10 Things You Didn't Know About WCW In 1998

7. Booking Squad Wanted To Replicate Goldberg Success With Wrath

Smashing his way through the competition throughout the latter months of 1997, Bill Goldberg was a complete sensation to WCW fans, who were desperate for something to distract them from the ongoing WCW vs. nWo rivalry which seemed to dominate air time. There was no secret to Goldberg's success, the combination of natural charisma and a mega-push made it easy for people to get behind him. Bryan Clarke was a big guy who signed for the company in 1997, initially playing a masked character called Wrath who - along with the likes of Glacier and Mortis - was WCW's attempt to pedal on the back of the success of the Mortal Kombat video game series. After an injury kept him on the sidelines until 1998, Wrath returned in repackaged form, and seemed to be getting a pretty decent push as an upper card babyface. Stunningly, WCW officials really felt Clarke could replicate the success that Goldberg had experienced. The promotion were pretty desperate to create some new stars, certainly on the WCW side (as opposed to the top-heavy nWo group), and Wrath seemed to be a perfect fit. Of course, his major push and winning streak wouldn't last - after losing to Kevin Nash in a match ironically designed to prepare Nash for Goldberg, Wrath started to dwindle down the card.