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There is no doubt that the WWE Hall of Famer is one of the most convincing personalities that the wrestling industry has had in the last 25 years, whether you like Goldberg's intimidating persona or not. 

The former NFL star created an incredible winning streak in WCW after leaving the football field for the square circle in 1997 (173 consecutive wins, but the number is considered to be inflated) and went on to become a WCW Triple, Crown Winner. 

In 2003-2004, Goldberg had a frustrating one-year stint in WWE, resulting in a victory over Brock Lesnar at WrestleMania XX. Twelve years later, at Survivor Series 2016, the WCW legend made his comeback, where he beat Lesnar again in a contest that lasted only 86 seconds. 

Since then, due to wins over Kevin Owens in 2017 and "The Fiend" Bray Wyatt in 2020, Goldberg has been a two-time WWE World Champion, and he earned his induction In 2018 at the WWE Hall of Fame. 

Goldberg has faced a variety of opponents throughout his wrestling career, a man who often divides opinions, but he has not always seen some of his colleagues eye-to-eye. Today, let's look at three WWE superstars Goldberg wanted to work with as well as at three celebrities he didn't ask for work with.

  

With Roman Reigns, Goldberg decided to work

Although there were exceptions, especially Kurt Angle, a Hall of Fame induction typically marks the end of the in-ring career of a Superstar, so it was fair to say at that stage that Goldberg was unlikely to make another return.
Interestingly, about this time, Goldberg told Chris Van Vliet that he would like to face Roman Reigns should he ever return to WWE as an in-ring participant.

Roman Reigns would have to be the guy. There’s no question about it. I like him and everything, all the comparisons throughout the years… how people can compare us through the years, we’re two completely different people.

In 2019, Goldberg returned to the ring against The Undertaker and he was due to face Reigns at WrestleMania 36 in 2020 when "The Big Dog" pulled out of the event.

Goldberg wasn't interested in working with Gillberg

It was not unusual for WWE and WCW in the 1990s to try to dig at each other every week. By the end of the decade, they began their own WCW Goldberg version ... Gillberg! Gillberg!, WWE brought teasing to an entirely new degree. Duane Gill, the guy behind the comedy persona, worked as an enhancement talent from 1990-1998 for WWE.
He also made fun of different wrestlers at that period by impersonating them on the independent circuit, including The Undertaker ('Underfaker'), Steve Austin ('Stone Old Steve Austin'), 'Stone Cold' and, of course, Goldberg ('Gillberg').
Gill started to represent WCW's biggest star on television when WWE's higher-ups learned about the Gillberg character, and even retained the WWE Light Heavyweight Title for a record-setting 448 days.
Jump forward to 2020, and Gill disclosed in an interview with Lewis Nicholls that when they met at a conference in New York in 2016, he "begged" Goldberg to actually face him in a one-on-one fight. Yet, Goldberg "never took it any further," according to Gill and he had little interest in facing the guy who insulted him on TV in the late 1990s.

With The Undertaker, Goldberg decided to work

That's right, that match was really something Goldberg desired for a long time at Super Showdown 2019. Goldberg told Digital Spy three months after his 2018 WWE Hall of Fame induction that, along with Roman Reigns, The Undertaker was also on his Superstars shortlist with whom he wanted to walk into the ring.

All I got to say is, it ain’t up to me. Whether it’s Reigns or ‘Taker, and, I don’t know, I’m not gonna say anybody else. Hey, Reigns and ‘Taker are the two guys on my list right now. I mean, obviously for two different reasons, but I’d be honored to get in the ring with either one of them. And I still owe Brock [Lesnar] one, but I’m two-and-one on him, so it’s all good.

It was announced that 'Taker was contacted by Triple H about the idea of facing Goldberg at Super ShowDown 2019 during The Undertaker's' Last Ride 'docuseries on the WWE Network. He agreed, but the match turned out to be unforgettable for all the wrong reasons, as we all know.

After a missed spear into the ring post, Goldberg legitimately knocked himself out early on in the fight. The remainder of the first-ever encounter won after a chokeslam by The Undertaker was full of uncoordinated movements and tragic failures.

Goldberg wasn't interested in working with Matt Riddle

Throughout his wrestling career, Goldberg had plenty of detractors, but none of them were quite as outspoken as Matt Riddle. Due to his lack of in-ring capabilities, especially after Super ShowDown 2019 when he took to Twitter to mark the WWE Hall of Famer "unsafe, risky,, and a burden" to his rivals, the former UFC star has repeatedly called out Goldberg.

In an interview with Eyes on the Game's Helen Lee later in the year, Goldberg said that he was going to meet everyone in WWE, including then-newcomer Cain Velasquez, but inferred that Riddle was not deserving of his time.

Matt who? I don't even know who that is. I don't answer questions about people who haven't made it yet. Riddle has a long way to go.

These remarks came shortly after the pay-per-view SummerSlam in 2019, where Goldberg assured Riddle that he was not his "bro" in a backstage conversation. Riddle has also explained that, while he does not rate Goldberg's job, in the hope of building hype for a possible match with the WCW legend, he does not make negative comments about him.

Did Goldberg want Brown Strowman to be his partner

In one of the marquee matches of WrestleMania 36, Goldberg was initially expected to defend his Universal Championship against Roman Reigns. However, Reigns pulled out of the show due to COVID-19 issues, and he was replaced by Braun Strowman at short notice.

In a match that lasted 130 seconds, Strowman went on to beat Goldberg, with "The Beast Of Men" overcoming four spears before reaching three power slams to take victory, followed by a running power slam.

Whether Goldberg had some say in his last-minute change of The opponent at the WrestleMania 36 tapings is not clear but in an interview with Denise Salcedo of Instant Culture in 2019, the two-time Universal Champion said that Strowman had entered Reigns on his list of dream opponents.

God, who wouldn't I like to face that I haven't? I mean, Roman and Braun are two guys that I would like to test their mettle a little bit. Georgia [Goldberg] against Georgia Tech [Reigns] - it's kind of a built in rivalry.

As of the moment of posting, WWE was unable to schedule a match again between Goldberg and Reigns, although after his WrestleMania 36 win over Goldberg, Strowman started feuding with Bray Wyatt, The Miz, and John Morrison.

Goldberg wasn't interested in working with Chris Jericho

In 2003-2004, Chris Jericho and Goldberg effectively collaborated together on numerous occasions in WWE, but their WCW rivalry came to an abrupt end five years ago.

As Jericho recounted on a 2018 episode of his Talk Is Jericho podcast, he thought that when they were told to have two matches on a weekly television instead of a high-profile match at a pay-per-view, he and Goldberg was not offered a reasonable shot at WCW.

A PPV match may have been a "moneymaker" for WCW, Jericho said, but he felt it was important to say a long-term tale to keep him from being just another individual easily squashed by Goldberg.

I never, ever wanted to have a normal match. What I wanted to do was to just have Bill [Goldberg] kick the s*** out of me and, like I said, do this cool little squash match with all the bumps and bruises and stuff.

Eric Bischoff liked the premise of Jericho and also tried to use Judge Judy as part of the plot, but Goldberg did not agree with the plan, and without ending in a PPV, the rivalry ended.

When they wouldn't do that angle at the pay-per-view, as we know, as [Bischoff’s podcast host, Conrad Thompson] said, Goldberg canceled because he was going hunting that weekend and he wasn't booked for the pay-per-view, so he sort of skipped out.

Unlike Gillberg and Matt Riddle, both in 2003-2004 and in 2017, Goldberg went on to work with Jericho in WWE.