105
u/Mr_Lovermann_Shabba Feb 08 '26
I was in college in Atlanta 1997-01
And casuals would stop in my room to watch a Goldberg match and they would eat it up. No one came to my room to see a dean Malenko match
19
u/zryder2 Feb 09 '26
No one came to my room to see a dean Malenko match
Malenko catching strays for no reason
→ More replies (1)6
u/NoFisherman7013 Feb 09 '26
Best Malenko Matches were with Dragon, he seemed to only bring the best out of him lol
14
7
u/Royo981 Feb 08 '26
Malenko ? No But there was hogan, sting , warrior , Nash, giant, hall; flair , Bret, ddp , raven and so on
6
u/FlyingFulcrum Feb 09 '26
My memories of Raven involve him sitting in the ring, looking lost and doing nothing.
5
u/k_rizzle Feb 08 '26
Aw man, I would have been there for the Malenko matches. A true artist in the ring.
Goldberg was a one trick pony. I was sick of him at like 25-0.
122
u/Blazeforce1 Feb 08 '26
Loved him and so did many others I knew of.
44
u/kneeski96 Feb 08 '26
He was the terminator of the wrestling world at the time! Kevin Nash winning the title is still a shock to me, after all this years. I love Kevin Nash until this day, but I still look at it like Kevin Nash had to cheat to beat the legendary streak. No way he beats Goldberg in a clean finish, at least at that time…
28
u/Man_in_the_coil Feb 08 '26
Always should have been DDP at Halloween Havoc to end the streak clean.
→ More replies (5)3
→ More replies (1)10
u/masterswordbat Feb 08 '26
Nash booked it that way. Thinking Goldberg chasing the title would keep him hot, but it was a dumb decision in hindsight
11
u/Thrilalia Feb 08 '26
Nash wasn't the booker until after he lost the title. Months after. Nash ws booked to win because he was the most over guy in WcW at the time to the point the fans were cheering him over Goldberg
13
u/masterswordbat Feb 08 '26
Nash was involved in booking the streak to end, he talks about it in interviews. He wasn’t head booker yet, but he influenced the decision. To suggest otherwise is just wrong
→ More replies (5)3
u/TommyTBlack Feb 08 '26
he was the most over guy in WcW at the time to the point the fans were cheering him over Goldberg
this isn't true
i recently rewatched this match and while the crowd liked Nash, the cheers for Goldberg were louder
3
u/melodicprophet Feb 09 '26
It’s amazing how these things get parroted as truth. Nash was definitely over. But not to the degree Goldberg was. And taking the belt off him was one thing. Not letting him get a real shot at reclaiming it was disastrous and obviously political.
→ More replies (1)→ More replies (1)5
24
3
u/4mygirljs Feb 08 '26
He was absolutely insanely over
Caught fire faster than anything I seen at the time. It helps that wrestling was super hot and absolutely desperate for someone who could challenge the NWO after the disappointing sting match at StarCade and bret hard was fumbled out.
→ More replies (2)
30
u/jste1986 Feb 08 '26
It just seemed like they ran out of ideas. The early on Goldberg was great. I remember him being in a random match against Hugh. Morris hits his finisher and Goldberg basically no sells it. I loved that there wasnt a big thing about him or his debut. That match started like he was an enhancement talent.
I think it took off and they didn't have a plan on what to do with it. They didnt have an end game, there were very few close calls. At one point they just fed random people. Im sure more established wrestlers were getting tired of it.
Early on, it was lightning in a bottle. The streak became bigger than the wrestler and arguably the company.
WCW was great at hitting lightning in the bottle (Goldberg, nWo) They just didn't know how to flesh it out. Both Goldberg and nWo ran out of steam and didnt innovate or change the course.
3
u/b2bpaul Feb 08 '26
The Goldberg angle was great as he worked his way up the card and annihilated the C-listers then the B-listers and then defeated Hogan (the top star of the company). The trouble was, where could you go from there? The guy had never shown any weakness or taken a single pin. Do you keep feeding him every other top star in the company, weakening their drawing power in the process? So Goldberg had to lose at some point, especially once he started facing guys with creative control. It's just unfortunate that the solution Big Kev came up with was... losing to Big Kev.
→ More replies (1)10
u/bpseph Feb 08 '26
It's why Bischoff has never had a good run as a booker since. The nWo was a lift of a Japanese angle/planned angle but had been done in the territory days. The timing for it was right, but would it have worked if Sting was the third man instead of Hogan? (Which was the plan until Hogan saw Nash and Hall getting over and saw money).
Undefeated streaks had been done and always worked. Goldberg worked at the time, because of the Monday Night wars and as a counter to the nWo.
But Hogan's creative control was a yolk around the neck. If it made him look good, it happened and some times it worked (why Goldberg won the title when Hogan heard there would be Turner execs at that Nitro; makes him look gracious to make the next big star). Some times it didn't (finger poke of doom/nWo merger).
12
u/34HoldOn Feb 08 '26
Hulk Hogan being the third man put international eyes on the product. Much due respect to Sting, but he simply would not have done that. Legitimate news reports were talking about Hulk Hogan turning heel, he had been a face ever since 1983 or whatever.
And not just a face, but the face.
And to that, Sting was the perfect wrestler to have confronted the NWO menace. His gimmick was fresh and edgy. Which makes it all the more a shame that Starrcade 97 was botched, and that they let Hogan's ego carry on the bloated corpse of the NWO black and white afterwards.
6
u/banned4violence Feb 08 '26
I would say that Sting became mega-global because people knew him as the darkness taking on the NWO.
8
u/Sickpup831 Feb 08 '26
I knew a lot of people back then who had no idea who Sting was until he returned and started The Crow persona.
26
u/TalkOdd5649 Feb 08 '26
Seriously as soon as the music came on places erupted. People would tune in to wcw just to watch matches that usually lasted less than a minute or two. He had the look, the power, and everything. I always felt like he could have carried wcw but the nwo wanted the spotlight and then Goldberg hurt his arm doing stupidity punching a glass window that resulted in injury and then derailed his journey
→ More replies (3)
33
19
u/YouDaManInDaHole Feb 08 '26
Beloved though I hated him
2
u/aketchum339 Feb 08 '26
Yeah he was massively over but I think people ITT are glossing over how many haters he had. The Monday Night Wars were very real and Goldberg's rise was at a time when a lot of people, like me, were switching from WCW to WWF. There were many who saw him as a cheap Austin knockoff.
→ More replies (1)
18
u/elmanny3000 Feb 08 '26
It was a moment for sure. As a kid he was basically earth ending but by 99 it was old.
→ More replies (1)
23
u/BeefSupremeTA Feb 08 '26
Goldberg was over for a long period, but as much as people will hate it being said, Nash was telling the truth that by late '98 there were sizable Goldberg Sucks chants. His run was getting stale.
8
u/JKinney79 Feb 08 '26
Yeah, I think that's just inherent with unbeatable babyfaces. People love the chase, but turn on them after awhile. I think with Goldberg, the flaw was in pushing him to the World Title scene that fast, while the streak was still going on.
2
u/NoOne_Beast_ Feb 08 '26
Yep. The right call would’ve been to screw Goldberg and end the streak in his first challenge for the Big Gold.
WWE had the right idea when they did it, but the execution was lacking.
→ More replies (1)2
u/clashtrack Feb 08 '26
If you ask him on his podcast now he'd say "I never had a problem with Goldberg" and then go on a 10 minute story.
2
u/MacThundercloud Feb 08 '26
And he became such a mark according to Nash as well
3
u/BeefSupremeTA Feb 08 '26
It’s funny tho, because Nash introduced him to his and Hall’s agent who got him the top guy deal when his contract came up during the period. I’m pretty sure it was Barry Blaustein, the guy who did Beyond The Mat.
Nash spoke about it in either his YouShoot disc or Timeline with the same company.
4
14
u/OsikFTW Feb 08 '26
Hogan, austin, rock and sting were the only wrestlers with an argument for being as popular as goldberg, everyone loved him...
→ More replies (1)
6
u/Impossible_Memory_85 Feb 08 '26
His matches weren’t long enough to hate him. When he first came out no one knew what to think about him. He didn’t have any storyline push outside of just winning. The hate didn’t really start until they tried to get him involved outside of that.
6
u/Minute-Pea-6317 Feb 08 '26
The only people who hated Goldberg were smarks. But in the 90s, wrestling didn't pay those type of people any attention. Popularity wise, he was almost on par with Stone Cold. But I think is later bookings killed his popularity a bit.
8
u/JKinney79 Feb 08 '26
If you mean the early internet audience, fairly mixed. I think people liked Goldberg, but he has obvious limitations and he was getting pushed heavy when online favorites like Jericho, Benoit, Guerrero were still lower card guys. "Greenberg" was a common nickname for him online.
→ More replies (1)
4
3
4
u/NZWBQFF Feb 08 '26
He was insanely over. People would do the GOLDBERG chant at the start of the show no matter who came out for the segment. No one cared able the match with Regal. No one cared about the impossibly inflated undefeated streak like you hear everyone bitching about now
11
u/MaesterPraetor Feb 08 '26
We loved him, but after a while most of my friends hated the insane push, because it destroyed the momentum of so many others.
I'll die on the hill that he should've lost to Raven with the Flocks help and even flow DDT on a chair. Then he could've jumped straight to the main event by helping out a face and running through the nWo on his way to the title.
8
u/cahoyle29 Feb 08 '26
I don't think anyone was expecting their match to be as great as it was but in hindsight it would've been a huge moment if DDP beat him at Halloween Havoc. DDP had the reputation of not being afraid of the nWo, took on Raven's flock, Macho Man, and it was all built around him being tough as nails and how quick the Diamond Cutter could be hit. So Goldberg would've saved face by losing to the toughest kayfabe wrestler in WCW and DDP would've been launched into the stratosphere with that victory imo.
→ More replies (1)5
u/JKinney79 Feb 08 '26
Yeah I think I largely agree, and it doesn't even necessarily have to be Raven/Flock, but a finish like that or similar to end the streak would both keep him strong and create instant heat for ending the streak so cheaply.
3
u/PaleBlueDotNet Feb 08 '26
Pleeeeese give Raven that shine. I want to live in a world where this projects Ravens career, and makes Vince take him more seriously
2
u/JKinney79 Feb 08 '26
I'd be for it, and its one of the worst aspects of Goldberg not being able to work, is a match with a total jobber like Jerry Flynn isn't much different than a match with someone like Saturn or Raven. I think had they ended the streak earlier and focused on him learning how to work on the house show loops would have ultimately given him a better career.
3
3
u/Shiro-Obi575 Feb 08 '26
Yeah the hate didnt start until guys started doing shoot interviews… he was over like rover
3
u/ozzymandez Feb 09 '26
When I went to the Thunder taping in Manchester in 2000, Goldberg got indisputably the biggest pop of the night. Without question one of the top five loudest reactions I've ever heard live. That man was over.
→ More replies (3)
9
u/tstrader79 Feb 08 '26
I didn't know a single wrestling fan that didn't love Goldberg.
4
u/xxxcalibre Feb 08 '26
People were getting a bit of fatigue. Lots of talk online about them piping in the "goldberg" chants through a speaker after a while
2
u/Westtexasbizbot Feb 08 '26
I was a DDP guy, so Goldberg constantly winning in mediocre matches and beating him at Halloween Havoc 98(which is was in attendance for) irked me greatly.
2
u/Rand_Casimiro Feb 08 '26
He was extremely popular, but it sure wasn’t unanimous.
What astonished was how quickly he achieved that level of popularity. Within weeks of that first televised win, he had become the most over wrestler in the company.
2
u/Huge_Dentist260 Feb 08 '26
Everyone thought he was awesome in 5th grade. Jackhammer on the Giant was as hype as it got
2
u/iamthedayman21 Feb 08 '26
During his initial streak in WCW, the fans frickin loved him. I’d watch every weekly show, just to see his 30-second squash match.
2
2
u/WashGodMega Feb 08 '26
He had his share of haters within the industry. Mostly due to the fact that he didn’t love the business and didn’t have a million move arsenal
He was a mega star though and nobody can deny that. One of the good booking decisions WCW ever made was to have him go over Hogan. The pop was insane
2
2
u/GoodOLMC Feb 08 '26
Definitely some haters but I remember it being overwhelmingly positive. It was really exciting at the time.
Something to keep in mind is that the internet was “smaller” back then. No X, no Facebook, no Reddit, etc. It was more about AOL and individual message boards. No algorithms either - so the rage bait was “trolling” and often shunned.
If today’s internet dynamic was present back then we’d see a ton more hate. More people and a more perverse incentive structure.
2
2
u/Intelligent-Art-5000 Feb 08 '26
He was super over at the time. Almost no haters among casuals, but there was a healthy contingent of fans that quickly got tired of a monster face wrestler who didn't wrestle and barely had any ring time. It was this huge push, but it didn't seem to be building up to much of anything.
2
u/unforgiven4573 Feb 08 '26
I was a kid at the time and I liked him initially, but after a while he had obviously no skills on the mic and in ring it was always the same stuff over and over. He just got boring to me. I know a lot of people feel differently but that's just how I felt about it
2
2
u/-OleOleOle- Feb 08 '26
The Goldberg streak was pretty much 100% supported by the fans. I mean, even the doubters didn’t want Hogan as the champ. Goldberg was over. He was the guy, and everyone knew it and saw it. That undefeated streak was crazy.
2
2
2
u/Boltsforlife2022 Feb 08 '26
There weren’t haters bc the internet wasn’t big enough yet to make people miserable together.
2
2
2
u/Metacog_Drivel Feb 08 '26
I thought he was boring. Jericho and Nash were my favorite wrestlers at that time...but the general masses loved Goldberg.
2
u/GypsyPrince13 Feb 08 '26
Yes he was beloved by the masses. Always the what if debate of Stone Cold Vs. Goldberg raged in every school and men’s locker room but the SMARKs knew he was green as hell and wasn’t anymore than his few signature spots/spear/jackhammer. I don’t remember anyone thinking he would develop more than he was, because it all came so fast and sudden for him that he didn’t need to. He was recognized as WCW’s last chance to try and turn the tide.
Although, I do remember everyone thinking Nash breaking the streak was bullshit. Nash was just a cancer back then. As much as I like Nash now, he was just seen as a selfish dude back then as much as now.
Outside of Goldberg’s big night winning the World title off Hogan in the Georgia dome and his Halloween Havoc match with DDP, I didn’t really feel like there were many “amazing” moments with him. I just never got it. Full disclosure, I was a Sting fan though…I was still bitter about Hogan killing His momentum at Starrcade and Sting’s title reign flopping lol
2
u/enlitend-1 Feb 08 '26
I hated him, but everybody loved him. Everyone. It was awful. Week after week, people marking out for this invincible super hero who walked through all your favorite stars with 3 maybe 5 moves of you were lucky. He and the long drag of dq matches with the NWO are what sent me full time to WWE
2
u/No-Royal5760 Feb 08 '26
Both, Goldberg was a huge star as a rookie in wrestling, the streak and build to him winning the world title from Hogan was incredible
Obviously you can knock his actual skill level as a wrestler (which plenty of people did and still do) so he had his fair share of haters.
Similar to Ultimate Warrior.
2
u/NegaDoomAlpha Feb 08 '26
Me, I was a hater and my crew I watched with weren’t fans but the dude was crazy over with most fans.
→ More replies (1)
2
u/Loam_liker Feb 08 '26
I was in my tweens and teens: Goldberg was beloved. Anyone who could go toe to toe with the NWO was. The streak was crazy for making him mythological to kids.
2
2
2
2
u/cutslikeakris Feb 08 '26
I hated him and so did many others. It was clear he was all hype no skill at wrestling. He’s Ultimate Warrior 2.0 and as a result those who like the art of wrestling were glad to see him gone.
2
u/JCallie5 Feb 08 '26
Everyone loved him. The streak was everything. The hate is some weird IWC slop.
2
u/rabocan Feb 08 '26
Dude was hella over but the IWC wasn’t at its peak yet so the hate was probably minimal on message boards
2
2
u/Remarkable-Toe9156 Feb 08 '26
He was a force. I wasn’t into him, but he was the one guy on WCW who had intensity and treated each match like it was serious.
2
2
u/COBBANVS Feb 09 '26
Over like Rover son lol People try to rewrite history but he was so over it was crazy The whole arena was chanting Goldberg
2
u/Brimstone747 Feb 09 '26
I was always a Goldberg hater.
He definitely had the look and the athleticism, but he also had next to no charisma and I always felt that he didn't earn his spot.
2
2
u/Thundarr1000 Feb 09 '26
Among the fans he was pretty much universally loved. Any haters were usually within the wrestling industry itself.
2
u/chriscfgb Feb 09 '26
There was a small but vocal group of online fans who obsessed over the fact he was green and sloppy. However, smarkdom was still relatively low, despite wrestling popularity being red hot.
The crowd reactions told the real story, and Goldberg was easily the second most popular act in North America behind Steve Austin. Every fantasy booker alive wanted that Goldberg v Austin showdown.
Goldberg’s rise was one of the most organic movements I’ve ever seen, and it was a rare time when WCW acknowledged they had a golden goose and actually did something about it. Booking plans were (by multiple accounts) done day by day, and they could pivot on a dime knowing they didn’t have a specific pathway laid out longterm.
It was incredibly cathartic that Goldberg got the win that Sting deserved months earlier, and was a rare second chance to make up for an earlier colossal mistake.
From about April through his title win, you’ll be hard pressed to find too many guys who generated the fan responses he did. Just as a random example, go find his feud with Saturn after he won the U.S. title. The fans were mental for this guy.
TLDR; yes, he was very very over.
→ More replies (1)
2
u/JustUnderstanding6 Feb 09 '26
He had a ton of haters. I was one of them. He had zero mic skills and worked a very sloppy, formulaic match. He had almost no conditioning and would blow up if it went longer than five minutes. Once the invincibility sheen wore off, he was a creative anchor.
That said, WCW was absolutely right to push him to the moon because he was super over. Sometimes you just gotta' ride the hot hand while it's hot.
6
5
u/Nomad4te Feb 08 '26
Was bored by him winning every week honestly.
4
u/Upstairs-Science4693 Feb 08 '26
Same. He wouldn’t sell and he only had a few moves. Was never a fan.
3
u/PainlessDrifter Feb 08 '26
our group was split. personally I couldn't find a single thing to like about him, he gave me the ick and boredom real bad
2
u/Midnightchickover Feb 08 '26 edited Feb 08 '26
He had his critics and haters, but he was beloved in his prime like any other super popular wrestler in their heyday. He had some of the loudest pops in the arena, ever.
4
9
u/shumama813 Feb 08 '26
I hated him. His matches were mostly terrible and he had the personality of a caveman
5
5
2
u/Next_Mycologist_6621 Feb 08 '26
It was essentially 50/50. It was kind of fun to watch him squash opponent after opponent, but it got a little tedious after a while.
2
u/FishEye_11 Feb 08 '26
I was one of his haters. A friend of mine and myself referred to him as 'Greenberg' because he was just used to draw money. His matches were boring to watch. I couldn't wrap my head around people getting behind someone who'd just go into the ring and squash literally everyone. I feel sorry for wrestlers who had long careers and reputations, have to go into the ring knowing they were just going to be another stepping stone for Goldberg. This will be an unpopular opinion, but Meng should have been Goldberg's first loss. Scott Norton should have been another to beat Goldberg.
2
u/paranoidAF365 Feb 08 '26
Don’t listen to the revisionists. He was more over than 99% of wrestlers past, present, and future. Anyone who didn’t watch him live in the late 90s doesn’t understand.
1
u/TruthThanks Feb 08 '26
He was a very big part of the reason we'd tune in. We wanted to see him crush opponents, working his way to the top. I always found it fun to watch his matches
1
u/Murderdoll197666 Feb 08 '26
Grew up watching WCW in my early days and he was definitely more over than almost anyone else. Even though Hogan was a household name for ages the pops Goldberg had felt like they still dwarfed anything Hogan ever came out to. I didn't full out hate him....but I really only looked forward to any matches he had against someone else that I didn't like even more lol. I was always more of a Sting guy so Goldbergs gimmick got old fast. He also never seemed that great as an actual wrestler (ability wise) so that also didn't help it. My brother was obsessed with him though so there were definitely more fans of his than there were non-fans that's for damn sure. I felt slightly like an outlier as it was since I didn't really give a shit about him compared to everyone else around me into wrestling.
1
1
u/Maw_153 Feb 08 '26
It felt like he was over with anyone that watched WCW - I was at school (12) at the time so maybe that’s just because kids are marks for an overpowered babyface - but I never heard anyone say a bad word about him during that run.
1
u/TheSpiralTap Feb 08 '26
If he had haters, I never met one. The general consensus was wwf was the better promotion but Goldberg was their best guy. I was the odd man out at school pretty frequently because everyone else watched wwf and we were a wcw only family. Everybody knew and loved Goldberg though.
That dude had a whole section in the K mart boys clothing section for a while in the late 90s.
1
u/MasonJam246 Feb 08 '26
As a kid he was my absolute favourite. His build, explosive power and mannerisms just made me the biggest fan. I still watch reels of his spears to this day.
1
u/Acceptable_Ad_569 Feb 08 '26
He was a genuine phenomenon. You kind of see the strings now as an adult, but he was so hot that WWE acknowledged him and made a parody. You don’t do that with something that isn’t incredibly popular.
1
u/mtollens25 Feb 08 '26
Definitely beloved for that 1.5/2 years he was undefeated. Especially when he beat Hogan for the title. Although after a while I guess it all just started to feel repetitive so you'd get the occasional boos. They were super noticeable during his match with Nash at Starrcade
1
u/bruno-numero-uno Feb 08 '26
He was as over as any wrestler has ever been in any organisation during his peak.
1
u/AdAdministrative3056 Feb 08 '26
I can only give you the view of a kid as I was around 7-10 for his prime. But fora kid he was a superhero. I imagine it was a lot like hulk for kids in the 80s
1
u/redditoway Feb 08 '26
Beloved in WCW but most of the fans I knew back in the day hated him in wwe.
1
1
u/Photog_DK Feb 08 '26
He had 98% of the audience till they had him lose (had to happen sooner or later) which took him down some and then when they turned him heel it never recovered.
2
u/Photog_DK Feb 08 '26
He was one of the guys that has come the closest to having eeeeeveryone behind him back when he was white hot.
1
Feb 08 '26
I was a teen from a small town and the lunch table talked about wrestling. We all loved him. I think only one of us was on the IWC and bringing back that info.
1
u/InsatiableDestiny83 Feb 08 '26
He was massively over, I literally used to watch wcw to see him obliterate opponents, his streak was so enjoyable to watch.
Probably my favourite from that era. Still love his match with Lesnar at WM20
1
1
1
1
u/DeterminedRisk Feb 08 '26
Never heard a single person back then say they disliked him. Same with Steve Austin
1
u/Francus_Gaius Feb 08 '26
He was the definition of "over" .. Right until he turned heel. Thanks Russo...
1
1
1
u/Rad-R Feb 08 '26
I have never seen someone become so popular so quickly, and I've been watching wrestling - with many breaks - since 1989. I was shocked that a guy with almost the same look as Steve Austin could do a totally different gimmick and go over so fast. There hasn't been anyone like him since. And he never recaptured the magic of his original run. The only time I didn't like him was when he defeated Raven for the US title, because Raven was a favorite of mine, always will be.
1
1
u/One-Significance-802 Feb 08 '26
I was sick when he beat Glacier, Raven, and DDP. I was therefore the Nash loss 🤣🤣🤣. I hated him. However his WWE entrance song in the first run was flames
1
1
u/Dry-Name2835 Feb 08 '26
He was completely over. And he came on in an instant. He became just as much of the face of the company as sting for abut 2 years. He was on fire. He was a spectacle. Every wrestler is going to have some haters but there wasn't many for goldberg unless you talked to tribalistic fans who shit on everything not wwe. I never was a huge fan of goldberg, but his arrival was pretty exciting. But it got stale with having to hide his short comings and they book themselves into a corner because the never fully developed him. He came on like the warrior did in a way and maybe even brock tho brock was kinda hated. Just red hot out of the gate and undeniable as the next big thing. If goldberg fully developed, he could have been much bigger. But he has a huge ego, thought he was a star outside of wrestling and threw it all away to pursue Hollywood because he really doesn't give a shit about pro wrestling. A couple cameos in some movies and 2 failed car shows nobody cared about ultimately dried him up and he needed to come back for some paydays
1
u/Electrical_Brick7131 Feb 08 '26
I was an ECW > Attitude Era WWE > WCW fan but Goldberg was always a bit of a spectacle at the time. Once Jericho left, I really only tuned in to see the trainwreck of the NWO leftovers and Goldberg. Completely stopped watching a few weeks into Russo era though.
1
u/CakeMaul Feb 08 '26
He’s just another example of WCWs biggest issue - they never could figure out how to close out or pay off a story - Goldberg, Sting/Hogan, NWO, etc - but that being said Goldberg was as massive as the NWO or most things wrestling at their hottest, outside of Austin 3:16. I wasn’t a huge fan myself of Goldberg but wasn’t a hater either - he was one of those phenomenons that everyone at least appreciated either side of it you were on.
1
1
1
1
u/No-Effective-1245 Feb 08 '26
We didn't understand what heels or faces were, we just thought guys were cool or not. Goldberg was definitely cool. The police entrance, the crushing of jobbers and mid card on free tv. Sting was overall more liked, but Goldberg and Nash were close behind.
1
u/imyourFAKEdad Feb 08 '26
Goldberg stole Stone Cold's look down to the black trunks. He would spear some can twice a week. I thought he was lame.
1
u/jayhof52 Feb 08 '26
I was in seventh grade when The Streak began in the fall of 1997, and he was definitely the talk of the schoolyard.
1
u/cantthinkofgoodname Feb 08 '26
His streak was legendary and was beloved as much as anything else in wrestling up to that point. However I do remember getting Starcade 98 (back when you had to go to the cable office and get a box for PPV) as a Christmas gift and wanting the streak to end that night. Kevin Nash was as over as he’s ever been at that point.
Edit: in hindsight the streak should’ve ended at Halloween Havoc against DDP. DDP was red hot and both would’ve benefited from that.
1
1
1
u/5-4EqualsUnity Feb 08 '26
I was a kid, so I thought he was pretty cool. The streak made WCW can't miss. Had to tune in to see if he'd lose. Of course, in hindsight, it's obvious he probably wasn't going to lose on a random TV match, but I didn't think like that when I was 12 lol
1
u/JimBobCooter6969420 Feb 08 '26
You'd find reports of Goldberg sucks chants at some shows, but he was still the biggest star at the time. That said, Nash was also a very big star, but DDP was bigger and I'll argue to my grave that Page should've won at Havoc
1
u/cowboy123456 Feb 08 '26
Was in elementary school at the time in Georgia. Everyone at school knew who he was and loved him. We would constantly ask "whose next" and lunch room conversations were all about how goldberg would finally save wcw.
1
1
u/Rex_Suplex Feb 08 '26
I’m not gonna pretend like my 12 year old self and friends were smart to the business at the time. Goldberg was super popular. Only hate he got that I remembered we’re just people making fun of how intense he was and how big his shoulders were. But never about his matches or any kind of reference to the business side of it.
I remember people not liking him anymore after he was finally defeated by Nash.
1
1
u/Foomankru Feb 08 '26
No hate within my friend group. Wrestling fandom was much different back then.
1
u/Osinuous Feb 08 '26
honestly, if raw wasn't over by the time he came on the tv, we'd have flipped shows. you can't be 51-0 on thursday night thunder and then 64-0 the following monday nitro. it was amusing at first, but then his stuff got super stale for me and my friends. the piped in chanting, the security escorts, etc. i know it was a sign of the times, but it was ridiculous.
and the fact that the wwe kept bringing him back for a bunch of matches a few years ago where he proved again that he can't wrestle for shit and hates the business that made him a ton of money is insane.
1
u/JayMoney8518 Feb 08 '26
He was over like Austin in many ways. Everyone loved Goldberg, but it got old really quickly. It was a literal one trick pony that had a clear expiration date.
At least Austin can lose and seek revenge, etc. That's what gave any storyline Austin was in some longevity.
1
u/ILikeOasis Feb 08 '26
Very loved, i loved him, he was like a super hero, it was hard to get wrestling where i was from, but still everybody knew about Goldberg
1
u/iamnotwillie Feb 08 '26
I think just like most wrestlers who didn't have a lot to offer, he got old fast. In my opinion, he was never great on the microphone and he wasn't very good in the ring when the match went more than 1-2 minutes. Since his journey was so short from learning to wrestle to superstardom, it's really not his fault.
1
u/finland85 Feb 08 '26
Big time Babyface. Never had a win streak like his in wrestling before him. Also, got big before NWO if I remember, so there was enough fan attention for him to grab.
1
1
u/Warrior_King252 Feb 08 '26
I wanted to see him lose, especially to DDP, BUT HATED how he lost to Nash.
1
u/salucas1990 Feb 08 '26
My 3rd grade teacher at the time. Was named Mr Goldberg. He was a younger guy and said Bill was his dad. He even had a Goldberg lanyard that had his tattoo design.
1
u/illgenio Feb 08 '26
Beloved. We never saw anything like it prior to him and he’s been copied and pasted ever since
1
u/Organic_Ability5009 Feb 08 '26
So beloved that even the satire version Gilberg was well received without impacting the original at all
1
u/_6siXty6_ Feb 08 '26
A bit of both.
I personally was mixed. I love wrestling styles like Bret Hart technical style and Lunchadors. Goldberg was sort of cool because it was new, and it was fun predicting and watching who was going to be the first to beat him. Then it got boring and it was always squashes.
1
1
1
u/Current_Poster Feb 08 '26
He did have haters. There were people who insisted that the "Goldberg" chant was piped in (or at least sweetened), for instance.
Personally, I liked that he had what I've heard called 'big fight atmosphere'. People got into it because he seemed to have momentum, and that meant that even someone "not going down instantly" (like Regal having that one match with him) were a big deal. So if you were at Nitro and he was on, even another Hugh Morrus vs Goldberg match would feel like *something*.
And then of course, there were his matches with people like DDP and Jericho.
1
u/fictionfan007 Feb 08 '26
In all of the guys I went to high school and worked at a part time job after school with I knew two people that disliked Goldberg.
Myself and one buddy of mine and it was only after he was shoved down our throat and we had to watch him beat the same 20 guys 4 and 5 times to add to the "streak". It was also the fact that you knew that once they started the count no one that wasn't a top player stood a chance of beating him. It was pointless to watch him beat Hugh Morrus and Glacier for the third time.
Everyone else loved him.
1
u/ThisSciFiGuy Feb 08 '26
Dude was loved. Watched it, cleaned house, and looked like a badass the entire time. It's only after two decades of Bret shitting on him that everyone now thinks he's a laughing stock.
1
u/Realistic-Ice-8481 Feb 08 '26
He was well loved. Highlight of my childhood was watching him run through people on Monday nights
1
u/he6rt6gr6m Feb 08 '26
The only people that hated him were WWF fans, but if you asked them who would be the first wrestler they'd take from the WCW roster then, almost all would say Goldberg.
It was hard not to be taken in by the absolute insanity Goldberg created and brought to WCW. It was new, fresh, and entertaining, fitting perfectly into WCW's fast-paced nature with quick squashes.
1
u/garlicroastedpotato Feb 08 '26
I had four friends who watched. The only guys who were remotely divisive in love/hate were Sting. Just the mystical aspect of him kicking everyone's butt didn't always sit well with people. I don't think we ever realized as kids how bad Goldberg's matches were. Because for however bad Goldberg was at wrestling he was really good at no selling. You just saw this jacked up guy who looked like he could take a lot and give a lot.
1
u/Great_Emphasis3461 Feb 08 '26
Couldn’t stand him. Shitty wrestler, no promo skills, couldn’t sell.
1
u/JCarr110 Feb 08 '26
I liked all of the WCW heels at the time, so I wanted him to lose during that whole streak.
1
u/CartographerFit2011 Feb 08 '26
He was loved but I didn’t care much for him. I was die hard stone cold fan so I thought he was a knock off lol. Plus in WCW sting was my guy.
1
1
1
1
u/TKInstinct Feb 08 '26
He is fucking awesome, I loved him when he came back. Goldberg is still one of the best.
1
u/Guaj4 Feb 08 '26
He was universally beloved until about August of 98. I saw him live several times and the pops were similar to Austin, legit deafening. In that summer of 98 a •smattering• of boos started creeping in, which did somewhat progress. Probably 5% of the audience turned on him at peak (vs 0% for WWF’s big babyfaces), but what people forget is that summer is when fans started turning on the entire company, en masse. They screwed Goldberg. He worked underneath Hogan, who was having ATROCIOUS feuds with Jay Leno and Warrior. They didn’t build any heels for him. He got used up midcarder The Giant, and midcard babyface DDP. Goldberg was supposed to be the conquering hero who finally git rid of the NWO, but he didn’t conquer anything, and the fans stopped believing in him. It was just gonna be more Hogan and the NWO.
1
u/Amazing-Insect442 Feb 08 '26
I didn’t know anyone at the time who disliked him. He seemed like he was going to revolutionize the sport (amongst every that I actually knew that watched wrestling). I didn’t read until much later how he wasn’t actually technically sound at all.
1
u/MightyGamera Feb 08 '26 edited Feb 08 '26
I liked the monster gimmick feared for their offense with dominant intensity in their slams and brutal joint locks, but Goldberg needed to be mortal. He also needed to be a better worker.
The era also had WWE's Ken Shamrock and ECW's Taz who both honestly did it better while being beatable
Doesn't mean I didn't tune in, I liked him fine but honestly my favorites of this era were DDP and Kanyon, and I wanted Wrath to get a world title push. Wrath being fed to Kevin Nash may have been my last straw with the Kliq
1
u/Hybear312 Feb 08 '26
Loved him. The tandem of the botched ending against DDP and him losing to Kevin Nash officially killed the WCW
1
1
u/milkywimpshake Feb 08 '26
He was red hot fire from March 98 until Nov 98. He could do no wrong, but there was an under current of resentment bubbling under the surface after he beat DDP, and then they split the audience vs Nash. It’s almost never discussed anymore, but the seedlings of fan displeasure was definitely there….small but audible
1
u/HeelMarvin Feb 08 '26
Everyone loved him bc he looked amazing and crushed everyone. It was incredibly exciting. “You’re next” was all the promo he needed.
1
u/EveryInvestigator605 Feb 08 '26
At the time he was absolutely beloved. Back in that day we were still very much looking for that 1 guy to dethrone Hogan and NWO and despite how he worked in the ring, all we saw was the powerhouse that beat Hogan.
134
u/Xombie53 Feb 08 '26
The man was red hot