Goldberg. In the late 1990s, he was a sensation for WCW. A powerfully built, no-nonsense wrecking machine who plowed through opponents on a bi-weekly basis.
His winning streak—made up mostly of scrubs that he’d eat up in under five minutes—became one of those things you came to expect on WCW Monday Nitro and Saturday Night. Hell, if you were lucky, you’d see him run through someone on WCW Pro and Worldwide.
The streak was also what created the legend of Goldberg. However, it became old fast since it was extended a little too long. It did propel him up the roster at a record pace but eventually, he’d be in the pool with the Big Boys.
The Lay Out of WCW in the Late 90s
To say this was a possible booking problem is an understatement. If WCW had a brand split—and it was in action early—maybe it wouldn’t be a problem but you have to look at the roster of talent that the company had who were up next for the main event.
The company had a young Booker T who was rapidly improving and had yet to be tested on the mic, Diamond Dallas Page who was an obvious main event babyface, and an odd fit for the company in a seasoned Raven. We’re not even going to get into the other talented ECW talents who were snagged.
You also had the intimidating and visually impressive The Giant, Scott Steiner who should’ve been steadily pushed towards the main event in the first half of the 90s, and the large crew of superstars who had either left WCW for the WWF and returned or were scooped up when their WWF contracts were done.
WCW had a loaded and bloated main event picture, so a draft was actually necessary but there are too many variables to get into with the WCW-Turner Broadcasting relationship that made this a mess.
Goldberg Rising
We’ll look into that at another time. As for Goldberg, watching him as a teenager I thought “This guy is a badass! He flattened that guy!” Watching old episodes of Nitro and the PPVs from the period now and it’s like “Where were they going with this?”
The problem doesn’t come from his run with the U.S Championship. That’s a natural progression for a green wrestler with a lot of box office appeal.
Sure, he skipped over the Television Championship but never mind that. No, the problem came for what you knew was next. Unless he lost the title and was put on a path to regain it, Goldberg was marching towards the World Championship pool.
Before that, you had Scott Hall and Lex Luger who could’ve been floaters into that deep end as well. While the booking committee made it work with what had to be magic, it seems like an odd fit looking back.
When Goldberg lost it was going to be significant and WCW made it well within how the nWo does business. However, you had these main eventers who weren’t going down in position for the most part.
Savage became a floater of sorts by 1998-1999 and Flair was given other things to do. This had Savage kind of main event adjacent but clearly not out of the main event. Some people had to go or be demoted to make Goldberg work and the company had this next wave of main eventers waiting in the wings.
Ultimately, having a superstar look worthy of being in films and comics and a rocket pack strapped to your ass can help in speeding past more viable, grinding wrestlers.
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