With Bill Goldberg scheduled to make what would likely be a one-off return to the ring against The Undertaker at WWE’s Super ShowDown pay-per-view in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, on Friday, one of the company’s top developmental talents took a shot at him on social media, while also confirming that the Hall of Famer had seemingly blocked him on Twitter.
As reported by WrestlingNews.co , NXT superstar Matt Riddle took to Instagram on Wednesday, where he shared a screenshot of Goldberg’s Twitter account indicating that the former UFC fighter was blocked as a follower. In the caption, Riddle took aim at Goldberg, sarcastically commenting that he “can’t wait” to see his match against The Undertaker at Super ShowDown so he could “see how good [he is] at wrestling.”
While Goldberg has yet to publicly comment about Riddle’s Instagram post, WrestlingNews.co pointed out that his apparent dislike for the NXT standout could date back to a previous interview where Riddle was critical of Goldberg’s perceived lack of wrestling ability, as well as his claims to have trained in mixed martial arts during his time away from the wrestling business.
“Bill Goldberg can’t wrestle,” Riddle told Sporting News’ Brian Fritz in 2017, in an interview where he commented extensively about Goldberg’s brief WWE comeback that kicked off in late 2016.
“That’s it. He knows it. The fact that the guy is very bold and claims he does MMA training and I know that’s bulls**t.”
Memories https://t.co/LAUBRaryih
— Sean Ross Sapp of Fightful.com (@SeanRossSapp) June 5, 2019
Aside from criticizing Goldberg for not being skilled enough in his opinion, Riddle touched on the wrestling legend’s tendency to be booked in matches that only last a few minutes at the very most. As Riddle was interviewed prior to Goldberg’s final match in his last comeback run — a loss to Brock Lesnar at WrestleMania 33 — he also expressed hope that the then-50-year-old grappler’s future matches would last no more than one minute, regardless of the outcome.
“He’s never been my cup of tea,” Riddle continued. “I don’t like how he acts like he’s a shoot-style guy. I hated it when he did commentary for Strikeforce in MMA because he’s not a legit, credible character. He’s an old man who hits a jackhammer and a spear.”
Despite the long history of critical comments from Riddle and other individuals suggesting that Goldberg isn’t that skilled in the ring, he was a big draw during his time in WCW and WWE and still has more name recall than most other top-tier wrestlers from his heyday. As previously reported by WrestlingNews.co , Goldberg was apparently booked at Super ShowDown because of the Saudi government’s desire to see “mega matches” featuring big names from previous decades.