WWE World Heavyweight Champion Gunther recently reflected on his match against the retiring Goldberg, mentioning his belief that the performance “exceeded expectations.”
Gunther put his title on the line against Goldberg earlier this month in the main event of a Saturday Night’s Main Event TV special for NBC. The bout was billed as the final match for 58-year-old Goldberg, who was coming back after years outside of the ring.
While Goldberg made a career off quick wins, he battled for nearly 15 minutes against Gunther before getting put to sleep with a submission. A few weeks removed from the performance, Gunther is happy with how it went.
“I was very happy with how everything went and I feel like we exceeded expectations for the match,” Gunther told Radio Times in a recent interview. “For me, it was important to not go out there and have the typical three or four minutes of action and that’s it … I wanted time to tell a story and take the audience on a ride and make them feel bad for him a little bit before it all ends. I think we succeeded with that. He can be very happy with the match and the connection that he had with the audience because that felt very special.”
While Goldberg had some complaints about the presentation of his retirement bout, noting recently that he was “pissed off” with how it went, he had nothing but praise for how Gunther did.
“To be able to have my last match with him? It was friggin’ awesome,” he said about Gunther earlier this month on The Ariel Helwani Show. “The kid’s extremely talented … It was an honor to work with the kid and I really am appreciative of him helping me out and making this old man look like he could do some stuff.”
Gunther also spoke to Radio Times about his upcoming match this weekend against CM Punk, and why he’s looking forward to it. You can read the full piece here.
