What made Goldberg different from the rest?

[agentmichaelscarn]

Throughout the last decade or so there have been countless wrestlers that have been like Goldberg as far as their character and style of wrestling, basically just a no nonsense guy that has no mic skills, isn't a great wrestler but just goes out there and wins a bunch of squash matches like Goldberg did. He had no gimmick, no mic time and his average match was like 2 minutes yet he was without a doubt the hottest thing going in the WCW in 98. He was insanely over, yeah he had some canned "Goldberg" chants before his entrances but there's no denying the pops that he drew. When he beat Hogan for the title in July of 98 that may have been one of the biggest pops I have ever heard, that place went ballistic.

So my question is why or how did he get like that? Yeah WCW pushed him big time but he was getting huge pops and was over big time before WCW even started making a big deal about the streak or talking about him alot. There have been many instances where a guy goes on an undefeated streak and looks dominant like Goldberg did but they rarely ever get over and never to the extent of Goldberg. What made him different from those guys? I was a huge fan of his myself and I never usually like guys like that and I don't have an answer why.

 

[HHHDiedForOurSins]

Unlike most big guys who come in with a winning streak, Goldberg was actually entertaining IMO. I don't care if he wasn't a great technical wrestler, he was exciting to watch, his entrance was awesome, his intensity made you believe he was actually gonna kill the guy he was wrestling, his power moves were cool and they didn't fuck with his gimmick, at least not at first.

Compare him with Vladimir Kozlov or Brutus Magnus or countless other guys over the years where companies have tried and failed to follow the Goldberg formula, these guys are just plain boring to watch, no matter how many guys you have them beat, that's not enough to get you over, you need to connect with the crowd, and Goldberg definitely did, the only people who've come close to his success with that type of gimmick since then have been Brock Lesnar & Batista.

 

[avi01]

He was one of the rare new guy to make it WCW. And yes they were very rare, it was always the old guys...never making the place.
Other than that, he was very charismatic...great entrance, could really feel it.

Now compared to guys like Kozlov who had undefeated streak. He was a lot .....a loooooot more entertaining to watch and am not even a Goldberg fan.

 

[Gelgarin]

Simple. Goldberg was a face.

You're correct when you was that the Goldberg character has been done to death. It's hard to pinpoint a moment in the past decade when the WWE hasn't had at least two monsters on the rosta, competing in regular squash matches.

The difference is, guys like Snitsky, Koslov, Henry and the rest are all heels. They're all cookie cutter. They're something that any fan of more than two years has seen done before, and that's why nobody ever cared about them. Instead of being just another generic monster, efforts were made to make Goldberg seem... well... cool.

There were other factors that contributed. Early on he wasn't required to do that much, and served as more of an attraction then as a wrestler (in much the same way that guys like Andre and early Taker did). As such, his limited ability was never exposed, and although he was pushed to the moon, he was seldom shoved down peoples throats enough for them to start resenting him.

Also, going back to the whole 'face' thing, during his prime, you have to consider how many competent baby faces WCW actually had. The NWA was running each and every show, and with the exceptions of Goldberg and Sting, every face in the company was booked to look weak and/or stupid. The cynic in me suggests that the WCW crowd would have gotten behind Joseph Stalin if he showed signs of unseating the NWA from power.

There were of course other factors, no question can ever be reduced to a simple binary state answer. Goldberg did play his character well, had a reputation for being fantastic with the fans and feuded with a bunch of the best heels in the industry. Wrap it all up in a neat little package, and you get the answer as to why Goldberg worked. In today's industry, I don't think the character would. The closest comparison we're being given is Angry Joe in TNA, but I think it's too early to judge who that's getting over.

 

[PBA_Sensation]

the answer to why no one can come close to touching Goldbeg is because unlike him, all undefeated wrestlers since then have either been pushed down our throats and we get tired of them quicker, or the guy is a heel that no one roots for...as previously stated.

His main thing was that his undefeated streak went relativly unnoticed for at least the first 6 or 7 months. No one really noticed and the announcers didnt remind the viewers week in and week out. Its sad when Koslov has Michael Cole reminding us every week that "KOSLOV HAS NEVER BEEN PINNED HERE IN THE WWE".

It helps get your gimmick over when its natural fan reaction over the product constantly putting over the fact that they haven't been beaten in such a short amount of time.

 

[travistragic]

I think we also have to keep in mind that Goldberg's "success" didn't really hold up too much longer after the streak. In fact, I think when the WCW Universe actually bore witness to a man stupid enough to punch through a car window with his bare hand was probably the end of Goldberg's big hoorah in wrestling. Then WWE brought him and made him look like a joke.

Yeah, Koslov isn't getting anywhere close to getting over, but if he were pushed as a face, with a similar ridiculous entrance, and they called him something more American (maybe a touch less Jewish) he would've gotten over just the same, the same way Batista got over just the same. I think Koslov, as a wrestler, is a slight improvement over Goldberg (if that counts for anything), but WWE doesn't understand that monster heels aren't getting over anymore, that sneaky, evil heels like Orton, Edge, and Jericho are the way to go, at least for the time being.

 

[jellmoo]

Right person, right place, right time was the start of it.

Goldberg had a great look. He essentially looked like a jacked up Steve Austin. Say you want you want about his ability, the guy was frickin intense, and that really came across on the screen.

The problem though was that the bookers took the cheapest and easiest way to get a guy over. Make him unstoppable and have him crush *everyone*. Unlike other undefeated streaks, Goldberg's was seriously prolonged. It was also filled with complete squash matches regardless of who he faced. Most other streaks would try and make their top guys look competitive when they jobbed them. Goldberg was booked to dominate every established guy he faced.

 

[Kennedy316]

...and they called him something more American (maybe a touch less Jewish) he would've gotten over just the same, the same way Batista got over just the same...

Kozlov is more Jewish than Goldberg?

Or am I reading that wrong?

And if I'm not reading it wrong, why would his name being even slightly Jewish or not have anything to do with how over he is? Case in point...Goldberg. News Flash: He's a Jew. He was WAY over.

Honestly, Goldberg got over because he was intense and, while not the most technical wrestler, as everyone can state, he was good with the powerhouse moves. And that's all he really needed to be.

 

[jazzua]

Never like Goldberg. I liked Gillberg more, lol. The difference is that he was a face. He also had a crazy look. The man really looked like he could kill anyone in 2 minutes. Unlike alot of the other guys they try this gimmick with he wasn't just a big dude. He had a hell of a body and his intencity was unmatched. That's all it took.

 

[BDennis69]

I think we also have to keep in mind that Goldberg's "success" didn't really hold up too much longer after the streak. In fact, I think when the WCW Universe actually bore witness to a man stupid enough to punch through a car window with his bare hand was probably the end of Goldberg's big hoorah in wrestling. Then WWE brought him and made him look like a joke.

Yeah, Koslov isn't getting anywhere close to getting over, but if he were pushed as a face, with a similar ridiculous entrance, and they called him something more American (maybe a touch less Jewish) he would've gotten over just the same, the same way Batista got over just the same. I think Koslov, as a wrestler, is a slight improvement over Goldberg (if that counts for anything), but WWE doesn't understand that monster heels aren't getting over anymore, that sneaky, evil heels like Orton, Edge, and Jericho are the way to go, at least for the time being.

and how did WWE make him look like a joke? The put the WHT on him. They let him beat the crap outta rock on his first day there. And they let him beat Brock Lesnar in both of there lasts matchs, so i dont see how WWE made him look like a joke

 

[SinCityBlitz]

He had the whole company behind him. Politics didn't have a chance to be played yet. He came along at the perfect time. He had the look and he played that well. Austin being so over at the time helped.

When the whole company puts everything they have behind you and they don't interfere(you could learn from that Vince) with it you will get over.

 

[DeadmanInc.]

I think it was timing. During Goldberg's era, the nWo was dominating WCW and everyone and their mom was joining it. There were very few Faces that could actually pose a threat to the nWo. The fans needed a hero. That's when Goldberg came in.

He may not have had mic skills nor technical wrestling skills but that didn't matter. Goldberg was a powerhouse and he made it believable. He didn't need to say much on the mic. All he had to say was WHO'S NEXT and you knew someone would be getting their ass kicked. His intensity was unmatched in the ring and even his entrance was intimidating. Combine all that and you had a very formidable threat to the nWo.

 

[ZEUS]

It wasn't just the fact that it was a streak. In the beginning, it felt like it was a nobody guy making good (no promos before his debut). And then, they took their time with his streak. How long was he just dominating jobbers for? Once he made it to beating mid carders, how long did it take to move up to main eventers? A LOT. Not like Kozlov, who was hyped to beat all hell, and just couldn't live up to his hype. Nobody expected anything from Bill Goldberg pretty much until his feud with Raven. He would go out and beat the snot out of anyone, but he wouldn't be put over as a huge megastar, he was just some guy. People identified with that.

 

[pyrusane]

For the most part I agree with what everyone else has said, with just a couple of exceptions.

A big point that everyone has been making is that he was a face instead of a heel. Um, not really. He didn't really turn face until after he started getting over. For the first part of his run he was pretty much neither, just a guy that came out to the ring, squashed somebody, then left. I still remember after his first match against Bill DeMott (Hugh Morris) how Okerlund tried to interview him and he just shook his head and walked off.

IIRC, his first real feud was with Mongo McMichael, which sort of makes him a heel, since Mongo was a Horseman, and feuding with the NWO. As I recall, Debra gave him Mongo's SB ring in exchange for him taking McMichael out in the ring.

Really, I think the main reason that he got over to begin with was the air of mystery around him in the beginning. I remember when he came out for that first match, I was watching Nitro and thought to myself "Who the hell is this guy?" I was actually a little pissed that he was getting airtime with no introduction or buildup, and I was surprised when he won. The fact that he kept wining without having anything to say about it built interest, and was something fresh to draw attention away from the ever more ridiculous NWO storylines at the time.

Just my two cents...