(FKA: Bret Hart hates this thread)

I made a comment in the WWE section talking about how little ring time Goldberg had had in his entire career when compared to the large sums of money he made.

Then it dawned on me to come up with this profoundly mind numbing idea, watch r every televised match of Bill Goldberg’s. However if anyone else is Hard R-d enough (trademark cheesedude420) to do this we can get through it quicker.

So post your thoughts on the Goldberg match we are up to (or if you cover multiple matches, make it clear for the next person)

And we will see if we get there before his retirement match


Matchlist:
www.cagematch.net/?id=2&nr=658&page=4&s=300

Match #1

VS Hugh Morris
(Sep 22 1997)

- Nice Leglock

Second rope clothesline by Morris is cool

Good story in a short match regarding the moonsault, Morris should his disbelief well,


Face the hard camera bro :lol:


Good debut match, surprisingly still made Morris look decent and helped put Goldberg over as a threat straight away with a Jackhammer on someone the size of Morris.

Cool match with Goldberg showcasing great offense and toughness. I didn't understand the random backflip though :lol:

Nov 20, 2024 13:37:38 GMT Emperor said:

Cool match with Goldberg showcasing great offense and toughness. I didn't understand the random backflip though :lol:

He pressed taunt by mistake 🤔

What really separates Austin from Goldberg is the offense. Kicks (one grants him a ticket to HELL 👿), submissions and throws. Will go through some since most are squashes or short TV matches. Was he doing 20 minute ppvs as champ or was that WWE?

Nov 20, 2024 13:37:38 GMT Emperor said:

Cool match with Goldberg showcasing great offense and toughness. I didn't understand the random backflip though

When Morrus hit Goldberg with the back elbow, Bill was supposed to backflip to create the noise he'd taken a bump and feign Morrus into coming out and getting slammed.

Still kind of a convuluted idea, but Bill wanted to show off some of his athleticism, instead he showed off that he's bit of a klutz.

Nov 20, 2024 14:15:28 GMT cheesedude420 said:

What really separates Austin from Goldberg is the offense. Kicks (one grants him a ticket to HELL 👿), submissions and throws. Will go through some since most are squashes or short TV matches. Was he doing 20 minute ppvs as champ or was that WWE?

No, the most amount of time he did as champion happened to be the match he lost against Nash.

Without the belt is a different story and he did have a long match against Scott Hall at the following PPV.

Otherwise sub-15 was about the longest he went.

Same deal with his WWE run to be fair. The only exception were the multi-men matches.

Nov 20, 2024 15:26:29 GMT Big Pete said:

Nov 20, 2024 14:15:28 GMT cheesedude420 said:

What really separates Austin from Goldberg is the offense. Kicks (one grants him a ticket to HELL 👿), submissions and throws. Will go through some since most are squashes or short TV matches. Was he doing 20 minute ppvs as champ or was that WWE?

No, the most amount of time he did as champion happened to be the match he lost against Nash.

Without the belt is a different story and he did have a long match against Scott Hall at the following PPV.

Otherwise sub-15 was about the longest he went.

Same deal with his WWE run to be fair. The only exception were the multi-men matches.

Okay yeah just assumed those HHH matches all went 20+ because ppv. Wiki says 10 to 15, which is fine not that I'm itching to relive those biker shorts era again.

Advertised - 52:27 every televised Goldberg win. Wonder how many match totals that is. For those that want to watch Goldberg Discography in fast forward mode. Did they really go all in with the humorous thing and call it No Laughing Matter?

Thought this was going to be a thread about all of the things that Bret Hart hates, so was disappointed, I must admit.

That being said, I maintain that Goldberg was a bit of a prodigy, and when you look at his matches in 1998, someone that green already being that good, in a better environment, might have become an all time great. I mean, audiences let the Undertaker suck in the ring for like a decade before he started becoming a workrate favorite. It took Goldberg less than a year to start showing signs of that potential.

But back to things Bret Hart hates: Bodybuilders.

Match deuce! 💩

VS. The Barbarian
(September 29, 1997)



Looks like Barbarian directing traffic and telling Bill Goldberg to run the ropes at :34, which incidentally makes Bill Goldberg's taunt the moment before look like he's actually kind of shrugging his shoulders and asking not "who's next?" but "what's next?".

Bill Goldberg hits a mid-sectioncanrana on Barbarian at :50, flipping Barbarian into the ropes; heedless of this, he goes for the pin anyway. Bill Goldberg did not heed Larry Z's admonition in match #1 to "watch his ring position".

Bill Goldberg hits the yet unnamed Jackhammer at 3:10 and beats Barbarian.

Post-match: Mean Gene stops Bill Goldberg, informing him that he knows that he's a former Georgia Bulldog and Atlanta Falcon. Mean Gene asks Bill Goldberg, "why are you trying to be a mystery man?", but Bill Goldberg remains silent and continues to be a mystery man.

Match 3

VS Road Black

WCW Saturday Night


Potato quality

Never actually watched an episode of WCW Saturday night, WCW is my blind spot as far as wrestling goes.


Road Block looking menacing against Goldberg, upper hand in the very early going.
Goldberg finally gets Road Block down with a shoulder block but doesn’t last long.

Nice belly to belly by Road block, nice kick out by Goldberg.
Spin kick and road block is down.


Jackhammer! (Still unnamed)

Much more back and forth match than I expected, interesting choice to have him go up against heavyweights rather than small jobbers.

Ya know I started match 2... dude I wanna just book him with the cruisers at this point. He's a flyer.

Match 4

Bill Goldberg, Mystery Man VS. Manny Fernandez

WCW Main Event

(October 10, 1997)



It is mentioned on commentary here that Bill Goldberg has previously been attacked by Mongo McMichael with an iron pipe, leading to his hospitalization. Bill Goldberg, for some reason, was given Mongo's Super Bowl XX ring by Debra at Halloween Havoc, and the two were supposed to have a match for said ring at WW3; obviously, however, Mongo had another method in mind for taking his ring back.

Bill Goldberg, absolutely immediately, forgets to "watch his ring position" once again, tackling Fernandez toward the ropes, following up with a choke that Fernandez easily obtains a rope break for.

Bill Goldberg throws Fernandez into the turnbuckle, choking him as he falls down, initiating two separate five counts.

Quite a bit of booing for Bill Goldberg here, which is earned since his tactics are all heel. More choking, this time between the second and third ropes.

Not a good looking spinning neck breaker at 2:32 by Bill Goldberg. A reign of more boos proceeding a taunt by Bill Goldberg, who follows it up with a move called both "Suplex" and "Jackhammer" by the commentary team. 1, 2, 3.

"Heaven help us if he goes NWO" is the thought we're left with on this one. With Bill Goldberg, Mystery Man, who would know ...

I've heard of Hugh Morrus, but who are these other guys? Were they active members of the roster or big guys brought in to eat a Jackhammer Unnamed Suplex Powerslam?

Goldberg working heel in match #4 is interesting. He's showcasing a lot of variety in these short matches. Love the lariat at 2:09, a brutal way to counter an attempted Irish Whip reversal. The spinning neckbreaker, as pointed out, was not good.

Nov 23, 2024 23:06:45 GMT Emperor said:

Were they active members of the roster or big guys brought in to eat a Jackhammer Unnamed Suplex Powerslam?

Little from Column A and Column B

Barbarian was one half of the Faces of Fear alongside Meng. He was effectively one of those jobber to the stars types who was kept strong but would eat losses against the main eventers. As Tenay alluded to, he's a veteran who'd been around the JCP, WWF and WCW for nearly 15 years at that point.

I'm pretty sure Roadblock was just a pay-per-appearance guy who'd come in, squash a few jobbers only to get beaten by any name talent on the roster. Similar deal with Fernandez, except he's a veteran who'd been around since the 70s. You'd usually find guys like him and Len Denton on these Worldwide/Pro/Main Event C-shows working with up and coming talent.

Match #5

VS. Scotty Riggs

WCW Nitro

(October 13, 1997)




Bill Goldberg, who's not even shown in the ring before Scotty Riggs' music hits, with a semi-jobber entrance. Really shaving the seconds on this segment.

A collar and elbow tie up starts the match at 1:28; Riggs transitions into a headlock, and Bill Goldberg pulls Riggs' hair back to free himself of the hold. Ref warns Bill Goldberg about pulling on the hair.

Riggs attempts to Irish Whip Bill Goldberg into the ropes, and Bill Goldberg reverses him with his own Irish Whip; Riggs ducks one clothesline, and then a second, finally running into a Spear that will become very patented. Bill Goldberg clambers, somewhat awkwardly, up to Riggs' upper body instead of going for the pinfall, grabbing Riggs by the hair again and slamming his head into canvas repeatedly. Bill Goldberg flaunts the ref's protestations and follows up with a choke, for good measure.

A bit of a stare down between the ref and Bill Goldberg. The crowd is chanting something, but I can't make it out.

YUGE jumping elbow drop out of a standing position at 2:48. Bill Goldberg misses. Nice dropkick by Riggs, and then a second and a third, which launches Bill Goldberg over the top rope. Riggs attempts to vault himself onto his opponent but is intercepted, not completely fluidly. Bill Goldberg lifts Riggs into a Gorilla Press Slam, at 3:13, and drops him on the steel barricade. Bill Goldberg just mean mugging the crowd and the camera a bit.

Back in the ring, a wild swing by Riggs; Bill Goldberg ducks and delivers a punch to Riggs' midsection. Up goes Riggs for what Tony Schiavone calls "that Suplex slam we've seen". It's probably Bill Goldberg's best Jackhammer yet of his short career, parading with Riggs slightly before slamming him down. 1, 2, 3.

Post-match: "Rumor has it that he likes to call that maneuver the Jackhammer" - Schiavone at 4:08.

This is amazing I've been following on my phone reading along. I can honestly say that Goldberg's rise is one of my favorite things ever done in pro wrestling in all my years watching it. Probably about 11 years ago I even bought the full WCW 1998 collection on DVD from a poster on the old board, what felt like hundreds of DVD's, all Nitro, Thunder, Saturday Night, and PPV. And I bought all these mostly to rewatch this Goldberg rise(this was before WWE Network existed). One of the little things I love about it all is how he started out wrestling on these C and D level shows like Saturday Night and Main Event early on in the run, just a nobody basically at the start.

So I love this thread! Reading that first post closer I see this is open participation anybody can jump in and review the next match, niiiice.

Match #6

VS. Mike Anthony

WCW Saturday Night

(October 14, 1997)



If I didn't know better, I would think that Mike Anthony was working some sort of Lenny Lane gimmick, as he starts off in a weirdly effeminate stance here against Bill Goldberg. Ineffective strikes from Anthony; Bill Goldberg responds with a few hard knees to the midsection, and then a fairly nice looking scissors take down, at :33, diminished by the fact that he again fails to "watch his ring position". Anthony immediately makes a rope break on the submission follow through. Bill Goldberg tests the ref's five count, with the ref getting a little physical. Bill Goldberg barks "get off me!" to the ref.

More ineffective strikes from Anthony, followed by an equally impotent drop kick, as Bill Goldberg snags Anthony by the feet and shoves him away. A clothesline does no damage as Bill Goldberg dares his opponent to try it again, an attempt which is interrupted by a Spear. Bill Goldberg chokes the downed Anthony, working another five count.

It looks like Anthony attempts something like a roundhouse kick, which Bill Goldberg intercepts, hoisting Anthony into a groilla press position (the "1-800-Collect Slam of the Week", btw) and then dropping him into a gut buster. Bill Goldberg taunts the crowd; a knee to Anthony's midsection before lifting him up for the Jackhammer, "a suplex powerslam combination" as Schiavone points out. 1, 2, 3.

It seems like Bill Goldberg is starting to get some cheers here, post-match, despite continuing to work as a heel.

Match 7

Bill Goldberg defeats Wrath (0:20)
WCW Monday NITRO #110 - TV-Show @ Mississippi Coast Coliseum in Biloxi, Mississippi, USA

Never seen someone get such an elaborate entrance for a match this short & I’m not talking about Goldberg



Spear didn’t look great but the Jackhammer is named! Old mate didn’t even get his jacket off, short day at the office :lol:

Cool thread. I might play along at some point. But first, some overall thoughts on Goldberg...

Goldberg might as well have been designed in a lab for the sole purpose of annoying me since he was everything I hated in a wrestler during the late 90s...

-WCW when I was Team WWF all the way 
-A blatant ripoff of WWF's golden boy Steve Austin 
-An invincible no selling muscle man who always won- my least favorite type of wrestler dating back to Hogan, Warrior & Ahmed
-An overpushed greenhorn who DIDN'T PAY HIS DUES at a time when Mick Foley, or at least Bret & Shawn, were my ideal champions- you had to earn it!

Then he came to WWF and I hated that too. Only thing I liked about that entire run was seeing Goldberg and fellow overpushed bum Brock Lesnar get booed out of the building at WM 20. Good riddance to bad rubbish. At this point Goldberg is a contender for one of my 10 least favorites of all time, and a lock for bottom 20. 

But then I mellowed out, grew up (just a little!), and learned to appreciate what I had once despised. First of all, Goldberg was no more an Austin ripoff than Austin was a Nikita Koloff ripoff. Yeah, Goldberg had a bald head and goatee, but his style and persona was more Ken Shamrock done right than Stone Cold. Being an "invincible muscle man who always won" is $$$ and actually should have been done MORE, not less. That was basically a cheat code in 20th century wrestling. And a wrestler can't be "overpushed" when they're over like rover and draw dimes. So many of the things my turn of the century dumbass self cared about are stupid and irrelevant. In the immortal words of E.M. Forster, "only connect." THAT's the only thing that really matters in wrestling- getting over, making the crowd care, CONNECTING. And Goldberg, like Warrior before him (his closest comparison imo), connected with crowds on a level <1% of wrestlers have ever achieved. 

In closing, Goldberg was an all time great squasher with tremendous intensity, a great look, cool moves, and crazy athleticism (How many other 285 pound jacked dudes are doing standing backflips? To say nothing for holding a 7 foot 400+ pound Giant in suplex position for several seconds). He was a more athletic Ultimate Warrior. Or a fully-grown man-sized Taz, if you prefer. The famous DDP match rules. And there are some other gems out there. Goldberg will never be a true favorite of mine, but you better believe I have grown to respect the guy.

Nov 20, 2024 22:54:15 GMT cheesedude420 said:

Did they really go all in with the humorous thing and call it No Laughing Matter?

Yes. And you gotta love it.

Nov 24, 2024 0:44:45 GMT Big Pete said:

Nov 23, 2024 23:06:45 GMT Emperor said:

Were they active members of the roster or big guys brought in to eat a Jackhammer Unnamed Suplex Powerslam?

Similar deal with Fernandez, except he's a veteran who'd been around since the 70s. 

The guy Goldberg beat wasn't Thee Manny Fernandez. Ok, it gets complicated. There were 2 (3 if you count the old school Miami Dolphin) Manny Fernandez's in wrestling. Story I heard is the guy Goldberg beat was just some jobber Dusty dubbed Manny Fernandez a few years earlier as a dig on Real Manny because Big Dust & Real Manny had heat. Don't feel bad. I just assumed it was Thee Manny Fernandez for like 15-20 years myself. The weird thing is Fake Manny worked AWF under the Manny Fernandez name. Pretty sure he even did a top rope frankensteiner one time. Either that, or I dreamed it. 

Nov 26, 2024 14:29:03 GMT System said:

Match 7

Bill Goldberg defeats Wrath (0:20)
WCW Monday NITRO #110 - TV-Show @ Mississippi Coast Coliseum in Biloxi, Mississippi, USA

Never seen someone get such an elaborate entrance for a match this short & I’m not talking about Goldberg



Spear didn’t look great but the Jackhammer is named! Old mate didn’t even get his jacket off, short day at the office :lol:

It feels like something is actually starting to happen for Goldberg apart from random squashes. That entrance must mean Wrath is a reasonably big deal (although I've never heard of him) but Goldberg won faster than he's ever won before. Then he jawjacks with Mr. Ponytail on the ramp. The start of a storyline?!

Nov 27, 2024 8:14:31 GMT Emperor said:

It feels like something is actually starting to happen for Goldberg apart from random squashes. That entrance must mean Wrath is a reasonably big deal (although I've never heard of him) but Goldberg won faster than he's ever won before. Then he jawjacks with Mr. Ponytail on the ramp. The start of a storyline?!

Have you heard of Adam Bomb? Or did you suffer through that awful Kronik vs. Brothers of Destruction match back in 2001?

Wrath at this point was a featured talent but was a jobber to the stars.

The guy Goldberg beat wasn't Thee Manny Fernandez. Ok, it gets complicated. There were 2 (3 if you count the old school Miami Dolphin) Manny Fernandez's in wrestling. Story I heard is the guy Goldberg beat was just some jobber Dusty dubbed Manny Fernandez a few years earlier as a dig on Real Manny because Big Dust & Real Manny had heat. Don't feel bad. I just assumed it was Thee Manny Fernandez for like 15-20 years myself. The weird thing is Fake Manny worked AWF under the Manny Fernandez name. Pretty sure he even did a top rope frankensteiner one time. Either that, or I dreamed it.

Now that is a WCW deep-cut. Even just looking at the footage, I just presumed Manny had a bad hair-cut going.

I also thought he wrestled Bill in a dark match because I distinctly remember reading he was facing off against veterans. Apparantly it was Buddy Landel, unless you're going to sit there and tell me that the Taskmaster was playing a rib on everyone?

A note on the last video (Match #7), first; the post-match appears to be Bill Goldberg's first instance of using the phrase "Who's Next?".


Match #8

VS. Disco Inferno (WCW TV Champion)

WCW Monday Nitro

(October 27, 1997)



Is the Disco Inferno entrance a filibustering technique WCW used whenever they needed some time to get the commentators to set the table elsewhere?

Alex Wright attempts to attack Bill Goldberg as he makes his entrance, with one of the most namby-pamby pushes one will ever see in any arena of life. Bill Goldberg responds with a surprisingly unstiff backhand punch to the chest, which Wright promptly oversells on a flatback bump. Bill Goldberg tosses Wright into the ring, under the bottom rope, and immediately delivers a Jackhammer. Exit Wright.

Before the referee even calls for the bell, Bill Goldberg turns to Inferno and begins his assault with a knee to the midsection, followed by an Irish Whip and Spear in rapid succession. Bill Goldberg hoists Inferno up for the Jackhammer and begins a series of taunts, as the commentary teams point out that the match was never officially started. Exit Inferno.

Mongo McMichael runs in, and Bill Goldberg either mostly fails to deliver a Spear or is just executing an MMA-style takedown; it's hard to tell which at first. Tenay is calling it a "double leg". A cavalcade of referees are separating Bill Goldberg and Mongo. Tenay points out that Bill Goldberg still has possession of Mongo's Super Bowl ring.

Yeah, this guy RULES!


Like Baker, I wasn't that into him while it was happening, but that was because I was Team WWE to the fullest. As I've grown, I realize that this dude was one of a kind. Shame we never got Austin vs Goldberg.

Strange that cagematch and other outlets list that as a match while Randy Orton VS Kevin Owens at Crown Jewel isn’t listed as the bell didn’t ring therefore = not a match