Did Goldberg ever stand a chance in the WWE?

[MartialHorror]

WWE's Goldberg run was considered very underwhelming and many blamed the WWE itself for utilizing him very poorly, trying to make him into more of a comedic character while failing to push him like WCW did.

But the more I think about it, the more I wonder about Goldberg. He was awesome in WcW...at first, until they started messing around with his booking. I remember his matches often getting second billing under guys like Hogan even when he was the champion. This is something else that can be criticized...But I can't remember any real stories or promos involving Goldberg.

I remember him feuding with the nWo. I remember the streak. I remember various matches. But I don't remember him saying much outside of saying "you're next"- this before WcW started mucking things up (with him). Was the extent of his 'character' just to be intense and have his walk into the ring be filmed?

If there was more, then it must have failed to leave an impact. If there wasn't, then that shit would have gotten old fast. I stopped watching during Russo's era, so I can't attest to what happened during the latter half of his WcW career. So he moves on to WWE, which has always been more character based than WcW. WcW had that with the main eventers, but the majority of the runningtime (while I watched it) was based on wrestling matches. Goldberg really had no story outside of the streak until becoming champion and that worked fine then.

But that isn't enough to get over in the WWE. To be popular there, you need to have the right kind of personality. WWE tried to bring that out of Goldberg, although obviously it could've been better. But if they attempted to do the same thing that worked for him in WcW, people probably would've rejected it. Look at how much fans complain about Cena for being so invincible or Reigns for his limitations on the mic. Now imagine if Cena won 170 matches in a row or all Reigns said was "You're next".

Even if WWE did book Goldberg the same way, fans would probably have turned on him sooner than later. So while WWE definitely could've done a better job, I do think they get a bit too much criticism for his lackluster run in the company. I was a huge mark for him, but I don't think his style was WWE-friendly.

 

[Trance Metaphor]

I don't think Goldberg's WWE run was lacklustre. It was pretty good considering how he was able to beat The Rock, Chris Jericho, Triple H and Brock Lesnar. His feud with Evolution also made him look very strong because it took all three members to put him down. Triple H had to constantly cheat in order to get any kind of advantage. Sure, his World Heavyweight Championship reign wasn't anything particularly memorable, but his short stay in the WWE still made him look as indestructible as his early WCW days. One good thing that came out of his WWE career was that he came in with an impact and went out with an impact.

 

[Jack-Hammer]

Various stories I've read, dunno how true they are, is that Goldberg had a pretty ego by this time and had it since his WCW days. Allegedly, Goldberg did rub some guys the wrong way in WCW because he hadn't paid his dues, didn't have any real love for the business, yet was making all kinds of money and was made into this huge star there. Again, I dunno how true it all is, but I've read that he got under the skin of some of WWE's top guys with the same attitude or that WWE ultimately wanted to send a message that while his attitude might've been tolerated in WCW, that wouldn't be the case there.

As far as his time in WWE goes, I have to agree with Trance Metaphor. Considering that Goldberg went over most of the top guys in the company at the time, or still looked like a beast even when he didn't come out on top, I think things went about well as they could. Overall, in my opinion, Goldberg was a pretty lackluster pro wrestler to begin with. Once the streak ended for him in WCW, he never regained that aura of invincibility that'd ultimately made him special. While his streak was overrated in terms of sheer greatness, again in my opinion because it was packed mostly with jobbers, it got him over in a major way in WCW, helped him stand out and left a lasting impression. Without it, he was never the same. Without that aspect of the gimmick, they had to rely more on Goldberg himself and that always struck me as pretty lackluster because he just wasn't that interesting or good inside the ring if a match went any significant length.

 

[OYDK]

Goldberg's first WWE run wasn't terrible as he did win the World Heavyweight Championship from HHH, but WWE is a whole other beast than WCW. In WCW, Bill could basically do whatever he wanted. He had almost complete creative control over his character and storylines and nobody was going to go against him because he was their last hope. When Goldberg first got to the WWE, almost immediately he had a problem with the way his storylines and character were booked and he wasn't afraid to tell Vince what he thought sucked. As you could imagine, Mcmahon wasn't too happy. Throw in the fact that there was a real life rivalry and tension between Goldberg and HHH/ Jericho and you have just a bad working environment.

Between Goldberg/HHH's ego, Goldberg's attitude, and his lack of passion for the business, I say no, Goldberg didn't really stand a chance in the WWE.

 

[#hamler]

When Goldberg first arrived in the WWE, me and fans alike saw this indestructible cyborg that was rarely seen hurt. Hell, his first singles match, he ended The Rock's full time career in what I would consider a slaughter. Fast forward roughly three months later and he's taking losses from the World Champion and doing backstage skits with Goldust. Granted, they didn't exactly make him look weak - just human. Goldberg was a guy that was suppose to completely dominate his opponents. Anytime he wasn't doing that, the character's mystique dulled. Goldberg wasn't doomed to fail from the beginning. Their mistake lied when the WWE failed to bring him in directly after WCW was bought out in 2001. People often forget, Goldberg was just as popular as any top WCW/WWF performer and was on Stone Cold and The Rock's level of popularity in the height of the Monday Night Wars. With that, we should've seen the two bald headed, black trunk wearing phenoms go at it meaing Austin and Goldberg should've crossed paths at some point in their illustrious careers.

Goldberg's WWE career wasn't a total bust; like mentioned above he went over some of the very best the WWE has to offer. He won the World Championship and was one of the first WCW wreslters to do so in the WWE. With that, if I could go back and change some of the ways he was booked, I would. Given that Goldberg's popularity was astounding, he stood a good chance at making a successful run in WWE. But like I said, rewind two years earlier and Goldberg would be talked about on the same level as WWE's other legends.

 

[THTRobtaylor]

Goldberg blew it for himself but I'll get to that in a minute.

WWE couldn't have debuted him or built him better... interrupting The Rock, using virtually every aspect of his WCW entrance and having him spear Dwayne into oblivion and then win the title... but the problem was twofold, his attitude and the fact he got his ass handed to him by Jericho.

Both guys now try to "play down" what happened but the reality is the "tough guy" got beaten by the "smaller guy" and someone was very quick to make sure the world knew it. I don't think it was Jericho, he probably had a bit more class but some of the guys backstage at that time like Nash in particular would have had no problem ratting out Bill to the sheets... Once the story got out that Goldberg had been choked out by Jericho he was done as a serious WWE competitor. The fans knew what had happened and the token victory he got in the ring didn't cut it.

His attitude caused the issue with Jericho and a lot of his problems that led to his leaving. He could have said "OK, it happened, he caught me and no one's ever done that..." taken the match seriously and accepted his error. But he played the "baby" about it, bitched and moaned and then decided to go after his one Mania appearance. That he got the win was purely down to him honoring his deal in full whereas Brock had really behaved badly in wanting to "get out" but it wasn't much of an honor having your last act being stunnered at Mania.

Goldberg just didn't care about being in WWE, only the money and being a star... that was the monster WCW created and I am sure the reason Sting stayed away... not cos he didn't trust WWE cos they did all they could to make Goldberg a player, but cos he didn't trust himself around those guys... Perhaps he didn't like what Bill became and decided he wasn't going down those roads.

Personally I hope Goldberg NEVER sets foot in WWE again, he just doesn't deserve another shot.

 

[CrucifiedRaven]

Every now and then this topic comes back up.

My answer is always the same. Goldberg had a very successful run in WWE. It wasn't a bust at all. Did he stand a chance? Yes, he did great!

Within 12 months Goldberg went over The Rock, Triple H, Brock Lesnar and held the RAW World Heavyweight Championship for 3 months. How many guys can say they've done that? Has there been a better 12 month run?

 

[THTRobtaylor]

It was strong, but was not what it could have been and what WWE set it up to be... they didn't want a 12 month run, they were building for the long term...and then getting Sting as well.

But Bill's behaviour led to it being a short term thing, on paper he "opted not to renew" but I am pretty sure both sides were glad it was ending. It didn't have to be that way. I think the point is has anyone built in another organisation had the red carpet rolled out to that level? He got it better than Flair did for sure.

 

[AegonTargaryen]

Within 12 months Goldberg went over The Rock, Triple H, Brock Lesnar and held the RAW World Heavyweight Championship for 3 months. How many guys can say they've done that? Has there been a better 12 month run?

Sure there has. Brock Lesnar! Within 12 months, he "went over" a departing Rock and became the youngest WWE Undisputed Champion, decimated the all-dreaded and drab Hulkamania (meh), beat The Undertaker in a HIAC match, and gave us moments like his confrontation with the Big Show, his Royal Rumble win, which was one of the top 5 Rumble wins(In my humble opinion), and had one of the few athletically and dramatically flawless and spectacular Wrestlemania main-events and WWE championship matches of all time with Kurt Angle. Need I say more?

As shitty as Brock Lesnar's attitude might be towards "Sports Entertainment" and WWE, he was and still is superb in the ring, on the mic(far better than Bill "You're Next" Goldberg anyway), and overall. Not to mention that Goldberg couldn't even wrestle a good match against Shawn Michaels. Sure, the WHC between him and HBK on Raw was merely a throwaway main-event only on the face because Batista would later go on to interfere and kayfabe injure his ankle. But I remember watching that match the other day, and I'm like "Dear God, this feels so underwhelming that a Vel Venis main event from HEAT would be more main-event calibre. "

PS:- Kurt Angle in 2000 was also a better year than Goldberg's WWE stint. How can you overlook all his goofy segments with Stephanie, HHH, and all?? He was brilliant in his first year as a pro-wrestler cum entertainer!!

 

[Pedigree1]

Short answer no,goldberg never did stand a chance in WWE. He was a rock-star in WCW calling his own shots,and writing his own ticket pretty much.. When his streak grew to be i believe 178-0 or so,he thought he was on top of the world.. The streak made his ego bigger than Hogans (If thats possible)and he thought when he came into the WWE it would just carry over..

That would rub guys especially the vets the wrong way coming in with that self-entitled attitude.. At the end of the day,Goldberg was someone who never gave a shit about the business,and was there to collect a paycheck.. It could have been something had he put in a decent effort and he would have been a big star

 

[FromGlasgow]

I Think if the WWE could have made good money from him they would have pushed him as the new main event face of the WWE for years as it would have been perfect timing near the time Austin and Rock left and at the end of the day they are still a business and wouldn't have put personal agendas ahead of making money but I don't think Goldbergs heart was fully in it and don't imagine the WWE wanted to waste a lot of their time on someone who they could not fully rely on, I liked Goldberg back in the day but I think he was best used only in 2 minute squash matches.

 

[TheHitMark-SirJoseOle]

Who gives a shit what the internet says about the backstage ballyhoo? Especially when it comes to all the prevailing reasons as to why Goldberg's WWE stint from 2003-2004 turned out the way it did. This is how I see it, Goldberg came in, took out The Rock, HUGE way to get attention, first match in WWE and you take out its hugest star at that time. Months later, he beats Triple H and wins the World Heavyweight Championship, he beats Triple H again at the 2003 Survivor Series, the only way he loses the title against Triple H is via a triple threat match that involved Kane. He was still a pretty solid and formidable force. Fast forward past the middle of the first quarter of 2004 and he goes up against Lesnar in that underwhelming WrestleMania XX match and leaves.

He decided he didn't want to renew a contract, he fulfilled his obligations and left. Nothing wrong with that, unlike Lesnar who was getting released from his. Yeah there were silly moments like him wearing a Goldust wig and I hear how Goldberg supposedly didn't care for that, and he's also said some other questionable things on the net. But lord knows if you read something a wrestler says "out of character" on Twitter, or elsewhere on the net, then it just has to be true, right?

And even though in the eyes of many, Goldberg was a guy that got too much too soon, and has been accused of not caring about the business like others did, he still met his contractual obligations. When it turned out WWE wasn't going to be a long term place for him, he left. Can't say anything more about that.

All in all, Goldberg's run was going to be as good as it could be for the time it lasted, I have no complaints. And I'll sure as shit not base everything I read on the net about who Goldberg was backstage to lead to me to such an opinion. I'm just going off what I saw on TV, nothing more and nothing less.

 

[The Samoan Heritage]

I started watching wrestling in 98'-99' somewhere around there, and I only watched WWF at the time. So when I saw this dominating looking dude come out and interupt THE ROCK, I popped big time. (It didn't take any time for him to quickly become one of my favs at that time) To see this big dude come out, ready for a fight (punching and kicking) with the cool looking pyros and smoke, and the fans chanting his name, along with his music was straight up awesome.
I enjoyed Goldberg's short run in the E', but honestly he wouldn't have made it as the face. He was a great face to finally dethrone Triple H (though there were a couple other guys that honor should've went to like Kane or Booker T), but to me after a while it felt like Wwe didn't know what to do with him, and he was just there. I think Goldberg/ and the fans realise his time was up, because when you think about it, Goldberg was over, but when you compared him to Michaels and others the fans juat didn't care as much, heck Michaels turned on him for money and the next Raw or two, was back face.
Goldberg worked for WCW, but there's no way him and Wwe could've struck lightning in a bottle for a second time.

 

[Cena Is A Punk Rocker]

To answer the question. He sure did.

 

[Jonyboyuk2]

Goldberg did make a big impact. During his one year reign of terror in the WWF he beat - The Rock, Christian, Jericho, then defeated (in one match at HIAC) - Orton, Jericho again and Shawn Michaels, then beat HHH and finally beat Brock Lesnar.

The only knock on Goldberg's WWF run is he wasn't the match-dominating monster WCW had him be. But he still won. Also; his losses to HHH were not done all that well.

 

[MCMG]

Goldberg was always going to have an uphill battle but time in the WWE was pretty decent. The WWE booked him to some pretty big wins. Rock, Jericho, HBK, Triple H, Flair and Lesnar. That is an awesome list.

Goldberg has two issues. One is that he wasn't an all-round great pro wrestler. He had his gimmick and they booked accordingly. Sure he was a legend in WCW and did wonders there but his stint in WWE was a considerable time after that. 2) He and the Kliq probably didn't see eye-to-eye and Triple H was the top guy in the company. There would undoubtedly be some animosity there which wouldn't have helped things.

If Goldberg wanted a better run in the WWE then he should have joined just after WCW went under. There would have been many names for him to work with and Vince would have seen the chance to make even more money. He didn't and, while his 2003/4 run was fine, it could have been better for him.

 

[JoeyJoeJoe]

The problem with all pushes based around a winning streak is that at some point that streak needs to end. After that, you must have something interesting in your character or you need to have the ability to change in order to remain relevant. For Goldberg, he had his winning streak combined with the bookers allowing him to virtually destroy everyone that he got into the ring with. Well, at some point, the bookers were going to end the streak, and they certainly weren't going to keep letting Goldberg dominate people in the ring. I feel that in Goldberg's mind, this was wrong and stupid and he should've kept going in perpetuity. Obviously Goldberg thinks that because obviously it benefits only Goldberg.

The WWE gave Goldberg a much more realistic push. He was still a monster, and he got to beat up some of the top acts in the business, but he WASN'T unstoppable. In the end, that just didn't sit well with him, and so he truly took his ball and went home...bellyaching the entire way about how he was misused and how awesome he was/is.

Personally, I really don't think Goldberg had much left to offer.

 

[CrucifiedRaven]

It was strong, but was not what it could have been and what WWE set it up to be... they didn't want a 12 month run, they were building for the long term...and then getting Sting as well.

But Bill's behaviour led to it being a short term thing, on paper he "opted not to renew" but I am pretty sure both sides were glad it was ending. It didn't have to be that way. I think the point is has anyone built in another organisation had the red carpet rolled out to that level? He got it better than Flair did for sure.

The Wrestling Observer and everything else I'd read at the time said it was always a one year deal. Or 100 dates. Maybe they had bigger plans initially which never came to fruition, but every source I remember seeing said it was a limited date one year contract. It's why the build to Goldberg/Lesnar was so bad and both guys ultimately got booed out of MSG. I forget Lesnar's situation as it could have been similar, but there were no more dates left on Goldberg's contract so the entire build to the match was vacant. Neither guy was on TV more than a couple times in the weeks leading up to WMXX.

Did Goldberg think he was a bigger star than he actually was? Probably. He's not the first top guy in wrestling to overvalue himself. But his run was still successful. The biggest mistake they made (other than burning through his contract too fast) was not having him win the WHC title at SummerSlam in the HIAC. He should have carried the title through to the Royal Rumble before finally dropping it back to Triple H. He was beat up too frequently by Evolution and it killed a lot of his momentum/his gimmick as an unstoppable warrior.

He was pinned by Triple H, Randy Orton and had his ankle "smashed" by Batista. It's normal WWE booking, and it works when you have a sympathetic babyface, and doesn't work as well when you're supposed to have an unstoppable babyface. They run into this problem to this day with guys like Big E and Ryback.

Could it have been better? Sure, but then maybe they should have booked him differently. Despite all this, I think his run was still very successful. Especially compared to other WCW guys who were given a shot at Triple H during this period (Booker T, Scott Steiner). I don't lump him in AT ALL with the "other WCW guys" that Vince "buried".

 

[whoopin' ass]

Not really but it was typical wwe style - start them out hot, then cool them off, then try and get them hit again. He started off well but then it fell apart quickly. Thing people need to remember is that no WCW guy, including the Hogan's and Nash's, was ever really going to do well. To do that meant WCW was better than WWE and Vince wouldn't allow that even if it could have made him a great fortune. Goldberg was as WCW as you could get, Vince was never really going to put him over as there was no time to rebuild him as a WWE star. So even though it was a simple storyline, making Goldberg that monster like he was in WCW and then using him at Mania to get someone over was just too hard for Vince to do.

 

[Hollywood Naitch]

Apart from the shambles that was his final match at WrestleMania against Lesnar, I don't really class Goldberg's WWE run as a flop. He was pretty strongly for the most part and went over alot of the top stars in his 12 month run, plus he was given a title reign in that time too. Evolution usually needed to cheat to get the advantage over him, and he was still made out to be a dominant force.

Yes, he wasn't booked to absolutely smash through the roster as he was in WCW, but that's just not the way things are good in the WWE. They were never going to have their top stars being squashed by a new addition to the roster, and Goldberg was treated just like any other major star and was expected to wrestle longer matches and sell more- just like anyone else.

It just seems to me that 'Bergy just wasn't really willing to accept that he wasn't going to be booked in exactly the same way as he was in WCW, and didn't want to adapt his style for WWE. It's a shame we didn't get a longer Goldberg run in WWE as I'd have loved to have seen him face Undertaker and Kurt Angle but perhaps the wrestler and company just weren't the right fit for each other. I think we could see him back for one match, but it would almost certainly have to be an old Goldberg squashing someone, or he wouldnt do it.

 

[Wald]

The only major misstep they took with Goldberg was not having him win the title in the Elimination Chamber at Summerslam.

Listen to the crowd reaction to him as he mows through Orton, Jericho and HBK. Everything was done right in that match up until the point Triple H won. But then this was during the height of Triple H's ego phase so they were more concerned with getting over than Goldberg.

 

[thebarber]

Goldberg was doomed to be a failure, as Vince never pushed anybody hard that he didnt create.
Goldberg only got the title as it was a part of his contract that he would receive a run wirth the belt. And it only came about for time period that Helmsley had his groin injury and wrestled in those ugly bike shorts.
He was not utilised that well in my opinion, sure he got some good wins on ppv, but he hardly had a memorable run.

 

[cenation17]

Goldberg got raped in WWE. I don't know why, but people didn't like him and he was not the star there like he was in WCW.

But you gotta admit Goldberg was redhot in WCW, until that stupid heel turn came, just like Austin. They sucked as heels.