Great-ing Gimmicks of the Past: Jericho vs. Goldberg
History
In October of 1998, Chris Jericho was dominating WCW as the television champion. At Fall Brawl, he decided to set his sights a bit higher. That night, he was talking to Mean Gene Okerlund and revealed that he had challenged WCW champion Goldberg to a title vs. title match and Goldberg had accepted.
Finally it was time for the match. Jericho emerged from his dressing room, surrounded by his own personal security force — a Jerichoholic Ninja and Ralphus. The gang of three wandered around backstage (even winding up outside the building) before Jericho finally made it into the arena. He paused in front of the screen and waited for his Goldberg-like fireworks. A few sparks shot out of the floor. Jericho kicked at the fireworks and then stormed to the ring.
Then Jericho’s opponent arrived — a fat bald guy with a Goldberg tattoo. He hit the ring and tried to spear Jericho. Jericho locked him in the Liontamer and he quickly tapped out. Jericho claimed both his TV title and the toy world title the imposter had.
On the 28th’s Nitro, Jericho challenged Goldberg again. Jericho came out and declared that this would be a television/unified world heavyweight title match. Jericho came out with his crack security force and didn’t realize that when Goldberg’s music hit the real Goldberg came out with the imposter over his shoulder. Jericho panicked, shoved two of his guards into Goldberg, and decided to exercise the greater part of valor. Goldberg gave the Ninja a Jackhammer and warned Jericho that he was next.
On Thunder we saw Jericho wandering around backstage screaming for Goldberg. Later we saw Jericho yelling at Goldberg in the parking lot while one of his security guards stood by with a board in his hand. The announcers also let us know that Jericho-Goldberg was set for later in the night.
Sure enough, later in the night Jericho came out to talk to Tony Schiavone. Jericho finished the interview by telling Tony to call out Goldberg.
Jericho hit the ring and Goldberg’s music played, but Goldberg didn’t come out. Jericho got Nick Patrick to start the count. Goldberg didn’t appear by the ten-count, so Jericho celebrated his win over Goldberg (by countout).
Jericho was back in fine form on the 19th’s Nitro as he and Ralphus came out to talk to Gene. Jericho was wearing a shirt that showed the feud’s stats — Jericho 3, Goldberg 0. Jericho ranted about how he’d beaten Goldberg 3 times and the WCW executive committee hadn’t even noticed. He went on to call Goldberg out that night (ignoring Gene’s advising him that Goldberg wasn’t even present). Jericho went on to trash talk Diamond Dallas Page, which brought Page out.
Jericho took on Page later in the night. Page had Jericho set for the Diamond Cutter when Goldberg ran in and speared Jericho. Goldberg was getting ready to jackhammer him when Page stopped him and hit Jericho with the Diamond Cutter. In the end, Page was apparently disqualified for Goldberg’s interference.
And that was that. According to different sources, either Eric Bischoff or Goldberg himself didn’t feel that Jericho was “big” enough to be in a program with Goldberg, and the angle was dropped.
Analysis
Talk about something that could have been great. Goldberg was at the peak of his popularity, and Jericho was at the peak of his arrogance. Jericho could have kept taunting Goldberg and getting away with it, which would have kept building the crowd’s anticipation for the match. An admittedly bad example is the incredible build WCW put on for the 1997 Starrcade’s match between Hollywood Hogan and Sting. For a year the two would encounter each other but never stepped into the ring.
It’s interesting to think of how this may have played out. Even if Jericho did wind up defeated, the angle may have still pushed him into WCW’s main event picture (and could have resulted in some great matches against wrestlers such as Sting or Bret Hart). In the end, Jericho was extremely disillusioned by this and wound up jumping to the WWF less than a year later.
Where are they now?
Chris Jericho jumped to the WWF in 1999. While there, he racked up numerous title wins — winning the European, Intercontinental, Hardcore, and tag belts. His WWF tenure was punctuated by his wins in December of 2001, when he unified the WCW and WWF world titles and was named the first ever WWF Undisputed World champion. Jericho left the WWF, and apparently wrestling entirely, in August of 2005. Today Jericho spends his time appearing on various VH1 shows and also touring with his band Fozzy.
Goldberg’s WCW contract wasn’t bought out by Time/Warner until May of 2002. Following the buyout, Goldberg wrestled on several All Japan shows until the WWE signed him in early 2003. Goldberg immediately entered a feud with the Rock. He would win the WWE World title from Triple H in September of 2003 and held the belt until December. Goldberg left the WWE following Wrestlemania XX and has not been seen in wrestling since.
Next Week
A third party candidate emerges in the race for the Presidency.
