The Rock and Goldberg were the supernovas of North America’s two biggest promotions of all time: WWE and WCW. In the same year, they both achieved their first World championships and they did so after a brief period on the roster.
The Rock
Making his wrestling debut in 1995, Dwayne Johnson reached the WWE after some time in Memphis to get a little seasoning on him. Once he arrived in 1996, there was a period where fans just did not take to him. He was a young babyface who looked like a blue-chipper and the commentators sold him as such.
However, the fans didn’t see him in the same way. It wasn’t until a heel run with the Nation of Domination that the former Rocky Maivia began to really look like someone worth watching. His progression from member to the leader was quick as the NoD was pretty much ready to come to an end.
The Rock’s 1998 was a major year for him as you just saw him feud with Ken Shamrock and get into rivalries with career rivals Triple H and Mankind. Rocky was getting in dope matches throughout the year and heavily involved in the ongoings of the Attitude Era that year—and it cumulated in a sweet heel turn and his first World title at the end of 1998.
From there, the only things that could stop the charismatic youngster were himself and the lure of Hollywood.
Goldberg
Bill Goldberg’s path to the main event was shorter and facilitated by a steady diet of jobbers with some bigger prey thrown in. Once WCW had fattened him up enough, they brought in dessert: the main event scene itself. Goldberg had some steam behind him, he had this aura of being unbeatable but there were flaws.
He won his only WCW World title in the middle of 1998 but didn’t seem to make significant improvement. He just continued as he had been mowing through opponents until he lost the title to Kevin Nash via shenanigans—reasonable shenanigans given he had been booked to the point of invincibility.
Who Was the Bigger Supernova: The Rock
Dwayne Johnson takes this one easily. He improved over the years to the point that he was delivering legendary matches throughout his prime and could show up and show out at WrestleMania. He would be that superstar that transcended wrestling in a major way. The same can’t be said for Goldberg. With Goldberg, fans bought into his ascension up the ranks with The Rock with saw him stumble, dust himself off, and skyrocket up the roster. We saw actual growth.
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