Goldberg praises Gunther: ‘That kid’s got class’

Goldberg is thankful that he had a great opponent for his final pro wrestling match.

The 58-year-old Goldberg retired from the ring at WWE Saturday Night’s Main Event in Atlanta on July 12, where he came up short in his match against World Heavyweight Champion Gunther. The night did not go perfectly for Goldberg, but he has no complaints about his dance partner.

“I could not have done it without Gunther. That kid is freaking unbelievable,” Goldberg said on a new episode of his CarCast podcast. “I mean, it was a wonderful opportunity to be in the ring with him — and an honor. And I couldn’t have done it without him. Your limitations are yourself and your dance partner. And he made it happen.”

Along with Gunther’s performance in the ring, Goldberg was also impressed by how classy of a person The Ring General is.

“Gunther stayed 30 minutes to an hour afterwards, after I was talking to all my friends in the — we had a room in the back. That kid’s got class. I mean, he’s got a lot of class,” Goldberg said. “I can’t say enough good things about him, and hopefully his future is filled with nothing but awesome stuff.”

There are criticisms that Goldberg has with his sendoff — like his retirement speech getting cut off at the end of the broadcast — but he had a good time that night and feels he did himself “pretty decent justice” with how the match went.

“I had a good time. And, you know, could it have been better? 100 percent, always,” he said. “But I’m proud of — it was fun, man. It was fun.”

Goldberg is feeling good physically after the match, but he did suffer a broken finger at one point.

“You can’t really tell, but I broke my hand at some point in that match,” he revealed. “And I think today is the first day I can see veins back in my hand. It’s not nearly as swollen as it was.”

After retaining his World Heavyweight Championship against Goldberg, Gunther is now heading to SummerSlam for a title defense against CM Punk. The two-night PLE is being held at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey on Saturday, August 2 and Sunday, August 3.