Goldberg maybe on top of the world of WWE right now, but he sure doesn't feel like it.
When speaking to Edge & Christian on "The Pod Of Awesomeness," the Universal Champion divulged his struggles during his recent comeback.
"It's the toughest thing I ever embarked upon, guys. I'm 13 years removed from the business. I can't name a power wrestler who has come back 13 freaking years afterwards. And then, within 20 pounds of what he was back then."
Goldberg said that he was down to 237 pounds, almost 50 pounds less than he weighed in at during his WCW heyday. He's been trying to bulk up since before he made his comeback, and the reason for all of those bulky jackets during his first few appearances was because he was trying to hide how slight he'd become.
"Why do you think I wore a coat every time at first when I got back? The answer is I still had to train, man. I was still training. I believe it was much more important for me to be aesthetically what I was like in the past as opposed to a dude who could run around for 20 minutes. That ain't me."
He only had 6 weeks to get his body up to snuff for Survivor Series.
"For me to be 237 [pounds] and have great cardio and then get the phone call that six weeks later, I've got to do what I've got to do. Do you think I continued to do cardio every day? I had to shut cardio completely down and just eat, and eat, and lift, and eat. And so it's a sacrifice. Do I give people the visual whatever as close as possible of Goldberg or do I give them a new version in which I look like a cruiserweight and it's just different, man."
He's become something less than human, now, he says. He has to be, to gain all of that muscle so fast, especially at 50 years old.
"I am nothing but a machine now. I get up in the morning. I eat. I train. I eat. I go to the bathroom about twenty times intermittently throughout the day because I'm shoving 15 to 20,000 calories in my body and it doesn't know what's going on. At 50 years old, it has no idea."
Goldberg says that he believes people expect him to be exactly who and what he was when he was last performing for WWE, 13 years ago. So he puts himself under a lot of pressure to be that guy, and it's left him kind of addled, even forgetting how to do his classic Goldberg Entrance Routine during his pyro.
"People are expecting me to be able to do exactly what I did back then. Well, I mean, let's be honest, man. I forgot how to go through my pyro! I honestly, I swear to God, I actively, when I came back to the WWE, each and every time I went through Gorilla [position], I would remember another thing that I had forgotten in my preparation."
Goldberg said, "I throw my punches. I throw my kicks. I pull my hamstring throwing a kick! Throwing a kick! It's ridiculous."
Then there was the time he did his customary pre-entrance door-heabutt and practically knocked himself unconscious.
"My way of getting ready, you know me, man. They knock on my door, I pour water on my head, so I don't catch on fire from the sparks, and I headbutt the door. I'm a neanderthal. That's what I do, right? And I'm walking to the ring, and I go through Gorilla, and then, I get in the ring, man, and I literally forgot every single thing that I was supposed to say and the cameraman throws me a towel. And I'm like, 'what is this towel for?' I mean, I know I sweat a lot, but I've got blood dripping down my forehead and I had no idea, man."
Goldberg recalled going backstage after the segment and telling Vince McMahon, "fault me for trying too hard, not for not trying hard enough."
And in a moment of sincerity, Goldberg said that he's "absolutely miserable." But his family is enjoying this run, so to him, it's all worth it.
"I'll be honest, I'm miserable. I'm absolutely miserable. But my family's having fun, man. And so, every single thing, every training session, every ART massage that makes me cry, every Muay Thai session, it's all worth it, man. It's just worth it. And, hey, at the end of the day, if I want to smile, I'll buy a car. That's how I'm happy. I did, I bought one on the way back from [Survivor Series in] Toronto because I worked my ass off."
But it seems like buying himself a car as a reward for a job well done has a limited effect, because that miserable feeling creeps back in every day.
"Nobody get me wrong when I say I've been miserable throughout this, but I am. I'm miserable. I'm bloated 24 hours a day. I'm stressed 24 hours a day. I don't sleep, but it's a small price to pay."
You can listen to the entire interview at this link.
