Goldberg Win Streak

The Goldberg Win Streak was a lengthy series of victories that established the Bill Goldberg character that made his debut on WCW Monday Nitro on September 22, 1997. The unprecedented win streak proved to be essential in making Goldberg WCW's breakout star, propelling the rookie wrestler to main event status within a year of his first match,[1] and would become a tool used by other promotions to build young stars into main event players.

Background

The Streak begins

Although now 5–1, Bill Goldberg had yet to be seen on television. As such, he was "undefeated" when he made his televised debut on Monday Nitro on September 22, 1997. Behind the scenes it was WCW announcer Mike Tenay who came up with the concept of the Goldberg Win Streak.[2] Goldberg was booked to win over Morrus, and thus began a win streak that carried over onto WCW Saturday Night and non-televised house shows. The longer the streak became, the more popular the Goldberg character became.

After rampaging through most of WCW's undercard of wrestlers Goldberg faced Raven on April 20 edition of Monday Nitro and captured the United States Heavyweight Championship.[3] By June he had eclipsed 100 wins, and was getting over as a main eventer. Hulk Hogan eventually granted Goldberg a title match, which would take place on the July 6, 1998 episode of Nitro held at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta with over 40,000 in attendance, but Hogan insisted that Goldberg first had to defeat his nWo stablemate Scott Hall. Goldberg won and later in the evening was also able to defeat Hogan to become the WCW World Heavyweight Champion, in turn vacating his United States Heavyweight Championship.

Conclusion of the Streak
""We had been talking about it, from what I can recall, for a couple of months. As I have touched on in previous shows… we were just running out of guys for Goldberg to go through. Once we got to point of whatever it was 173-0 or whatever it was (laughs). It was that point where we had to start telling stories. We had to expand the storytelling process with Bill. We knew it had to be done”"

Eric Bischoff on his podcast Bischoff on Wrestling [4]

Now WCW Champion, Goldberg found himself the cornerstone of the company's efforts to stave off the WWF. The former number two promotion was now running neck and neck with WCW, and Goldberg was programmed into a feud with Diamond Dallas Page. At Halloween Havoc, the feud was settled after Goldberg defeated Page to retain the title.[5] According to Goldberg, his match against Page was the favorite match of his career.[6] Following technical issues with the PPV the match was aired for free on the following Monday Nitro; the huge rating that it garnered was the final time that Monday Nitro defeated Monday Night Raw.[7]

As Goldberg moved on to a feud with The Giant (Big Show) WCW management resorted to embellishing the win streak with fictional victories. Wrestling Fans who followed match results online began to catch on as Goldberg's streak grew exponentially, and he began to incur the first backlash of his career.[2]

At Starrcade, Goldberg's undefeated streak ended at an official approximate count of 173–0,[8][9] and after 174 days as champion when he lost the title to Kevin Nash after Scott Hall, disguised as a ringside security guard, made a run-in and shocked Goldberg with a taser gun.[5]

List of matches

Aftermath

Following the loss Goldberg was booked against another wrestler who was enjoying an inflated win streak in Sid Vicious and challenged him to a match to end Sid's winning streak.[5] The two feuded with each other, which culminated in a match at Halloween Havoc for Sid's U.S. Title. Goldberg defeated Sid via referee stoppage, and thus won his second United States Heavyweight Championship.[13]

The following year the Streak came up against when Goldberg feuded with Vince Russo, who gave him an ultimatum. If Goldberg was to lose another match at any point in time, unless he managed to duplicate his undefeated streak from 1997 to 1998, he would be forced to retire from professional wrestling. Goldberg defeated KroniK (Brian Adams and Bryan Clark) at Halloween Havoc in a handicap elimination match.[5] He then started a feud with Lex Luger.[5] This culminated in a match at Mayhem, which Goldberg won.[5] They continued their rivalry and battled in a rematch at Starrcade.[14][5] Goldberg won the match, but afterwards he was attacked by Luger's partner Buff Bagwell.[5] Goldberg feuded with both Luger and Bagwell, who called themselves "Totally Buffed". His streak was broken at Sin when Goldberg, teaming with his Power Plant trainer DeWayne Bruce, lost to Totally Buffed in a tag team no disqualification match after a "fan" maced him, enabling Totally Buffed to pin him.[5] The storyline was intended to enable Goldberg to have shoulder surgery, but WCW was sold to the WWF in March 2001, while Goldberg was still recuperating.

Legacy

Although Andre the Giant was billed by the WWF as being undefeated for 15 years, the Goldberg Win Streak was the first lengthy televised win streak used to build a main eventer out of a new character. It is now part and parcel of the Hall of Fame legacy of the Goldberg character,[15] and similar efforts were used to build the characters of Brock Lesnar in 2002,[16] Ryback in 2012,[17] and Asuka in 2017.[18]

Notes

    References
    1. Coder, Brie (December 12, 2020). "Goldberg On Who Was Behind His Undefeated Streak In WCW". Wrestling Inc.
    2. Brugnoli, Simone (December 11, 2020). "Reason why WWE ended Goldberg's winning streak". Wrestling World.
    3. "WCW 1998". History of WWe.
    4. Bischoff, Eric (January 5, 2021). "Eric Bischoff Explains The Decision To End Goldberg's Undefeated Streak in WCW". Bleacher Report. Retrieved January 7, 2020.
    5. "Bill Goldberg's Accelerator profile". Accelerator's Wrestling Rollercoaster. Archived from the original on March 16, 2008. Retrieved March 21, 2008.
    6. "Goldberg Reveals Favorite Match in His Career, Why He Was Never Able To Replicate That Match, More". WrestlingInc.com. December 20, 2015. Retrieved October 18, 2016.
    7. Featherstone, Chris (July 31, 2019). "Monday Night Wars: Looking Back on Pro Wrestling's Greatest Feud". FanBuzz - Sports News - NFL | NCAA | NBA | WWE.
    8. "Goldberg bio". WWE. Retrieved February 15, 2012.
    9. Conner, Floyd (2000). "Gridiron Grapplers". Football's Most Wanted (1st ed.). Washington, D.C.: Potomac Books. ISBN 978-1-57488-309-1. Retrieved October 25, 2011.
    10. "WCW 1997". History of WWE.
    11. "WCW WorldWide Tackles Goldberg's Streak". WCW WorldWide. Archived from the original on April 2015.
    12. "WCW – Goldberg's Undefeated Streak".
    13. "Goldberg's second United States Championship reign". WWE. Archived from the original on March 31, 2008. Retrieved March 22, 2008.
    14. Milner, John. "Bill Goldberg Biography". Slam! Sports. Canadian Online Explorer. Retrieved March 21, 2008.
    15. Rocha, Jesus (August 12, 2011). "Jackhammered into Darkness: The Rise and Fall of Wrestling's Goldberg". Bleacher Report.
    16. "2002". www.thehistoryofwwe.com.
    17. "2012". www.thehistoryofwwe.com.
    18. Chiari, Mike (May 25, 2017). "Goldberg Praises Asuka for Having Longest Undefeated Streak in WWE History". Bleacher Report.
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