The night that Bill Goldberg defeated Hulk Hogan for the WCW World Heavyweight Championship, a legend was born and to this day, Goldberg makes a living off of the reputation that was solidified on that Monday night in Atlanta, Georgia in 1998.
In the 19 years since WCW closed down, there's not been many stories about the Monday Night War that fans have not heard ad nauseam. Everybody knows the story about Eric Bischoff convincing Hulk Hogan to turn heel, everybody has heard the story about the "fingerpoke of doom," and everybody has heard the legend of Goldberg and his undefeated streak. However, that doesn't make any of these stories any less captivating when they are unearthed once again, revealing new bits and pieces every time a story is retold.
Such is the case in the latest edition of WWE Untold on WWE Network. The episode covers Goldberg's undefeated streak from WCW, which was stopped by Kevin Nash at the 1998 WCW Starrcade event. The early portions of this documentary open up about how much playing football meant to Goldberg and how heartbroken he was when he had to give up that dream following an injury. However, in a moment of serendipity for Goldberg, his two worlds collided when he defeated Hulk Hogan in 1998 inside of the Georgia Dome in Atlanta, Georgia.
When recalling that iconic moment, Goldberg would say that for him, the most important moment of that evening came after the cameras stopped when he was the victim of a beatdown by the New World Order and the Atlanta Falcons, his former teammates on the Gridiron, came to his rescue.
“I've said it 15,000 times, but the coolest part of that night for me as a human being, as a football player, as Goldberg was not beating Hulk Hogan. It was after we went off the air. The NWO beat my ass, and who comes to my rescue? My teammates, my Atlanta Falcons teammates, and that almost brings a tear to my eye because that was life coming full circle,” Goldberg began.
“I may not have done everything right in my life by any stretch of the imagination, but I've done something good enough. I was a good enough person to be rewarded at that time by a dream come true. That dream was unbeknownst to me, it was something I never thought was going to happen. The dream was not me making it to the NFL. My dream, it turns out, was being the World Heavyweight Champion and having my idols, the guys that I have bled with, cried with, gone to war with in a setting that I aspired to be in my entire life -- At that moment, those guys wanted to be me, not Goldberg, the football player, Goldberg, the wrestler. The guy that they put up here, you know, That could beat everybody's ass.They just wanted to be me for five seconds. I just sat in the corner and I just soaked in it. I can never replicate that feeling.”
That wasn't the only memory from that night, however. Goldberg also recalls what he feels is a rib conducted by Hulk Hogan involving Icy Hot.
“Hogan was great, man. Hogan is Hogan. I've always looked up to him, I've always aspired to be as successful as he was in the business. I was honored and privileged to be in the same ring as he was. I had 100 percent trust in him as a businessman. Mr. Icy Hot.”
He continues, “We lock up and the first thing he does is pull me into a headlock and he Puts my head in his armpit and he's got Icy Hot [now in Goldberg's eyes.] I can't see the rest of the frickin' match.
“But it's a good cover, you know, with your age and I get it. But I still think he did it on purpose. But it's funnier than the hell makes for a great story. Now, here I'm saying it 500 years later, I still love you, Terry.”
All in all, this legendary night on Monday Nitro continues to fuel the legacy of Bill Goldberg to this very day. In fact, Bill Goldberg recently challenged current WWE Universal Champion Roman Reigns, saying that he still wants the match that they were scheduled to have this year at WrestleMania and that Roman Reigns is next. Read his comments here.
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