Former WWE and WCW Champion Bill Goldberg recently appeared on SB Nation’s Submission Radio, and the following are some highlights:

Almost going to WWF instead of WCW:

“I approached WCW, well they approached me a number of times, and then I actually called Jim Ross and I had a meeting with Vince McMahon. I did not like that meeting with Vince McMahon. The next day I called Eric Bishoff and I said “listen, you know I’m going to make a decision here and the World Wrestling Federation has a contract on the table for me and that’s not where I want to be”. So push came to shove, I told him; I remember the quote like it was yesterday, I said “I’m not going to be one of those 500 dollar a week throw-around-the ring dudes. I’m gonna come in and make a difference.”

Not being used right in his run with the WWE, being told not to use his Spear finisher and what it felt like being there:

“I mean let’s be honest, let’s look at it right now. Let’s look at it in real time. You know wrestling moves are hollowed entities. You know, you don’t take moves from other people. Now when I was at the WWE and they wanted people to start spearing people and they wanted me, they actually had the nerve to ask me to stop spearing people. And now you look at the company and it’s the set up move for, I don’t know, 40 percent of the guys, girls included you know, part of the McMahon family for god’s sake. So I don’t believe that they took that from me or chose to use that because it was a great move. I think they wanted to water down my legacy. So looking at that from today’s stand point and then looking back at how they used me, with me being one of the guys that was kicking their ass in the Monday Night Wars, and being on the other side, and me telling Vince ‘no’ in the beginning and going to the opposing team, and then when he buys them out then I’m acquired; you know It was just a totally different deal. I wasn’t the product of Vince McMahon. At the end of the day they may be the best business entity in the wrestling business, but they’re not the end all. Because of their ego, they forwent a bunch of opportunities that we could have made a lot of money in. And lets be honest, I mean I beat Brock Lesnar in my last match and if I had any desire to stay there whatsoever, if there was any type of a positive, I would have stayed. But it wasn’t. So it just was a negative part of my life. I just didn’t enjoy being there.”

Thoughts on his match with Brock Lesnar at WrestleMania 20 and if he enjoyed the experience:

“Oh hell no, I was miserable. I try to repress it. He and I both – the reality was it could have been one of the biggest matches in their history if done properly, but nobody cared. Nobody cared. And since they didn’t care, I mean when I looked across the ring at him he didn’t care, I didn’t care. We just wanted to go, and that was a shame. They could have made a lot of money in it, but they didn’t. So it was a…I feel really bad about it for the fans, but they s–t on it too. I mean they could have not done what they did and we would have probably had a much better match, ’cause we wouldn’t have been as pissed off. I thought he was gonna try to kill me and I wanted to kill him at the same time, but for real. Because we were so mad at what was going on, we just didn’t have anything else to do but beat on each other. And we’re good friends, I love Brock to death. He’s one of my best friends in the business and…..let me rephrase that……he’s one of my only friends in the business, and you know it was a shame. You had two absolute physical monsters with great characters going against each other and it turned out to be a s–t-fest.”

If Goldberg believes Brock Lesnar would go back to the UFC and have another successful run:

“I think so. I think if Brock….you know I haven’t trained with Brock. I don’t know exactly what he does, but if I were him I’d spend 75 percent of my time on stand up. I believe that if he does it properly he can go back and dominate, but if he doesn’t do it properly he’ll go back and the same thing will happen, you know [as] towards the end of his tenure. It’s all about growing. It’s all about being able to look at yourself in the mirror and look at your deficiencies, and be man enough, and be egoless to go out and put yourself in negative situations in training so that you could learn.”

If he thinks CM Punk could be successful in the UFC:

“Oh yeah. I mean I think anybody can be successful if they take the proper route prior to stepping in that cage. I wanted to talk to Royce [Gracie] a lot about CM [Punk] because I’m not going to pass judgement on anyone until I know 100 percent of their background, until I watch what they’re doing. I want to see what his stand up’s like. You know I think it was a great PR move for the UFC. It’s no secret that I’m a huge fan of Pride fighting over the UFC hands down, because of the entertainment factor. At the end, I think the biggest difference between Pride and the UFC is the pageantry of Pride, the over the top pageantry of it; the ability to watch kind of like the ‘Street Fighter’ mentality of a very unique individual versus someone who’s completely the polar opposite of them. They still have match ups like the original UFC; Gracie and Akibono, you know Hong Man Choi and Jose Conseco. You know as ridiculous as those fights are, and as unprepared and unqualified as some of these people are, it’s huge entertainment. And if they’re willing to go in and do it, then I’m willing to pay for it. And I’ve been in the audience and I was in the commentating booth at two of those events and they’re unbelievable. I had a great time there, and you know the fans are wonderful. It’s just the pageantry. I guess it all boils down to, at the end of the day it’s the fact that you’re not watching two guys that are almost very similar to each other. If you’re in MMA these days you’d be an absolute moron not to train equally in all disciplines, but for me that makes everybody look the same. So I honestly don’t enjoy it nearly as much as I used to, and it doesn’t even hold a candle to it. But at the same time – and I expressed this yesterday on the air somewhere – that doesn’t mean that I don’t respect or admire the ability of these new age fighters.”

Big Show using the spear in the WWE and the worst spear he’s ever seen by another wrestler:

“You’re kidding. Is he? Oh my god. Just pardon me for a second, I’m gonna throw up. In all honesty I don’t watch these guys. I don’t watch wrestling, I don’t watch these guys spear people. I can’t do it. I can’t answer that because I don’t see other guys doing it.”

Who’s idea it was for Goldberg to punch in the limo window on Thunder that injured him for 5 months:

“Mine. It was a pure act of set of rage. That’s all It was. I got in a confrontation with Scott Hall earlier in the night. I wanted to rip his head from his body and I took it upon myself to do something absolutely ignorant and go on the fly and try and be superman, and I unfortunately got hurt throughout the process. And you know it’s all good. I only came within a centimetre of losing the use of my arm, but it was the highest rated segment on network television.”

If there’s any chance of one last run in the WWE:

“Hey, if they want to do business and do it right, I’m more than willing to listen. If they want to continue to do what they’ve done with me in the past. I’d rather dig a ditch.”

I'd love to see Goldberg again in the WWE.

Very reasonable about Punk

And his "they wanted to water down my legacy" is a little off base in my opinion. A lot of people do the spear because it's really fucking easy to do.