Goldberg Names Four Stars as the Future of WWE

Ahead of his WWE Championship match at this Sunday's Royal Rumble, Goldberg sat down for a Q&A with WWE UK this week. At one point he was asked to name which current WWE stars he believes are the future of the company. He immediately named off three — "I mean the usual suspects... Drew McIntyre, Keith Lee and Ricochet."

He then named a fourth in reigning NXT Champion Finn Balor, saying (h/t Inside The Ropes), "I've always been a huge fan of Finn Bálor. I'd have to say those four are the future. There's no question about it. In my opinion. And what do I know?"

Goldberg will challenge McIntyre for what could be his second world championship reign post-WWE Hall of Fame induction. While he's been incredibly critical of "The Scottish Warrior" on television, in reality he thinks very highly of the young man.

"I'm a fan of Drew. I appreciate what he has done, I appreciate the long road to his success that he has traveled," Goldberg said. "My question though: is he ready? We're not going to know until he steps in the ring with me."

However, in a separate interview with Corey Graves on After The Bell, Goldberg openly agreed with The Undertaker's recent comments about the current WWE product being "soft."

"I think so...yes, I believe comparatively the business is soft," Goldberg said (h/t Cageside Seats But the business is in 2021, so things have to change and things have to be different. Mega superstars that are bigger than life, it's hard in this generation seemingly to build those people."

"...but people are soft. People take offense to things way too quickly. I mean, you know, get a little thicker skin, boys and girls. That's all I can say. When legends came in when I was in the business, in the beginning, I was greatly appreciative of the eyes that they brought to our product. And one day, those young kids are gonna be in a position just like me, and I hope that karma comes back to bite them in the ass. That's all I can say. Because at 54 years old, I don't know one of 'em that can be doing what I'm doing."

McIntyre spoke out against those same comments from "The Deadman" last week.

"I don't agree whatsoever. Especially from an in-ring perspective," McIntyre said while speaking to Sportskeeda. "I've listened to part of it [the podcast], I've got to listen to the whole thing it's pretty new. But I think he may have been referring to like the kind of storylines and characters etc. Like the co-host that was on the show was like a fan from the Attitude Era and I think they were perhaps referring to some of the outlandish storylines."

"Back in the day, there were more sexual-based [angles], more like risque 18 plus. Our current product is PG, there's only so far we can push it and we're willing to push it. There's certain things from back in the day that was awesome and certain things that were not awesome that I wouldn't wanna go back to," he continued "So I'm not sure if it was more from like that perspective when it comes to the stories and not being as adult-based as it used to be but I think you know we're walking a good line right now. But when it comes to the in-ring game, that's just not true at all. It's never been more physical."