Goldberg reflects on his experience in Saudi Arabia.
Following up their match at SummerSlam this past August, Goldberg and Bobby Lashley met in a No Holds Barred match at WWE Crown Jewel in Saudi Arabia on 10/21. Goldberg defeated Lashley after spearing him off the stage to secure the win.
One week after the match, Goldberg reflected on his experience while on the CarCast podcast. He admitted that he hasn’t had the best of in-ring experiences at Saudi shows and with the recent match, he’s not completely happy with it but he’s satisfied to the point where he thinks it silenced his critics.
I don’t have the best track record in Saudi Arabia. I’ve knocked myself out in a match, I’ve dropped The Undertaker on his head and this and that. I needed to redeem myself and I’m not happy with my performance but I’m satisfied with it to a point where I think it’s shut all these f*ckers up finally.
Going into the Crown Jewel event, Goldberg said is knee was not completely healed. He provided an update and said it is still bothering him.
The former Universal Champion was asked about he and Bobby Lashley’s relationship. Goldberg said he would not allow anyone who he doesn’t trust and love to put their hands on his son which is what Lashley did at SummerSlam. He said Bobby is a great individual and he’s wanted to work with him for years.
The knee, I mean it hurts. It is what it is. The fact is I hurt every day of my life. It’s just, it’s all relative, you know? And my [leg] held up well, fortunately. He went after my knee again. But, it is what it is man. I dropped the hammer on his ass in the end and you know, if you wanna know about me and Bobby [Lashley] behind the scenes, let’s just say that Gage Goldberg is Wanda and I’s son and there is no freakin’ way I would let anyone on this planet touch him if I didn’t love and trust them. So, Bobby’s a great individual and I wanted for years to be able to have a program with him and you know, I’m just honored that he let me do it. You know, it was fun and getting some payback and kicking his ass in the end was icing on top of the cake.
Elsewhere during the conversation, Goldberg spoke about the travel schedule to and from Saudi Arabia. The crew left following Monday Night Raw on 10/18, flew to London, England and landed in Riyadh at 4:30 in the morning. On the flight back to the States, it was a 17 hour trip from Saudi to Chicago but the talents who were on the 10/22 SmackDown stayed on the plane.
I fly from San Antonio to Sacramento. We did the show Monday night. We drove after the show from Sac to San Fran, stayed at the airport for three hours before we boarded. Went straight from San Fran to London, stopped for gas, got back on the flight. Went from London to Riyadh, landed in Riyadh around 4:30 in the morning, went to the hotel, I dropped my bags. I had to shake off all the crap that had latched itself onto me during the 400 hour flight. So then I worked out and then you know, I slept a little bit during the day then you wake up the next morning, you got PR then you go to the building, literally. So we went to the building and did our matches and then went straight from the building to the airport, sat at the airport again for another three hours. They had technical difficulties with the computers there and then went straight from Riyadh to Chicago which was a 17-hour flight non-stop and then I privated from Chicago to San Antonio. San Antonio, I got in a car, went straight home, showered, couple hours later we drove to Gage [Goldberg’s] football game. You know, and then Saturday and Sunday then I went to L.A. But, you know, I’m not gonna sit on my soap box and feel sorry for myself because if you didn’t get off the plane to Chicago, you went straight to Wichita to do Friday Night SmackDown. So, I was lucky. I didn’t have to work that night, but I’m also not 25-years-old anymore so kudos to all the men and women who made the trip and made it a wonderful trip. British airways can kiss our ass pretty much but, I mean hey man, these guys and girls are troopers. I don’t know how they did it. I really don’t.
While speaking about Saudi Arabia in general, Goldberg feels that change is being made in the country. He says there is seemingly always negativity when WWE heads over there but he feels the crown prince is trying to move things forward.
It was different man. You know, it was my third, fourth time to Saudi. Every time we go, there’s seemingly a cloud of negativity but I gotta tell you, from the first trip to this last trip, what the crown prince is trying to do and what he’s actually doing is moving that country ahead exponentially. I don’t wanna say it’s westernizing but it’s westernizing. It’s truly giving them some freedom and just the difference in women’s presentation from the WWE, from the first show to this last show, I mean they didn’t even let ‘em wrestle on the first one and I mean they didn’t even have to cover up most of the time on this last trip so, whether it’s Pitbull coming in the night before, whether it’s 700,000 people at this event, this festival that they had the night before or us going in twice a year, I mean they’re really doing some cutting edge stuff and he’s bringing in entertainment throughout the world and it’s an honorable gesture I believe and I think it’s making the Middle East move in the right direction.
WWE’s next event is Survivor Series on November 21st in Brooklyn, New York. As of this writing, there are no confirmed matches for the event.
If the quotes in this article are used, please credit the CarCast podcast with an H/T to POST Wrestling for the transcriptions.
