10 Times WWE Completely Misused Legendary Stars
3. Goldberg (2003) Few stars of the 1990s rivalled the popularity of Bill Goldberg. One of the greatest characters ever created by WCW, Goldberg exploded onto the scene in September 1997 and just 10 months later, was hoisting the world heavyweight title overhead, completing one of the most impressive and historic rookie years in wrestling history. He cleanly defeated Hulk Hogan, The Giant, Lex Luger and Curt Hennig, among others, as he amassed an undefeated record of 173-0. Sure, WCW ruined the character by the time the company closed its doors in 2001, but there was hope that WWE would one day sign the industry giant and unleash him on their roster of stars. They did sign him, in 2003. Unleash, though? Not quite. WWE never really understood what made the Goldberg character as special as it was. Rather than allowing him to be the silent assassin, they tried to mold him into one of their vocal Superstars who cut promos every week. Then, they told him to sell too much, killing that aura that he had built for himself years earlier. Too many losses and the constant tweaking of the character (for the worst) led to the Goldberg experiment of '03-04 being a failure of massive proportions. It was not until the company released a DVD set on Da Man that they finally seemed to grasp why the character worked as well it did in the first place.