Goldberg: Love or Hate?

[Tongsoon of Cygnus]

I've become increasingly curious just how all you feel about Goldberg. It seems that there's no middle ground with him whatsoever, people either worship him, or dispise him.

I myself am a worshipper. But, I'd like to know where all you stand.

[neil]

liked him 4 a while was unbeaten.but nothing lasts forever ya know.
neil

[David Bazzy Basnett]

I had no problems with watching him at all . He rocked and helped bring down WWF (in it's war with WCW) ?

[MikeMcKinney]

He rocked in WCW.... his matches were an event.

[Big Bri]

I thought he was a great performer, but not neccessarily a great wrestler. He had the look to be "the man" at the time.

[Werner Mueck]

I didn't like the hype, the piped in chants etc. Didn't like feeling forcefed and didn't like the way everything in WCW seemed to exist to feed his character. I think the main thing though is I don't enjoy squash after squash after squash. I didn't even like it when they turned Goldberg heel for that week and a half. (I'm not trying to offend the true believers here by the way )

[Thad Killian]

I liked Goldberg but his tenure in the WCW did seem to be "we need to put him over"...his entrance is great, his wrestling is alright, and his ring presence is good as well...it is a shame that the WWE just wasted the boy though.

[Tongsoon of Cygnus]

wernermueck said:

I didn't like the hype, the piped in chants etc. Didn't like feeling forcefed and didn't like the way everything in WCW seemed to exist to feed his character. I think the main thing though is I don't enjoy squash after squash after squash. I didn't even like it when they turned Goldberg heel for that week and a half. (I'm not trying to offend the true believers here by the way )

I remember that week and a half, when he "joined" the New Blood with Russo and Bischoff! That was about a joke! Everything else you said makes sense.

[tafkaga]

I am the middle ground. =)

I think Goldberg had tremendous potential. WCW hyped him very well and established him as a monster. The guy wasn't ready to be a main eventer though, and he wasn't disciplined enough to handle that roll. He got too worked up by the crowd in his matches and worked too stiff... didn't take care of his opponents very well. Just ask Bret Hart and Booker T. His art was to no-sell which only put him over at the expense of making his opponents look weak.

As for his actual in-ring talent, I would say that he was an above average wrestler. His matches were rarely dull. He was as good as or better in the ring than just about any of the torch-bearers of his time. His matches were just a little frustrating for me because it was pretty apparent that Goldberg's entire goal was to put himself over at anyone elses expense which is not a very desireable trait. He could have really used some lessons from guys like Ric Flair and Randy Savage in that regard.

I'm voting "Rocked" for the simple fact that I think he could have had a much bigger long-term impact on the business...and I think he still could at this point, but that opportunity is fading the longer he stays outside.

[gwffantrav]

The only reason, and I could be wrong (please correct me if I am), but I voted he sucked. My reason is when he injured Bret Hart, effectively ending his career, he was very nonchalant about the whole thing.

If I'm wrong, please correct me

[Tongsoon of Cygnus]

tafkaga, you make some very strong points.

FanTrav, no you are not wrong. That's a black eye on Goldberg's personality, the way he shrugged off the injury to Bret Hart. His attitude of "sh*t happens" was really out of line in that aspect.

[tafkaga]

Yes that was one great reason why Goldberg was not ready to be a main eventer. Bret Hart probably had another 2-5 good years left in pro wrestling before that match. He could have been wrestling in TNA today for all we know.

There was another match that Goldberg worked with Booker T on a Nitro that left me with this same impression. Booker was the WCW World champion at the time, and Goldberg was executing some very stiff and dangerous moves on him. I wondered if I wasn't just seeing things until Goldberg threw Booker into the metal ring steps seemingly as hard as he could. Booker had no opportunity to protect himself and his forehead rammed into the corner of one of the metal steps which cut him open badly. This was not an incident of blading. The match slowed down and you could tell that this wasn't planned. To Booker's credit he got back into the ring, but the match ended quickly after.

The sad thing about Goldberg's push is that he got too much into his own hype and came out of it feeling that WWE would bend over backward to please him like WCW did. As a result, he's not working much anymore. Yet another wrestler who Hogan attempted to pass the torch to that ran a few feet and dropped that torch.

[Tongsoon of Cygnus]

And see, that's one thing I actually liked about WWE. When he hit Vince's group, I bet the first thing McMahon said to Bill was "things aren't going to be like how they were in WCW". However, sadly, it ended up looking that way in the end.

Vince should have hit the Goldberg/Austin angle as soon as he could. Who wouldn't have paid top dollar to see Goldberg vs Austin at WrestleMania-XX instead of Goldberg vs Brock? I always love to watch that match over and over, just to hear the crowd tear Brock and Goldberg to pieces.

Had the writers developed a story for Goldberg as a heel, I think his tenure in WWE would have lasted longer. He was hated, mostly by the hardcore WWE fans. A heel angle would have been great (and, it might have been an interesting way to turn HHH into a face for a while).

[tafkaga]

As brittle as Austin is these days, Goldberg probably would have shattered him into about a thousand pieces. I really don't think their styles complimented each other at all, and the match between Goldberg/Austin wouldn't have been that great. I think people just wanted to throw them in the ring together because they both wore black tights, boots, were bald, and had gotees. Come to think of it... I don't remember Goldberg having any interesting angles, period. He was always just the guy to come down to the ring, destroy his opponent, and leave.

[Rush]

He was cool at first. Then he got kind of old when he would come out do like 4 moves and win. It was getting very predictable at times.

[slamminsammy]

He didn't like wrestling so for that he gets a suck vote.

Can someone elaborate on this Goldberg-Hart thing. I think this happened when I stopped watching for a while.

[GrumpyBigBee]

could go either way.. like his action but hated when he talked

[Tongsoon of Cygnus]

One thing I absolutely dispised about Goldberg was his constant spitting.

[thefamoustommyz]

slamminsammy said:

He didn't like wrestling so for that he gets a suck vote.

Can someone elaborate on this Goldberg-Hart thing. I think this happened when I stopped watching for a while.

Starrcade '99, Goldberg vs Hart for the World title...Goldberg sent Hart into the ropes and forgot to (or didn't) pull a kick and blasted a running Hart in the head, giving him the concussion that ended his career.

His response was basically "sh*t happens".

Karma reared its ugly head a few weeks later during an angle on Thunder in which Goldberg was chasing the nWo off to their limo. He had a gimmick in his hand, trying to break the window but when the first one broke, he dropped it into the limo. He couldn't retrieve it, so he broke the second window with his bare hand, shredding his arm and winding up out of action for the next several months. All the while blaming everyone else under the sun for getting hurt.

[Rush]

The guy is probably a butt in real life.