Goldberg vs. Hollywood Hogan (Sep 1997 – Jul 1998)

Background

Bill Goldberg was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in December 1966 and became a record-setting nose guard at the University of Georgia.[7][4] In 1989 he led the Bulldogs with 121 tackles, a single-season record for a lineman, and he finished his college career with 384 stops.[4]

Pro football never went the way college had. The Los Angeles Rams took him in the 11th round of the 1990 draft and cut him after he tore a hamstring in the final preseason game.[7][4]

He played for the Sacramento Surge in the World League, then spent 1992 to 1994 with the Atlanta Falcons. In 1994 he tore a muscle in his abdomen and played on with it wrapped. The expansion Carolina Panthers picked him up, but he couldn't rehab the injury and walked away from the sport.[4][7]

He hadn't thought much of wrestling. "I never even considered pro wrestling to be an option because I thought it was silly," he told a Jacksonville newspaper in 1998. "There was no way I was going to go out in front of a million people wearing nothing but my underwear. Now look at me."[4]

Lex Luger and Sting encouraged him to try it anyway, and he trained at WCW's Power Plant in Atlanta.[7][4]

Hollywood Hogan, meanwhile, had lost the world title to Sting at Starrcade 1997, the same show where Goldberg made his pay-per-view debut. Hogan thought he had won when referee Nick Patrick counted Sting down after the legdrop, but Bret Hart stopped Patrick from calling for the bell, punched him out, and took over. Sting won with the Scorpion Deathlock.[8] Randy Savage then took the belt from Sting at Spring Stampede in April.[10]

Hogan got it back the next night. On the April 20, 1998 Nitro in Colorado Springs, he beat Randy Savage for the WCW World Heavyweight Championship.

Late in that match Bret Hart knocked out Kevin Nash with the belt, put Hogan on top of Savage, and dragged referee Nick Patrick over to count the pin.[2] Goldberg won the U.S. title on the same show.[2]

Build-up

Goldberg's first televised match came on the September 22, 1997 Nitro in Salt Lake City. He kicked out of Hugh Morrus's moonsault, pinned him with the Jackhammer in 2:43, and walked off when Gene Okerlund tried to interview him in the aisle.[1] Over the next few weeks he beat the Barbarian, Scotty Riggs, and Wrath, the last one in 23 seconds before Wrath could even get his helmet off.[1] On commentary, Mike Tenay mentioned talk that Judo Gene LeBell might want to train him.[1]

The wins didn't mean much at first. They became "The Streak" when Tenay came up with the idea, once it was clear Goldberg was a hot commodity.[4]

His first real program was with Steve McMichael, over McMichael's Super Bowl ring. At World War 3 on November 23, 1997 in Auburn Hills, McMichael announced their scheduled match was off and showed footage of Goldberg lying face down backstage. McMichael had the ring back, and he beat Alex Wright as Goldberg's substitute.[22]

Goldberg got his match at Starrcade on December 28, 1997, his pay-per-view debut, and pinned McMichael with the Jackhammer.[8] A week later, on January 5, 1998, he worked his first Georgia Dome show, beating Stevie Ray on Nitro.[2] On February 9 in El Paso, after a video package on him, he beat Steven Regal with the spear and Jackhammer at 5:02, a long match by his standards.[2] At SuperBrawl VIII later that month he beat Brad Armstrong in an unadvertised match that lasted 2:24.[9]

Through the spring he fought Raven's Flock. On the March 16 Nitro he beat Lodi in 47 seconds and then cleaned out every Flock member who climbed into the ring before staring down Perry Saturn.[2] At Spring Stampede on April 19 in Denver, Saturn locked on the Rings of Saturn, and Goldberg stood up with him still on his back and hit the Jackhammer. WCW put his record at 74-0.[10]

The next night in Colorado Springs, Goldberg challenged Raven for the U.S. title. Raven tried to escape through the crowd, but the fans shoved him back over the guardrail, and Goldberg pinned him in 4:56 to go to 75-0.[2] He beat Saturn again at Slamboree on May 17 in Worcester.[11]

The count climbed fast. It was 94-0 on June 1 when Goldberg took a chair shot from La Parka and pinned him 31 seconds into the match.[2] At the Great American Bash on June 14 in Baltimore, he beat Konnan in 1:56 and WCW announced 100-0.[12] The numbers were never precise: WCW would eventually claim 173 straight wins, and a count of the actual matches comes to 155.[21]

WCW needed a lift. On April 13, 1998, Raw beat Nitro in the ratings, 4.6 to 4.3, ending a run of 83 straight weeks in which Nitro had won the head-to-head.[23] At the Great American Bash in June, Hogan and Bret Hart beat Randy Savage and Roddy Piper when Savage submitted to the Sharpshooter after Hogan rammed his knee into the ringpost.[12]

While Goldberg was running through the undercard, Hogan was heading for bigger pay-per-view matches. Both Bret Hart and Kevin Nash had high-profile Hogan matches planned for the months ahead.[4] WCW's next pay-per-view, Bash at the Beach on July 12, was headlined by Hogan and NBA star Dennis Rodman against Diamond Dallas Page and Karl Malone.[13]

The world title match came together in a hurry. On the July 2 edition of Thunder, J.J. Dillon announced that Hogan was "contractually obligated" to defend against Goldberg on the next Nitro, four days later at the Georgia Dome.[6]

Goldberg has said he found out about it the same way the fans did, watching Thunder.[15] There was a condition: Goldberg had to beat Scott Hall earlier on the same show to get the shot.[3]

The Matches

The July 6, 1998 Nitro drew 41,412 to the Georgia Dome, the biggest crowd in WCW history, with 36,506 paid for a gate of $906,338.[3][5][4] WCW also sold more than $300,000 in merchandise that night.[4] The telecast claimed 39,000.[6]

Hogan opened the show by telling Goldberg he would have to beat another nWo member before he got his title shot.[26] That was Scott Hall. The Disciple and Vincent tried to interfere, and Page and Malone came out to cut them off. Hall went for the Outsider's Edge and got back-body-dropped, and Goldberg finished him with the spear and the Jackhammer.[26][3]

Goldberg came out for the main event through pyro, surrounded by a team of security guards. Hogan came out to the nWo music and told the camera, "I am gonna kick…Goldberg's…butt!"[6]

The title match went 8:11. Goldberg shoulder-blocked Hogan and beat him in a test of strength, sending him to the floor.[6]

Hogan went to the eye rakes and pulled out a weightlifting belt; Goldberg grabbed the belt and threw it away instead of using it. Hogan kept on with low blows, choking, and chair shots, then dropped the legdrop more than once.[6] Goldberg no-sold much of it and kicked out.[5]

Near the end Diamond Dallas Page and Karl Malone came to ringside, and Malone dropped Curt Hennig, who had come out moments earlier, with the Diamond Cutter.[3] Hogan was distracted, and Goldberg hit the spear and the Jackhammer. Referee Charles Robinson counted three.[3][6][17]

The pin itself was clean. The distraction at ringside gave Hogan his excuse.[5] When the count ended, fireworks went off, toilet paper flew into the ring, and the Dome chanted Goldberg's name.[6] Wade Keller wrote that the broadcast got across "the enormity of the event and the overwhelming tension and anticipation."[5]

In the booth, Bobby Heenan urged him on: "That's part one, now finish him off, finish him off. This is it! This is it! Your career is on the line here. Do it, do it!"

Tony Schiavone's call was "He's got him up" and then "Oh hell yeah."[16]

Nitro averaged a 4.85, beating Raw's 4.00, the first time WCW had won the Monday night head-to-head in weeks.[4] The match quarter hour did a 6.91.[4][16] It was seen in five million homes, and 11.1 million viewers watched it, the most ever for a wrestling match at the time.[4] Between 10:45 and 11 p.m., counting both shows, 7.9 million homes were watching wrestling.[4]

Aftermath

Goldberg carried both belts into Bash at the Beach six days later in San Diego, where he kicked out of the Hennig-Plex and pinned Curt Hennig in 3:51. WCW put his record at 112-0.[13] Hogan and Rodman beat Page and Malone in that night's main event when Hogan pinned Page after the Disciple's interference.[13]

The two crossed paths again at Road Wild on August 8 in Sturgis, South Dakota. Goldberg won a nine-man battle royal, backdropping Scott Hall when Hall tried the Outsider's Edge and pinning the Giant with the Jackhammer at the end.[29] In the main event, Page and Jay Leno beat Hogan and Bischoff. When Hogan, Bischoff, and the Disciple jumped the winners afterward, Goldberg ran in and took down Hogan and Bischoff with a single spear.[29]

Hogan moved on to a feud with the Warrior, beating him at Halloween Havoc on October 25 after his nephew Horace hit Warrior with a chair.[14] Goldberg defended the title against Page at the same show and won with the Jackhammer in 10:28. Afterward the two men hugged and raised each other's hands.[14]

Nash earned the shot at him by winning the 60-man battle royal at World War 3 on November 22, 1998, the same night Goldberg ran in to save Rick Steiner from the nWo.[22]

The streak ended at Starrcade on December 27, 1998 in Washington, D.C., on Goldberg's 32nd birthday.[8][7] In a No DQ match with Kevin Nash, Goldberg fought off Disco Inferno and Bam Bam Bigelow before Scott Hall, dressed in an event staff shirt, hit him with a stun gun. Nash powerbombed him and took the title at 11:19.[8]

A week later the title came back to the Georgia Dome. On the January 4, 1999 Nitro, Hogan replaced Goldberg in the title match against Nash and pinned him at 1:41 after pushing him with his finger. When Goldberg came back to the arena and went after Hogan, Hogan, Nash, Scott Steiner, and Buff Bagwell beat him down, and Lex Luger came out and joined them.[3]

Behind the Scenes

Bischoff made the call to put the match on free television, and he wasn't sure about it. "There was some trepidation," he has said. "I wasn't 100% sure it was the right thing to do."[6] The Observer reported that the match was first proposed as a dark match, off the air; others inside WCW have disputed that, saying it was too good to be anything but a TV match.[6]

Critics called giving it away "a huge mistake" at the time, because of the pay-per-view money WCW was passing up.[5] One contemporary estimate put that at $7 million.[4] The Torch argued the other side too: airing it free showed the moment to what was probably the largest audience ever to see a match on cable.[5]

Hogan, by Bischoff's recollection, came up with the idea and was "really excited" to do it.[15]

Before the match, Hogan's instruction to his opponent was short: "Don't worry, brother. We'll call it in the ring."[6] The week of the match, it was reported that Hogan had received some kind of assurance that, in exchange for putting Goldberg over clean, he would be the one to end the streak eventually.[4] It was Nash who ended it, and Hogan had the title back eight days later.[8][3]

Bischoff has pushed back on the idea that Hogan was working against Goldberg. "I know Hulk Hogan was a very, very big supporter of Bill Goldberg," he said on his 83 Weeks podcast.[18] Hogan also connected Goldberg with his own attorney, Henry Holmes, and Bischoff said that "once Henry started representing Bill, things got real tricky real fast."[18] Goldberg had recently signed a four-year, $3.2 million deal with WCW, starting at $600,000 and rising to $1 million in the final year.[4]

A rough night on the way up came in El Paso. William Regal wrote in his book that his orders were "to go out and have a competitive six-minute match with him," and that Goldberg did nothing back: "I had to keep attacking him to keep the match going."[24]

Goldberg has told it the other way. "He tried to kick my face in a couple of times, and I was just giving him my face," he said on Steve Austin's podcast in 2016, calling it "resentment."[24] Bischoff has put the blame on the agent assigned to the match: "When the s**t hit the fan, that agent looked down at a piece of paper and never looked up."[25]

Behind the scenes Goldberg was described as modest and well-liked, and as having stayed out of the locker-room cliques that ran through the business.[4]

His favorite memory of the night isn't the pin. When the nWo attacked him after the match, some of his old football teammates came out to defend him. "I've got guys that I bled with, I cried with, and I sweat with on a football field," he said. "They, for that five minute period of time, couldn't have been happier doing what they were doing which was defending me in a professional wrestling ring."[20]

Legacy

The Georgia Dome show was the fourth-largest crowd ever for wrestling in the United States, after WrestleMania III, WrestleMania VIII, and the 1997 Royal Rumble, and the eighth-largest gate.[4] More people watched it than any other match in cable television history to that point, and it was the most profitable Nitro WCW ever ran.[6]

The boost didn't last. WWF regained control of the ratings war the following week.[15] WCW reran the match in full on the next Monday's Nitro to try to win the ratings again.[4]

Bischoff has second-guessed the push that got Goldberg there. On 83 Weeks he said that with a do-over he "would have made Goldberg more of an attraction and used less of him," playing the run out over 18 to 24 months instead of the fast climb through the U.S. title to the world title.[19]

He has also explained why he took the title off Goldberg at Starrcade: "We were losing steam on Bill and it was time for a change. It wasn't because we were making money hand over fist with him."[18]

Contemporary coverage put Goldberg's crowd reactions on the same level as Steve Austin's.[4][5] WCW's official count for the streak, 173 wins, is still the number attached to it.[21] The Georgia Dome win was Goldberg's own pick when asked for the best moment of his career, more than 25 years later.[20]

WWE made him the first announced member of its 2018 Hall of Fame class, citing a "173-match undefeated streak" and wins over Hall of Famers including Hogan.[27] He wrestled his last match on July 12, 2025, back in Atlanta, where he had first become a star. Gunther choked him out with a rear-naked choke to keep the World Heavyweight Championship, and the show ran late enough to cut off his retirement speech partway through.[28]

See Also

Sources & Further Listening

1. WCW Monday Nitro, 1997 results — The History of WWE. https://thehistoryofwwe.com/wcw-monday-nitro-1997/
2. WCW Monday Nitro, 1998 results — The History of WWE. https://thehistoryofwwe.com/wcw-monday-nitro-1998/
3. Georgia Dome results (Nitro, Jul 6, 1998 and Jan 4, 1999) — The History of WWE. https://thehistoryofwwe.com/georgia-dome-results/
4. Mike Mooneyham, "Phenom Goldberg Tops Hogan" (Charleston Post and Courier newspaper column, Jul 12, 1998; archived copy). https://web.archive.org/web/20240714201221/https://mikemooneyham.com/1998/07/12/phenom-goldberg-tops-hogan/
5. "July 6 in history: Goldberg captures WCW Title from Hogan in the Georgia Dome" (Pro Wrestling Torch Newsletter #502 cover story) — PWTorch. https://www.pwtorch.com/artman2/publish/Torch_Today_2/article_71635.shtml
6. "Excerpt: Guy Evans' NITRO — Hogan vs. Goldberg in the Georgia Dome" (book excerpt) — PWInsider. https://pwinsider.com/article/172907/excerpt-guy-evans-nitro-hogan-vs-goldberg-in-the-georgia-dome.html?p=1
7. Bill Goldberg — Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Goldberg
8. WCW Starrcade results (1997 and 1998) — The History of WWE. https://thehistoryofwwe.com/wcw-starrcade-results/
9. WCW SuperBrawl results (SuperBrawl VIII, Feb 22, 1998) — The History of WWE. https://thehistoryofwwe.com/wcw-superbrawl-results/
10. WCW Spring Stampede results (1998) — The History of WWE. https://thehistoryofwwe.com/wcw-spring-stampede-results/
11. WCW Slamboree results (1998) — The History of WWE. https://thehistoryofwwe.com/wcw-slamboree-results/
12. WCW Great American Bash results (1998) — The History of WWE. https://thehistoryofwwe.com/wcw-great-american-bash-results/
13. WCW Bash at the Beach results (1998) — The History of WWE. https://thehistoryofwwe.com/wcw-bash-at-the-beach-results/
14. WCW Halloween Havoc results (1998) — The History of WWE. https://thehistoryofwwe.com/wcw-halloween-havoc-results/
15. "20 Years Ago: Goldberg Defeats Hollywood Hogan For WCW World Title" — Last Word on Pro Wrestling. https://lastwordonsports.com/prowrestling/2018/07/06/20-years-ago-goldberg-defeats-hollywood-hogan-for-wcw-world-title/
16. "20 years ago today history was made at the Georgia Dome on WCW Nitro" — Wrestling-Online. https://www.wrestling-online.com/wwe/20-years-ago-today-history-was-made-at-the-georgia-dome-on-wcw-nitro/
17. "Goldberg wins the WCW Championship from Hollywood Hogan: WCW Nitro, July 6, 1998" — WWE.com. https://www.wwe.com/videos/goldberg-wins-the-wcw-championship-from-hollywood-hogan-wcw-nitro-july-6-1998
18. "Eric Bischoff On Goldberg's WCW Run, Rumors Of Hulk Hogan Sabotaging Him" (83 Weeks podcast) — eWrestlingNews. https://www.ewrestlingnews.com/news/eric-bischoff-on-goldbergs-wcw-run-rumors-of-hulk-hogan-sabotaging-him
19. "Eric Bischoff Explains How He'd Book Goldberg In WCW If He Could Go Back In Time" (83 Weeks podcast) — Wrestling Inc. https://www.wrestlinginc.com/1290640/eric-bischoff-explains-how-hed-book-goldberg-wcw/
20. "WWE Hall Of Famer Goldberg Names 'Best Moment' Of Wrestling Career" (SHAK Wrestling podcast interview) — Wrestling Inc. https://www.wrestlinginc.com/1909888/wwe-golberg-best-moment-hulk-hogan-georgia-dome/
21. Justin Henry, "173-0? The True Story Of Goldberg's WCW Undefeated Streak" — Cultaholic. https://cultaholic.com/posts/the-true-story-of-goldbergs-wcw-undefeated-streak
22. WCW World War 3 results (1997 and 1998) — The History of WWE. https://thehistoryofwwe.com/wcw-world-war-3-results/
23. "83 week streak ends: Raw beats Nitro in the ratings" (Pro Wrestling Torch flashback) — PWTorch. https://www.pwtorch.com/artman2/publish/Torch_Flashbacks_19/article_3498.shtml
24. "Goldberg and William Regal: El Paso Showdown Gone Wrong" (quoting Regal's autobiography Walking a Golden Mile and Goldberg on The Steve Austin Show podcast) — Pro Wrestling Stories. https://prowrestlingstories.com/pro-wrestling-stories/goldberg-william-regal/
25. "Eric Bischoff Discusses WCW's Controversial Bill Goldberg Vs. Steven Regal Match" (83 Weeks podcast) — Wrestling Inc. https://www.wrestlinginc.com/1591220/eric-bischoff-believes-recent-aew-signing-already-lost-momentum/
26. "Mike Reviews – WCW Monday Nitro (6th of July 1998)" — Scott's Blog of Doom. https://www.blogofdoom.com/2021/07/03/mike-reviews-wcw-monday-nitro-6th-of-july-1998/
27. "Goldberg to be inducted into WWE Hall of Fame Class of 2018" — WWE.com. https://www.wwe.com/shows/wwe-hall-of-fame/wwe-hall-of-fame-2018/article/goldberg-wwe-hall-of-fame-inductee-2018
28. "2025 WWE Saturday Night's Main Event results, grades, review: Goldberg retires" — CBS Sports. https://www.cbssports.com/wwe/news/2025-wwe-saturday-nights-main-event-results-grades-review-goldberg-retires-seth-rollins-suffers-injury/live/
29. WCW Road Wild results (1998) — The History of WWE. https://thehistoryofwwe.com/wcw-road-wild-results/

Further Listening

• 83 Weeks with Eric Bischoff — episodes on Goldberg's run and the decision to air Hogan vs. Goldberg on free TV
• Guy Evans, NITRO: The Incredible Rise and Inevitable Collapse of Ted Turner's WCW — the Georgia Dome chapter
• Goldberg, I'm Next: The Strange Journey of America's Most Unlikely Superhero (2000) — his own account of the streak
• SHAK Wrestling — Goldberg interview on his best moment in wrestling