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Goldberg was one of WCW’s biggest homegrown stars, becoming insanely popular during the Monday Night Wars in the late 1990s, and leading the line as a top babyface for the promotion. When WWE bought WCW, he was one of the names that fans were most excited about seeing. It took a little while to make the deal happen, but two years after the purchase, Goldberg in WWE finally became a reality. However, his first run in WWE is looked back upon in a very negative light, as he seemed to lose all his star power, with his time in the promotion coming to an end after just one lackluster year. When hearing about his first meeting in WWE, it is of little surprise that things didn’t work out.
Goldberg’s First Year In WWE Was A Disaster
Goldberg signed with WWE in 2003, and whilst it had been a couple of years since he was seen on a big stage (though he did wrestle in Japan in 2002 per cagematch.net), he was still a big star and recognized as a household WCW name. His arrival was a big deal, and he was brought in with the biggest possible rub - targeting The Rock and defeating him during his first match on PPV, beating him in the main event of Backlash.
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Things looked pretty good from there, as he went undefeated for a few months, defeating the likes of Ric Flair, Christian, Chris Jericho, and Randy Orton, all leading up to an Elimination Chamber match at SummerSlam. However, instead of replicating his undefeated run in WCW, he was defeated here due to shenanigans, which led to the beginning of his downfall in the company. Sure, he would win the World Heavyweight Title, but he dropped it back to Triple H and even lost relatively clean whilst doing so.
Goldberg’s WWE career went from bad to worse as it became clear he was leaving WWE following WrestleMania 20, just one year after signing. He went toe-to-toe with Brock Lesnar in a dream match, though fans turned on it as Brock Lesnar was set to leave WWE too, leading to a complete farce of a match which was poorly received overall, and still exists as one of the biggest letdowns in WrestleMania history. His first run, even with a World Title reign and only a few losses, was really poor, and the star power of Goldberg as a draw was sucked dry. Unfortunately, Goldberg’s backstage demeanor may have led to a lot of what occurred, and the story of his first meeting was perhaps a precedent of things to come.
Goldberg Was Cold Upon His WWE Arrival
During an Instagram Live which featured Seth Rollins, Becky Lynch, The Rock, and former WWE writer Brian Gerwitz, the latter pair went into a retelling of Goldberg’s first night in WWE, prior to his huge debut when he confronted The Rock on Monday Night Raw. The idea for the segment was pretty simple, with The Rock cutting his signature style of promo, stating that he has beaten everybody, only for Goldberg to come out and spear him.
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Gerwitz and The Rock reflected on the previous year when The Rock and Hulk Hogan went face-to-face, looking at the crowd in an iconic moment. In response to this, Gerwitz detailed Goldberg’s response, “There’s only one problem, I ain’t Hulk Hogan,” which was followed up with a very intense and emotionless stare. Not taking the hint from Goldberg, Gerwitz made reference to the classic promo between The Rock and Chris Jericho, to which Goldberg replied, “There’s just one problem, I ain’t Chris Jericho.”
Goldberg’s Early Issue With WWE Creative Led To A Poor Run
The intensity of the situation was explained by The Rock, who said he understood why Goldberg was perhaps a little wary of this new environment, especially since he had been one of the biggest competitors to the company for so long. However, from day one this rejection of ideas and difficulties with the writers didn’t bode well for him going forwards, as WWE has often been a place where wrestlers who aren’t necessarily on board with ideas from creative don’t last too long.
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It is a shame that things didn’t work out the first time round, though upon his 2016 return, he has had a sea of dream matches, managed to redeem his match against Brock Lesnar, and had two World Title reigns. Whether it was egos at play or just the uncomfortable atmosphere of WWE, with Goldberg explaining on the Talk is Jericho podcast that things weren’t “warm and fuzzy” when he arrived, it just didn’t work out in 2003 and 2004 for the WCW legend.
