[2000-09-17-WCW-Fall Brawl] Scott Steiner vs Goldberg

[Superstar Sleeze]

Scott Steiner vs Goldberg - WCW Fall Brawl 2000

 

I couldn't believe the angle they ran before this where it was implied Goldberg put Midajah (Steiner's favorite freak) through a table and then I guess he smashed Steiner's face in with a lead pipe. Why the hell is the babyface attacking defenseless women? Fuck Russo! Steiner then puts Goldberg's girlfriend in the Steiner Recliner, but since that's shown on TV that means exposes it as a weak ass chinlock, Awful Russoian, misogynistic booking aside, I am pretty pumped for this match and so is the Buffalo crowd. The Bills football team hates Steiner and is super pro-Goldberg. Steiner is wearing a face mask and Goldberg has his arm taped up, which is good continuity, but neither one really plays into the match so it is a wash. Steiner stiffs the fuck out of Goldberg and Goldberg know no other way to wrestle so this comes off a gargantuan match. I loved Steiner taking right to Goldberg with some wicked shots only for Goldberg to come out of the corner with a huge Press and then catch and slam. It was amazing watching these two behemoth throw each other around. Steiner puts up the best resistance he possibly can, but his standard power game is not getting it down when Goldberg can outmuscle him. This is exemplified when Steiner hoists him into the Tombstone, but Goldberg reverses into a Oklahoma Slam. However, the one time the pre-existing injuries play into the match is when Goldberg's arm starts to bother him (nice Goddamnit on one of the strikes) and then he misses the spear. Steiner is able to take advantage on the outside and bust him over as his favorite freak, Midajah strolls out with a lead pipe. Steiner throws Goldberg around and hits a couple push-ups. Go Blue! Little shit like Goldberg nasty back elbows to Steiner and Steiner rethinking his suplex to a Belly to Belly was what was making this match great. Midajah hands Steiner the pipe, but SPEAR! Goldberg goes for the Jackhammer and the match goes to Hell because here comes Satan himself. Russo hits Goldberg with an obviously gimmicked bat. They were having a great match why the fuck do we need Russo and fake as fuck weapons. If they presented the fake bat as a real bat and had Goldberg lose right there, I would have no problem it was the bullshit with Goldberg being able to continue. Goldberg powering out of the Steiner Recliner was fucking awesome as he literally threw Steiner half way cross the ring from his shoulders. Midajah and Russo play pinata with Goldberg on the top rope, fuck, they are killing this match. Goldberg looks like he is finally going to kill Russo so Steiner smokes him the pipe and puts in the Recliner. The fake weapons and Russo bullshit really ruined what was otherwise a really good match. I am a sucker for two big men throwing each other around. There were great highspots and plenty of struggle. Goldberg's spear and the Goldberg's powering out of the Recliner were awesome spots. They did not need the overbooking, alas that is the story of Russo booking. Still the best match of the Russo regime and can't think of anything that would come close. ****

[JKWebb]

With 33 right around the corner, I thought I'd revisit some Goldberg. I watched the collection that they have on the network, and I noticed that NintendoLogic had this match listed in his Top 100 of all-time, so I gave it a revisit. Seeing it now, I'm pretty surprised it wasn't included in the collection on the network( in comparison to some that were). Hopefully, Goldberg has something like this in him for Sunday. These two guys were pounding on each other. I did enjoy it, but once Russo arrived, it was REALLY hard for me to get around the annoyance that his presence brought to me. It was hard to see the greatness of the work through his booking, but I still came away pleasantly surprised. I like how stiff the match was worked. I didn't like the fake bat and Russo ripping off his shirt (thinking he was really cool) as he strolled down the ramp with Steiner at his side... This isn't the spot on the board for this, but Vince Russo was the driving force for making WCW unwatchable. WCW went from being the promotion pushed like a real sport to talking about "creative control" and trying to talk about everything as a work but it's still real and guhhhh.... anyway... I got off course. This one is worth a revisit as far as Goldberg's catalogue is concerned. Behind the DDP match, it might be his best. NintendoLogic, if you are out there, and read this. I'd love to get your take on this match since you have it ranked so highly. I think it was really good, but I'm not sure I'd call it great at this point.

[soup23]

As impressive as the clash of the titans power move exchange was beforehand that if tightened up would have been a more athletic version of Brock vs Goldberg from Mania that I rated ****1/2, the final portion of this match was just complete bullshit. The gimmicked bat and lead pipe didn't make either seem more invincible, it had the opposite effect of hokiness. Add to that a heel in Steiner that really didn't need the help of his assistance much less the wimpy pair of Russo and Madaja and he loses his luster as a monster. It is the perfect encapsulation of Russo booking and where he gets in his own way from delivering both a classic in the artistic sense as well as the more logical decisions from a storyline standpoint. A match with that fatal flaw just can't be classified as great. I also have some minor nitpick stuff with the Buffalo crowd. They were decent here but that early exchange and stuff like the Tombstone > Oklahoma Slam spots should have gotten electric reactions. Jarrett vs Awesome was a fun distraction match that needed bullshit, the interference here was just straight bullshit. ***1/2 (7)

[AstroBoy]

About five minutes into this I started to wonder how high I was possibly going to be on this. It felt like it was surging forward to near-classic status as a total clash of bulls who were just mauling each other with bombs. And then Russo came out and I groaned. Having said that, this was still fantastic and just missed that near-classic level for me. Steiner took a hell of a bump running into the corner and getting booted down by Goldberg. Goldberg press slamming Steiner was legitimately awe-inspiring and Steiner's top rope belly to belly was awesome, with Goldberg just barely getting his head over in time as he hit the mat. This was made by intensity and the believability of these two as monsters. They went after each other to destroy each other and even though the Russo and Midajah stuff put a damper on it, it couldn't bring it down completely.

 

****