Let me tell you something about Bill Goldberg. He was not the best performer on Earth (he admits in his own book that he was carried), but he stood out from the others with the way he looked, tribal tattoo and all, and that worked wonders for him. He was excellent at showing off intensity. Sort of unique in its simplicity. He moved a lot faster than fans were used to seeing and his style was unconventional, even if sloppy, but impressive for a heavyweight so he got popular fast after being given The Streak angle, made a lot of money for WCW as he turned out to be a draw, but much of his success was due to him just being different than the usual.
He was a power man wrestler that came into the ring and destroyed his opponents in record time. That was his gimmick. It was the same thing done over and over again, but the fact of the matter is that...it worked. People bought into it because with the way he was built in size, it was believable. He was not entertaining on the mic, but he didn't need to be. For a character like his to thrive, you sort of need a different environment than what the WWE does. The company tends to "over-promote" their stars. They will advertise and event so much that the event itself is anti-climactic. For some reason when guys just show up, it tends to work better. Ignore them until they do something big, then focus on letting that be known. If they try to make you think they will do something big, and then they are not as spectacular as claimed.
Goldberg got popular without any advertising. Just having the "it" factor and being booked to win. There were no vignettes trying to build him up before he debuted. He just defeated Bill DeMott and it took off from there. Add in an epic theme song and a cool entrance (police escort backstage and him standing IN the pyro then blowing out smoke before explosives went off) and he was destined not to fail at getting over.
Unfortunately, WCW made the big mistake of not letting Goldberg get revenge on Hogan and the nWo for the screwjob at Starrcade 1998, where his Streak ended to Kevin Nash due to Scott Hall's interference. Bill should've smashed every member until he got his hands on Hogan and defeated him to get the world title back. The story was right there waiting to be told and they didn't do it. Instead, they wasted away one of their biggest stars by booking him in filler angles and feuds until the company closed. Russo was booking so no surprise there.
When he came into the WWE, they messed up big time by trying to show him off right away, forced him to try to cut promos, and then had him feud with more popular wrestlers like The Rock and Chris Jericho so of course the fans would turn on WCW's pet project. Bill was another victim of politics in both companies. Hogan, Nash, HHH, etc. did not want him to continue being successful. The biggest offense being SummerSlam 2003 where they had Goldberg lose even though that Phoenix crowd was BEGGING for him to win The Elimination Chamber! That loss ruined a lot of his momentum. Also had Goldberg improved his wrestling style, been nicer to co-workers backstage, and his character been left as is, I think he would've stayed a couple of more years to win the world title back or at least be in high profile matches. Shame we never got Goldberg Vs. Undertaker. WWE could've made a lot of money with him as a top guy, but Vince wanted to prove WWE was better than WCW so Goldberg's character was humilated and tarnished. It should've been about business and not personal feelings.
Goldberg left the WWE on bad terms and now here we are many years later, Vince coming to the realization that he failed on handling The Man (although it didn't help that Bill wasn't much of a team player either) so now we have the inferior Ryback to deal with, but thankfully we also have The Ultimate Collection to enjoy some of Bill's best matches. Unfortunately, his Spring Stampede 1998 match against Perry Saturn was not included, but I'm glad to see my personal favorite is. That being his WCW Championship title defense against Dallas Page at Halloween Havoc 1998. Bill could deliver with the right opponent working with him if he had to go longer than 5 minutes.
He's doing now for WWE what he did in WCW: making money for himself and those that he worked for in one way or the other. I was a Goldberg fan back then then a hater when he came to WWE (when I was trying to be all smarky smark), but I'm back to being a fan. I highly suggest you read "I'm Next" if you ever get a chance. You'll have new found respect and (hopefully some) appreciation for the guy like I do.
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Was never huge on Goldberg, but I'll probably get this. They should do the world a favor and NOT include his WrestleMania XX match with Brock Lesnar though, instead give us a discussion between the 2 about why that match turned out like that.
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Simple. The New York crowd knew both men were leaving and instead of enjoying what could've been a decent power man match, they wanted to be a bunch of attention seeking assh*les and sh** on the match, pissing off Bill and Brock so they just half-assed it in the ring. (None that I condone what the hosses did, but I can certainly understand why they did it.) You can thank that building full of selfish smarks that night for ruining that dream match for many of us.
Edit: WWE better put back in Goldberg's WCW music or the first half of this set is going to suck! Somebody tell Vince to quit being a cheap ass!
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