Should the Giant have ended Goldberg's streak?

[relentless1]

The Giant or the Big Show as he's currently known was a huge force in WCW in 1998, should it have been him who ended Golbergs streak that year? He was a credible guy to do it; young, plenty of room to grow and he'd already been the WCW champion twice...beating Hogan and Flair...so he had the pedigree to beat a top guy like Goldberg. If they kept Giant, would that have kept other stars that left? would others get pushed based on this push for the then 27 year old Giant?

 

[Vader]

The Giant hit his stride early in his career. I think his success was mostly due to Hogan trying to manufacture another Andre feud for himself. Without Hogan I think he would have eventually been pushed. He clearly isn't as stale in the ring or on the microphone as Andre, and in an age where many still thought wrestling was real, it's hard not to have someone so large at the top of the company.

If I could have rebooked 98. I would have had Goldberg emerge on the scene and beat some of the lower card guys in WCW. Since the US title holder was supposed to be the #1 contender for the World Title (whenever that was convenient), I'd have Goldberg demand a shot at Hogan only to find out he has to beat every member of the NWO to get it. As Goldberg runs through their roster, he ends up against The Giant at Halloween Havoc who he beats. With all of the members of the NWO beat, Hogan still somehow swerves Goldberg out of a title shot.

WW3-Sting vs. Warrior in the main event.
Goldberg wins the 60 man battle royal.

Goldberg goes onto wrestle and beat Hogan in 98 at Starrcade with Sting and the Warrior fending off the NWO.

Goldberg goes onto wrestle early in 99 against Sting or Warrior.

Sorry to jack your thread, but no I don't think The Giant ends Goldberg's streak. He definitely should have had another title run, and had drifted into the mid-card after the Finger Poke of Doom. Maybe the Giant takes the title in 99 from Goldberg.

 

[justtxyank]

No. The Giant had gotten out of shape and lazy in 1998 and by the end of that year he was on his way out of WCW. It's not entirely his fault, Nash had a big part to play in it. His unwillingness to do the smart thing with The Giant was ridiculous. The Giant was hurt by the other stars in WCW, despite being heels when he was a mega face, not being willing to play the role of the scared heel.

This is where Hogan doesn't get enough credit. Hogan sold his butt off for guys and he never gets credit for it. As Hollywood Hogan he put over every face he came up against, even if he was going to beat them, by selling the fear factor and then taking the beating during stretches of the match. As a babyface he sold the offense of every heel he faced until he did the Hulk Up routine to end it. A lot of top stars refuse to put over the offense of their opponent.

 

[berlinbrawler]

This is where Hogan doesn't get enough credit. Hogan sold his butt off for guys and he never gets credit for it. As Hollywood Hogan he put over every face he came up against, even if he was going to beat them, by selling the fear factor and then taking the beating during stretches of the match. As a babyface he sold the offense of every heel he faced until he did the Hulk Up routine to end it. A lot of top stars refuse to put over the offense of their opponent.

LOOOOOOOOL. Now I've truly heard everything. People praising and defending Hogan's selling abilities. Hogan putting over people. In WCW no less.
I mean, yea, sure, heel Hogan could do the sniveling and begging stuff, but in order to really sell your opponent' offense you need to take bumps and that's something Hogan rarely ever did. And let's not forget that the whole "Hulking up" thing was basically a routine of absolutely no-selling the opponents finisher followed by no-selling everything else the guy throws at Hogan until the big boot of doom and the legdrop of death humiliate and defeat the guy.

Back on topic, though, the giant was not the guy to end the streak. Someone already mentioned this - at the time he had gotten fat and sloppy, due to his understandable unhappiness with the company and he was very damaged from the shoddy booking of the months prior. The Giant wasn't the guy to do it and Nash cwertainly wasn't either. At that point in time Goldberg should have had the belt for at least half another year. Dunno who should have eventually beat him.

 

[justtxyank]

LOOOOOOOOL. Now I've truly heard everything. People praising and defending Hogan's selling abilities. Hogan putting over people. In WCW no less.
I mean, yea, sure, heel Hogan could do the sniveling and begging stuff, but in order to really sell your opponent' offense you need to take bumps and that's something Hogan rarely ever did. And let's not forget that the whole "Hulking up" thing was basically a routine of absolutely no-selling the opponents finisher followed by no-selling everything else the guy throws at Hogan until the big boot of doom and the legdrop of death humiliate and defeat the guy.

You are right that Hogan didn't take bumps. That's a big part of why he stayed healthy for as long as he did. You are just wrong to say he didn't sell for his opponents. The Hulk Up no sell routine is not the same as not selling. That suddenly becoming invincible because of a surge of energy thing is something a lot of wrestlers have used, but no selling is different. No selling is when you are degrading the match story because you aren't good enough or chose not to sell the match as it is happening.

Hogan sold offense and his matches always told a good story. He was believable taking a beating from guys bigger than him, he could sell a worked over leg, his facial expressions would show exhaustion, etc. That was selling the match. You compare that to most stars who "sell" a move by taking a bump and then acting like nothing happened. It's popular today to say that Hogan couldn't do anything in the ring, but it's just not true. His matches were believable as both a heel and a face.

 

[Jonyboyuk2]

No. I think Hogan should have at a major PPV, with the NWO being banned from Ringside (Hall and Nash anyway) and should have had someone major turn - like Sting.


The streak had to end and I am happy with how it did in the end anyway.

 

[sMark]

You know, between Hogan in WCW and HBK in WWF in 1996-1998 i honestly find Hogan way more kind to his opponents (despite that he, unlike Shawn, had full creative control and wasn't forced to do sh*t), Michaels sabotaged many of his opponents on purpose, while Hogan sold every face in front of him, Nash, Giant, Hall, Sting, Goldberg, DDP, he even took a loss from Jay F'n Leno...while HBK was screwing Vader and Bret and acting like a total jerk. if HBK didn't hurt his spine WWE could be a history just because Shawn wasn't willing to put anyone over, it took Taker and Austin to threat HBK before WM14 to put Stone Cold over, means the believe backstage was Michaels will not put new face over even on his way out, Hogan may do his thing to stay on top, but he also do his thing as a wrestler.

As far as question goes, i totally fine with Nash beating Goldberg at Starcade. Nash was the number 2 face this year, so him facing #1 face make sence, the victory also wasn't clean, far from it, so i don't really understand why everyone have so much hate for this very match. Was Sting or Hogan a better choice? Maybe, but Nash was ok too. Giant wasn't booked to be a legal threat to Goldberg this year, so, no.

 

[relentless1]

I just remember through watching old Nitros how they would hype up the Giant, specifically against Goldberg saying that this would be Goldbergs toughest challenge and "can he get him up for the Jackhammer". The match they had in November of 1998 they had him kick out of the chokeslam which was stupid booking; he's near the ropes, have him show a little weakness by putting his foot on the rope at least, gives you an opening for a rematch...Anyway, I think Giant or Scott Steiner should have ended the streak in 1998, they were the next crop of main venters and could have bridges the gap between Hogan, Flair and Sting to guys like Jericho, Benoit and Guerrero.

 

[ilapierre]

Should The Giant have ended Goldberg's streak? No. Goldberg should have gone through NWO until winning title from Hogan at Starcade. And in 99 it should have been Bret Hart that ended the street. Goldberg should have stay champ and undefeated until the next Starrcade.

 

[goalieman31]

No giant beating would be a bad idea. They had already made giant look weak with their booking throughout 1998. As for taker and austin threatening michaels to put over austin never happened. Nothing was ever said to shawns face this coming from michaels and austin. He just wanted to make people sweat cuz he was a dick dude put over psycho sid for christ sake.

 

[MrHashasheen]

No. It should have been Booker T or Scott Steiner. They had the believable build, the inherent credibility and the WCW credentials to make it worthwhile.

 

[FlairFan2003]

No, Nash was the best choice....WCW throrughly botched the aftermath but Nash was one guy who had never really crossed paths with him, was in his prime, and not only had a good won-lost record in WCW but had a year long run without a loss as WWE champion, which was used in the promotion for the match.

I do think Giant vs Goldberg could and should have been much bigger, wasting it on Nitros and the mid card on off month PPV was stupid. Giant aka Big Show was physically huge, one guy who clearly would not have been intimidated by Goldberg's size and physique, and he could actually wrestle fairly well for his size. He also was a feared member of the NWO and had big wins over Flair, Luger, even Hogan.

Fact is, after winning the title in spectacular fashion over Hogan in July 98, Goldberg was pretty much a mid carder most of the rest of his reign. In AUG he was clearly behind Hogan's feud with Jay Leno, in Sept Goldberg wasn't getting near as much hype as the War Games PPV (main evented by Hogan) and the return of Ric Flair, In OCT he did share top billing with Hogan-Warrior II for his one of title defense vs DDP, then did little worth mentioning in NOV while all the build up for Starrcade involved Nash's character. Between July-Dec Goldberg had/shared top billing for only two major shows and found himself well down the card a few times in matches with little storyline or investment in them. Hogan meanwhile was front and center almost every month, DDP was treated well, the Flair return was big...Goldberg as WCW Champ should have been front and center the whole time, even if the other storylines were close to his but he wasn't.

Thanks to that booking Goldberg's reign, despite it's awesome start, was devalued systematically and really is only remembered for the DDP match and losing to Nash. While he did spend too much time in televised matches against downgraded mid carders like Curt Henning who were clearly out of favor and fading fast on the roster, he also had some very entertaining matches against Sting and Giant that were hastily thrown together and not well promoted - given how big they sound on paper those should have been near epic feuds. WCW blew it big time here.

 

[SCrooked1]

He was on his way out at that point, besides he had lost a lot of his heat after joining the (heel) NWO again w/o any real explanation. Also he was out of shape too, he didn't really care in '98.

 

[CrucifiedRaven]

Nash was a fine candidate for ending the streak. In fact, he may have been the best choice to be honest. Diamond Dallas Page was over enough that he could have done it... it would have been a huge underdog win and helped catapult him, but I don't think the fans were ready for Goldberg to lose at that point. Goldberg as a babyface was more over than DDP. The same could not be said for Kevin Nash, he was incredibly over with the Wolfpac. He was also big enough and being pushed strong enough to be a believable contender for Goldberg, where I never really saw DDP as being that guy.

As for The Giant, no I don't think so. In the latter half of 1998 he really had become a midcarder, back in nWo Hollywood playing second fiddle to Hogan. He already had his second run in 1996 and was pushed hard again in late 96/early 1997. 1998 was not his time (not to mention he showed up in WWF two months later).

No. It should have been Booker T or Scott Steiner. They had the believable build, the inherent credibility and the WCW credentials to make it worthwhile.

I disagree on Booker T, he was not ready in 1998. I'm a big fan of the guy, but he was barely a midcard champion at this time. Scott Steiner definitely could have done it though. In fact, it totally would have helped make him. It just seemed like in hindsight it was always going to be a babyface though.