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Legendary commentator Jim Ross recently addressed why fans never witnessed a match between Goldberg and Stone Cold Steve Austin in WWE.
Austin and Goldberg were two of the biggest stars in WWE and WCW, respectively, in the late 1990s and early 2000s. In 2003, Austin retired after losing to The Rock at WrestleMania 19. The following night, Goldberg made his much-anticipated RAW debut.
On his Grilling JR podcast, Ross said the severity of Austin's neck injury prevented him from being able to return to the ring:
"It got away. I guess you could say it wasn't meant to be. Did we not see the potential in that angle? Hell yeah, but we also have to realize Austin's got a damaged neck, a serious neck injury, so it just couldn't happen." [1:15:37 – 1:15:59]
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Austin stayed retired until he defeated Kevin Owens in an impromptu match at WrestleMania 38 in 2022. Incidentally, Goldberg's loss to Roman Reigns six weeks earlier was the final match on his WWE contract.
Jim Ross wanted to see Goldberg vs. Steve Austin
Although Goldberg's initial 12-month run in WWE was widely viewed as disappointing, he was still one of wrestling's biggest draws at the time.
Jim Ross, a WWE commentator and talent relations executive in 2003, believes Goldberg vs. Steve Austin could have headlined WrestleMania:
"That's sad when you need a match to draw, you need that WrestleMania main event, and you're looking for one, you finally discover, 'Let's do Austin and Goldberg and let's build it for a year and get to WrestleMania and have the match.' That would have been a perfect scenario, easily booked, easily structured, but then Steve got hurt and it just wasn't to be, so we couldn't do it." [1:16:01 – 1:16:30]
Ross also said on this week's podcast that WWE television production executive Kevin Dunn rejected the opportunity to hire a current AEW personality in 2003.
How would you have booked Goldberg vs. Steve Austin? Let us know in the comments section below.
Please credit Grilling JR and give a H/T to Sportskeeda Wrestling for the transcription if you use quotes from this article.
