WCW Monday Nitro
July 6, 1998
Live from Atlanta, GA (41,412 in attendance)
The biggest star WCW ever created was “passed the torch” on
this day back in 1998. Yes, I’m referring to the one and only GOLDBERG.
Back on September 22, 1997 in Salt Lake City, UT an unknown
wrestler by the name of Bill Goldberg faced Hugh Morrus on Monday Nitro. He
won. “Mean” Gene Okerlund tried to interview him but the victor remained
silent. Not only did the trend of our new hero being silent continue but also
his winning ways.
Week after week his winning streak continued on Nitro,
Thunder, and WCW Saturday Night. His patented moves were the spear and the
jackhammer. On April 20, 1998 Goldberg won his first title as he defeated Raven
on Nitro for his 75th victory and the US Heavyweight title. However,
the phenomenon did not stop there.
With the US title in his possession and his winning streak
growing Goldberg’s popularity soared, so WCW and, most notably, Hulk Hogan took
notice and gave Goldberg a barely-advertised World Heavyweight title match on
Nitro scheduled for July 6. I refer to the match as barely advertised because
WCW didn’t even announce it until the previous Thunder. Even Goldberg
supposedly found out while watching the program.
On WCW Monday Nitro that night Hogan put Scott Hall in
Goldberg’s path in order to earn his World title match. With little difficulty
Goldberg beat Hall and was ready for the main event.
Instead of advertising this match for the upcoming Bash At
The Beach PPV WCW threw away potentially millions of dollars of PPV revenue by
offering this gem on free TV! If there was ever an example of a ratings grab,
this is it! Enjoy!
They may have bungled the timing and they may have messed up Goldberg's title reign by not giving him any real feud...but my God what a moment.
ReplyDeleteWhy was this match not a PPV main event?
ReplyDeleteWCW was striking while the iron was hot. They had already advertised Hogan/Rodman versus DDP/Malone for the PPV.
ReplyDeleteBecause Bischoff was desperate to get a ratings win at all cost, damn the long term consequences.
ReplyDeleteI mean seriously could you imagine the PPV buyrate this match would have gotten with a proper build?
Makes sense, I guess. Bischoff always seemed like the type that put TV first and PPV's second.
ReplyDeleteAlso makes sense, but why not save Goldberg vs. Hogan for Halloween Havoc or even Starrcade?
ReplyDelete15 years? Fucking hell
ReplyDeleteMan, people can second guess this not being on PPV but fuck what a moment. I can't imagine the energy in that building when Goldberg lifts Hogan for his finisher.
ReplyDeleteAlso, they should show wrestlers walking from backstage into the ring more. It's a nice touch.
I'm not sure they could have held off for that long. Goldberg was already white hot by that point. Waiting until Halloween Havoc or Starrcade may have created the issue ECW ran into by waiting so long to give Taz the title... he already went through the whole roster and there were no fresh opponents to defend the title against. Granted, in Goldberg's case he still wound up having no great opponents (except DDP and I guess Kevin Nash) but still, I understood the logic behind WCW wanting to give Goldberg the title sooner than later. Especially with Austin and the WWF doing their thing.
ReplyDeleteEh, I can see the logic in doing it this way. Bischoff sees the writing on the wall, tries to shake things up by giving fans an awesome moment for free and reminding them anything can happen.
ReplyDeleteAnd no matter how huge the PPV buyrate had been it wouldn't have saved the company in the long term.
I think the reasoning here was fine, it was the follow through that sucked.
Yeah that's fair. Still, they should have just dropped the Rodman thing at the Bash and done Hogan/Goldberg there. They could have done the Rodman thing on Nitro instead.
ReplyDeleteMeanwhile on Raw, it was the BRAWL FOR ALL
ReplyDeleteMeanwhile on Raw it was the BRAWL FOR ALL
ReplyDeletehttp://youtu.be/eLWZNIpLwss
Hard to second guess it because when dealing with Hogan he could change his mind so many times between now and a PPV. Plus it would have been a longer match and ridiculously overbooked I'm sure.
ReplyDeleteThere is a good argument for waiting. The WWF took over a calendar year to give Austin the title from the time he was white hot. But of course they almost lost him at Summerslam of that year and you can imagine the second guessing that happened after that incident.
Pretty sure RAW was in the can that previous Tuesday which is probably why WCW waited until Thunder to make the announcement.
ReplyDelete"Hard to second guess it because when dealing with Hogan he could change his mind so many times between now and a PPV"
ReplyDeleteI still want to hear a hardcore Hogan fan defend this. I also wonder if Bischoff still thinks it was worth it bringing Hogan in for those demands.
The Foley match and this now hitting 15 years old amazes me.
ReplyDeletePretty much half my lifetime ago, and it feels like yesterday. Well, maybe not yesterday but it feels like last year or something.
ReplyDeleteSchiavone and Heenan were fantastic
ReplyDeleteJesus christ I was in sixth grade taking my final 'final' of the school year this very day. My teacher was named Mr. Bender, and I was with a group of wrestling fans who thought everything but the finish of a match was pre-planned.
ReplyDeletethree years later I gave up the first ever Raw featuring WCW matches to make out with a girl and maybe see her boobies.
The things we remember.
Goldberg wins World War 3 to earn the Starrcade title shot.
ReplyDeleteYeah.. Hogan's walk from the MSG hallway was epic back in the day. They milked that for the Championship Wrestling intro for years.
ReplyDeleteDon't forget the Nation parody by DX!
ReplyDeleteI'll never forget that day - I was 15, away on a golfing trip with my friends family. My friends were all "go golf!" and his parents paid for the whole thing so they were all like "go golf!" but it was too damn hot to be walking a golf course for this guy. I had no choice in the matter so I drank Power-aid like a motherfucker, which didn't agree with me. I ended up shitting in the woods on the 12th hole. I suffered through it and we finished up just in time to go for a quick swim and catch Nitro - nobody else was a wrestling fan but it was the trade off for me playing 4 rounds of golf in 3 days in ridiculous heat.
ReplyDeleteTo be young again.
A smart and stupid move by WCW. Smart since they got the ratings win they wanted, stupid cause, had they put this on PPV, they could've sold out an arena roughly the size of the northern hemisphere.
ReplyDeleteAgreed. Having him beat his way through the whole roster in WW3 made sense. If Sting had just stayed champ in 98, they could have done Goldberg vs Hogan in the summer still and had Goldberg set his sights on the title for Starrcade (while Hogan vs Nash continued too)
ReplyDeleteOf course it was.
ReplyDeleteI think they could have done both. Involve Rodman and Malone in the ppv, because as dumb as it was, it drew buys. Use that to get the mainstream attention and sports coverage, and deliver Goldberg's title win on the same card. Might make some new fans
ReplyDeleteYeah, I'll never forget it. Especially after the Sting-Hogan fiasco at Starrcade 97, I was SO sure the Hogan-Goldberg match was gonna be a fuck finish to build to a rematch down the road.
ReplyDeleteSo you're of the opinion WCW would have died sooner without Hogan? Just curious.
ReplyDeleteThey certainly wouldn't have beaten wwf for two years without him. That's not an opinion. That's indisputable.
ReplyDeleteSomething that gets lost in this discussion is that Hogan's original contract was expired right before the Goldberg switch. He resigned for 3 years and then lost the title. Just something interesting to think about.
ReplyDeleteNot that I completely disagree with you but to be fair wasn't it the "NWO" that started the winning streak? True enough the Hogan turn was the catalyst but Hall and Nash still could have made the jump and done it without him.
ReplyDeleteI don't have a problem with it. It gave the show an 'anything can happen' feeling. WCW made a lot of mistakes but I don't feel this is one of them.
ReplyDeleteYou're kidding, right?
ReplyDeleteHogan was a huge part of the initial founding yes but I think the group still could have been effective without him. I do admit hey wouldn't have beaten WWF so badly though unless maybe they snatched up Bret in place of Hogan.
ReplyDeleteWCW's idiotic booking of Sting killed his heat. There's no way he could made it past May as World Champion. Having him get his ass kicked by Savage (prior to SuperBrawl VIII) AND Nash (prior to Spring Stampede) on Nitro was beyond stupid.
ReplyDeleteCome on bro. You're pulling my leg.
ReplyDeletePutting it on free tv for the huge rating is a fine idea if the rest of the show is going to grab attention, but Hogan/Goldberg is all I remember from this show.
ReplyDeleteIf I had to guess based on what I remember at the time, I'd say the rest was the Wolf-Pac/nWo non-sense, whatever DDP was doing and possibly the Hart/Sting angle where Bret's pretending to be his friend even though he's sort of in the nWo, and Sting accepts his friendship even though we all know where it's heading, made more frustrating by how frigging long it took to head there.
I think two well known WWF stars jumping to WCW, portraying themselves as invaders would have drawn. Didn't Nitro beat Raw from time to time even with all the foolish Hogan/Flair/Dungeon of Doom stuff? The angle itself was going to draw - I wonder how much of the success was because Hogan turned heel and joined the nWo or the nWo itself.
ReplyDeleteHogan was no more of a draw in WCW than Sting was at the time. Maybe a Sting heel turn has a similar effect. No doubt Hogan's involvement was huge but maybe it's successful without him, and then down the road doesn't get beaten into the ground as the entire company has to continue to revolve around him.
I was at this show and the energy in the building was insane. I honestly started thinking Goldberg was the antichrist that night. The change continued for OVER AN HOUR NON-STOP after Nitro went off the air. People went absolutely apeshit.
ReplyDeleteAnd don't forget the nWo beat down against him on the Nitro before Starrcade 97. No one from the nWo should ever have been able to get to take out Sting. Totally killed his mystique.
ReplyDeleteI can't believe they had a 60 man battle royal the month before their biggest pay per view of the year, the winner gets a title shot, and as best I can recall nobody that won used it at Starrcade. It was right there. I think all the winners just got a title shot at some point in time.
ReplyDeleteExcept that one year when the title itself was up for grabs.
ReplyDeleteWW3 was the dumbest thing. A monument to WCW's excesses. *I* was in that thing one year.
Nash did in 1998. Other than that Macho won the first one in 95 and by stipulation won the World title. Both Big Show and Scott Hall didn't cash in till later.
ReplyDeleteThe people who trash the fact that it was on free tv are right and wrong.
ReplyDeleteSure, they blew a big PPV buyrate, but had WCW kept going with momentum from this, they could have left the WWF in the dust again.
But what happened? Hogan and Rodman main evented against Page and Malone a few days later and Goldberg faced Hennig in a 2 minute semi main squash.
They should have kept the original Goldberg/Green vs. Giant/Hennig and had Goldberg attack the NWO after the main event. They should have scrapped Road Wild and did a TV special like the Clash with Goldberg defending against Hogan. Hogan would lose by DQ when the nWo interfered.
Since Hogan lost again, he would have to win War Games to get another shot. Team Hollywood vs. Team Wolfpack with Wolfpack winning and ridding WCW of Hogan and the black and white.
Sting would then wrestle for the title at Havoc before losing and going on his hiatus. Page would win WW3 and Goldberg would beat Jericho on that show. Page would lose at Starrcade and Nash would win a #1 contender's match before losing at Souled Out.
Meanwhile, the Benoit's and Booker T's of the world would be gaining momentum and be ready to challenge for the belt in 99. Hogan returns in the summer and loses a retirement match on PPV. Same with Savage. Goldberg runs through them all before losing at Starrcade to whomever was deserving and over the most at the time. (Benoit, Booker T, Steiner, Hart, etc.)
It would've been very WCW of them to have Hogan just leave the company, still champion, and sign with WWE just a year after Vince went through every machination in the book to make sure Hart lost the belt before jumping.
ReplyDeleteProps to Schiavone, guy really brought it for this one.
ReplyDeleteIn big matches, the nWo ALWAYS made Sting like a joke. WCW not killing the nWo was one of the major bonehead decisions WCW made.
ReplyDelete"This place will erupt when he gets him up"
ReplyDelete"HEEE'S GOT HIM UP"
This moment is amazing and raises the goosebumps even 15 (?!) years later.
ReplyDeleteAs far as Free TV vs. PVP, goes...well, I see both sides. Mostly because there was no guarantee that Hogan would still go through the job on a PPV. Still, man...that was pissing away millions of revenue for a short spike in the ratings...
While I see why you could argue that this should've been put on PPV, I think WCW did the right thing putting the belt on Goldberg on this show. The venue was perfect and the time was right. The problem with it was that Goldberg never really got a memorable feud. The DDP match was great, but what other highlights from his reign are there apart from the end? They did mess up by giving away Goldberg v Sting and Goldberg vs the Giant away on free TV. First is obviously a great Starrcade or Superbrawl main event and the second is a good one month "can Goldberg jackhammer the Giant?" feud.
ReplyDeleteOf course he does. He gets to ride Hogan's coattails for the rest of his life.
ReplyDeleteI suppose another way to say it is: why not book that match for that venue AS a ppv? Why not a Georgia Dome ppv in the summer of 98 with Hogan vs Goldberg built up for a couple months, with some form of Rodman/Malone stuff involved to draw mainstream interest?
ReplyDeleteExactly.
ReplyDelete*chant
ReplyDeleteI'm pretty sure in 1997, when Hall won the 60-man Battle Royal, it was noted that the winner would get a shot at Super Brawl in February.
ReplyDeleteThe venue was booked months in advance, before Goldberg was hot. Goldberg's rise to the top was pretty rapid, they were just seizing the moment. The PPVs around that time were used up on prebooked celebrity matches. Given the circumstances, this was the best they could do at the time. I agree they might have been able to hold it off a bit longer, but I can see them wanting to strike while the iron is hot.
ReplyDeleteThis is why it was a good move to put it on this show. It wouldn't be such a memorable moment if it weren't for that energy. Yeah yeah, they could've put it on a PPV in the Georgia Dome and made millions of dollars, but debating that doesn't change the fact that WCW is gone.
ReplyDeletePPV or Nitro, Bischoff was always going to mess Goldberg up. The guy was not smart. He had big balls and big money behind him but nothing he did was built to last. Hence why every big angle of his tenure was flubbed and fucked up in some way. Was there seriously ever a main event angle in WCW that played perfect right to the end? The double shot of nWo and the Hogan turn was his one moment of brilliance and even then, he dropped the ball on follow through.
ReplyDeleteHere's another angle to the "TV vs PPV" debate on this match; Why couldn't they just do a rematch at a PPV? Oh right, God forbid Hogan job twice to the same guy. Besides we needed to see Hogan and Warrior have there terribly shitty feud and match.
ReplyDeleteYeah, makes complete sense. I'm sure there is a lot of logistics and pre-planning that goes into PPV vs. TV.
ReplyDeleteI don't think we would be knocking the TV vs. PPV decision if Goldberg's title reign had been better. As a starting point, it was suitably epic, but he had no memorable feuds or high-profile matches as champ until the Nash fiasco
ReplyDeleteI was SOO sure they were just gonna do a run-in schmozz that night (like every other nWo-era Nitro) to set up an eventual Goldberg-Hogan title match on PPV. When he pinned Hogan clean I was shocked.
ReplyDeleteI was meaning IF they had kept Sting strong after his Starrcade 97 win. Just have him hold the belt and stay the dominant zombie character for the whole year so that when you get to Goldberg dominating WW3 and challenging at Starrcade, it feels like neither guy can possibly lose.
ReplyDeleteAgreed. The fact that there was a clean finish made it so much better. When Malone ran out I thought for sure a DQ was coming.
ReplyDeleteEven with a clean finish Hogan was still entitled to a rematch though. They might not have drawn as well the second go around but they should have at least tried.
ReplyDeleteIt's always fun to fantasy book though. Like what WWF would have done if Bret left in 1996 or if Flair took Vince's offer to jump in 1988.
ReplyDeleteI agree, they defiently left money on the table. I'm to lazy and drunk to google what Hogan and Goldberg did on the subsequent PPV but would like to know. According to ALOT of people Hogan only lost to Goldberg because he was promised to be the one to end his streak. I can only assume WCW wanted to keep the belt on Goldberg for awhile so didnt book the rematch.
ReplyDeleteSee now, Hogan breaking the streak and getting the title back through dubious means of course, THAT would have been a good way to end the streak. Goldberg is still credible because it was a cheap win (and yes I know the Nash win was cheap as well), Hogan is hated even more for breaking the streak, and they can do the rubber match at let's say Starrcade.
ReplyDeleteYea, A definitive heel breaking the streak would have been better then the cool guy Kevin Nash for business reasons. If you hear guys talk about the rationale behind the finger poke of doom, its actually not bad ... reform a top level heel nwo faction for Goldberg to run through. My WCW timeframe isn't great but Hogan would have ended the streak if he wasnt hurt or on hiatus via Russo.
ReplyDeleteI love Tony's "oh hell yeah" which is like the call back line to "Hulk Hogan... you can go to hell, straight to hell" lol
ReplyDeleteHogan did get hurt in the spring of 1999 and Russo did take him off TV later that year but my particular timeline has everything happening in 1998.
ReplyDeleteOh, I know, I do it too, I just think what people are booking here isn't fun booking. It's about pretending to understand how to make money in the business. We all want Hogan vs Goldberg, in the same environment, just in a way that makes WCW more money.
ReplyDeleteI think it was the continued reliance on Hogan that ultimately killed to WCW. Look at this period for example - the big blow off to the nWo angle should have been Sting winning. He did, kind of, got the title, briefly, and ultimately it ends up back on Hogan - only this time the nWo isn't hot, it isn't even really doing anything but feuding between itself, adding WCW stars to the cool side, and setting off a stable war that went nowhere. While this is going on, you have Bret Hart as Hogan's buddy. Even when Hogan loses the belt Goldberg's still facing midcarders while Hogan's teaming with Dennis Rodman, or facing Jay Leno, taking over the Tonight Show,etc, until Warrior comes in for a major program against Hogan, so Hogan could avenge a loss from 5 years ago. He takes a couple of months off and nothing that happened during that time meant anything because suddenly it's an nWo-reboot with Hogan holding the title. Again. Which only lasts two months because then Hogan wants to turn face. I know WCW's last days are considered pretty horrible, but WCW's most painful era for me to watch is spring/summer 1999 with Red and Yellow Hogan and fucking Rick Steiner as top guys.
ReplyDeleteHogan's act was wearing thin well before Starrcade 1997, which should have been the end of it, but he just kept going and going and going. To swing it back around to the PPV/TV debate, I think Hogan had one more big drawing match left and it would've been against Goldberg around this time. I don't know if you can get to Starrcade because Hogan was killing the product, but a first time meeting where it's a foregone conclusion that Goldberg's going to bury Hogan definitively this time would've drawn huge.
Without Hogan, maybe WCW's content to be a close 2nd, doesn't throw money around to go to war with Vince, and is still operating today as a close 2nd.
ReplyDeleteWhile this is largely true, it's really hard to just get rid of Hogan. It would've been nice if Hogan had lost to Goldberg and then gone on a Hulkamania nostalgia run like he eventually did in 2002, working with the upper midcard and so on.
ReplyDeleteA WCW 1999 with Goldberg running through the remains of the nWo, before losing the belt at Halloween Havoc or Starrcade to Steiner, Raven, Booker T or someone new so WCW can move into a new era would've been better. Shame it couldn't happen.
I think Goldberg did a gauntlet or battle royal thing against the Wolf-Pac and nWo Hollywood, and Hogan faced DDP and Leno or DDP and Malone, one or the other.
ReplyDeleteGoldberg/Steiner in late 1999 sadly wasn't an option due to Scotty's back issues. I don't think Raven beating Goldberg would have worked either, besides Raven still might have decided to go back to ECW. Booker T was an interesting choice I'll give you that.
ReplyDeleteGoldberg vs. Sting should have been the Starrcade '99 main event
ReplyDeleteWell, if I were booking WCW Raven wouldn't want to leave because I'd give him something to do haha
ReplyDeleteI don't know about this.
ReplyDeleteThere are two things that I think were game changing heel turns in wrestling, and both for the same reason.
1) Hogan
2) Vince McMahon
I'm a bit of an older guy, grew up during the Rock 'n wrestling era. I can only speak for my circle of around 30-50 friends, but when news got around that Hogan turned bad, *EVERYONE* starting watching WCW just to watch Hogan as a bad guy. They were fascinated!! Now, keep in mind this is in Edmonton, AB, Canada where you can only get WCW on PPV. Yet they still religiously ordered WCW PPVs up until whichever one came after Sting/Hogan Starrcade.
That generation (18-22) came back *in force* for that, and then even more so when Vince went from being generic announcer to evil boss. These were people we grew up only knowing as one sort of character...to see the flip side of it blew people's minds.
I'm not saying that Hogan and Vince are solely responsible for WCW/WWE's popularity at that juncture (particularly in Vince's case), but I do believe that they were still an integral part and if you removed either of them in place of someone else you would never see the same success.
Well they could have done the hogan vs Andre formula. Big match hyped for a monster ppv and then a rematch on free TV.
ReplyDeleteI think it was the biggest mistake of them all. After this night, the WWF went to the sky and WCW began do going down. They had a new top star, but they booked him in the midcard, while Hogan was still their top guy - and other celebrities.
ReplyDeleteHas there ever been a list published of the matches that comprised Goldberg's streak? I mean, was 75-0 kayfabe, or did he wrestle 74 previous times up to that point without suffering a loss?
ReplyDelete