people up. There are a couple people who have made it beyond relying upon the public to do that and they forced their way up and they’ve earned their shot and Drew McIntyre is one of them. I think mainly when I was talking to Drew in the beginning (On Monday Night Raw where he said Drew doesn’t have respect), I was speaking to the locker room. I was speaking to everybody and he’s the leader so you have to go to the leader and make sure that everything is taken care of in the right way. Like I said, times are quite different than they were back in the day. People are soft. People take offense to things way too quickly. Get a little thicker skin boys and girls. That’s all I can say. When legends came in when I was in the business, in the beginning, I was greatly appreciative of the eyes that they brought to our product. One day, those young kids are going to be in the position just like me and I hope that karma comes back to bite them in the a*s. That’s all I can say because at 54 years old, I don’t know one of them that can be doing what I’m doing.”
Goldberg talked about trying to keep his weight up to have the “Goldberg look”
“Right now I’m trying to put 10 to 15,000 calories down my throat a day. I eat two dozen eggs a day and that’s usually before the sun comes up at 1 o’clock in the morning after I train my second time and then the amount of shakes you eat during the day. I eat three or four steaks a day also. It’s one of those things. You find out what works for you and you do it repeatedly. Each and every time I get the call, I get back in that mode. It’s not hard to get into the Goldberg mode, it’s hard to get into the Goldberg physique so I’m busting my a*s and I’m doing what I do every single time. I have a short window but I will be more than ready and you can bet your a*s on that.”
If you use any portion of the quotes from this article please credit After The Bell with Corey Graves with a h/t to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription
