Goldberg

[Grimmas]

Discuss here.

[Grimmas]

Goldberg is one of my favourite wrestlers ever. I love a few of his big matches, the problem is he didn't have too many opportunities to have good matches. Bad booking will be his downfall for this list.

[shoe]

Goldberg is one of my favourite wrestlers ever. I love a few of his big matches, the problem is he didn't have too many opportunities to have good matches. Bad booking will be his downfall for this list.

By bad booking do you mean keeping his matches too short to get a feel for him as a worker ? I mean squashing people got him over. He had an aura about him. I'm just not sure about being a great worker though.

[DR Ackermann]

His downfall is that he simply didn't have enough ring-time to even have the possibility of developing into a great worker. There have been thousands of better wrestlers.

[rzombie1988]

Goldberg doesn't belong in this poll but he took the ball, ran with it and really was WCW's top guy for it's last few years. He did great in his role. I think he's honestly not given enough credit and he seems to be forgotten for the most part.

 

I have no problem with him doing all of those squashes. IT WORKED. If someone's going to get me money by squashing people, he can do it until the end of time.

[Grimmas]

 

Goldberg is one of my favourite wrestlers ever. I love a few of his big matches, the problem is he didn't have too many opportunities to have good matches. Bad booking will be his downfall for this list.

By bad booking do you mean keeping his matches too short to get a feel for him as a worker ? I mean squashing people got him over. He had an aura about him. I'm just not sure about being a great worker though.

 

No, bad booking post winning the title. The squashes ruled, but the way he was handled after he was the top star was pathetic.

[shoe]

Steven I think you're stretching on that one as his downfall from becoming a great worker.

[Tim Cooke]

Goldberg may make my list. It would be in the upper 90's most likely.

 

Watching the 1998 Yearbook, I came away with Steve Austin vs Goldberg possibly being the biggest dream match in US wrestling. I always liked Goldberg since I was a WCW fan but the Yearbook made me like him even more. You have him going against Jerry Flynn on Thunder, working a quick shoot style squash (check out their 2/98 WCWSN match for an even longer and better version of that match). He got tremendous heat out of a match with Rocco Rock on Nitro. Spring Stampede against Saturn was reminiscent of a Mid South "hoss" match (for lack of a better term). The Raven match the next night on Nitro was a lot of fun.

 

He doesn't have lengthy matches nor the quantity of matches to make most people's lists and I wouldn't argue that. But sometimes shorter matches that are higher quality, plus other intangibles such as getting over so incredibly fast, being pretty naturally gifted right off the bat, and understanding how to work to his strengths until the booking ended up fucking him by early 1999. After that is when he started looking lost and getting exposed a little more. But even then, you have the Fall Brawl 2000 match against Scott Steiner, which for the first 6 minutes was an excellent power match until Russo's bullshit just wasted that excellent effort.

[El-P]

Three to five really good matches (always carried by his opponent) over a bunch of years.

[DR Ackermann]

If a guy is getting exposed by working matches that last longer than 10 minutes, do you really think he is one of the top 100 wrestlers of all time from an in-ring standpoint? What exactly is he being exposed as then, if not a severely limited wrestler? Are you saying he was exposed as merely great as opposed to amazing? Because if he was included on someone's list, that would be the only thing that made sense, unless a person just didn't believe that there were 100 wrestlers who qualified as great.

[Tim Cooke]

If a guy is getting exposed by working matches that last longer than 10 minutes, do you really think he is one of the top 100 wrestlers of all time from an in-ring standpoint? What exactly is he being exposed as then, if not a severely limited wrestler? Are you saying he was exposed as merely great as opposed to amazing? Because if he was included on someone's list, that would be the only thing that made sense, unless a person just didn't believe that there were 100 wrestlers who qualified as great.

 

Sandy Koufax pitched 9 complete seasons for the Dodgers. In terms of baseball history, that is a relatively short stay. It was a completely dominant 9 years but still just 9 years.

 

I'm not making a direct Goldberg to Sandy Koufax comparison because that comparison has flaws. But in an era where TV matches were shorter, getting over wasn't always easy due to politics, and fresh, unique, high energy wrestlers were in great demand, Goldberg stands out as someone who could make my list and would be willing to go to bat for.

 

Completely understand the opposing viewpoint and wouldn't think less of anyone who didn't vote for Goldberg or even consider putting him on their lists. But the 5 really good matches all carried by his opponents is hyperbolic or at the very least, a very subjective way of looking at things.

[El-P]

But the 5 really good matches all carried by his opponents is hyperbolic or at the very least, a very subjective way of looking at things.

 

I can think of Regal, Steiner (and I'm felling quite generous calling these two "really good"), DDP, Raven… hum… is there a Sting match somewhere that was any good ? I don't remember despite spending the last few years going through this stuff. I never cared for Goldy's squashes to be honest, no matter how great looking some of his spots were. Maybe he had more in the WWF, although I kinda doubt it.

[Grimmas]

I'm baffled by not liking Goldberg squashes.

 

By the way, best squash match wrestler ever is an argument you could make that could launch him into the 100 spot.

[shoe]

 

 

But the 5 really good matches all carried by his opponents is hyperbolic or at the very least, a very subjective way of looking at things.

I can think of Regal, Steiner (and I'm felling quite generous calling these two "really good"), DDP, Raven hum is there a Sting match somewhere that was any good ? I don't remember despite spending the last few years going through this stuff. I never cared for Goldy's squashes to be honest, no matter how great looking some of his spots were. Maybe he had more in the WWF, although I kinda doubt it.

Their is a real good Sting match on the same Nitro Flair returned on in 98. I'd say it was a 3 1/2* . That's pretty impressive since they had to follow Flair's return which says a lot since the crowd gave so much for the reformation of the Horseman.

[Sidebottom]

For my money, the best squash match wrestler was early Sid...

[DR Ackermann]

I personally don't see how the bar is so low that one solid year warrants a spot, but to each their own. Goldberg looked pretty green to me in 1998, but i don't hold that against him since he only debuted the year before. But it's also not something that compares to a lot of guys' tenth best year.

[El-P]

I'm baffled by not liking Goldberg squashes.

 

And yet, I love Kevin Sullivan's squashes. Go figure.

 

 

Their is a real good Sting match on the same Nitro Flair returned on in 98. I'd say it was a 3 1/2* . That's pretty impressive since they had to follow Flair's return which says a lot since the crowd gave so much for the reformation of the Horseman.

 

Right you are. That's the one I was trying to remember.

 

I like Godly though. But I actually like him in competitive matches better. With more time, he could have developped into something more than he ended up being. The evidences are there that he could be one cool big match worker. But there isn't enough meat in his body of work, although it's not his fault, really.

[Benbeeach]

Definitely the greatest squash match wrestler ever. Prob a top 5 signature move to finisher combo as well

[funkdoc]

i'd throw the midnights into the "best squash match wrestler" arena, though goldberg is definitely up there. really liked his match vs. brad armstrong from a random PPV early in the streak...

[Johnny Sorrow]

Magnificent Muraco was the best squash match guy, he beat up a guy while eating a meatball sub. Quality over quantity .

[Grimmas]

Magnificent Muraco was the best squash match guy, he beat up a guy while eating a meatball sub. Quality over quantity .

Good point and the case for Muraco builds.

[elliott]

I love the DDP match and Goldberg killing jobbers is a total blast. I would have zero problem with Goldberg showing up on someone's list as "greatest jobber match wrestler ever." My vote goes to Buzz Sawyer. But yeah, Goldberg is definitely up there.

[WingedEagle]

At first I thought the notion of Goldberg on someone's list was ridiculous given the length and depth of his career. But he probably has more matches on tape than someone like Volk Han and very likely more than certain stars from the 70s that people will consider. Not quite the stretch when you go at it that way, even if I don't think I could make room for him.

[Benbeeach]

 

Magnificent Muraco was the best squash match guy, he beat up a guy while eating a meatball sub. Quality over quantity .

Good point and the case for Muraco builds.

 

Hard to argue against that

[GOTNW]

Not even my unabashed love of squash matches could get Goldberg on my list no matter how great he was at them.