Nic Nemeth Claims He Threatened to Quit WWE Over Goldberg Match

Nic Nemeth is pulling back the curtain on his infamous SummerSlam 2019 showdown with Goldberg — and it turns out the match almost ended his WWE career.

During his appearance on Insight with Chris Van Vliet, the former World Heavyweight Champion revealed that the original plan for his match with Goldberg was an immediate squash — something Nemeth flat-out refused to go along with.

“I was told no, ding, ding, ding, spear, jackhammer,” Nemeth recalled. “I said, ‘Vince, why am I in this match when anybody could take a spear and a jackhammer? If I can’t be in this match doing something, then I have to leave this company right now. If this is purely for a scarecrow to take a spear and a jackhammer, I don’t want to work here.’”

Nemeth said he fought hard to convince WWE to make the bout more competitive, arguing that fans needed at least a small story to hook into instead of an instant finish.

“I’m fighting. I’m like, it should be something. I should kick him. I should hit him with my finish. I should do something. There should be something other than a bell, because then there’s no little ride.”

After pushing back, Nemeth eventually convinced Vince McMahon to add a little more to the match — resulting in a short back-and-forth before Goldberg’s decisive win.

“Finally it was a superkick on the bell, get a false out of it. Superkick him again, and then get broken in half. And I go, ‘Yeah, okay, that’s something, at least.’”

Nemeth also revealed a shocking detail: the match with Goldberg was supposed to be part of his WWE exit storyline. He explained that he had planned to leave the company right after the event, only for WWE to block his departure at the last minute.

“I was pitched the idea to go with Goldberg because I was going to leave the company… I’ll lose there to Mike [The Miz], and then I was out of the company and on a handshake deal, I was out. And that day I was told that I would not be allowed to be out.”

Despite the behind-the-scenes tension, Nemeth stayed with WWE for another four years before his release in September 2023. Looking back, the incident stands as one of the most intense backstage battles of his career — and one that showed just how far he was willing to go to protect his integrity in the ring.