Ariel Helwani didn’t expect drama when he sat down to interview Bill Goldberg, but what he got instead has fans questioning whether Goldberg’s WWE retirement is as final as it seemed. Speaking on Busted Open Radio, Helwani admitted he was caught off guard by Goldberg’s mood in their conversation. “I will be 1,000% honest with you. I was not expecting that,” he said. “I got the sense maybe that because the post-match interview got cut off, that maybe he was a little perturbed.”
Goldberg’s dissatisfaction came as a surprise to Helwani, especially given how elaborate the sendoff was. “It’s very rare to get an opportunity like that,” he noted. Ariel even complimented the overall production, saying that the involvement of familiar faces like Doug Dellinger and Josh Barnett was “an amazing touch.”
But even with that polished farewell, Helwani wasn’t quick to dismiss Goldberg’s feelings. He referenced a past experience of his own working at ESPN, where a dream job turned out to be “awful.” Drawing a parallel, he said, “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.”
Ariel also pointed to something personal that could have affected Goldberg’s mindset. “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.”
Helwani also mentioned the possibility that Goldberg was working an angle. “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?’” he 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.”
Also Read: Top WWE Official Reacts To Goldberg’s Comments About Retirement Speech Being Cut Off
