411’s WWE Untold Report: Goldberg on Beating Hogan, Losing to Nash and More!

411’s WWE Untold Report: Goldberg’s Streak

-The Untold series has returned and this time we go to WCW which is always fun. For those who have never seen this series they basically cover a topic with a few talking heads. It’s been a fun series and this episode should be a good one. Let’s get to it!

-Air Date: 12.13.20
-Run Time: 49:00

-Goldberg tells us he didn’t invent the SQUASH match, but he invented his own type of SQUASH match. He compares it to throwing a human to the lions and you wanted to watch every second. This is WWE Untold!

-Goldberg says he was born to play football and that is all he wanted to do. We get some footage of Goldberg at Georgia and some interview footage from 1988. Goldberg with hair and just a mustache. Weird! He ends up playing the Atlanta Falcons and in the 4th preseason game he rips his abdomen off his pelvis. That was the beginning of the end because he wasn’t an all pro. He had to fight practice to practice to keep his job and he fell short. He needed a plan B and the problem was he had no plan B. He only ever aspired to be a pro football player and had no desire to do anything other than lift.

-He worked out at Main Event fitness in Atlanta and ran into Lex Luger, Sting, and Marcus Bagwell. They were making fun of him one day and he yelled at them “blow it our your ass.” He was waiting for one of them to step to him and it didn’t happen.

-Next talking head is Diamond Dallas Page and he first met Goldberg at the Gold Club (strip club). Eric Bischoff was there with DDP and he had Eric meet Goldberg. DDP told Goldberg he needed to do this. Goldberg decided to do it, but told Bischoff he wasn’t going to be be one of those guys getting thrown around the ring for $500. He was going to make a difference. Bischoff (through old interviews) talks about Goldberg’s charisma and they weren’t sure what to do with him yet, but they knew something was there.

-DDP talks about Goldberg shaving his head and sporting the tattoo and asking him what he’s doing as that is Steve Austin’s look. “Austin is the shaved head guy.” Bill told him this is who he is and he is going to make a difference like this.

-To the WCW Power Plant where we get 1997 interviews from Jody Hamilton who talks about what they are looking for in potential wrestlers. Goldberg says Sarge is one the most intense people he has ever met and he has a reputation as a drill sergeant. He credits Sarge for helping with the character as it was going to be a mix of Bruiser Brody, Mike Tyson and his own personality times 5. He says Jody is the one who told him to find a finisher and make it impactful. Goldberg told Manny Fernandez to spread his legs, tuck his chin and kiss his ass goodbye. He speared the crap out of him and jaws hit the floor. DDP says Goldberg is the guy that made the spear famous. He now had the set-up move and Sarge told him to do a suplex but rotate and thus The Jackhammer was born.

-Bischoff mentions that Goldberg came along at the perfect time. Our next talking head is Kevin Nash who says that in 1997 WCW was the #1 company in the World for the first time ever. We get a quick montage of the Invasion and Hogan turning heel. Nash says they were the 69 Mets where they had the 1 year they were better than the Yankees up in Connecticut.

-Goldberg makes his TV debut on Nitro (09.22.97) in Salt Lake. Matt Camp, host of WWE’s The Bump, is our 4th and final talking head. He was 12 years old and remembers Goldberg showing up with no build or vignettes. He mentions that Tenay had no clue who Goldberg was and as a kid it was amazing to see someone stump The Professor. Goldberg took on Hugh Morrus and wanted to prove at 290 lbs he was still athletic. DDP talks about Hugh being 300 lbs and Goldberg was tossing him all around the ring before getting the win. Listen to the crowd pop as a no name gets over in the course of 1 match. After the match Goldberg blows off Mean Gene and Camp says that only added to the intrigue.

-The Barbarian gets run over the next week as Bischoff talks about how hard it is to get instant respect from fans and he has only ever seen it from Goldberg and The Rock. Hulk Hogan (2014 interview) talks about how quickly Goldberg rose as we see his winning streak climb.

-DDP says Bischoff wanted to push him to a higher level so they added the backstage walk with security and Goldberg doing his entrance while breathing in pyro. DDP says he would never do that, but this is Goldberg. Bischoff says the crowd told them what to do with Goldberg as they went crazy for him, saw him destroy someone in less than 7 minutes and wanted to see it again the next week.

-Goldberg continues to roll as we get to 25-0 and Camp says that the numbers were reported by Tenay who was a fan of LA teams. He knew of the Lakers winning streak and the one by UCLA. They show parts of the infamous match with Regal where they were on different pages and sadly they don’t really tell what happened.

-DDP says he told Bischoff, “bro don’t let anyone F this up.” Yeahm well, about that! We are up to 54-0 and DDP says nobody ever did that besides Andre the Giant. Goldberg was as believable as it can be. Nash says things have to make sense for him and Goldberg was 1-0 and then a week later after only 3 shows was 11-0 and he was on those same shows. To him that is bullshit. “He beat Hugh Morrus like 30 times.” Camp says that people talk about inflation, but he didn’t care as he could believe that Goldberg won 8 matches over the weekend. I’m with Camp on this one as I was 16 at the time and bought the win streak as legit and even if inflated, who cared?

-Goldberg gets to 74-0 with a win over Saturn at Spring Stampede and the next night wins the US Title from Raven to get to 75-0. Goldberg talks about having to give Reese the Jackhammer that night (insane crowd reaction). “Boys and girls make sure you can do your finish on everyone because you never know.”

-DDP knew when Goldberg got to 40-0 that there was going to be heat on him. Goldberg says he never felt accepted, but that may have been his own doing. Nash says there were a lot of them that tried to help and sorry he wasn’t there for the ride.

-Goldberg gets to 100-0 after beating Konnan at The Great American Bash. Hogan says he was the top dog at the time and knew there had to be a run in with Goldberg as he was that hot. Hogan made the call to Bischoff and said they were going to Atlanta and needed another A player to go along with him and Sting. Bischoff has told that same story as it apparently was Hogan’s idea. Goldberg says he was watching Thunder at home and JJ Dillon made the announcement for the match and that’s how he found out. Nice! Goldberg: “I don’t think I slept that entire weekend.”

-The biggest show in Nitro history as they put 44,000 people in The Georgia Dome. Again you can debate whether it should have been on PPV or TV, but Hogan made the call and it was going to happen. Hogan talks about the atmosphere and how it was Goldberg’s town. Goldberg mentions he had to wrestle Hall first and it went wrong. Hall told him he was messing it up and Goldberg told him he wasn’t doing it on purpose as he was terrified. Damn!

-Later it is the showdown with Hogan and man, do I miss seeing crowds like that. Hogan calls it the perfect storm as it wouldn’t have been the same in another city. Great story from Goldberg as he says he looked up to Hogan and he was honored to be there. He then calls Hogan “Mr. Icy Hot” as Hogan put him in a headlock and put his head in his in armpit. The Icy Hot got in his eye and he couldn’t see well for the rest of the match. He jokes that he knows Hogan did it on purpose. He says it is funny as hell looking back now and makes for a great story. “I still love you Terry.” Fantastic! Goldberg hits The Spear and The Jackhammer to legit one of the craziest reactions ever and easily the greatest reaction in WCW history. Just amazing and again, credit to Hogan for laying down clean as a sheet.

-Goldberg says the coolest moment for him was after the show when he got his ass beat by the nWo and his former teammates with The Falcons made the save. He gets teary eyed talking about it as his dream was to play in the NFL. Here he had his idols standing by him and wanting to be him if even just for 5 minutes. That is something he can never replicate again.

-Goldberg was a made man for life now and his career only climbed to new heights. He was on the cover of TV Guide, was taking BP with Mark McGwire and getting all kind of pop culture fame. DDP says Bill was the company at the time as he was on the cover of Entertainment Weekly. The Streak gets to 141-0 as Goldberg says he wanted to make people smile and enjoy themselves. Kanyon gets mowed down. Goldberg says he took the character serious and he feels sorry for anyone who was made about it because they don’t take their job seriously enough.

-Next up is Halloween Havoc with DDP and Page says it is one his top 3 matches of all time. That match was a fight to him. It is a fantastic match that was unique to see at the time as it was two fresh faces in the WCW Main Event. Goldberg: “They don’t make a better human being than DDP.” He calls it an honor to Main Event a PPV with DDP. Page covers a few spots in the match and starts with Goldberg taking a nasty spill off the post to the floor. From there Goldberg hits a spear and basically DDTs himself. Damn, that was nasty! Goldberg says he knocked himself out which was a lot of fun. Next he tries to do a Jackhammer, but can’t because of the bump off the post. DDP has no clue what’s wrong but Goldberg eventually powers through it and eats a Diamond Cutter to a massive pop. DDP says that for him personally it was the loudest pop he every heard. Again, just a great match! Goldberg says he woke up as he was hitting the Jackhammer for the win. That gets him to 155-0. DDP asks him, “what the fuck,” and Goldberg tells him he doesn’t remember anything after The Spear. Goldberg calls it his greatest match and it was all due to DDP.

-Next we get footage of them filming Goldberg for the Starrcade 1998 commercial. Yep, we know where this is leading. Goldberg thinks fans had seen him SQUASH people in 2 minutes enough and wanted something else. Ehh, probably not! Nash asks how are you going to get sympathy on this character? How are you going to make me chant for him when all I watch him do is lay dynamite? Goldberg says this is where he learned more about the business. He had no control over anything. He didn’t give ideas or advice and all he did was show up and do his job.

-Starrcade 1998: Nash says it was a prize fight and had that feel. They had a good hoss fight with a hot crowd. Nash talks about how big Goldberg is and how he was around 330 lbs at that point. Again, a hoss fight as Nash says Bill is a very strong man. Nash talks about the art of dancing and how you do things as you see them coming and points out where he nearly had Goldberg in an armbar, but he pulled away just as the crowd was popping for it. To Nash that was killing the match as he was trying to paint art. Nash then gets to the finish: “lets run Disco in for no reason and then Bigelow. I’m laying on the ground saying is the clown car next. Gimme a break.”

-Hall hits Goldberg with a stun gun and Goldberg says that wasn’t the first idea. He pitched getting hit a taser as he wanted Hall to shoot him and light his ass up on TV. They went with the safer option. DDP laughs “you are not allowed to hit a human being with a taser.” That is fantastic and I have no doubt Goldberg would have taken the stun gun. Nash hits the powerbomb to a massive pop to end the streak at 173 wins.

-Goldberg says he gets paid to do what the booker wants and that night he filled their request. He mentions it was his birthday, but doesn’t think anyone cared. Nash shoots back it was the anniversary of his mother’s death and that topped Goldberg as it was real. Goldberg says Nash was made a booker the month before the show. Nash says he has no problem with Bill and likes him, but to this day Bill thinks he was the booker of that match. He says since everyone is making shit up he thinks it was Hogan and Bischoff drinking beer saying it’s time to beat Goldberg. Nash is coming off a little salty here and I tend to think if Hogan wanted it ended, he would have pitched for him to be the one to do it.

-The number one thing Goldberg got from The Streak was being someone larger than life for kids to look up to. We see video of Goldberg spending time with kids and you can tell the man loved that part of the job. He calls it the coolest thing you will experience in your life.

-DDP says everything about Goldberg was reality based and that’s why it worked. It is also why it worked in both of his runs in the WWE. DDP goes back to that night at the strip club and now 20 years later Goldberg still has his hand in all of this and still can make an impact. He is so proud of Goldberg.

-Goldberg says he treats people the way he wants to be treated. When he turns into Goldberg he is a perfectionist. He is a husband and father and hopefully he is someone to set a good example for those that come after him.

-This was great and my favorite episode in the series. Goldberg was wonderful here and I believed everything he had to say. There is something to admire about a guy that just showed up to work and did his job as he was asked to the best of his abilities. DDP was a perfect choice as one of the talking heads as the guy bleeds WCW as much as anyone and knows Goldberg well. Nash’s place was to be the guy to tell the other side of the story and while I am sure most will laugh at some of the things he had to say, it was still entertaining. I also liked the edition of Camp to give us the perspective of a fan who grew up during Goldberg’s run. If you didn’t live through the Monday Night Wars it is hard to state how over Goldberg was during his height. Again the man was so over that even Hulk Hogan saw the steamroller coming and moved out of the way. You can argue about the streak ending, how it ended and to who, but the pop for Nash winning was there. I don’t buy the idea that fans were getting sick of seeing Goldberg SQUASH people because he had a great match with DDP and fans bought that. I know the idea was to build a heel machine for Goldberg to crush, but he never got the title back. All that aside this was a great episode and a must for new fans to see what the hype was about and for fans of the MNW era to relive the magic. Thanks for reading!