Matt Riddle doubts he’ll be Goldberg’s final WWE opponent: ‘He doesn’t want to step up’

  • Ian Carey
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Matt Riddle is not optimistic that he’ll be Bill Goldberg’s final opponent.

It was announced recently that Goldberg will have his long-sought-after WWE retirement match in 2025. Riddle was asked if he’d like to be a part of it during an appearance on the Barstool Rasslin’ podcast.

“I don’t think he wants to step up to the plate,” Riddle responded.

Riddle was asked if he and Goldberg had “straightened out” their beef, which began after Riddle made public comments calling Goldberg an unsafe worker and also that he could beat him in a real fight.

“Well, me and Bill, we’ve talked. We were actually on a flight from Saudi, we were on a Saudi show, like one of the Crown Jewel events, and we’re flying back. We had some cocktails and had a discussion. I don’t think there’s any bad blood. I think he has more of an understanding of where I was coming from. I definitely have an understanding of where he’s coming from and why he finds what I say disrespectful and things like that. I completely understand; I don’t mean it that way. We’re professional wrestlers. I’m just spitting facts, and I can back it up. This is just what it is.”

“A lot of people in WWE took that as disrespect, but if you fought in UFC and now you’re in WWE, what am I supposed to do, forget my whole career? It’s like, no, I can stretch like 98 percent of people.”

Goldberg believes the frontrunner to be his opponent is World Heavyweight Champion Gunther after the two had an altercation at WWE Bad Blood in Atlanta.

“I think we know who the subject, or the victim probably, the frontrunner right now, we know who it is,” Goldberg said. “But in 2025, Goldberg makes his return in a retirement match. I got a couple of months to get ready. No date, no time,” Goldberg said to the SEC Network last month.

Riddle is coming off having performed for MLW on Saturday at Lucha Apocalypto. He teamed with Satoshi Kojima in a tag match against Minoru Suzuki & Ikuro Kwon of Contra Unit on the TV taping portion of the show.

Riddle’s full appearance on Barstool Sports is available below: