When I started becoming a hardcore WWE fan, I absolutely hated Goldberg - I thought he was an untalented Steve Austin ripoff with no charisma whatsoever. Watching more WCW, though, I realized that I was wrong about a couple of things - the similarities between Goldberg and Austin were really only superficial, and there's a lot more to charisma than cutting great promos. Goldberg certainly had talent - just a different kind - and it was that talent that made him a superstar. When he came to WWE, I was incredibly excited. While he was booked poorly, he did get another run as World Champion, and I remember specifically attending a house show at Madison Square Garden in December of 2003 so I could see "Da Man" defend his title. As a Jewish fan, it was nice to see a Jewish superstar who didn't hide his background, but it was more than that - Goldberg was just cool. Of course, I realize Kevin Owens is a better worker than Goldberg, but we all have seeming contradictions like that in our fandom.
Scott Fried is a Slammy Award-winning* writer living and working in New York City. He has been following/writing about professional wrestling for many years and is a graduate of Lance Storm's Storm Wrestling Academy. Follow him on Twitter at https://twitter.com/scottfried.
*Best Crowd of the Year, 2013
