WWE icon Goldberg bids farewell after 27-year wrestling career

(Web Desk): WWE legend Bill Goldberg has retired after a nearly three-decade-long career.

On July 12, Goldberg stepped into the ring for his final match, facing WWE World Heavyweight Champion Gunther.

The Saturday Night Main Event was held in Goldberg’s hometown of Atlanta.

For his farewell match, Goldberg entered the ring accompanied by close friends, while some of his companions watched from the audience.

The match, which was for the World Heavyweight Championship, was ultimately won by Gunther.

Goldberg used his signature moves — the Spear and the Jackhammer — but was unable to defeat the reigning champion.

The 58-year-old Goldberg was defeated when Gunther successfully applied a sleeper submission hold.

After the 14-minute match, Goldberg’s family and friends joined him in the ring, where he delivered an emotional farewell speech.

Though WWE did not broadcast the speech live, a video of it was later shared on X (formerly Twitter).

Goldberg began his wrestling career on September 22, 1997, with WCW (World Championship Wrestling) and remained undefeated for 173 consecutive matches, during which he also won the WCW Championship.

He suffered his first defeat on December 27, 1998, at the hands of Kevin Nash.

After WCW, he briefly wrestled with All Japan Pro Wrestling, before joining WWE in 2003, where he remained active for about a year and won the World Heavyweight Championship once.

Following his departure from WWE in 2004, Goldberg stepped away from professional wrestling, only to return in June 2015 through The Legends of Wrestling show.

In 2016, he made a major comeback to WWE and defeated Brock Lesnar in just 1 minute and 26 seconds.

He later became the WWE Universal Champion at Fastlane 2017, though he lost the title a month later to Brock Lesnar.

Even after that, Goldberg made sporadic returns to WWE and went on to win the Universal Championship once more.