Goldberg Opens Up About WCW Undefeated Streak: ‘I Was a Professional Football Player Trying to Blend Into a New Business Where I Was Not Really Wanted’

Few runs in professional wrestling history carry the cultural weight of Goldberg’s 173-0 undefeated streak in WCW, but the man who lived it says he had no idea what was unfolding around him at the time.

Appearing on Going Inside, Goldberg was candid about how out of his element he felt when the streak began following his debut on the September 22, 1997 episode of Monday Nitro — a match he won against Hugh Morrus. ‘No, I was extremely lucky, and I was like a fish out of water,’ he said. ‘I was a professional football player trying to blend into a new business where I was not really wanted, I was stealing a guy’s job… It was a weird experience for me, it was me against the world. Even with those odds, I was never going to not succeed.’

Over the next fifteen months, a steady run of dominant, short-form victories would push Goldberg’s record to 173-0. The streak finally came to an end at Starrcade on December 27, 1998, under circumstances that remain controversial to this day. Scott Hall used a cattle prod to floor the champion before Kevin Nash hit his Jackknife Powerbomb to claim both the win and the WCW World Heavyweight Championship — with outside interference playing a central role in taking Goldberg down.

After WCW was sold to the then-WWF in 2001, Goldberg made a stop in All Japan Pro-Wrestling before joining WWE for a year in 2003. He returned to the company in 2016 for a longer run that eventually concluded at Saturday Night’s Main Event last July, where GUNTHER ended his WWE career.

Looking back, the admission that he felt unwanted and was essentially winging it makes the scale of what he accomplished in WCW all the more striking.