Mike Goldberg, the former voice of the UFC, discusses an offer from WWE back in 2005 and says he would absolutely consider calling professional wrestling today.
Mike Goldberg was the voice of the UFC during its massive rise to popularity before leaving the promotion in 2016. However, there is a time when Mike Goldberg almost became the voice of Monday Night Raw in 2005. While speaking on the From The Stands podcast, Mike Goldberg discussed the offer made in 2005, the role Joe Rogan played in keeping him with the UFC, and says he would absolutely entertain the idea of calling professional wrestling today if offered by WWE or AEW.
"I absolutely would [entertain a WWE or AEW offer today]. I don't know if I was the first but I was one of the first to congratulate my old partner, Jimmy Smith, because when I went to Bellator, I worked with Jimmy and I told Jimmy, ‘I don't care what I did in the UFC. I am a guest, you're the mainstay here.’ You know, [critics always called Jimmy] a poor man's Rogan. I think we'd all like to be a poor man's Rogan. We'd only have like $50 million,” Mike joked. But Jimmy was great to me. I got along with Jimmy. He's a wonderful human being. He went to the UFC, which was a move that he always wanted to do, and he did nothing wrong. They just decided to start using fighters. Now all of a sudden, my good buddy is out of a gig, had a great podcast going, and still does. But I was thrilled when I heard that Jimmy got that job and I knew that he could do the play-by-play because he's so versatile. So to answer your question, Josh, yeah, I would definitely consider getting into AEW, WWE, whatever it is."
At the time in 2005, I was absolutely thrilled and absolutely honored and humbled by the author by the interest from the WWE,” he continued. “I was absolutely thrilled. Their production is second-to-none still, and they had offered a three-year deal that was a solid three-year deal. Joe Rogan teased me the week before I was going to make the decision. He kept going, ‘You're not going to go do porn, are you?’ I go, ‘Joe, this is it. So Joe went up and he talked to Dana [White] and Lorenzo [Fertitta], and he basically said, ‘This is my guy. We're great together. We love working together. Don't let him do this.’ I didn't put a gun to anybody's head. I just said, ‘Hey, this is what they've offered me. I want to stay here. But I have a family,’ and they totally understood. I remember the call, Lorenzo and Dana called me from a hotel room in New York City… It was funny because Dana did the math of, ‘How many shows would you do on Monday Night Raw? You would do nearly 50 shows [yearly]’ So Dana did the math. He goes, ‘You know, in the big picture, Goldie, you're only gonna get this much per show.’ "
Mike also explains the personal interests he had and staying with the UFC after being there since the beginning and his desire to help the company navigate uncharted waters that would eventually allow them to become the biggest MMA promotion in the world.
“But what it was for me is by 2005, as you guys know, the voyage was was really in some great waters, and there were still some uncharted waters," he said. “If I would have made the other decision, and I'd been on that journey, you know, since 1997, since Ultimate Japan and wanted to see where it was going to land, and much to your points, Josh, and Alex, it definitely turned out to be the right decision, but I was honored by [the WWE offer], and I would be honored by it again today.”
Jimmy Smith has been broadcasting Monday Night Raw for nearly a full year now after the brief run in WWE for Adnan Virk in 2021 led to both parties deciding to part ways.
We have full coverage of Monday Night Raw every Monday night beginning at 8 p.m. Eastern.
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