3. Goldberg Wins The WCW Title
Date: July 6th, 1998 The Georgia Dome in Atlanta, Georgia was packed to the rafters and rocking on that July night in 1998. Goldberg was, arguably, the hottest thing going in all of wrestling at the time, making his way up the ranks in WCW with an "undefeated streak" that was in the triple digits. With over 40,000 people in attendance (you never see crowds like that for television anymore, and rarely even see them for pay-per-views, as WWE chooses to run smaller venues other than for WrestleMania), Goldberg successfully defended his United States Title against nWo member, Scott Hall. Due to a stipulation that Hollywood Hogan himself placed on the match, Goldberg would get a WCW Title shot later in the night. Goldberg was not only one of the biggest things in the business at the time, but he was a hometown Georgia boy, so the crowd was behind him just that much more. Goldberg essentially mowed through Hogan on this night. He no-sold a chunk of Hogan's offense, kicked out of the legdrop (which is, of course, incredibly rare, and Goldberg did it after multiple legdrops), and pinned him clean in eight minutes. It was jarring to watch, even for Goldberg's biggest fans and supporters, since Hogan's matches were always dominated by nWo interference, but that didn't really matter much here. Many viewed it as a "passing the torch" moment, a la WrestleMania 6 when Hogan lost to The Ultimate Warrior. After Mania, Hogan pretty much remained at the top of the WWF, while Warrior fluctuated around and would eventually burn out. After this episode of Monday Night Nitro, Hogan pretty much remained at the top of WCW, while Goldberg fluctuated around and would eventually burn out. Funny how that works. This still remains one of the biggest matches in wrestling history, and one of the more memorable moments of an era that was chock full of them, no matter if it actually passed the torch or not.