Bill Goldberg was the headliner of the WWE Hall of Fame’s Class of 2018, and he says it’s “one of the coolest experiences of my life.” However, while he’s clearly grateful for being inducted, he has some harsh criticisms of the Hall of Fame ceremony itself.
Goldberg recently sat down with Inside the Ropes where he was asked about a number of topics, including the Hall of Fame, and he didn’t hold back in explaining why the event “sucks” for everyone involved and that he’s told Vince McMahon as much.
“First and foremost I went to Vince and I told him my impression of the Hall Of Fame and what should happen,” Goldberg explained. “What happened the night before and I don’t think it’s a justice to the people being inducted. I don’t think it’s a justice to the fans that sit there for four hours. I think it needs to be changed completely right up on its head. I don’t care what anybody says and I don’t care if the person that puts it together thinks I’m full of sh*t. It needs to be changed because it sucks. I don’t care about what other people say or how they did it, I’m telling you in my experience as a headliner in 2018 in the Hall Of Fame — it needs to be changed.”
This isn’t a complaint unique to Goldberg, although he’s among the first big names to highlight the issue of the event being as long and drawn out as it is, which often leads to the arena slowly emptying by the time the headliner of the class gets to the stage for their speech. Goldberg also didn’t love being trotted out at WrestleMania and Raw the next two nights when he wasn’t wrestling, comparing it to being a caged animal by being backstage but not being able to compete. That complaint is likely more unique to Goldberg than other Hall of Famers, but his criticism about the event’s length is warranted.
The question is, how does WWE remedy that issue? Limiting the number of inductees would be the simplest method, but given the relative newness of the Hall of Fame, there seems to be a sense of urgency on WWE’s side to get as many of their legendary figures in while they’re still around. Other measures would likely cause some form of backlash or another, as something like cutting speech time for earlier inductees would make their status in the Hall seem lesser than others.
In any case, it’s something for WWE to certainly consider going forward, and Goldberg likely won’t be too eager to attend future induction ceremonies until a change is put in place.
(h/t Wrestling Inc.)
