411Mania Exclusive Interview: Bill Goldberg
Posted by Damian Sarcuni on 11.15.2007
One on one with the pro-wrestling legend and MMA personality!
Bill Goldberg seems to achieve legendary status in all of his endeavors. A famous football star, former pro-wrestler, actor and commentating personality, there are few people out there who do not recognize the solitary name of "Goldberg". In recent years, the legend of the squared circle has taken on a whole new set of challenges and has already found some success. Not only is he known as one of the most outgoing members of the MMA media around, but he's also joined together with MMA veterans to form and become vice president of WAMMA, the World Alliance of Mixed Martial Arts. Through WAMMA, Goldberg hopes to form a unified sanctioning body for inter-promotional MMA championship bouts. A long time fan of mixed martial arts himself, Goldberg took the time out to go one on one with 411mania for an exclusive interview about his thoughts on the current MMA scene, his history with wrestling, and much more. Goldberg welcomed us with open arms and struck us as a very sincere individual with a true passion for the sport of mixed martial arts.
411Mania.com: We're with Bill Goldberg the pro-wrestling and MMA commentating legend, among other things, here at WAMMA, the World Alliance of Mixed Martial Arts. How are you doing today Bill?
Bill Goldberg: I'm doing great, doing great…ever since I took my jacket off anyway. I looked like a monkey in that thing!
411Mania: Hehe, well you've been involved with mixed martial arts for quite some time now, you've mentioned that you've known these guys for so long. Take me back very quickly, how did you first get involved with MMA?
Goldberg: I first got involved as a fan but it's hard to look back and really see how I FIRST got involved. I first got involved in martial arts through training in my junior year of high school. And I've been a fan of martial arts for a long time hence my ownership of the largest MMA school in the country back in 2000 or whatever it was in Atlanta. Now I'm involved in a Muay Thai school in Oceanside, California. I played pro football and a lot people look up to pro football players. I started being a fan of MMA, our paths crossed and we have a lot of like interests. I respect these guys to the utmost level because of what they do and the discipline to go out there and train in one art form let alone 20 art forms. There's the mentality to be a fighter, the discipline to be a fighter, and the ability to have the balls enough to step in the ring with somebody. Therefore they are idols of mine.
Not to mention the fact how they treat people in public and how they carry themselves in public which to me is more important than any talent anybody can have. I started to become friends with them…walk this guy to the ring, walk that guy to the ring…going to see guys to fight and visiting them after the fight is over with. We have a lot of mutual friends and mutual interests and hopefully they have a little admiration of what I did. I truly have a lot of admiration for what they do because my wrestling character was patterned after them for god's sakes! At least partially! I went out and spend thousands upon thousands of dollars during the onset of my wrestling career to get every MMA tape I could find. From Sambo to Capoeira to Jiu-Jitsu to every single thing I could find. I pulled old UWF tapes, old Pancrase tapes; I've studied these guys from top to bottom, and felt as if I learned a little bit about the guys at the same time.
Then I meet Pat Militech, then I meet Don Frye, then I meet a Gracie, I have dinner with Dan Severn the 29th of this month and Wesley "Cabbage" Correira is coming to my house on Friday! They're good guys man, and I like to train. As much as I respect them, I'm not afraid of them like many people are, so I can talk to them on a different level hence my interviews at Showtime now.
411Mania: Now that's something I wanted to ask you about. You are known as probably one of the most outspoken commentators and interviewers in the sport of MMA. Was that a planned thing? Where did that come from?
Goldberg: I'm being myself. I'm being somebody that people are afraid to be, which is themselves. I have a different perspective in that I come from a business that a lot of people look up to. These guys? Hell I met a lot of them through coming to my matches for god's sakes. Whether it is Tito Ortiz, or Quinton Jackson, Tim Sylvia, these guys are all wrestling fans. Don Frye and Josh Barnett are wrestlers in Japan, our paths crossed over there. For me it's an honor to know them and interview them, but first and foremost I can give the viewer something different than maybe Joe Rogan can. I love Joe to death and he's good at what he does, but I can talk to guys on a different level than Joe can. He may be able to go roll with them, but I'll trade blows with them! I'm not afraid to face anybody on the planet and I think they respect that and they understand the things that I have gone through and hopefully respect that and I think I can talk to them on a different level and give the public something they wouldn't get from another interview.
411Mania: But backstage and off camera you've never had any problems with anybody, being so outspoken? The fighters generally respond pretty well to it?
Goldberg: Absolutely. And you know what? At the end of the day, if they have a problem with me they know that they can come to me and talk to me about it. They know that I'm man enough to tell them how I feel. Nick Diaz had a problem with how we commentated his match against Mike Aina, about his performance. He never thinks he loses a fight period. He can't really give an objective opinion even when he watches the replay. And I wouldn't expect him to, because he's a winner. He tries to go out and he always thinks he's the best and you have to have that kind of attitude in a way. You have to take constructive criticism in a way also.
411Mania: On that note, what did you think of this past pay per view, Elite XC: Renegade?
Goldberg: I thought the past card was unbelievable. I thought it was great. KJ Noons showed everybody that he is worthy of being a champion, and he is able to get his ass off the canvas after a shocking knockout from Charles "Krazy Horse" Bennett. Antonio Silva went out and showed his dominance in the heavyweight division; Kimbo Slice made his debut in MMA, not in an exhibition match like against Ray Mercer. He's actually fought a guy now who has 20 fights under his belt, god knows how many backyard brawls under his belt. Granted the end result was a little one sided but at the end of the day all you can do as a promotion is try to put the best fights on for the people. Look at the Jake Shields/Mike Pyle fight. Shields got tagged in the beginning, and he showed his will to win and his determination by coming back and immediately taking the fight into his own hands and doing what he had to do to win. At the end of the day, all you can ask for is competitive fights. It's unfortunate that Kleinbeck got cut and they stopped that fight, but you could've stuff a golf ball in that cut!
At the end of the Diaz fight when I grabbed the mic, I saw people were throwing stuff in the ring, maybe I was thinking too much of myself or I felt I could take control of the situation, but by damn somebody needed to! And nobody needed to get hurt by a flying bottle or something, and it doesn't show respect for these guys who put everything aside and put themselves in harm's way for the public to critique. I think they understood; I like blood and guts like anybody else, that's what turned me on to this sport. Well, that and the art of what they really do. But first and foremost, they have to live to fight another day. It does no one any good whatsoever to have a fight go longer than it should, for the safety of the fighters.
411Mania: You had mentioned previously that the fighters have generally had a good reception to what you've done in pro-wrestling and your football career. Fans generally have not. There is a huge movement if you will, of some MMA fans who are not familiar with Pride FC or familiar with MMA's origins in pro-wrestling. How do you respond to that anti-wrestling sentiment?
Goldberg: Everybody has their own opinion. The #3 ranked heavyweight in the world right now, Josh Barnett, is a pro-wrestler. Don Frye, who was pretty much one of the building blocks for MMA is a pro-wrestler. They can deny it all they want because they think it takes away from the legitimacy of the sport, but the reality is, as far as putting asses in seats? I put 42,000 people in the Georgia dome in 3 days notice with Hulk Hogan, without it being publicized. So there is a value to that. There is a value to the entertainment level of what the Japanese Pride FC did.
Let's talk about what Pride did, let's talk about what K-1 did with their Dynamite shows. I haven't seen any MMA promoters in the United States put 100,000 people in a stadium. How did they do that? They did that by exciting the fans and putting on great fights. At the end of the day it is about great fights but if you can combine the two with a little pageantry and making people feel like it's the coolest place in the world to be then what's wrong with that? So I can understand and welcome the criticism from the fans for my involvement, but my intentions are not to legitimize professional wrestling. As we all know, every fan knows, I despise the pro-wrestling business. I absolutely despise it. Don't label me a professional wrestler because, guess what, I was a professional football player before I was a professional wrestler. I only took the professional wrestling on as a business move.
411Mania: Tell me a little bit about WAMMA. How did you get involved with it and what exactly are you guys hoping to ultimately achieve?
Goldberg: My involvement came from my ex head coach which is Kay Stevenson. Kay Stevenson is as respected a coach as there has ever been in the NFL. He's as respected a man as anybody out there that I know. I would go in moving traffic; I would run through a wall for Kay Stevenson. And if Kay Stevenson has a passion, I'm going to listen to it. If he has a cause, I'm going to listen to it. If he needs my help, and would like my help, and I feel strongly about it, then I'm going to jump on board. Did I know from the beginning it was going to be an uphill climb? Absolutely. Will I ever shy away from an uphill climb? Absolutely not.
Look who I have surrounded myself with. A couple guys aren't here, which are the integral parts which are Kay Stevenson and Fred Levin. Unfortunately they're at a time in their lives where they do not like to travel, period. So their absence here is not an indication of them wanting this to be an overnight success or to not be involved, or to not put themselves out there, absolutely not. It's the opposite on the contrary. They have a legitimate cause, they have a realistic goal, I believe, and they're not in it for their financial gain. Through sponsorship, I guess WAMMA gets paid a certain amount of money, but Fred Levin's got more money than…well, god. And that's not his motivating factor; he wants to make a difference.
I've been associated with wrestling for my short period of time; I don't want to make a difference in the wrestling world. I want to make a difference in MMA period. Because I love these guys to death, I'd go to war with them. They put everything on the line for public perception, so what's more honorable than that? If I can make a difference and further legitimize the sport, get it sanctioned in the 20-odd states that don't have it sanctioned, then I made a positive difference. At the end of the day, by putting a fight on with two of the best fighters in the world, hey, that's a pretty damn big accomplishment. As opposed to being attacked, the media ought to push for this. They ought to give us advice, because we're in it to listen to everybody. We're not in it to piss people off; we're not in it for an ulterior motive. We're in it for the betterment of the business, and everybody here is in it for that. So once people understand that, I think it'll be an easier river to cross.
411Mania: Just to touch on your pro-wrestling a bit, you were in the ring with all the top names in there. Out of curiosity, is there anyone aside from Brock Lesnar or Kurt Angle who wants to try it, that could, you feel, make the transition over to MMA were they to drop their wrestling career and take it on as a full time job?
Goldberg: It's tough now because so many people have invested their lives into being a pro-wrestler. If you were to take the pro-wrestling out of the equation, and if I met these people under different circumstances, absolutely. There are a number of guys who I think could have competed. Meng is first and foremost the guy that I think is like a Kimbo Slice in that he has the pain tolerance of a frickin' elephant. He's a ferocious gentleman. They still talk about the instance where it took 13 cops to get him out of a bar one night, when he was taken up for Ric Flair. He got maced, he got handcuffed, and he broke the handcuffs and laughed at the police!
411Mania: That about wraps it up for us Bill, thank you so much, it was a pleasure.
Goldberg: It was an honor. And you know what please support us because at the end of the day we're just trying to make the sport of MMA better. We're trying to take it out of the promoters friggin' hands to a certain extent. Whether it is pro-wrestling or boxing or MMA, they have a motive and I respect that, but there needs to be someone to govern it. Why not us?
