50 Ruthless Aggression Era Superstars Ranked From Worst To Best
17. Goldberg
Pros:
1. Ridiculously popular athlete
2. People loved watching his squash matches
3. Delivered the best Spear in all of pro wrestling
Cons:
1. WWE messed up his booking by making him work longer matches
2. Only lasted one year in WWE
3. REALLY doesn’t like Triple H
When Goldberg debuted, he was brought considerable attention to himself, and was just the kind of strong badass that RAW needed, especially after Brock Lesnar became a SmackDown-exclusive wrestler. Sadly, Goldberg was always a character whose popularity relied on a tried-and-tested formula, which was not applied during his short WWE career.
Goldberg was always best at short squash matches that required short bursts of strength and agility. Vince wanted Goldberg to wrestle longer matches, which was anathema to how he got over in the first place. The result was a Goldberg that didn’t excite fans in the same way that he did in WCW, especially after WWE fans were getting exciting long matches on SmackDown.
Ultimately, Goldberg’s WWE career fell flat for a number of reasons, the least of which is bitterness between him and Triple H, which is also something that stands to this day. His is an important lesson that WWE should try and follow: if someone is successful somewhere else, don’t try to have them do something different in WWE right away.
Sometimes, using a tried-and-tested practice can yield better results than re-inventing a superstar completely.
Final Rating: ****1/4