|
In theory there is a possibility of perfect happiness: To believe in the indestructible element within one, and not to strive towards it. Franz Kafka |
William Scott "Bill" Goldberg (born December 27, 1966) is a former professional wrestler best known for his time in World Championship Wrestling (WCW) and World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE). He is famous for his lengthy undefeated winning streak in singles competition. The official count is listed as 174-1 , although some have disputed the legitimacy of that total.
Goldberg is recognized by WWE as a two-time world champion: a one-time WCW World Heavyweight Champion and one-time World Heavyweight Champion, with both reigns represented by the Big Gold Belt. He was the first of three men to hold both versions of the Big Gold Belt in both WCW and WWE, later followed by Chris Benoit and Booker T. He is also recognized by WWE as a two-time WCW United States Heavyweight Champion and one-time WCW World Tag Team Champion (with Bret Hart).
Before he was a professional wrestler, Goldberg was a football player. After retiring from wrestling, he began working as a commentator for the mixed martial arts promotion EliteXC until its closure. He is currently hosting the television show Garage Mahal on the DIY Network.
Goldberg earned a scholarship to play for the University of Georgia Bulldogs football team where he served as a defensive tackle. He was taken in the 11th round, with the 302nd overall selection, in the 1990 NFL Draft.
He played for the Los Angeles Rams in the 1990 NFL season, followed by a stint with the Atlanta Falcons from 1992 to 1994. After being cut from the Falcons, in 1995 he was selected by the new expansion team, the Carolina Panthers, in the 1995 NFL Expansion Draft, but never played a game with the team.
Goldberg's NFL career ended when he tore his lower abdomen off his pelvis. He had hopes of returning to the league after rehabilitation but, due to his lack of success, wasn't considered a major asset. Goldberg has described playing in the NFL as "a mixed emotional experience" because, despite reaching the goal of simply playing in the NFL, he didn't obtain the level of achievement that he desired.
During the rehab following his NFL injury, Goldberg began power lifting and mixed martial arts training. Although not a fan of professional wrestling, he saw it as an alternative to his fledgling football career and began training at the WCW Power Plant.
On the September 22 edition of WCW Monday Nitro, Goldberg defeated Hugh Morrus in his debut match. Soon afterward, Goldberg's succession of wins saw him quickly advance up the card, and he was pushed as a singles wrestler. The newcomer captivated fans with his monstrous yet silent charisma, brute strength, and agility that saw him perform high kicks and even the occasional backflip. Goldberg made his pay-per-view debut at Starrcade defeating Steve McMichael. In early 1998, Goldberg defeated Brad Armstrong at SuperBrawl VIII and Perry Saturn at Spring Stampede in squash matches. Around this time, WCW began counting Goldberg's consecutive wins on television as he continued to climb up the ranks. Goldberg's win over Saturn was his 74th consecutive without a loss, and the next night on Nitro he challenged Raven for the United States Heavyweight Championship that Raven had won the night before at Spring Stampede. Despite interference from Raven's Flock Goldberg overpowered them all and defeated Raven for his seventy-fifth straight win and his first professional wrestling championship. Two days later, on the April 22 edition of WCW Thunder, he made his first successful title defense against Mike Enos. Goldberg then started a feud with Raven and The Flock. At Slamboree, he ended his feud with the Flock after a successful title defense against Saturn. Goldberg would continue to make successful title defenses against Konnan at The Great American Bash and Curt Hennig. By this time, he had adopted the catchphrase "Who's next?" in reference to his rapidly-expanding winning streak.
As Goldberg was getting over as a main eventer, he continued to defend the United States Championship and was slowly becoming a contender for the WCW World Heavyweight Championship that was held by nWo leader Hollywood Hulk Hogan. Hogan eventually promised Goldberg a title match, which was to take place on the July 6, 1998 edition of Nitro. However, Hogan elected instead to make Goldberg earn it in a match with his stablemate Scott Hall which Goldberg won. Thanks to a distraction provided by Diamond Dallas Page and Karl Malone, with whom Hogan was feuding at the time, Goldberg was able to defeat Hogan later in the evening to become a world champion and extend his winning streak to 108 matches. As a result, Goldberg vacated the United States title. Goldberg retained his title in his first World Heavyweight title defense against Scott Hall in a dark match. Goldberg then began a feud with Curt Hennig and retained the title against him at Bash at the Beach. At Road Wild, Goldberg won a battle royal, consisting of New World Order (nWo) members.
After Diamond Dallas Page became the number one contender for the WCW Title, Goldberg and Page began a feud with each other. At Halloween Havoc, the feud was settled after Goldberg defeated Page to retain the title. At Starrcade, Goldberg's undefeated streak was ended at 174 victories when he lost his title to Kevin Nash after Scott Hall, disguised as a ringside security guard, made a run-in and shocked Goldberg with a taser gun. Goldberg, however, avenged this act by facing Hall at Souled Out, in a Ladder Taser match. Goldberg won when he used the taser, which was hung high above the ring, requiring the ladder to obtain it. At the same time, the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) began mocking Goldberg with the character Gillberg, a perennial jobber who dressed similarly to Goldberg and mocked his signature entrance and mannerisms.
At Spring Stampede, Goldberg gained his revenge against Nash after defeating him. Soon after, Goldberg was "injured" and took some time off to prepare for his movie Universal Soldier: The Return. He returned two months later and defeated Rick Steiner at Road Wild. Goldberg then restarted his feud with Diamond Dallas Page also involving Page's allies, The Jersey Triad, which culminated in a match at Fall Brawl that Goldberg won. After Goldberg settled his rivalry with Page, he began focusing on Sid Vicious and challenged him to a match to end Sid's winning streak. The two feuded with each other, which culminated in a match at Halloween Havoc for Sid's U.S. Title. Goldberg defeated Sid via referee stoppage, and thus won his second United States Heavyweight Championship. Later that night, he answered an open challenge from World Heavyweight Champion Sting and defeated him to win the championship. On the next night's edition of Nitro, commissioner J.J. Dillon ruled that the match had not been sanctioned by WCW and that, therefore, Goldberg's victory was void. The title was vacated and a 32-man tournament was held to determine a new champion, which started that night. Goldberg entered the tournament and wrestled his first match against Bret Hart later that night, choosing also to defend his newly won U.S. Title in the match. Interference from Sid Vicious cost Goldberg the match and the title as well as his second official WCW loss. Goldberg continued his rivalry with Vicious and defeated him in an "I Quit" match at Mayhem.
Shortly thereafter, Goldberg joined forces with Hart, teaming with him to defeat Creative Control for the WCW World Tag Team Championship. One week later, they lost the title to The Outsiders (Scott Hall and Kevin Nash). At Starrcade, Goldberg challenged Hart for the World Heavyweight Championship. In the course of the match, Goldberg delivered a stiff kick to Hart's head, legitimately giving him a concussion and tearing a muscle in his neck. After being diagnosed with post-concussion syndrome, Hart wrestled only three more matches and retired several months later. Despite that, Goldberg lost the match to Hart, but Hart vacated the title the next night on Nitro, saying he did not want to win that way and granting Goldberg a rematch. Goldberg was defeated again due to outside interference from the Outsiders, who began to beat on Goldberg with baseball bats. In a swerve, Hart took one of the bats from The Outsiders and began beating on Goldberg himself, doing enough damage to score the pin and regain his championship. After the match, Hall, Nash, Hart, and Jeff Jarrett announced the reformation of the nWo, and gave Goldberg a new target for a feud. However, it would not last long.
Shortly after his title match loss, Goldberg was accidentally injured during a sequence where he chased the nWo limousine into the parking lot. A spot in the sequence called for Goldberg to pound on the windshield of the limousine with his hands. To ensure his safety, Goldberg had protective covering placed over his hands and the windshield glass was also covered with plastic. However, Goldberg got a little too overaggressive in his pounding, broke through the plastic covering the windshield, and severely injured his forearm when shards of the glass sliced it, causing him to miss the January 4, 2000 New Japan Pro Wrestling Tokyo Dome show, where he was scheduled to face Manabu Nakanishi. After taking time off to recuperate, Goldberg returned to WCW on May 29, 2000 interfering in a match between Kevin Nash and the team of Tank Abbott and Rick Steiner on Nitro. At The Great American Bash, Goldberg betrayed Nash during Nash's World Heavyweight Title match against Jeff Jarrett and turned heel for the first time in his career, aligning himself with The New Blood faction. This did not last long, as Goldberg would again be lost to injury and miss time. As a result of this betrayal, Goldberg feuded with Nash and defeated him at Bash at the Beach, with help from fellow New Blood member Scott Steiner. Goldberg participated in a triangle number one contender's match against Nash and Steiner at New Blood Rising, which Nash won. Goldberg turned face again after Bret Hart attacked him on an edition of Nitro and then he and Steiner began a feud with each other, culminating in a no disqualification match at Fall Brawl, which Goldberg lost.
He began a new undefeated streak in October 2000, with Vince Russo threatening to "fire" him if he lost. Goldberg defeated KroniK (Brian Adams and Bryan Clark) at Halloween Havoc in a handicap elimination match to begin his undefeated streak. He started a feud with Lex Luger, who claimed to be the first wrestler to end both Goldberg's streak and career. This culminated in a match at Mayhem, which Goldberg won. They continued their rivalry and battled in a rematch at Starrcade, which if Goldberg lost, he had to retire. Goldberg won the match, but after the match, he was attacked by Luger's partner Buff Bagwell. Goldberg feuded with both Luger and Bagwell, who called themselves Totally Buff. His streak was broken at Sin when Goldberg, teaming with his Power Plant trainer Dwayne Bruce, lost to Totally Buff in a tag team no disqualification match after a "fan" maced him, enabling Totally Buff to pin him. The storyline was intended to enable Goldberg to have shoulder surgery, but WCW was sold to the WWF in March 2001, while Goldberg was still recuperating. The WWF did not buy out Goldberg's contract with Time Warner (the parent company of WCW) as they had done with several other WCW employees, so he was not involved in the WWF "Invasion" angle. Goldberg instead remained under contract to Time Warner until May 2002, when he agreed on a contract buyout.
Goldberg had suffered an arm injury during the Toyota Pro/Celebrity Race at the Long Beach Grand Prix in April 2002. In August 2002, he returned to the ring in Japan. He initially joined All Japan Pro Wrestling, defeating Satoshi Kojima and Taiyō Kea. He went on to defeat Rick Steiner in a match for the W-1 promotion, and teamed with Keiji Mutoh to defeat KroniK. His success in Japan led the WWF – now renamed World Wrestling Entertainment – to begin contract negotiations with him.
After leaving Japan, Goldberg signed a one year contract with World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) in March 2003, debuting in WWE on the March 31 edition of Raw, the night after WrestleMania XIX. Immediately, he began a feud with The Rock by spearing him. Their rivalry intensified when The Rock held a segment entitled The Rock Concert, where he taunted Goldberg along with Gillberg. He defeated The Rock in his debut match at Backlash. The match was won by Goldberg following three spears and a Jackhammer. Goldberg went undefeated over the subsequent half-year, defeating 3-Minute Warning in his first match on Raw. Goldberg defeated Christian on the following edition of Raw in a steel cage match.
Goldberg next feuded with Chris Jericho. During Jericho's first edition of the Highlight Reel, an interview show, where Goldberg was the guest, he complained that no one wanted Goldberg in WWE and continued to insult him in the following weeks. On May 12 on Raw, a mystery assailant attempted to run over Goldberg with a limousine. A week later, Co-Raw General Manager, Stone Cold Steve Austin, interrogated several Raw superstars to find out who was driving the car. One of the interrogatees was Lance Storm, who admitted that he was the assailant. Austin forced Storm into a match with Goldberg, who defeated Storm. After the match, Goldberg forced Storm to admit that Jericho was the superstar who conspired Storm into running him over. On May 26, Goldberg was once again a guest on the Highlight Reel. Jericho expressed jealousy towards Goldberg's success in WCW and felt that since joining WWE, he had achieved everything he had ever wanted in his career and all that was left was to defeat Goldberg and challenged him to a match. At Bad Blood, Goldberg settled the score with Jericho and defeated him.
Goldberg entered a rivalry with Triple H, challenging him for the World Heavyweight Championship at SummerSlam in the second Elimination Chamber match in WWE; after squashing and eliminating Randy Orton, Shawn Michaels, and Jericho, he was pinned by Triple H after Ric Flair threw a sledgehammer inside the Chamber. Triple H proceeded to attack Goldberg with the sledgehammer and as a result, Triple H retained the title. Goldberg continued his feud with Triple H and finally defeated him for the World Heavyweight Championship at Unforgiven, after agreeing to put his career on the line. The next night on Raw, Goldberg successfully retained the championship against Chris Jericho. A week later, Triple H issued a $100,000 bounty to anybody who could take Goldberg out of the game. Steven Richards, Mark Henry, La Résistance and Tommy Dreamer all attempted to collect the bounty but were unsuccessful. On October 20, Batista collected the bounty after he interfered in Goldberg's title defense against Shawn Michaels on Raw and attacked Goldberg, placing a folding chair around Goldberg's ankle and jumping off the middle rope onto the chair, shattering his ankle. Furious, Goldberg demanded a match against Batista. Triple H, however, got involved in the match between Goldberg and Batista trying to cripple Goldberg, but Goldberg fought back and speared Triple H before attacking Batista with a sledgehammer. At Survivor Series, Goldberg retained his championship against Triple H despite interference from Evolution.
On November 17, Goldberg faced Triple H, Randy Orton, and Batista in a Handicap match on Raw but was pinned following an RKO, a Batista Bomb and finally a Pedigree. After the match, Kane unexpectedly came out to seemingly assist Goldberg after Evolution continued their assault on him following the match. After scaring off Evolution however, he turned on Goldberg and chokeslammed him. The following week, Kane attacked Goldberg again while he was defending his championship against Triple H in a rematch from Survivor Series and later that night, expressed his desire to face Goldberg for the title. Raw General Manager Eric Bischoff announced that Goldberg would be defending his championship against both Kane and Triple H in a triple threat match at Armageddon. Goldberg teamed with Shawn Michaels and Rob Van Dam to face and defeat Kane, Batista, and Orton in a six-man tag team match. On December 8 on Raw, Goldberg faced Kane in a Lumberjack match which ended in a disqualification when Evolution and Mark Henry entered the ring and assaulted Goldberg. At Armageddon, Goldberg ultimately lost the title when Triple H pinned him after interference from Evolution and a chokeslam from Kane.
During the Royal Rumble in 2004, he crossed paths with then-WWE Champion Brock Lesnar when the latter interrupted Goldberg during a backstage interview. While Goldberg was in the midst of dominating the Royal Rumble, Brock Lesnar interfered in the match and hit Goldberg with the F-5. With his attention turned on Lesnar, Kurt Angle eliminated a distracted Goldberg from behind. Goldberg vowed revenge on Lesnar and after defeating Mark Henry and Jonathan Coachman in a No DQ match, he declared Brock Lesnar his next victim. On February 2, Goldberg was given a front row ticket to No Way Out by Austin. Smackdown! General Manager Paul Heyman appeared on Raw and, along with Vince McMahon attempted to get Goldberg to back off in his vendetta against Brock Lesnar which resulted in Goldberg spearing Heyman and accidentally spearing Austin when he was aiming for McMahon. Goldberg attended No Way Out as a fan, confronting Lesnar at the event and, after several insults by Brock Lesnar, entered the ring and executed a Jackhammer on him. Goldberg was then arrested and escorted out of the arena by security guards. During the main event between Brock Lesnar and Eddie Guerrero, Goldberg reemerged from the crowd and cost Brock Lesnar the WWE Championship. This led to a match between the two being scheduled for WrestleMania XX with Austin serving as special guest referee. Fans knew this would be the final WWE match for both Goldberg and Brock Lesnar and thus gave largely negative reactions through the performance. After Goldberg defeated Brock Lesnar, both men were given a Stone Cold Stunner by Austin on their way out. One week later, Goldberg's contract expired and was not renewed.
On July 22, 2006, Goldberg served as color commentator in mixed martial arts (MMA) promotion World Fighting Alliance (WFA) King of the Streets pay-per-view in Los Angeles, California. When asked whether he was interested in becoming a mixed martial artist, Goldberg stated, "I'd love to, especially if I was 21 or even 29, but these guys are so far ahead of me in terms of experience. I never say never, though. But I don’t see myself stopping my movies, my shows, my commentating, or being a dad to do that". On June 7, 2007 Bill Goldberg was also adding Color Commentary to K-1 Dynamite!!
Goldberg became a color commentator for the EliteXC organization during their inaugural event. The event, EliteXC Destiny, was broadcast live on Showtime, on February 10, 2007. He has continued in this role through all of EliteXC's showcase and combined cards, including Dynamite!! USA, Strikeforce Shamrock vs. Baroni, EliteXC: Renegade, and EliteXC: Street Certified.
Goldberg began acting while working for WCW in 1999. His appearance in Universal Soldier: The Return corresponded with him being featured in the music video. He was a special guest star on Hulk Hogan's Celebrity Championship Wrestling. On the show he showed the contestants his various power moves yet also how to hit the opponent with a steel chair. He also spent three seasons as host of the Speed Channel show Bullrun.
In 2005, Goldberg also starred in a Happy Madison produced movie, The Longest Yard, as an inmate, along with fellow wrestlers Kevin Nash, The Great Khali, and "Stone Cold" Steve Austin, as well as actors Adam Sandler, Chris Rock, and Burt Reynolds.
In March 2010, Goldberg appeared on the ninth season of Donald Trump's reality series The Celebrity Apprentice and was eliminated in the sixth episode.
In September 2010, Goldberg joined forces with Louis Gregory, CEO of Uncle Louie Music Group and Uncle Louie Management when Bill placed "Uncle Louie" on Team Goldberg.
Goldberg's mother, Ethel, is a classical violinist, while his father, Jed, a graduate of Harvard University, was an obstetrician and gynecologist. They divorced, and Jed died in late 2006. In addition to playing the violin, Ethel breeds flowers, and once succeeded in creating an award-winning hybrid orchid which she named after Goldberg. Bill is also proud of his Jewish religion and became well-known for his Jewish ethnicity during his wrestling career. Goldberg's Jewish ancestors came from Russia and Romania. His Romanian grandfather, Marcel, emigrated from Bucharest and came to America through Ellis Island. His other great-grandfather, Willie, was an immigrant from Russia.
Goldberg was raised in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where he had a bar mitzvah at Temple Israel and graduated from Tulsa Edison High School. He acquired a love for football early in life and was a bouncer at age 16.
On April 10, 2005, Goldberg married Wanda Ferraton, a stunt double whom he met while filming Santa's Slay, as stated in that movie's audio commentary. They have a son together, Gage A.J. Goldberg, who was born on May 10, 2006.
Goldberg is an animal welfare advocate and an American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) spokesman, and has addressed the United States Congress in order to raise awareness of illegal animal fighting. Every year, Goldberg also plays golf in the Jimmy V Golf Classic and visits with children in local hospitals who are undergoing cancer treatment.
Goldberg co-owns and operates the "Extreme Power Gym" Muay Thai and Amateur boxing training facility in Oceanside, California. He also owns over 25 vintage cars, including a Plymouth Hemi Cuda Convertible, Shelby Cobra 427, and a Mustang Boss 429 "Lawman" (one of the two cars used in the Vietnam War to entertain the U.S. Army).
Goldberg has a long scar on the right side of his torso from a tear suffered during a college football game that required surgery to repair. He also acquired a scar on his right forearm from an altercation in WCW which kept him out of action for quite some time due to the surgery needed to fix. He has a large tribal tattoo on his left upper shoulder and a skull on his right biceps.
Found error in text? Please select it and press CTRL-ENTER
© 2008-2024, JewAge.org
Discussion
Please log in / register, to leave a comment