How Good Was Goldberg Actually?

Today, a superstar needs to be able to verbally joust. The best promos in the modern game are from people like CM Punk, MJF, and Toni Storm; people who rely on charisma, character, and narrative to connect with an audience. Goldberg’s approach was much more monosyllabic, but no less effective for its time.

Goldberg was a man of few words. He didn’t even speak in the first stages of his WCW push. Not only was he built like an '80s action hero, but he also relied on a catchphrase that’s right up there with “I’ll be back”. For the longest time, Bill Goldberg only needed to snarl “Who’s Next?” or “You’re Next” into the camera or a microphone, and it was enough to make audiences lose their mind.

Over time, Goldberg began cutting longer promos that involved nothing more than generic, cookie-cutter, tough-guy spiel. He delivered the kind of formulaic babyface promo that Roman Reigns was lambasted for before he found himself as The Tribal Chief. These rubbish promos got drastically worse after WCW turned Bill heel in 2000, when he lacked the nous or conviction to deliver motives for his dastardly way of thinking. His first promo as a heel fell flat, and his new catchphrase of “Fear This” felt forced and like a product of a marketing meeting, in a way that "Who's Next?" never did.

His promo game was exposed further when Goldberg eventually joined WWE in 2003 following WCW’s closure. For star power, throwing Goldberg straight into a feud with The Rock made a lot of business sense. The problem with Bill sharing promo time with the man dubbed The Michael Jordan of the Mic is that he was woefully out of his depth when trying to establish himself with a new fanbase.

Goldberg signed a year-long contract in WWE that saw him feud with Triple H and Evolution, where he also felt like he had to be verbally carried by Triple H and Ric Flair, and a feud with Brock Lesnar on the road to WrestleMania 20 that saw him have to go mic-to-mic with Brock's advocate, Paul Heyman. In one segment on that particular Road to WrestleMania, Heyman verbally assassinated Goldberg while Vince McMahon and 'Stone Cold' Steve Austin smiled in the background. The segment ended with Goldberg spearing Heyman out of his shoes, but if this scenario wasn’t putting Bill in his place after the Monday Night War, it sure felt like it.

As for his various WWE comeback runs from 2016 until his retirement in 2025, Goldberg was again regularly outshone by his adversaries in promos. Gunther in particular buried Goldberg in their verbal back-and-forths.

All of which isn’t to say Goldberg didn’t have charisma and character, because he did - you don’t get as insanely over as Goldberg did without those attributes - but he delivered that charisma with gurning into the camera and violent squash matches, more than witty comebacks and memorable promos.

4/10