Goldberg

The destroyer of 173 wrestlers in a row!

WHO'S NEXT?!

Bill Goldberg was one of the most popular professional wrestlers in WCW during the Monday Night Wars.

Goldberg became famous for having the longest winning streak ("The Streak" as it was known) in WCW history, having won 177 consecutive matches, and in the process, winning the WCW United States Heavyweight Title, and later, the WCW World Heavyweight Title before the streak came to an end at Starrcade 1998; he also became infamous for being the man responsible for retiring Bret Hart, giving him a concussion with a kick to the head that - coupled with other concussions suffered around the same timeframe - would force The Hitman out of the ring for good. (At least until 2010.) Nowadays, Goldberg has retired, and spends time doing television shows centered around motorcycles and automobiles, as well as serving as an MMA commentator.

You can learn more about his career at The Other Wiki.

---

Goldberg provides examples of the following tropes:

• Badass
  • Badass Beard
• Bald of Awesome
• The Big Guy
• The Berserker
• Catch Phrase: The page-topping quote.
• Crowd Song: Goldberg! Goldberg! Goldberg!
  • To help Goldberg's popularity rise, in the early days of his streak, the Goldberg chants were piped in through the sound system, leading to various Internet forums replacing "Goooooooooooldberg" with "piiiiiiiiiiiped-in".
    • Diamond Dallas Page claimed that this wasn't true. He said something to the effect of WCW didn't have the ability or know-how to pipe things in over the sound system.
• Defeating the Undefeatable: Used with Hulk Hogan and then inverted with Kevin Nash and the taser.
  • WCW was not really prepared to figure out what to do with him afterwards, either.
• Face Heel Turn: Had a very ill-advised one late in his WCW career thanks to the typical booking of Vince Russo. Goldberg was the one last wrestler fans could count on to cheer for. When he shortly turned heel, WCW fans just gave up altogether and it was, in some respects, the final nail in the company's coffin.
  • Quite literally eating Scott Hall's contract certainly didn't help, either.
• Finger-Poke of Doom: The destruction of his drawing power was a side-effect of this incident.
• Finishing Move: The Spear followed by The Jackhammer.
• Its the Best Trope Ever: Just guess who joined Larry Zbyszko in calling him "the greatest wrestler in the history of our sport." Just guess.
• Implacable Man: This is his shtick, really. Generally, the worst parts of Goldberg's career are when he's doing anything else but this.
• Invincible Hero: Averted. Despite having all the trappings of an Invincible Hero, the fans mostly couldn't get enough of him.
  • For the first year, anyway, when WCW still had a roster and tasers weren't yet conceived as wrestling moves...
  • Not to mention that, after two years of Hulk Hogan and the nWo making chumps of the entire WCW roster, Goldberg was a fresh face with an aura of invincibility. By this point, wrestling fans were dying for a person who could finally end Hogan's long-past-its-expiration-date title reign. He did, and for a short while, it was good.
• Large Ham
• Last-Name Basis: Though referred to as Bill Goldberg on numerous occasions, he's mostly known by his last name alone.
• Mean Character, Nice Actor
• Money, Dear Boy: He has made no secret of the fact that his involvement in wrestling is entirely dependent on how much money he makes from it.
• Pet the Dog: He may have a mercenary, selfish attitude towards the wrestling business, but he's extremely devoted to charities, particularly the Make A Wish foundation.
  • I wouldn't say selfish. Read his books or watch this, pretty much who he is... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tSgJYUJ6zRg&feature=related
• Real Life Writes the Plot: Chris Jericho feuded, and lost, with Goldberg only weeks after fighting with him backstage. It should be noted Jericho won that backstage fight by getting Goldberg in a front facelock (a fight-ender in real life) twice. Accounts vary on whether Goldberg had gotten out of it himself, Jericho had let him go, or whether other wrestlers broke it up, but at the bell, Jericho was definitely ahead on points
• Rule of Cool: His whole entrance, where they basically threw everything the set budget had. Includes a hefty dose of Ominous Fog and an Out of the Inferno walk through a fireworks shower, where he would then INHALE THE PYROTECHNICS SMOKE AND EXHALE IT LIKE A FRIGGIN' DRAGON!
• Screaming Warrior
  • A Great moment, from the 2004 Royal Rumble: [loud cobra hiss] "YOU SON OF A BITCH!"
• Showy Invincible Hero
• Squash Match: What the majority of his matches in WCW were during his first streak.
• Unstoppable Rage