Goldbergs streak wasn't all that exaggerated

[relentless1]

Despite what WWE revisionists might tell you, Goldbergs streak wasn't that unbelievable if you do the math...

Goldberg was undefeated from Sept 22nd 1997 to Dec 27th 1998; thats 66 weeks.

His streak was stopped at 173-0

173/66 is 2.6

thats 2.6 matches a week, round that up to three; include WCW Saturday night, Nitros, House Shows and Thunder thats pretty easily doable.

Just another petty history change from the WWE brass.. Though id share

 

[Lowdown]

This is surprising to no one, at least it shouldn't be. It's what WWE does when it comes to anything positive that WCW did. If I recall, they didn't exactly treat Booker T like a former world champ upon his arrival to WWE. I forget if they even recognized him as a former champ until he finally won in '06.

 

[OYDK]

If you count every single match he won in a row including dark matches, tag matches, and battle royals, his record was 99-0 before he lost to Kevin Nash.

The 173-0 thing was a completely fabricated number by WCW.

 

[ShinChan]

The streak's only purpose was to hype Goldberg as the undefeated monster who squashes most of his opponents easily. And in my opinion, the streak duly served it's purpose.

The 173-0 win record/streak has no proof of being totally correct. I too don't think that Goldberg would have won this amount of matches before he eventually lost to Kevin Nash of all people for the end of his streak.

So yeah, it's pretty much doable.

 

[Weems2k]

Over half those wins came against Jerry Flynn, Roadblock, and a few of the Vilanno's.

 

[Azane]

I'm trying to remember examples, but there were weeks that the streak gained 8 or 9 in a week, and was lower the next week. Like someone said, for known matches it's around 100-0, so it's not too exaggerated, 100-0 would of been a cool legit end, and added more speculation that he could lose at Starcade.

 

[relentless1]

I'm marathoning Nitro now and one week saw it jump from 60 to 66 lol... I digress however, its still well within the realm of believability that he could amass 173 wins in 66 weeks

 

[Just Do It]

Heenan summed it up: the undefeated gimmick was over, it was a draw, the people bought into it, the people wanted it. Ending it in many ways was the start of the end of WCW, 1999 was the year (in the first quarter). There was no sense in ending it.

 

[Rip]

I'm marathoning Nitro now and one week saw it jump from 60 to 66 lol... I digress however, its still well within the realm of believability that he could amass 173 wins in 66 weeks

How are you marathoning it? I've been wanting to do this but I can't find a source.


Anyway, I don't think it really matters. It's in the realm of believability and it worked. I think it's silly to say that because the number itself is fake, it somehow detracts from how great of a performer he was.

 

[Azane]

WWE network has Most Nitros, but they're edited in so many stupid ways, it's painful. (Hear Jericho's Break the walls down theme, DDP's theme being completely changed, etc...)

 

[agentmichaelscarn]

I was at a Nitro in early June of 1998 and the number was 99 and 0. I remember because I made a sign that said "97-0" because he was 94-0 the previous Thunder so I figure I play it safe and add a match for each day. Nope when the show aired they showed my sign and Heenan said something like "You can add 2 more to that". So he "won" 5 matches in 4 days.

 

[HBKperfect23]

Interesting. I have no problem with them adding made up wins to the streak since, like previously stated, was done to hype up the gimmick.

My question is: Was WCW even doing house shows at the time? I read bischoffs book and he had mentioned they were losing money left and right on house shows and he had stopped doing them completely.

 

[shooter_mcgavin]

Interesting. I have no problem with them adding made up wins to the streak since, like previously stated, was done to hype up the gimmick.

My question is: Was WCW even doing house shows at the time? I read bischoffs book and he had mentioned they were losing money left and right on house shows and he had stopped doing them completely.

Apparently the fake numbers eventually ruined their House Show business. For awhile die hard WCW Goldberg fans would keep track of his win streak and would have signs to show the number but once WCW started using fake numbers the fans stopped caring and the house show attendance dipped.

 

[Xpyred013]

While i agree that WWE loves its revisionist history, wasn't it former employees from WCW that have said the number was full of crap and fabricated?

 

[Woodstuff]

Who cares? It was 20 years ago. Goldberg is remembered as an undefeated monster because of it, so it did it's job. WCW adding numbers shouldn't really surprise anyone, since 173-0 is insane. No one could stay unbeaten that long without becoming stale as hell. Especially a character as two dimensional as Goldberg.

 

[Jack-Hammer]

Does it really matter? As has been stated, the purpose of the streak was to hype Goldberg, it was a popular draw and it ultimately worked. The exaggeration has been the greatness of the streak itself when you factor in that most of the wins came from squashing jobbers.

 

[TDFG]

WCW was doing house shows at the time of Goldberg's streak, a lot of those victories would have been against Bobby Eaton, The Armstrong's, Flynn etc.

As for WWE and it's version of history, a certain wrestler called Tatanka had a longer streak than Goldberg, I wonder if anyone out there knows how many matches his streak went on for during that 2 year stretch?

 

[GameOver]

WCW was doing house shows at the time of Goldberg's streak, a lot of those victories would have been against Bobby Eaton, The Armstrong's, Flynn etc.

As for WWE and it's version of history, a certain wrestler called Tatanka had a longer streak than Goldberg, I wonder if anyone out there knows how many matches his streak went on for during that 2 year stretch?

2 years (unknown amount of matches) but he lost matches at house shows during that time. However during that 2 year period he was never pinned or submitted.

 

[Phenomenal]

Screw his fabricated streak, the fact of the matter is that he was the Brock Lesnar of the 90's. Any one of us wouldn't complain being a Goldberg in the business.

He was the man, his legacy is stamped and will be remembered as being more popular than all the of the wrestlers combined today.

 

[Just Do It]

"Brock Lesnar of the 90's" is funny, because Brock was based on Goldberg in many respects.

 

[shooter_mcgavin]

A bit off topic but I was watching the Goldberg episode in the Monday Night War Documentary Series in the Network.

Somethings I noticed

First, Kevin Nash was critical of Goldberg almost criticizing his main event spot saying he didn't know how to work a 20 to 25 min match. Which hilarious since most one-on-one WCW PPV main events at the time barley passed the 10 min mark which Goldberg was able to do with DDP and had a good match. Meanwhile months later he headline a PPV where his match was 7 mins long.

Second, that said Goldberg looked like a complete doofus in the documentaries as well. I know the interviews with him was recorded back in 2004 but he bad mouthed Nash and Hogan playing their political games, ending his streak, and cooling off his momentum. Yet during his hot 98 run Goldberg spent listening to Hogan and Nash backstage to the point where both Hogan and Nash convinced Goldberg not to work with Jericho on PPV. Sure Jericho designed that PPV to elevate himself but he built a hot angle for Goldberg and Jericho probably could have given Goldberg a good 10 to 15 min match shutting up Nash criticisms that Goldberg couldn't work longer matches. Yeah Goldberg looked like a complete idiot bad mouthing Hogan/Nash in 2004 but gave those two his ear for most of his run.

 

[MrHashasheen]

Interesting. I have no problem with them adding made up wins to the streak since, like previously stated, was done to hype up the gimmick.

My question is: Was WCW even doing house shows at the time? I read bischoffs book and he had mentioned they were losing money left and right on house shows and he had stopped doing them completely.

They only did one or two a month during 1998, since at one point in that year they had eight or nine hours of live television a week and the live shows weren't drawing nearly as well as the tv episodes were.

 

[Chris1-16]

They only did one or two a month during 1998, since at one point in that year they had eight or nine hours of live television a week and the live shows weren't drawing nearly as well as the tv episodes were.

Where did you read that at?

1998 was WCW's most successful year when it came to drawing $ at live shows.

 

[justtxyank]

If you count every single match he won in a row including dark matches, tag matches, and battle royals, his record was 99-0 before he lost to Kevin Nash.

The 173-0 thing was a completely fabricated number by WCW.

I can't believe I'm bothering to do this, but wrestlingdata has over 150 recorded victories from 1997 to the end of 1998 and that I can see they don't count the ones where he beat two guys in a handicap match and WCW counted it as two victories.

You can view the stats here: http://wrestlingdata.com/index.php?befehl=bios&wrestler=21

Wrestlingdata is known to miss some matches, but not to make them up.

 

[Deoxyribonucleic A.C.I.D.]

Just checked Cagematch.net.

From 23.06.1997 to 27.12.1998, Goldberg has 151 matches, meaning that the streak ended at 150-0.

That's the official number.

I think not all dark matches and house show matches could have been calculated, meaning that the 173-0 is very much realistic.