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Bill Goldberg still hates Vince McMahon, may wrestle soon in Africa

Bill Goldberg's return to wrestling is one of the stranger stories of the year so far.  Photo via Damian Morys on Flickr.

Bill Goldberg has quietly bounced back into the wrestling news over the past week.  We now know what the hell he was talking about when he teased that he would probably be wrestling again before the end of 2011.  Though TNA may have courted him earlier this year, he isn't returning for that cash strapped outfit, nor for WWE who he left on bad terms with over seven years ago.  No, as f4wonline.com reported on Saturday, he's scheduled to appear for an ambitious tour of the Democratic Republic of the Congo organised by a new promotion called USA To Africa Pro Wrestling Mission.  Though no opponent has been announced yet, he is being advertised to come out of retirement on the biggest show of the tour entitled "Rumble in the Jungle II" in the 120,000 seat Martyrs Stadium, Kinshasa on October 12th.  As you may have guessed, the theme of the show is to pay homage to and recreate some of the magic of the first Rumble in the Jungle between Muhammad Ali and George Foreman, arguably the most legendary match in boxing history, on close to its 37th anniversary.  Fitting that theme Foreman, Laila Ali and Jean Claude Van Damme will also be at the event, which will be made available at some point on PPV, DVD and even a feature film release might be made.

If this tour doesn't sound like a financially viable proposition via the usual revenue streams, then there is good reason for that.  According to Dave Meltzer in his latest Wrestling Observer Newsletter the show is being bankrolled by the DRC's government, something that President Joseph Kabila hopes will help him get re-elected in November.  This sounds like a more shameless version of the cheap ticket fan appreciation super show ran by WWE in Hartford, Connecticut last year, just three days before Linda McMahon's election.  The tour is being organised by Rick Bassman, best known for being instrumental in starting the careers of Sting and the Ultimate Warrior in the mid 1980s, and running the California independent promotion UPW that had a loose affiliation with WWE in the early 2000s, which was where WWE talent scouts first discovered John Cena.  So at least it's being ran by someone with a good reputation and lots of varied experience within the wrestling business.

That said, if I was Goldberg, I'd ask to be paid upfront.  There are numerous horror stories over the years of overseas independent wrestling tours, particularly in Africa, that sounded too good to be true and ended in a complete shambles.  Indeed, just last week, former WWE stars Luke Gallows, Val Venis and Cliff "Domino" Comption were on a tour of Nigeria while the country was bombed by terrorists.  If that wasn't bad enough, the promoter did a runner and left them to pay the hotel bill themselves, leaving them each many hundreds of dollars out of pocket.

Goldberg also raised a few eyebrows with his outspoken comments about Vince McMahon when he was recently interviewed by Fox 23 Tulsa News, a video of which is included after the jump, while he was in town to host a post MMA show after party:

Star-divide

"I can't really say anything positive about the man.  It's like working for a carny.  It's like working for a carny who is driven only by his ego.  Business is out of the window as evidenced by what he did with my character.  So I don't have a positive thing to say about that guy."

Outside of the infamous angle where Goldberg wore Goldust's wig, which was the height of arrogance and incompetence by Raw script writer Bryan Gewirtz, his character wasn't really handled all that badly by WWE.  It was just that his character didn't fit WWE's rigid template of how a babyface headliner should perform and Triple H, thinking he knew better, wasn't going to change his pat match formula to play to Goldberg's strengths.  This is quite the about turn, as just under 18 months ago Goldberg seemed to have cast his bitterness aside and was contemplating working for WWE under some sort of legend's deal.  However, those negotiations quickly souring and Triple H with his good friend Shawn Michaels publicly dissing the idea of Goldberg being inducted into the WWE Hall Of Fame at WrestleMania 27 in Atlanta, Georgia, even though that idea had been considered at one point by the company, probably reminded Goldberg of why he grew to hate Vince in the first place.

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Never did like Goldberg

Didn’t like one single aspect of him, then or now. And whether or not anything he says about Vince is true, this definitely is true: Vince worked for what he has, Goldberg had his wrestling career handed to him. And as a Thank You, he ended Bret Hart’s career, because Goldberg was an incompetent wrestler.

Release...the KITTIES!

by GoForthAndDie on Sep 6, 2011 6:23 PM EDT reply actions  

To be fair to Goldberg, I think WCW’s even more incompetent management were more to blame for prematurely ending Bret’s career by allowing him to wrestle for three weeks with a very serious concussion. Instead of suffering one concussion, Bret suffered several in quick succession each one worse than the last.

by Keith Harris on Sep 6, 2011 9:54 PM EDT up reply actions  

Yeah being in a hardcore match with a concussion is no bueno

Freedom is a road seldom traveled by the multitudes...

by Major on Sep 6, 2011 11:25 PM EDT up reply actions  

I offer a compromise

WCW is to blame for allowing an incompetent/improperly trained oaf aid in the premature ending of Hart’s career.

Release...the KITTIES!

by GoForthAndDie on Sep 6, 2011 11:54 PM EDT up reply actions  

I’m baffled by Goldberg to be honest. WCW closed in 2001 and Goldberg knew if he ever wanted to wrestle again that the WWF was the only place to go. The WWF main eventers worked longer matches, Goldberg had two years before his WWF debut to get himself into shape and into the kind of work rate that wouldn’t be exposed in the WWF. Did he do that? did Goldberg put the work in? NO! WWF was about great main events not 10 minute ppv main events that Goldberg needed to cover his lame skills.

As far as Goldberg’s character goes, he was put over clean by Rock, HHH, Orton, Batista, Kane, Jericho, Christian and more. He was allowed to destroy quality mid card talent in less than a minute, he dominated the elimination chamber match, I mean I could go on and on. Goldberg just thought he deserved more. He thought he was gonna come in WWF and beat Austin, Rock, HHH, Undertaker and Lesnar clean because he’s Goldberg. Never gonna happen. To this day I think it was a mistake to have Rock beat Austin at Mania then let Goldberg kill him at Backlash. Goldberg, IMO, never deserved that spot.

Freedom is a road seldom traveled by the multitudes...

by Major on Sep 6, 2011 6:32 PM EDT reply actions  

Rock was never a mark for himself. He’ll probably put over Cena too

Freedom is a road seldom traveled by the multitudes...

by Major on Sep 6, 2011 8:19 PM EDT up reply actions  

Aw hell, I like Goldberg

He has that intensity that you just can’t teach.

Major is right, though. Wig thing aside, Goldberg got put over strong and if he thought he’d be going over Austin/Taker just because of his WCW run, he was nuts.

by Razztopia on Sep 6, 2011 6:48 PM EDT reply actions  

For someone who is pretty crappy in basically all aspects of the wrestling business, he had a pretty big mouth

I’ll admit, when Goldberg debuted and went undefeated for so long, I liked him. I was also an impressionable ten year old. When I think of “manufactured” wrestling stars, Goldberg is the first one that comes to mind.

"Blinding ignorance does mislead us. O! Wretched mortals, open your eyes!" Gil Hodges IS a Hall of Famer.

AA Gamethread Embiggening Record Holder- 458 posts (08/24/11)
3rd Place- 2011 AAOP Contest

by Brooklyn Dodgers Mets Fan on Sep 6, 2011 6:54 PM EDT reply actions  

Good luck to Goldberg in Africa.

Comeback to the U.S. alive and in good health. I wouldn’t mind seeing a return from him, but it looks like he burned that bridge or HHH and Michaels did.

by E-ROC on Sep 6, 2011 7:08 PM EDT reply actions  

Ask Steve Blackman about the joys of wrestling in Africa

It is not enough to succeed. Others must fail.

by Jesse Holland on Sep 6, 2011 7:34 PM EDT up reply actions  

Who cares

Goldberg is old and hasn’t wrestled in how many years? WCW basically had him destroy everybody he got in the ring with. They didn’t really give him any time to put on an actual match which is why Regal had to show him how to wrestle which wasn’t suppose to happen. If anyone knows. If Goldberg wants to wrestle again, fine but it’s not something that’s worth getting hyped about. Besides WWE is basically being ran like WCW but instead of guys like Hogan and Nash in the bosses ear to basically control who gets pushed, it’s douche bags like HHH , John Laurinaitis that do so. Sure they aren’t ran by a corporate company like CNN who has no fucking clue how to run a wrestling business but that’s because WWE is it’s own corporation filled with ignorance. They’d rather keep Michael Cole who is nothing more than a contradicting commentator rather than go back to what works. If you’re not good with HHH, his wife or any other bitches who agree with anything they do, they you aren’t going anywhere and even if you do, it’ll be for a short ride. It’s only a matter of time before we see another 3 hour Raw. Sound familiar? If WWE is being run like WCW was then what’s TNA suppose to be? An extension of WCW but alot worst. They’ve got Russo who still thinks he knows how to book matches. Then you have the incompetent Dixie Carter who knows shit about how to run a company. She’d rather keeps sluts like Velvet Sky who has done ABSOLUTELY NOTHING EXCEPT SHOW HER ASS AND HOW BIG HER FUCKING TITS ARE TO PERVERTS. Miss Titsmacher who they literally picked up at a Hooters. Karen who is only there because she hoed herself out and is married to Jeff. Another thing that sounds pretty familiar They haven’t done any fucking thing with Joe the entire year or really anything last year except for recently. They put the TNA title on wrestlers who are either way to old to be a champion or are still having personal problems. Mr Anderson is already a two time champion which mentioned before but still, it was only for a month. A month! How many times did they have him defend it each time. Winter aka Katie Lea is one of the less than handfuls that can wrestle and she already had to give her title up to a Hardcore County Whore Mickie. I’ve lost so much respect for her. They aren’t doing anything with Sarita. Rosita looks like she’s fucking 12. They took the belts off Beer Money for what? To give to Hernandez and Chavo’s twin. They aren’t really doing shit with either Daniels or AJ. It’s like are you that fucking stupid? Meanwhile actual wrestlers have to bust their ass on the Indy scene just to make it. But it’s good because it shows that money can’t control everybody.

by congestedthoughts on Sep 6, 2011 8:47 PM EDT reply actions  

Wow

You unloaded

It is not enough to succeed. Others must fail.

by Jesse Holland on Sep 6, 2011 10:24 PM EDT up reply actions  

I know what you mean and he did however, I’m gonna take this opportunity to pause the specific words you used.

Freedom is a road seldom traveled by the multitudes...

by Major on Sep 6, 2011 11:28 PM EDT up reply actions  

Don't talk bad about Velvet Sky's ass, yo

It’s glorious.

"Blinding ignorance does mislead us. O! Wretched mortals, open your eyes!" Gil Hodges IS a Hall of Famer.

AA Gamethread Embiggening Record Holder- 458 posts (08/24/11)
3rd Place- 2011 AAOP Contest

by Brooklyn Dodgers Mets Fan on Sep 7, 2011 1:43 AM EDT via mobile up reply actions  

i know your username is congestedthoughts and all

but seriously, hit enter every now and then when typing this kind of thing out

"In fact, most of these free-swinging Padres couldn’t hit Dock’s funky palm ball. I threw it often. But by then, also, the first acid distractions entered: the TV flickered; the cracks in the wall started to move; the hand soap started to breathe — those sorts of things. Plus I was drawn to the outdoor garden between innings. Rain was near, I sensed." - A.J. Daulerio

by Gdawg on Sep 7, 2011 10:58 AM EDT up reply actions  

wrestling fans are dumb

How do you like wrestling in 2011? I think it sucks ass. Fact is everyone knows if goldberg came back he would mop the floor with everyone in this gay ass era. All you haters and your weak excuses for why he sucks is fuckin lame. Goldberg is smart he tells you he hates wrestling because its full of fuckin fools and dumbasses like all of you , shit if i was goldberg i wouldnt wanna be around a bunch of brainless fuckin zombies who eat and sleep wrestling. WCW will always be remembered as the company that kicked vinces ass, and oh yeah half the stars in wwe now are from fuckin wcw, oh but goldberg sucks and they dont yall are fuckin pathetic.

by goldbergbeatvinceWCW on Oct 9, 2011 11:39 PM EDT reply actions  

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