5 WWE Babyfaces Who Couldn't Handle Getting Booed
2. Goldberg
Goldberg couldn't handle much of anything in WWE the first time 'round.
It's strange.
He must have known what he was signing up for - an arduous schedule, a recalibrated character - but WWE didn't know, or didn't want to know, who they were signing. The Goldberg of old - a no-selling, propulsive force of destrucity (Warrior tried really hard to get that over, so we'll be nice to him for a change) - was of no interest to Vince McMahon. In WWE, babyfaces get over by doing the very opposite of what made him such a literal smash success: they sell, and sell, and sell, and then mount a comeback. Goldberg wasn't great at selling. He clearly didn't want to do it, and wasn't comfortable doing it. Authenticity was Speared and Jackhammered.
Visibly miserable, Goldberg decided not to renew with the company through 2004, and wrestled his last match for 12 years at WrestleMania XX. The hardcore MSG fans knew of this - and of opponent Brock Lesnar's own imminent departure - and so they hijacked what amounted to a lifeless match in which both babyface and heel reacted to the atmosphere as if they'd rather be anywhere else...because that was true.
To underscore how p*ssed off he was by all this, Goldberg knew was going over - and he still put his job face on.