Trivia / Goldberg

• Creator Backlash:
  • Early in his career he was put into a match with Lord Steven Regal that was supposed to go six minutes, then the longest match of his career, and arguably the absolute worst match of his career. The match exposed Goldberg's shortcomings, and he believes Regal set out to embarrass him out of jealousy and "took liberties" (hit him with real punches and kicks to hurt him). Regal insists that Goldberg froze up at the prospect of having to have a six-minute competitive match, and he had to try and carry Goldberg. When they got to the back Eric Bischoff was furious and Regal told him, "I can't hit myself."
  • Even Goldberg admits that it was pretty stupid to punch a limo window with his bare hands and that the subsequent injury is probably what derailed his career and killed his momentum, and any chance WCW had of building back up around him.
  • As Goldberg himself has mentioned (including in his Hall of Fame speech), he doesn't let himself off the hook for his miserable attitude and acting during the 2003-2004 debut of himself in the WWE. In his Hall of Fame speech, he said he allowed the fast-track of fame via WCW to go right to his head and when he came over to WWE, his ego let him ruin a potentially promising career because he didn't want to play by their rules. While it is mostly agreed that he should've been trained longer, he admits he didn't have a professional attitude towards the company and it led to him having a massive chip on his shoulder.
  • His godawful match with against the Undertaker at Super ShowDown in 2019. He takes full responsibility for how bad it was (though in his defense, he was busted open pretty badly).
  • He admits that his WCW title win over Hulk Hogan should have been done on pay per view instead of on Nitro. This was not helped by the fact that only discovered that he was scheduled to face Hogan when watching the episode of Thunder that aired four days beforehand.
• Enforced Method Acting:
  • Completely by accident. In his Halloween Havoc '98 match with Diamond Dallas Page, at about the midpoint of the match, there was a spot where DDP was in the corner and Goldberg tried to spear him, only for Page to duck out the way and have Goldberg hit the steel post behind the turnbuckle. The problem was Goldberg ran all out - according to DDP himself, Goldberg didn't want to miss the spear to begin with - and hit the post with his shoulder like a goddamn missile! The result was a legitimately injured shoulder, leading to some memorable offense by DDP and the first genuine signs of vulnerability in Goldberg's career. The highlight of the match was a spot where Goldberg successfully hit the Spear - but this aggravated the previous injury and knocked him silly because he'd overestimated how much fight DDP would put up, causing his head to hit the mat first.^note According to DDP Goldberg was used to guys sandbagging him by resisting the Spear instead of taking it properly, so he would Spear them harder than strictly necessary to compensate, and wasn't prepared for a guy like DDP who'd just work with him properly - "I am a napkin". The plan was for Goldberg to lift up Page in the Jackhammer, which Page would counter with the Diamond Cutter and a near fall. But with a hurt shoulder, Goldberg couldn't lift him up! The crowd went insane at the idea that Goldberg couldn't apply his finisher and the thought that this might be the match he loses. He tried again and this time the counter spot went through, which combined was an accidental piece of Wrestling Psychology that couldn't have turned out any better if they planned it that way. (As mentioned in the interview linked above, even DDP thought Goldberg was just selling the injury when Goldberg failed to lift him up the first time.) The only problem was that Goldberg was so loopy from the hit by that point that he kicked out at the instant of "2" rather than a planned "2 9/10ths", but the overall result was by far the best critically received match in both men's career. However many fans at home did not see this match until later, because WCW went over the Pay Per View time limit and the broadcast was cut off mere seconds into it. By the time most fans saw this match they already knew Goldberg had won, and much of the emotional impact was lost.
  • According to Goldberg's autobiography, when Scott Hall shocked him with a cattle prod before losing the world title to Kevin Nash, Hall shocked him for real, at Goldberg's insistence; he wanted to make the loss look as realistic as possible. He immediately regretted it; "When I ate the voltage, I knew why those big beasts were so cooperative."
  • According to an interview Goldberg did in 2019 after his catastrophic match against The Undertaker in Saudi Arabia, this is his approach to wrestling in general, because he doesn't think he has very good Wrestling Psychology that would let him realistically sell moves that don't really hurt. Hence the reason his trademark ringpost spear spots have about a 50-50 chance of actually injuring him every time.
• Executive Meddling: Of the type where the executives don't agree and give conflicting orders. Someone on WCW Creative realized that if Goldberg was going to become a main eventer he'd have to work matches instead of just squashes, and wanted him to learn to work against carefully selected midcarders. WCW's infamously disorganized backstage hierarchy resulted in bookers not being on the same page about this and issuing conflicting orders. The Regal match was the most infamous of these - Regal was told to make Goldberg work, but Goldberg was told it was to be a squash. The same happened at his PPV match against Saturn - the original plan was for Goldberg to work an even match before winning, but some random booker told him shortly before bell that it was going to be a squash.
• Hostility on the Set: Goldberg and Chris Jericho had a backstage rivalry in WCW that carried on into WWE. Jericho was pushing for a storyline with Goldberg, calling him out in some entertaining programs, with the goal being for him to lose to Goldberg in a PPV squash match. Goldberg didn't want to do this because he thought working with Jericho was beneath him (reportedly, some of the veterans were in his ear and told him that working with a cruiserweight would hurt his credibility, and Goldberg took it to heart). Goldberg ultimately won out, and it was this that made Jericho realize that he'd hit the glass ceiling in WCW and left for WWF in 1999. When Goldberg made his way to WWE in 2003, Jericho was willing to make amends, but Goldberg still carried that chip on his shoulder from WCW. The two would get into a backstage fight which Jericho came out on top of after he put Goldberg into a front facelock until other wrestlers split them apart.
• Money, Dear Boy: He has made no secret of the fact that his involvement in wrestling is entirely dependent on how much money he makes from it. He even said that he wasn't a wrestler, he was a football player who decided to try out wrestling. Which is ironic since Goldberg is better known for wrestling than for football.
• Real Life Writes the Plot: Chris Jericho feuded, and lost, with Goldberg only weeks after fighting with him backstage. It should be noted that, by all accounts, Jericho won that backstage fight by getting Goldberg in a front facelock (a fight-ender in real life) twice. Accounts vary on whether Goldberg had gotten out of it himself, Jericho had let him go, or whether other wrestlers broke it up, but at the bell, Jericho was definitely ahead on points.
• Real Song Theme Tune: Megadeth's "Crush 'Em" (as a tie-in with Goldberg's appearance in the 1999 movie Universal Soldier: The Return. After the movie ran its course, he went back to his usual production theme.)
• Throw It In!:
  • Almost his entire gimmick and storyline, according to Eric Bischoff. According to him, a meeting to decide his name ended with "Let's just call him his real name" and everyone rolling with it. His famous "Who's next?" came from a waitress who asked "Who's next" to pay their bill.
  • His trademark spear came from an on-the-spot improvisation by Goldberg in one of his early matches against Stevie Ray. The fans went absolutely nuts the second he hit it, and it was promptly made a signature move. His undefeated streak wasn't planned either, it was the fan responses to the streak that made WCW start hyping it.
• Wag the Director: Absolutely refused to allow an angle where Miss Elizabeth made a False Rape Accusation against him and instead got the angle changed to "aggravated stalking." Though really, who could blame him?
• What Could Have Been:
  • According to Goldberg on The Rise and Fall of WCW, he originally wanted to be called "The Hybrid", but WCW refused because they realized that if they sold merchandise for him, there would be potential trademark issues with a clothing company who share the same name. Goldberg still insisted on that name, stating "I'll never make it that far." but was finally called Goldberg.
  • The greatest What Could Have Been is probably his career in general. WCW, losing their lead in the ratings and giving up ground with the emergence of "Stone Cold" Steve Austin rushed Goldberg through training at the Power Plant and brought him to TV before he was ready. He had a limited skill set which he never improved upon. He was, essentially, the personification of Five Moves of Doom. He had 2-3 minute squash matches and even then he still got over. What could Bill have been had WCW taken their time with him, trained him properly, and let him develop a more rounded skill set? He had a great base; athletic ability (he was an All-American NCAA athlete), strength, body, look, natural charisma...even Goldberg himself has said that he wonders what could have been if he'd have put in more time at the Power Plant before being rushed to television. This even extends to Bret Hart's infamous career-ending injury at Goldberg's hands (or foot), which was attributed by everyone, including a good-natured Hart himself, as being the fault of the Power Plant rushing Goldberg through half-trained. Imagine if the Hitman had managed to extend his active in-ring career by another several years?
  • Goldberg almost signed with WWE (Then WWF) instead of WCW. He had offers on the table from both companies and, in his words, "At the eleventh hour," WCW made him a better offer. What would Bill Goldberg have looked like debuting for the WWF in 1997? Would he have been rushed through training as he was in WCW? Would he have had "the streak"? How would his character and career direction gone had it been molded from the beginning by Vince McMahon (who was still in his creative heyday back then) instead of Eric Bischoff?
  • Goldberg's tenure in Japan in 2002-2003 was originally meant to be longer that it was. He had signed up for a certain number of events in Fantasy Fight WRESTLE-1, a super-promotion co-produced by Dream Stage Entertainment and several other companies, but it was discontinued before Goldberg could make all of his appearances. Goldberg next signed up with WWE, but he had still one event left to make in his contract with DSE, and that was why and how he would later wrestle for Fighting Opera HUSTLE (also produced by DSE) while being under contract for WWE.
  • Even after Goldberg's contract in HUSTLE expired, there were propositions to make an extension to have Goldberg wrestle Shinya Hashimoto, but it couldn't happen.
  • What might have changed if his title match against Hulk Hogan had properly been on pay-per-view, instead of given away on Nitro?

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