Profile of Bill Goldberg on Famous Like Me

Bill Goldberg
Statistics
Stage names	Bill Gold Bill Goldberg Goldberg
Height	6'4" (193 cm)
Weight	285 lbs (129.3 kg)
Born	December 27, 1966
Hometown	Tulsa, Oklahoma
Billed from	Atlanta, Georgia
Trained by	Dewayne Bruce at WCW Power Plant
Debut	September 22, 1997

William Scott (Bill) Goldberg (born December 27, 1966 in Tulsa, Oklahoma) is a former professional American football player turned pro wrestler, often promoted simply as Goldberg. He first gained fame in World Championship Wrestling (WCW). From March 2003 until March 2004, he wrestled for World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) on its Raw brand. He is also an actor and television show host.

Pre-wrestling

He played college football at the University of Georgia, and then played pro football with the Atlanta Falcons, Los Angeles Rams, and the Carolina Panthers, as well as with the Sacramento Surge of the WLAF. until his football career was ended by an abdominal injury: he tore all of his abdominal muscles from his pelvis, and had them surgically reattached.

Wrestling history

World Championship Wrestling

Goldberg became a wrestler, training in the WCW Power Plant wrestling school and entered the ring professionally on September 22, 1997, defeating Hugh Morrus. He then started on the path of what made him a wrestling superstar, his undefeated winning streak. WCW kayfabe said that he had 173 wins before wrestler Kevin Nash handed him his first loss. The count of 173 wins came from a record of televised matches, pay-per-views as well as house show matches.

He would become the WCW United States Champion on April 21, 1998, by defeating Raven. He would vacate the title after winning the World Heavyweight title.

He became the WCW World Heavyweight Champion on July 6, 1998 when he defeated the at the time nWo leader, Hollywood Hogan. He would hold the title until wrestler Kevin Nash handed him his first loss in WCW on December 27, 1998. Goldberg's streak was booked so that it took wrestler Scott Hall getting involved with a tazer gun for Kevin Nash to win.

He would become a second time holder of the WCW US Championship on October 24, 1999 but would be defeated by Bret Hart the next day, losing the title. Amazingly enough, he would later team with Bret Hart to win the WCW World Tag Team Championship on December 7, 1999. They would hold the title for only a week, losing the titles to The Outsiders (Kevin Nash and Scott Hall).

In October 2000 Goldberg began a new streak, with Vince Russo threatening to fire him if he lost. The streak was broken after 35 victories on January 14, 2001 when he was pinned by "Totally Buff" (Buff Bagwell and Lex Luger) while tagging with his trainer, Dwayne Bruce in what was his last-ever WCW match. As a result of the defeat, Goldberg was obliged to "leave" WCW (in reality, he was given time off to have shoulder surgery), and WCW declared bankruptcy just two months later, while Goldberg was still rehabbing his shoulder.

Due to the fact that Goldberg was signed through Time Warner instead of directly with World Championship Wrestling, when the WWF purchased WCW, the WWF did not get Goldberg's contract with the purchase. At the time, the WWF chose not to buy out Goldberg's contract.

Goldberg suffered only six official losses in his WCW career in singles matches. Three of those losses were against Bret "Hitman" Hart. This does not include an unofficial loss in which Bret made his own three count.

After WCW

Goldberg waited out his contract after his run in WCW. He made his biggest splash in Japan with All Japan Pro Wrestling, becoming one of the biggest pulls in the country. This would finally prompt WWE to sign Goldberg.

World Wrestling Entertainment

Goldberg would make his WWE debut on the March 31, 2003 episode of RAW, the night after WrestleMania XIX. He immediately started a feud with The Rock, culminating in a victory by Goldberg at Backlash 2003. His first win on RAW saw him defeat Christian inside a 15-foot high steel cage.

Later that year, he would defeat World Heavyweight Champion, Triple H, winning the title at Unforgiven 2003 on September 21. He held the title until Armageddon 2003 on December 14 when he lost the title back to Triple H in a triple threat match which included Kane.

During the 2004 Royal Rumble, Brock Lesnar stormed the ring and hit Goldberg with the F-5, enabling Kurt Angle to eliminate him and thus costing him a WrestleMania title shot. This led to Goldberg appearing at the No Way Out 2004 the following month, as an "official audience member." After Brock Lesnar taunted him, Goldberg entered the ring and gave Lesnar a Jackhammer. SmackDown! General Manager Paul Heyman had Goldberg removed from the building by security, but he returned in the midst of Lesnar's WWE Championship title defense against Eddie Guerrero, costing Lesnar the match and the belt. This led to a match being booked between the two for WrestleMania XX. Goldberg was not seen on WWE television for several weeks before the event, as he had already worked the maximum number of dates (bar one, his WrestleMania appearance) stipulated by his contract and would have had to have been paid a supplementary salary in order to make extra appearances. This may have hurt the build to the WrestleMania match, with the last episode of SmackDown! before WrestleMania featuring a confrontation between Lesnar and Austin, not Lesnar and Goldberg.

At WrestleMania, Goldberg faced Lesnar with Stone Cold Steve Austin as the match's special guest referee. Goldberg was victorious, but both Lesnar and he received a Stone Cold Stunner from Austin. Lesnar and Goldberg had both gone undefeated for long periods of time, leading many fans to label a match between the two a "dream match". However, as both Lesnar and Goldberg were known to be leaving the company immediately after WrestleMania, the match was poorly received by the audience, who soundly booed both competitors. On March 31, 2004, Goldberg's contract expired and was not renewed.

After WWE

With aspirations to do work in film, Goldberg acted in two movies set to release in 2005. The first film of the two is the remake of the 1974 Burt Reynolds film The Longest Yard, starring Adam Sandler, in which he co-stars with fellow former wrestlers Kevin Nash and Stone Cold Steve Austin. The second, Santa's Slay, is due to be released soon.

Recently, it has been noted that Bill Goldberg has been married to Wanda Feraton, a stunt woman whom he met while filming The Longest Yard. Bill and Wanda were married on April 10, 2005.

He now hosts the History Channel show, Automaniac, which started in 2005.

Title History

World Championship Wrestling

April 20, 1998 – WCW United States Title (1)

Defeated Raven - Colorado Springs, Colorado

Vacated on July 6, 1998 after winning World title

July 6, 1998 – WCW World Heavyweight Title

Defeated Hulk Hogan - Atlanta, Georgia

Lost to Kevin Nash on December 27, 1998

October 24, 1999 – WCW United States Title (2)

Defeated Sid Vicious - Las Vegas, Nevada

Lost to Bret Hart on October 25, 1999

December 7, 1999 – WCW World Tag Team Title

Teamed with Bret Hart

Defeated "Creative Control" (Ron & Don Harris) - Madison, Wisconsin

Lost to The Outsiders (Kevin Nash and Scott Hall) on December 13, 1999

World Wrestling Entertainment

September 21, 2003 – WWE RAW World Heavyweight Title

Defeated Triple H - Hershey, Pennsylvania

Lost to Triple H on December 14, 2003

Trivia

• He used to be a bouncer. It is unknown where this was, however.

• He has a degree in Psychology from the University of Georgia.

• Goldberg steadfastly kept his real last name as his wrestling moniker against the advice of many. Goldberg has stated that he does so as a show of pride in his Jewish ancestry (other Jewish wrestlers of his "peak" era included Barry Horowitz, Raven, and Dean Malenko). Ironically enough, he would later star in a movie, Santa's Slay where he plays a murderous Santa Claus.

• His character was criticized by some (including Vince McMahon) as being a copy of that of Stone Cold Steve Austin. Despite character history and storylines being different to the extreme, the aforementioned similarities include both men wearing short black tights, sporting bald heads and goatees, using similar wrestling styles, and uttering similar catchphrases. However, Eric Bischoff has stated that his character was created to mock Ken Shamrock when he was in the WWF, not Austin.

• He is an advocate for animal rights and an ASPCA spokesperson.

• Many Internet wrestling fans consider Goldberg to be the one responsible for the ending of Bret Hart's career, although there is no bad blood between Goldberg and Hart, and they have become friends in recent years. Goldberg had delivered a mule kick to Bret Hart while in WCW, and the injuries Bret suffered due to this kick, combined with his continuing to wrestle for several weeks afterward, essentially put an end to his career.

• Regards WCW wrestler Meng as the real-life toughest guy he's met.

• Has the most impressive undefeated streak in all of "modern" professional wrestling history (with Lou Thesz having the most impressive with 900+ wins between 1948-1956) with 174 wins before suffering his first loss to Kevin Nash. The loss to Nash came soon after Nash became part of WCW's booking team.

Movies and television

Goldberg has starred in several movies:

• His first role was in The Jesse Ventura Story and it was followed by an appearance in Universal Soldier: The Return. Both movies were released in 1999.

• His next movie was in 2000 in the WCW movie, Ready to Rumble, in which he would play himself.

• During his time in WWE, he would star in the 2003 Warner Brothers movie, Looney Tunes: Back in Action.

• He appeared on Punk'd, with Ashton Kutcher instructing a stuntman to run over his motorcycle in front of him. However, the stuntman missed the bike.

• He has a brand new movie coming, that is due to be released in (2005). The name of the movie is Santa's Slay.

• He also has a role in the 2005 remake of The Longest Yard, in which he co-stars with other wrestlers Kevin Nash and Stone Cold Steve Austin.

• In his first television hosting role, he has a show on the History Channel called AutoManiac (but Goldberg calls it "Inside the Ride" in an interview). To quote Goldberg from an interview he did: "It's a 30-minute show with 13-episodes, talking about the history of automobiles and motorcycles, and what’s their historical perspective. The first (episode) that we shot was, mob cars. We’ve also shot police cars and extreme bikes." This show debuted in early June of 2005.

Trademark moves and sayings

His wrestling catch phrases were “Who’s Next?” or “You’re Next!” He also used “Believe the Hype” coming into Unforgiven 2003 PPV Event.

He uses two of the most famous wrestling moves in recent wrestling history; the Spear and the Jackhammer.

He leads with the Spear. He waits on the opposite side of the ring, waiting for his opponent to get up and turn around. When they do, he charges at them like a linebacker in football, tackling them to the ground. Then, in a move called the Jackhammer, after doing the Spear, he picks his opponent up over his head, legs up in the air, then slamming them to the ground, covering immediately for the pin. Only once has anyone kicked out of a pin following this combo of moves, and it was due to a timing issue during a six-man tag match done to Hollywood Hulk Hogan and was supposed to be interrupted by Kevin Nash who was outside the ring at the time.

Other wrestling moves:

• Gorilla Press into a Spinebuster slam / Military Press powerslam
• Side kick

Books / Autobiography

• I'm Next: The Strange Journey of America's Most Unlikely Superstar (with Steve Goldberg)

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