Goldberg Then vs. Now: 14 Years After the Icon's 1st WWE Championship

His neck might be smaller, his trademark goatee whiter and his skin a tad saggier, but what new WWE Universal Champion Goldberg lost due to the inevitabilities of Father Time he more than makes up for in that undeniable, everlasting "it" factor that creates stars in the wrestling business. 

It’s what has kept fans coming back for more every few years for Hulk Hogan, Ric Flair and Shawn Michaels. It’s why WWE trots out part-timers and retired legends every spring to goose attendance for WrestleMania. Years go by, but the popularity of sports entertainment’s elite class of performers rarely dims.

Still, there was a moment where it seemed like Goldberg would be left on the scrap heap of chewed-up gimmicks—a mushy leftover of the Monday Night Wars. Instead, at last Sunday's Fastlane at the BMO Harris Bradley Center in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, the aging superstar was once again crowned world champion after pinning Kevin Owens in a shocking 21 seconds, setting up a main event match against Brock Lesnar at WrestleMania 33.

The legend of Goldberg continues, although few would've predicted it would last this long considering the shaky nature of his original stint in WWE.

His first WWE run was mired by uninspired booking, banal matches and a performer who appeared visibly frustrated. By the time he left the business at WrestleMania XX, he was being booed out of the building by a hostile Madison Square Garden crowd. That he’s been able to revive his drawing power in his 50s is a testament to both smarter booking by the company and, most importantly, his innate charisma.

“Since the advent of cable TV, nobody has brought that ‘big-fight feel’ to the squared circle like Goldberg,” says David Shoemaker, Masked Man Show podcast host and author of The Squared Circle.

But looking back at Goldberg’s last run atop the wrestling industry, this moment seemed highly improbable.

It’s been almost 14 years since Goldberg last won a world title, at the Unforgiven 2003 pay-per-view event. It was meant to be a coronation of sorts, anointing Goldberg the face of Monday Night Raw.

He put his career on the line against Triple H, the dastardly champion who had dominated the industry for over a year. If Goldberg lost, he’d be forced to retire. Announcer Jim Ross, a master at setting a scene, referred to it being “nut-cutting time” and called Goldberg a “strange enigma” as he made his trademark walk to the ring to a strained, WWE-produced knockoff version of his classic theme music.

The revised, borderline generic song only reinforced the peculiar, unsatisfying nature of Goldberg’s first foray into Vince McMahon’s world.

“All of the hallmarks of what worked in WCW were tweaked and diluted,” says Mike Johnson, a wrestling journalist for PWInsider.com. He was in the crowd for 2003’s Unforgiven and vividly remembers his disappointment with the match.

“Instead of being a killer, he was just another guy. They had him doing silly segments, like the one where Goldust had Goldberg wear his blond wig.”

More importantly, they exposed many of his shortcomings in the ring.

For those clamoring for Goldberg to wrestle longer matches and to sell the offense of opponents like Kevin Owens more, one need only rewatch the Unforgiven main event to see the folly of such a decision. The match is a plodding affair, which Wrestling Observer’s Dave Meltzer gave a paltry 1.75 stars in his post-event review.

Every offensive move performed by Goldberg is some variation of a slam. He seems confused at times, and Triple H takes a powder outside the ring on more than one occasion—either to stretch for time or to allow the powerful (but easily winded) Goldberg time to catch his breath.

The crowd is salivating for Goldberg’s eventual dethroning of Triple H, but the match’s laborious pace and the curious way in which the hero is presented deflate much of the excitement during the 14 minutes and 57 seconds of its runtime.

“There was almost no doubt that he would win, but the crowd cheered its way dutifully through the paces of the endgame,” Shoemaker recalls.

According to Johnson’s recollections of the evening, that insistence from the audience was as much nostalgia for the recent past as it was an appreciation for the character Goldberg had become.

“The crowd kept chanting for Goldberg, but he never got to be Goldberg,” Johnson says. “What makes Goldberg work are hot flashes of offense and looking like a superhero. Instead, Triple H was playing the role of the classic old-school world champion, and there was a lot of back-and-forth offense, where what made Goldberg work is someone selling and bumping all over for him like a ball ricocheting all over in a pinball machine.”

Thanks to the retirement stipulation, the finish of the match was inevitable. The referee was knocked out inadvertently, Triple H hit Goldberg with a low blow followed by a shot with a sledgehammer—two strikes that would’ve ended a real fight in a hurry. Goldberg instead shook them both off, hit his spear and jackhammer combo finisher and raised the title.

“When he won, they erupted,” Shoemaker says. “The Goldberg phenomenon is at once organic and artificial, but more than anything else, it’s maybe the only thing that the whole crowd can agree on.”

The crowd was both cheering a moment and reaching back to a different time in pro wrestling history.

Tony award-winning actor and wrestling aficionado Steve Kazee puts it bluntly: “Seeing his matches from 15-20 years ago, particularly his winning the championship in WWE at Unforgiven, I'm just reminded of how truly unique a character Goldberg is, how powerful mythology can be and how nostalgia endures the test of time.”

Despite his legendary status in the business, this current title run is only the third in his career. Shocking, when one ponders the gaudy numbers of contemporaries like John Cena, Randy Orton and Batista.

Cena is currently sitting on 16 title runs, the same number as the hallowed record of Ric Flair. Goldberg is without a doubt an iconic figure in sports entertainment, but he’s rarely been considered enough of a workhorse to carry a company.

His lone WCW World Heavyweight Championship reign lasted 174 days back in 1998, ignominiously brought to a close with a cattle prod by Scott Hall and a jackknife powerbomb from Kevin Nash.

WCW’s business never recovered after damaging the unstoppable aura of Goldberg. He never held that promotion’s title again, and in 2001 it was shuttered following a fire-sale purchase by WWE. His World Heavyweight Championship reign in 2003 lasted 84 days, and he received the aforementioned Bronx cheer from the MSG faithful at WrestleMania a few months later.

That Unforgiven moment is both a monument to Goldberg’s incredible staying power and the fleeting nature of his time at the head of the table in wrestling. He’s a lightning strike—flashing brilliantly out of nowhere, then gone again in an instant.

Better to appreciate the spectacle while you can.