Bill Goldberg is coming back to World Wrestling Entertainment. Who would have thought that would ever happen, right? It’s surreal sitting here in 2016 writing about the comeback of a man who last appeared in a WWE ring in 2004.
It’s not just that Goldberg is coming back at age 49, but he’s doing it likely at Survivor Series in a match against “The Beast” Brock Lesnar. If Goldberg came back against a smaller guy or somebody that could bump around for his offence it would probably be better for him.
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However, against the brute force of Lesnar, there’s no doubt that it’s going to be a physical match.
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On this past week’s Raw, Lesnar’s advocate Paul Heyman did a promo about how it still bothers Lesnar that Goldberg beat him in their one and only match at WrestleMania 20 in 2004. It was an infamously bad match that the New York City crowd booed for much of the night and both guys left the company.
Lesnar came back eight years later. Goldberg is coming back twelve years later. The Survivor Series match isn’t official yet, but it likely will be announced in the coming weeks. In order to get us ready for that match, let’s look at five of Goldberg’s biggest matches from his career in WCW and WWE.
#5 The Match That Started The Streak
There’s no legendary career of Bill Goldberg without “The Streak” so if we’re talking about the biggest matches then the match that started The Streak has to be on the list.
It took place on September 22, 1997 against Hugh Morrus, who was a WCW mid card wrestler during most of his career. Goldberg was a physically imposing looking guy that we had never seen before, but with his black trunks, black boots and shaved head he did resemble Steve Austin a bit although he clearly, was a bigger man.
They wrestled for a few minutes with Morrus nailing a moonsault off the top rope. Goldberg kicked out, which was a surprise. Goldberg nailed a couple of power slams and then finished him off with a suplex into a slam that we would come to know as the Jackhammer.
Goldberg’s win streak saw him win 173 matches in a row, which is a fake number WCW made up to make it sound more impressive. However, he couldn’t have got going without this match.
#4 Defeating The Rock At Backlash 2003
Goldberg made his WWE debut on March 31, 2003 when a cocky heel version of The Rock was talking about how great he is. He was ready to finish a speech when suddenly, Bill Goldberg was shown walking in the arena and he met The Rock with a devastating spear much to the delight of the crowd.
Over the next month, they built up to Goldberg's first televised match in WWE as he was set to face The Rock at Backlash.
It was a really good feud since Rock did everything he could to annoy Goldberg, who really didn't speak a lot. Goldberg always let his actions do the talking for him, which is what made his character work so well.
When they got to Backlash, most fans online knew that The Rock was leaving WWE as a full-time wrestler to pursue his Hollywood career, which obviously was a smart move for him in retrospect. Before he left, though, he apparently thought enough of Goldberg to really put him over clean.
Their Backlash match went about 13 minutes and while most people may not remember it as a classic, it was a significant moment in Goldberg's career because he got to beat one of WWE's biggest stars ever in his first WWE match. Goldberg beat The Rock with a Spear followed by a Jackhammer.
#3 Losing the WCW Title to Kevin Nash to end the streak at Starrcade 1998
This wasn’t a great moment if you were a Goldberg fan but in terms of big matches it has to be included. This was not only the night that The Streak ended but was also the end of Goldberg’s only WCW World Title run.
Goldberg went into Starrcade 1998 as the WCW Champion against Kevin Nash, who was a big name in the company that was also influential in terms of the creative side as well. It was one of those matches where most people thought Goldberg would be put to the test by a big name like Nash, but ultimately Goldberg would find a way to retain his title.
That’s not what happened.
The finish of the match was very cheap as the likes of Disco Inferno and Bam Bam Bigelow showed up. Then Nash's buddy Scott Hall was at ringside wearing a security shirt. He used a stun gun object on the body of Goldberg as a way to cause pain. Nash took advantage with a Powerbomb and covered Goldberg to win the title and end the streak.
Goldberg's streak ended that night and for a lot of people, it was the end of WCW. Once The Streak was over they just didn't know how to run a wrestling company in a way that really built up new stars.
To this day, it remains one of the stupid booking decisions WCW ever made.
#2 Winning the WWE World Title vs. Triple H at Unforgiven 2003
Goldberg’s run in WWE lasted from April 2003 to March 2004. He was booked like a main event star from the beginning as he beat some pretty big names leading up to a summer feud with Triple H, who was the long-term heel World Champion on the Raw brand.
They had a big Elimination Chamber match at SummerSlam 2003 where it looked like Goldberg might win the World Title at one of WWE’s biggest shows of the year, but he came up short thanks to Triple H’s evil ways and help from his friends.
At Unforgiven on September 21, 2003, Goldberg faced Triple H in a singles match for the World Title with Goldberg’s career on the line if he lost the match. It was pretty obvious that Goldberg was going to win and that’s what happened as he found a way to overcome the obstacles that Triple H put in front of him to win the World Title for the first and only time in his career.
Goldberg’s nearly three-month reign as the World Champion was okay, but nothing special. He dropped the title back to Triple H in a triple threat match, which showed that even though WWE invested a lot of money in Goldberg, they didn’t really want to put him over Triple H.
Though his title reign wasn’t that significant, winning a major title in WWE is definitely one of the highlights of his career.
#1 Winning the WCW World Title against Hulk Hogan on Nitro
The date was July 6, 1998 and Goldberg was challenging Hulk Hogan for the WCW World Title on Nitro. It took place at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta with over 30,000 people in attendance. At that point, Goldberg was undefeated on WCW programming for about nine months.
Not only was he undefeated, but most of his wins came in matches that took three minutes or less. He also went into the match holding the United States Championship, so he was looking to hold WCW’s two biggest titles at the same time.
The match featured one of the hottest crowds in WCW history. Hogan was hated for two years, being the top guy in the company as the leader of the New World Order. Even though Hogan had put over the likes of Lex Luger and Sting, he always seemed to find a way to the top as the WCW Champion.
When he met Goldberg, though, Hogan was unable to take advantage of the undefeated monster.
Goldberg dominated the matchup as he came back from everything Hogan threw at him, nailed an impressive Spear on the veteran and as soon as he picked him up, the crowd went wild because they knew what was next. Goldberg hit a Jackhammer to win his first and only WCW World Title.
While it was a great moment for Goldberg and WCW as a company, it also made fans scratch their head wondering why they would give away this match for free on Nitro instead of making fans pay for it on a pay-per-view?
There’s no real answer to that question other than to say that WCW cared more about television ratings than they did in actually making money through PPV buys. Poor decisions like that are why the company died three years after this.
It was probably the loudest crowd reaction in WCW history and to this day remains the highlight of Goldberg’s career so far.
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