Something to Wrestle
Release Date: April 6, 2018
Recap By: Andrew Soucek, PWPodcasts Editor
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The 95th episode of Something to Wrestle focused on Goldberg’s initial run in WWE. It was a single year (2003 to 2004) and was filled with one disappointment after another. Bruce Prichard and Conrad Thompson ran through what went wrong and here are 40 of the things we learned from the episode:
1. Paul Heyman and Bill Goldberg have the same agent.
2. Goldberg was rumored to have made $2.5 and $3.5 million the last two years of his WCW contract.
3. Jim Ross loved Goldberg. He’s an Oklahoma guy and a football guy.
4. Goldberg was going to have a meeting with Vince before he joined WCW. Ross helped set it up. There wasn’t much to the meeting. While Vince liked him, they realized they’d have to start with Goldberg from scratch and train him.
5. Bruce still isn’t sure if Goldberg likes the wrestling business.
6. Bruce doesn’t think the visual similarities between Steve Austin Goldberg were a coincidence. Austin felt the same way but laughed it off.
7. Goldberg challenged Steve Austin to a match on the Tonight Show in early 1999. He said he’d put up $100,000 of his own money. The WWF just thought it was a desperate move and never responded to it.
8. Before his run in WWE, Goldberg yelled at Triple H in at a Toy Show in New York and dropped a bunch of “f bombs” at him. People thought it was incredibly embarrassing for Bill.
9. The Rock was instrumental in bringing Goldberg into the company. He wanted to work a program with him.
10. The rumor was that Goldberg signed a one year deal for $1.5 million. Bruce would neither confirm or deny this number. He said he didn’t know.
11. WWE quickly realized there was more work to be done than they thought when Goldberg started in the promotion due to his troubles with cutting promos and wrestling.
12. Chris Jericho and Goldberg got into a fight after the April 7 Raw after Goldberg made fun of Y2J’s selling ability to another wrestler. The Torch reported that Hurricane Helms overheard this, told Kevin Nash about it and Nash egged him on to tell Jericho. Jericho went up to Goldberg and ended up taking him down with a front face lock. They later shook hands and moved on.
13. Vince asked Jericho to help Goldberg adjust to the new environment of WWE.
14. Arn Anderson, Christian, and Hurricane helped break up the Jericho/Goldberg fight.
15. After they were separated, Jericho said “you’re acting like a f***ing goof.” Goldberg responded with “Your mother is a fu**ing goof.” Booker T was there and said that was the worst insult he’d ever heard.
16. In Bruce’s opinion, the wrestlers felt Jericho won the fight.
17. Bruce doesn’t think putting the Goldust wig on Goldberg was that bad.
18. Bruce produced the segment where Goldberg’s Barracuda didn’t start when he was trying to give chase to The Rock. Goldberg also ran the wrong direction. Bruce got chewed out for this by Vince.
19. There was no heat between Goldberg and Gillberg (Duane Gill).
20. After a few weeks into the Goldberg program, Rock pitched the idea of feuding with Rey Mysterio Jr. instead.
21. Nobody in management liked the Backlash match with Rock and Goldberg. Vince was wondering if they’d have to lay out everything for his matches.
22. Goldberg was the first guest ever on the Highlight Reel. It was the day after Backlash.
23. Creative suggested that Austin give Goldberg a Stunner in the beer bash segment. Vince said it would have killed Goldberg
24. Austin and Goldberg got along well.
25. Christian was paired with Goldberg in his first TV feud to make him look like a million bucks. Bruce labels Christian one of the best pure workers in the history of the business.
26. Goldberg was unhappy just a couple months into his run. He was vocal about his unhappiness and largely kept to himself backstage.
27. Bruce produced a segment where Goldberg chased off after Jericho in his car. They rehearsed it at least eight points earlier in the day. When it came time to shoot, Goldberg drove off in the wrong direction. Vince immediately told Bruce to come to Gorilla and yelled at him, telling him he killed Goldberg’s career.
28. The Torch reported that Jericho asked Goldberg if he could kick out of The Spear in their match and he said no. Y2J pointed out that Rock did and Goldberg said he wasn’t at his level.
29. Goldberg changed from the black trunks to the longer black and white ones because he saw himself as a shoot fighter.
30. Linda McMahon had labeled Goldberg’s early run as “disappointing” in a conference call. Goldberg was upset by this.
31. The SummerSlam main event was changed from Goldberg vs. Triple H to an Elimination Chamber match due to Hunter suffering a severe groin injury.
32. The Raw after SummerSlam, Goldberg was originally supposed to squash Test. Instead, Goldberg said he shouldn’t wrestle and should instead sell the beating from the night before. Bruce agrees that this was the right call.
33. Management had high hopes for Maven at one point. It never panned out.
34. Mark Jindrak was almost cast in Evolution but they went with Batista instead. They felt he had a bigger upside.
35. Had Kevin Nash not got hurt, they were planning on doing a one-off match with him and Goldberg.
36. Bruce once walked in on Goldberg throwing chairs and swearing in a dressing room after his match at Armageddon with Kane and HHH. Hunter came in and asked him if he had a problem. Goldberg said no and thanked him for the match. A lot of people saw this, which reflected poorly on the former WCW wrestler. Goldberg apologized to Vince but admitted he was frustrated. This was due in part to not making the money he thought he was going to.
37. The original idea was for Goldberg to put over Brock at WrestleMania XX.
38. The creative team wasn’t too keen on seeing Goldberg re-signed as they didnt’ know what else they could do with him.
39. Goldberg was chosen to beat Brock because he was the babyface. Brock didn’t care he was taking the loss.
40. Vince had a non-reaction to the match. He just moved on to the next match. And that was it for Goldberg in WWE for over a decade.
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