Goldberg says he had COVID-19 before his big showdown with Roman Reigns at WWE Elimination Chamber.
Goldberg shared the news on the latest episode of his CarCast podcast, going into detail about how he got ready for the big event in Saudi Arabia. “Da Man” said that he was not only working in a short time frame to train for the match to begin with, but he also tested positive for the coronavirus and had it when he got the call for the match itself. He then commented on people “knowing” he wouldn’t win the match and said he was fighting an uphill battle the whole time.
“I’m again, behind the 8-ball really, not only do a plethora of people understand what the outcome will most likely be, but I obviously have an extremely short time to get ready for it. With COVID — I hadn’t trained in three months, I have COVID when I get the phone call to go. I literally had two weeks in the gym to get ready for this, so what people don’t understand — and it will come out in the documentary — is that it’s tough to do that as a 20-year-old, it’s even tougher, difficult to do as a 30-year-old. A 40-year-old? It’s almost impossible. A 55-year-old? I’m one of the .003 percent of humans on the planet that can pull something like that off, but in doing it, it’s very tough mentally to keep yourself in a positive space because you’ve got so many negatives going against you. And then 90 percent [of fans] understand what the storyline is going to be, so I’m fighting an uphill battle the whole way.”
Goldberg is now a free agent after he lost to Reigns at Elimination Chamber, as it was the last match on his WWE contract. Goldberg spoke about the match itself and said he came back to give back to the wrestling business, and if he helped Roman look good on his way to facing Brock Lesnar at WrestleMania, then he did his job.
Goldberg went on to say that he still went out and performed to the best of his ability, noting that he doesn’t write the stories but he just hopes people appreciate his work. He continued speaking about how the audience has changed, noting that more people are “in the know” but it also comes with some negatives, too.
“These days with social media, things are different. Back in the day, wrestling was extremely interactive, right? When somebody had a chant, these fans couldn’t wait to get on board with it. Now, you’ve got schmucks that want to be the person that yells during someone’s chant and completely change the narrative, and then they go on social media and go, ‘I was that schmuck that did that!’ They try and get some validation there, so it’s a different crowd. A little bit? A lot of bit, believe me.”
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