Goldberg defeated “The Fiend” Bray Wyatt at Super ShowDown on Thursday to become the new WWE Universal Championship. And while the win wasn’t well-received by fans watching back in the United States, it did put the former WCW legend in the history books once again. The win made Goldberg the first WWE Hall of Famer to win a world championship after his induction, and at 53 years and two months old he’s the second-oldest world champion in WWE history (less than a year behind Vince McMahon at 54).
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The win virtually guarantees Goldberg will enter WrestleMania 36 as the defending Universal Champion next month, and the latest reports point to his opponent being Roman Reigns. Meanwhile Wyatt, who vanished after the loss, is reportedly slotted to face John Cena.
Leading up to Thursday night’s show Goldberg talked in interviews about wanting to prove his age wasn’t holding him back.
“I truly believe that age is just a number, and I’m here to kind of prove that,” he said in an interview with WWE.com. “I was lucky enough to dominate a generation of wrestlers and I’m lucky enough to still be here and taste what it’s like to get in the ring with a new generation. I don’t take the lightly by stretch of the imagination. But I hope they understand what I’ve been through and you can’t just throw that out the window, even though I’m 53 years old. It’s a lot of experience and there’s still a lot of anger in me. And if my body cooperates then I find no issues with me going out and performing to the level, somewhat, of what I used to.”
In a separate interview with Sports Illustrated, Goldberg admitted he wanted to “erase” the memory of his infamous match against The Undertaker at last year’s Super ShowDown.
“I need to erase my last performance here, first and foremost,” Goldberg said. “I knocked myself out 30 seconds into the match, and I performed like a school child. That’s one of the reasons I’m back, and this is my opportunity to do it.
“My internal clock is ticking, and I don’t know when it’s going to stop in terms of my ability to put these boots on and continue to do what I used to do,” he added. “And when I’m posed with a challenge, I’m a defensive lineman, I don’t turn it down.”
