[1998-04-20-WCW-Nitro] Goldberg vs Raven

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Tim Cooke]

Goldberg wins the US Title. I believe that Goldberg vs. Steve Austin at Summerslam 1998 would have been the best selling PPV of all time. Obviously never could happen in the US landscape but if WCW and WWF were more like the big Japan companies in the 90’s and 00’s, it would have been a closer possibility. Goldberg having Raven’s flock to toss around and bump for him just helped even more. Besides Benoit, I don’t think I have seen anyone take the drop toe hold on the chair safer (but with a forceful looking impact).

[Loss]

What a fun match! Raven and the Flock did a fantastic job putting Goldberg over convincingly. Ungodly heat yet again. Goldberg wins the US title. I love the fans throwing Raven back in the ring when he tried to escape. This was a really big moment.

[Zenjo]

Goldberg is so over at this point it's crazy. The fans shot out of their seats when he hit that first spear. Quite the contrast to the tiresome main event scene. Raven has a cup of coffee as a transitional champion with Goldberg taking out the whole flock. Not a proper match per se, but it got the job done. Putting the US title on him was the right step at this time.

[soup23]

Goldberg matches so far have been mostly fun squashes and the match vs. Saturn showed what him in the main event picture could look like. This match should have cemented it as it was great and perfectly worked. Goldberg steamrolls through the entire Flock after taking some great damage. Raven tries to bail and in an awesome moment gets thrown back in by the fans. The two spears receive a thunderous reaction and Goldberg wins the US title after a Jackhammer. Incredible moment and reaction. (***1/2)

[Migs]

Ack, first use of the Bret-killer kick.

 

Great testament to how good Raven was at structuring matches.

[PeteF3]

Raven's run continues. I would never put him on a GWE list but my thoughts on him are closer to El-P's now than they were before this set. He takes some great bumps to get Goldberg over and throws in just enough of his own stuff to keep him looking like a moderate threat. This crowd loses its shit at the first spear and then it just keeps on going as Goldberg destroys most of the Flock, en route to the U.S. title. This is the coolest thing WCW has pulled off in a long, long time.

[TravJ1979]

Good match, not a classic, but one of those that fulfilled it's purpose perfectly. I wonder if the fans were plants or Raven had to tell them "Hey, throw me back over the rail"

[Zero]

One of Goldberg's highlight matches. Raven did a great job of structuring this, and speaks a lot of him as a mind.