Without a doubt, the biggest money match Monday Night Wars-era fans clamored to see was Steve Austin versus Bill Goldberg. Both men were the biggest star of their respective company, drawing huge reactions from fans, spiking attendance and ratings. While both men were bald grapplers who wore simple black trunks, they couldnt be more different. Austin rose to prominence on the strength of his renegade persona, scathing promos and brawling in-ring style. His mic-work was considered one of the best in the business, but he could back it up in the ring, not just with a series of fists and boots, but some technical wrestling as well. Goldberg, by comparison, rarely spoke more than a couple sentences (one of which almost always was, Whos next?). He became a major star for WCW by sheer dominance in the ring, plowing through countless jobbers and minor stars before ascending to the U.S. Championship and then the WCW World Championship. His matches were usually quick affairs, punctuated by sharp power moves. Still, Austin versus Goldberg in 1998 at the height of the Monday Night Wars was the hottest dream match out there. If a WWF fan and a WCW supporter started chatting about wrestling, it undoubtedly devolved into a debate over which of the two superstars was better. Sadly, we never got the match, not even when Goldberg came to WWE in 2003, as he debuted the night after WrestleMania XIX, with Austin wrestling his final bout at Mania. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dVAOU9wbVLY The closest we ever came to seeing any kind of confrontation was at WrestleMania XX, when Austin was the guest referee for the Goldberg versus Brock Lesnar match, which ended with the victorious Goldberg getting Stunnered right out of the company. Given that and how the WCW Invasion went in 2001, its probably best that this remains a dream match on paper, because any contest between the two probably would have ended up the same, with WWEs biggest star of the era toppling WCWs best homegrown star. Some dream matches are best left as What if? moments for fans to contemplate.
Scott is a former journalist and longtime wrestling fan who was smart enough to abandon WCW during the Monday Night Wars the same time as the Radicalz. He fortunately became a fan in time for WrestleMania III and came back as a fan after a long high school hiatus before WM XIV. Monday nights in the Carlson household are reserved for viewing Raw -- for better or worse.
