Goldberg was ‘disgusted’ by Rihanna’s performance at the Super Bowl

On the latest episode of the CarCast podcast, host Matt D’Andria and wrestling legend Bill Goldberg discussed their thoughts on this past weekend’s Super Bowl LVII, where Rihanna performed as the musical star during the halftime show.

It turns out that Goldberg was disgusted by the whole thing. Here’s their conversation about it:

Goldberg: “So now we’ll talk about entertainment. I thought Rihanna was freakin’ horrible. I mean, I was disgusted by it. That’s all. Let’s just say that.”

D’Andria: “I don’t know, it just seemed kind of boring.”

Goldberg: “That’s the understatement of the year, man. I thought it was horrible.”

D’Andria: “I’m not a country music fan either, but Chris Stapleton singing that national anthem was on point. That dude was good.”

Goldberg: “Well he didn’t grab his crotch every 15 seconds...he was good.”

D’Andria: “He just had a great, well done, well-prepared, just great rendition of that song. Without making it super over the top, and hanging out the note, and without doing it like...”

Goldberg: “Without making it about them. That’s all. Just performing it in a really good way. Period, end of story. Doing their job to the fullest.”

It’s one thing to dislike a musical performance, but “disgusted” is a strong word to use here.

WWE star MVP happened to tweet about this particular pattern of behavior that he has observed:

MVP later clarified that he was not aware of Goldberg’s criticism of Rihanna when he sent out those tweets:

On the surface, one can certainly take Goldberg’s words at face value and assume he was grossed out by some of the physical acts he witnessed during the Super Bowl halftime show. He’s entitled to share his opinion on behaviors that are a turn-off to him, and podcasts are a platform for expressing opinions like that.

It’s also easy to conclude that he might just be an out of touch old man who is more likely to reject artists who are not of his time. That’s a very common thing, of course.

Speaking from my own experience as a white man, I’ve witnessed similar remarks from other white men where their intense rejection of what they are seeing is borne out of racism, sexism, and/or misogyny. And I’d bet those are the kinds of personal experiences that are on MVP’s mind when he’s reacting to people who use words like “disgusting” or “offensive” to characterize Rihanna’s performance. There aren’t too many famous people who embody racism, sexism, misogyny, and ignorance quite like Donald Trump does, after all, and he’s the example that MVP is going with here as he’s trying to point out the hypocrisy.

What’s your reaction to what Goldberg and MVP had to say about Rihanna, Cagesiders?