Bill Goldberg and Gunther could recreate WCW match, ex-WWE star thinks
Gunther will defend the World Heavyweight Championship against Bill Goldberg at WWE Saturday Night's Main Event on July 12. According to former WWE star Stevie Richards, the title match could resemble one of Goldberg's most controversial bouts.
On February 9, 1998, Goldberg defeated William Regal on WCW Nitro. The five-minute contest was more competitive than most Goldberg matches during that time, prompting speculation that Regal tried to test his inexperienced opponent.
Richards said on The Stevie Richards Show that Gunther vs. Goldberg could look similar to the Regal match unless The Ring General changes his style:
"I feel like that is a direct analogy of what could happen with this match. Not purposely, not intentionally, but the style that Gunther has, he has a William Regal, Fit Finlay type of style, with a lot more harder hits and chops. And, think about this, is Gunther gonna have to water down his style to work a Goldberg-style match? Because that's the only way this is gonna work." [7:46 – 8:14]
Saturday Night's Main Event is scheduled to be held at State Farm Arena in Bill Goldberg's hometown of Atlanta, Georgia. The 58-year-old plans to retire from in-ring competition after the show.
Stevie Richards on Bill Goldberg's cardio before facing Gunther
On the June 16 episode of RAW, Bill Goldberg confronted Gunther to set up their upcoming World Heavyweight Championship match. After the segment, many fans took to social media to question whether the 2018 WWE Hall of Famer was healthy enough to face the Austrian.
Stevie Richards echoed those concerns by wondering what might happen if Gunther adopts his usual hard-hitting style:
"If he takes him down to the mat and he starts kind of stretching him a little bit, it's gonna resemble that match with Regal. It's gonna look like he's a fish out of water. He's gonna look like he's drowning. And then when Gunther starts chopping him, people can think whatever they want, but if you don't have good cardio conditioning and Gunther is chopping you, it's knocking the wind out of you, and this dude does not have good conditioning as it is." [8:15 – 8:45]
In the same episode, Richards gave an honest assessment of the quality of Goldberg's recent WWE matches.
Please credit The Stevie Richards Show and give an H/T to Sportskeeda Wrestling for the transcription if you use quotes from this article.
