Bill Goldberg’s in-ring wrestling career will come to an end tonight with one final match in a city that he knows too well: Atlanta, Georgia.
The former WCW champion was promised a retirement match by Vince McMahon when Goldberg agreed to take on Roman Reigns in Saudi Arabia several years ago, but that promise was never kept by McMahon and instead, the new WWE regime led by Triple H and Nick Khan made good on the promise, giving Goldberg one last ride.
Goldberg’s last match came in 2022 in Saudi, a defeat against Roman Reigns in a six-minute match at the Elimination Chamber. Prior to that, he wrestled three times in 2021, twice in 2020, twice in 2019, three times in 2017, and once in 2016, which was his return match after 12 years out.
Before returning in 2016, defeating Brock Lesnar in just 1 minute and 25 seconds at the Survivor Series, Goldberg’s last match was also a win against Brock Lesnar at WrestleMania XX, which had Steve Austin as the referee.
Goldberg had two title wins since his return, beating Kevin Owens at Fastlane in 2017, and then The Fiend at Super ShowDown in 2020. Both runs – with the WWE Universal title – lasted just a month each, losing the titles to Brock Lesnar and Braun Strowman respectively.
Tonight at Saturday Night’s Main Event, Goldberg has a chance to add the WWE World Heavyweight title to his collection, but standing in his way is the Austrian Gunther. The program between the two kicked off last October at Bad Blood but that was put on the back burner until Goldberg started intense training to get back into ring-shape for his final match.
