Goldberg On Reigns Pulling Out of WrestleMania, The Match Almost Going Forward After Strowman Match Was Taped

Goldberg discussed his WrestleMania 36 experience and Roman Reigns pulling out of their match on the latest Carcast podcast. Speaking with Matt D’Andria, Goldberg talked about what happened when Reigns decided he couldn’t go through with the match and revealed that after he did the replacement match against Braun Strowman, there was still a possibility that the match with Reigns could happen and be taped.

Reigns withdrew from the match due to concerns about the virus and the fact that his fight with leukemia left him immunocompromised. Goldberg shared his thoughts on Reigns being wanting to get the match done if at all possible, his experience having to go back and forth and more as you can see in the highlights below:

On the strange taping schedule: “I don’t even know where to begin, like I said. You know, when you leave the city that I’m in right now, if you go outside of 100 mile radius, you have to quarantine for two weeks. So I go to Orlando, I tape, I come back back here and quarantine. I go to Orlando, I tape, I come back here and quarantine. It’s just been like Groundhog Day.”

On his sudden change in opponents: “You know, obviously, I had a change of opponents at the very last moment. You know, Roman Reigns, everybody knows he has leukemia. You know, he’s in remission and his — obviously his immune system is down. And so, I don’t know why it was even considered in the beginning, except for the fact that we’d invested time and WWE invested the money in the angle, in the match, you know. So literally until the 23rd hour, it was still a possibility that he and I were going to wrestle. So plans kind of changed at the very last minute. I did my match with Braun. and it was possible that I could do a match with Roman again before the fifth [the night the match aired]. That obviously fell through.”

On how he found out: “You’ve seen me go through this stuff. Can you imagine me being done on Friday. My obligations were complete for the year. My second match was already wrestled. So I was literally done. So I come back here on Friday and jump on the tractor, and eat as many Bon Bons and Uncrustables and Coke, drink as many Cokes and don’t go the gym for five days. And then I get a phone call in the middle of the week that it’s still a possibility.”

On why WWE went through with it right up until the last minute: “Because it was still a possibility on his end that he could go through with the match. We went to the training facility in Orlando, our temperatures were taken when we walked in, the place was you know, scrubbed up and down, there were a limited amount of people in and out of the building. It was very controlled, I mean it was as — I think what happened was, somebody was sick and Roman heard about it. They didn’t have [COVID-19], they just had the flu. But just the fact that someone was sick in those circumstances, at the end of the day he just couldn’t do it.”

On his reaction to Reigns pulling out: “You know, more power to him to continually want to get it done. whether that’s realistic or unrealistic from a person in his shoes are concerned. But you’ve got to love the guy because up to the 11th hour, he was still willing to do it.”