Goldberg is overrated

[FlairFan2003]

Goldberg WAS HUGE - The guy was a merchandise machine and his matches drew good ratings. Fact is, the ratings began to even out in early 98 and although RAW won more than they lost post wrestlemania till the end of 98, the ratings were nearly equal every week.

Goldberg was terribly misused. All the excitement from his phenomenal world title was sapped when WCW failed to find a marque opponent for him for the first three months he was champ. July and August ran through and Goldberg was not in a high profile feud. If anything Hogan and the NWO was still getting the bulk of the face time. How you could give a guy the title and leave him in the background is beyond me. Politics, maybe, but it was a stupid business decission. Goldberg didn't get a worthy opponent with a heavily promoted match in a main event till Halloween Havoc vs DDP. Of course, when PPV feeds across the US mysteriously cut out before the match ended WCW showed the match for free on Nitro and the rating was over a 7, absolutely huge.

So WCW immediately decided to have Goldberg lose to Nash - Ughhhh, at least this match got some really good build up. Now we go to 1999, the NWO has lost power on WCW TV to the return of Ric Flair and wrestling fans are waiting for the Nash/Goldberg re-match. The "Fingerpoke Of Doom" angle takes place but WCW is still drawing 5 plus ratings despite being in competition with RAW. Fans were dying to see Goldberg get his long awaited re-match with Hogan, the NWO was re-formed after the complety stupid NWO Black & White vs Wolf Pac fued, the NWO had the belt and all their top guys together but WCW had Goldberg plus Flair was in charge, not too mention Sting was about to return from an injury layoff. It was the change in dynamic that fans had been waiting for. So much potential flushed down the toilet as Goldberg is pushed into the midcard, his re-match with Nash a minor after thought, Flair is pretty much screwed over and Sting comes back to next to nothing to do. By the summer of 1999 Every match and angle fans had waited two yrs for was ruined. Goldberg was wasted and by the summer's end WCW ratings were declining faster than a water fall. Goldberg/Hogan II would have been a mega draw but it never happened.

Was Goldberg a phenom - No doubt. A big draw, definately. As good an in ring performer as Austin, No. Capable of a good match with the right opponent, yes. Goldberg's eventual decline had much more to do with WCW's ridiculous booking. He had talent and was surrounded by talent but for whatever reason (and everyone has an opinion) it was squandered. Austin benefited from some very memorable fueds in WWE involving Taker, Foley, HHH, The Rock, not against him but against each other. PPl were watching to see the whole show. Austin was a big part of that but those guys were huge in that too. Remember Austin was a forgettable midcarder as Stunning Steve in WCW, like all wrestler's he could only go so far without good booking.

Still, Austin was a better wrestler. It's debatable who was a better draw because Goldberg drew huge every chance he got in a top spot (which was not many). Austin's staying power had a lot to do with Vince and his supporting cast. Give Austin an edge but don't summarily diss goldberg

 

[Prince Punk]

Goldberg was nothing special I'm sorry Batista does the same shit
seriously Goldberg squashed jobbers so does the great Khali Goldberg had a look though thats what carried him Stone Cold Steve Austin is and was one hell of a wrestler why didn't he wrestle in the WWE? BECAUSE THE FANS LIKED TO SEE HIM WHOOP ASS AND RAISE HELL!!!! Same reason people liked to watch Goldberg beat the hell out of jobbers it looked painful. Don't get me wrong Goldberg was good but he was not great.. His hype carried him along way and that's all it was.......

 

[Tim]

Goldberg was overrated and he wasn't a great wrestler, but he was a good entertainer.
Goldberg was over with the fans, and you could almost feel the energy he put into the Spear and Jackhammer. He had a lot of charisma and even though he may not be the best wrestler ever, neither was Hulk Hogan and he still managed to get over with the fans and he had a lot of charisma.
Goldberg was a good way to put excitement into the match, because as soon as you heard his entrance music, you knew that his opponent was dead meat and there was no way of stopping him. However he got a bit boring later on, as it was basically the same routine over and over again and his hype had faded out by then.

 

[My$terio_Fan]

Was Goldberg overated? I don't think so. He wasn't an amazing wrestler but that didnt stop The Rock, Cena, Hogan and many others to be entertaining to fans and bring a certain excitment to their promotion. Goldberg was very over with general fans(not the IWC). Most fans didn;t care or notice his lack of technique and since they didn't care that he couldnt chain wrestle or wrestler like an Kurt Angle or HBK they were just fans of him because of his charisma and overall character that allowed them to cheer and actually care about him. Goldberg is only overated in the eyes of the very critical IWC and not general fans who loved him for being him.

 

[bigleo74]

Bill Goldberg was horribly misused. He was thrusted into the spotlight and was given the WCW world heavyweight belt. I'm not saying that he didnt deserve it but he was just pushed to fast. WCW made him this invincible specimen that couldn't be defeated. After a while he became a bore and it didnt help matters any when he lost after a lengthy win streak. Now some people compare Glodberg to Austin. Now I like both of them but I must say Austin is a much better draw and worked the mic better than Goldberg did. WCW blew one drastically and it almost cost Bill Goldberg his career.

 

[Dragonslayer]

I don't think we should compare Austin to Goldberg - which seems to happen obviously only because they were both bald and wore a moustache, and had a similar ring outfit. While it is undeniably true that WCW chose Goldberg because of his Austin-like look, in the end they used him in a considerably different way. Austin was a loud-mouthed SOB, and seemed more like a "regular guy" (because of the feud with his "boss"), whereas Goldberg was built up a a "silent monster" type who didn't really talk at all (which probably was for the better) and just destroyed opponent after opponent.

Considering that squash-match-type character is still being used quite often nowadays in WWE (Khali, Mark Henry, Big Daddy V, Kozlov), you have to credit WCW that they really were the only ones to keep that gimmick interesting for such a long time - because it just handn't been done for quite awhile when they introduced Goldberg. Now while I agree that Goldberg was pushed for no apparent reason (well WCW wanted to create a WCW-bred Superstar in a short time, since they were basically relying on former WWE stars at the time, with the exception of Sting), and despite his lack of technical wrestling skills, it worked; and worked well imho. Even if Goldberg's streak got a bit boring in the end, I don't think it was worked too long - I remember watching that Nitro where he defeated both Scott Hall and ultimately Hogan, to take the WCW belt from him - the fans' reaction was HUGE at that show, which just shows that Goldberg was still working at that time. Maybe they could've let him lose sooner than Nash, maybe to DDP who was pretty over at that time, but I think the Goldberg concept worked pretty well.

His main advantage was definitely was his intensity, which wasn't always a good thing (see Bret Hart), but hands down, no one could deliver a Spear more believable and more devastating than Goldberg did. Plus, I thought the Jackhammer was a really awesome finishing move, too.

So is Goldberg overrated? Well I don't believe anyone really "overrates" Goldberg - after his streak ended, he never again had that "status" as other ME-guys in my opinion; after he had become "defeatable", he was "just another guy" technically. Maybe still one to be considered a formidable challenge and hard to beat, but beatable nonetheless. His push carried him over a couple of years, but especially in WWE, as he was a WCW creation, he was not really that over, even if Vince pushed him in the ME with the help of The Rock. In the end, Goldberg was a good creation, as it worked really well in WCW; Austin was a whole different issue, and of course as a whole a lot more important and also a better wrestler and mic-worker than Goldberg, so these two really don't play in the same league if you ask me.

 

[thunderbyrd]

He only had a very limited list of moves. If you were making a CAW.. you have to give him moves he don't do to complete the movelist. WCW created a predictable character who seemed on another level with so many limits. It takes two to make a good match.

 

[Mighty NorCal]

HOW the fuck can he be called overrated?? I dont think anyone is walking around trying to say goldberg was a fantastic technical wrestler or story teller...He was simply, a huge, powerfull, intense guy, who would come and go admist fireworks and smoke, both in the ring and out. He was MASSIVELY over, and his match against Hogan on Nitro was probably the biggest thing EVER in WCW, besides the Hogan-Sting confrontation of 97. Once again everyone needs to be reminded that having a large moveset has nothing to do with quality of a wrestler. I dont think Dean Malenko couldve gotten as much reaction, and/or sold out 40,000 seats at the georgia dome, even against Hogan. Goldberg did. Not overrated at all, as someone such as this is pretty much impossible to overrate, unless your an idiot. Lots of idiots UNDERRATE the guy though, that can definately be said.

 

[Dragonslayer]

Good post. Personally, I've actually marked for Goldberg when WCW pulled that "streak" angle (yes I'll admit I fell for it), but back then I hadn't watched wrestling in a long time, and I also didn't (yet) care for "great technical matches" all that much. I said in another thread that I just love the larger-than-life feel that the 80ies era in wrestling had, and Goldberg was just such a creation that could've come right from that time. He reminded me personally a bit of the Warrior (who also was very intense, but who also was not a good technical wrestler), and I loved this intensity about him. So with me at least, the Goldberg project of WCW definitely worked - and even if he only did the same handful of moves all the time (kick, that one submission leg lock, Press Up to Front Slam, Spear, Jackhammer) - there's a ton of guys who also use the same routine of "trademark" moves EVERY match - guys like Cena with the "five moves of doom", HHH or HBK all have their routines, even if the latter are overall better wrestlers and can work with worse opponents as well, Goldberg could never really carry anyone to a good match, he would have to be carried; the majority of his "streak" matches were mostly squash matches anyway - but they just worked perferctly for establishing his character.

But concerning my much-appreciated "AWE" factor, that was so present in the characters and the storylines & spectacles of the wrestling-80ies - Goldberg had THAT more than any other creation of either WCW or WWE in the late 90ies, or even in the 2000s... Even if Kane worked really well in WWE, he was also a sideshow attraction at first, whereas Goldberg was pushed straight to be "The Man" everyone wanted to see beat Hogan.

Nowadays, I believe Batista is more or less the successor of characters such as Warrior and Goldberg, even if he is a little "tuned down" compared to those two, as he also has calm side and talks "normally" from time to time, a thing which Warrior or Goldberg never did much.

Maybe the comparison of those three guys may seem a bit far-fetched; but considering that all three men had impressive physiques, were very intense (Batista even admittedly took the rope-shaking from Warrior, and apparently now also uses the Jackhammer), not the best technical wrestlers but still managed to capture A LOT of fans - I daresay the "Goldberg-Concept" has worked in every wrestling generation from the 80ies onward, even if in slightly different incarnations with a few variations. But essentially, Goldberg was WCW's version of the Warrior (before they brought the actual Warrior lol), adapted to WCW's style at the time; and Batista is the evolution (no pun intended) of those two characters in today's generation.

Of course I'm not saying that is an undeniable fact, and not that it would matter much anyway in the context of this topic lol... but I thought it was an interesting point to consider.