Bill Goldberg making his return to the wrestling ring for WWE’s Super Showdown event in Saudi Arabia turned out to be a poor decision. Goldberg's legendary career saw its best days take place about two decades ago. Goldberg dominated WCW in the final years of the company with an undefeated streak that made him a major star. WCW fans fell in love with the act that allowed a rare young star to break out.
WWE would get mixed results from Goldberg, with his better days coming with a run in 2017 rather than a failed stint in 2003. Only a small list of wrestlers has been able to score victories over Goldberg in his career, and even fewer would win without breaking the rules. We will look at five wrestlers to get the rare clean victory over Goldberg along with another five that should have beat him cleanly.
10 Beat Goldberg Clean: Brock Lesnar
The WrestleMania 33 match between Brock Lesnar and Goldberg for the Universal Championship featured the most decisive loss of Goldberg’s career. Lesnar would get his first win over Goldberg following two losses by beating him with the F5.
Goldberg and Lesnar’s friendship likely played a huge role in Goldberg agreeing to take the clean loss after years of refusing to do the job. Brock would start a lengthy title reign for over a year and a half after taking down Goldberg.
9 Should Have: Diamond Dallas Page
The greatest match of Goldberg’s WCW Championship and arguably the best of his career took place against Diamond Dallas Page at Halloween Havoc 1998. Both wrestlers worked perfectly together to deliver an all-time classic WCW match.
Goldberg won to continue his streak and it made sense at the time. However, the revisionist history would have made this a better opportunity for the streak to end with Page getting the clean win. WCW had no interest in having a young star dethrone Goldberg, so DDP would have been better.
8 Beat Goldberg Clean: The Undertaker
The recent Super Showdown event in Saudi Arabia was viewed as a disaster for many reasons. Goldberg facing The Undertaker in the main event featured two wrestlers in their 50s coming back for the big payday. Sadly, it turned into a hot mess with botches and injuries involved.
Goldberg cleanly took the loss for the second time in as many matches for WWE. The respect for Undertaker was at play here, with Goldberg okay with losing to a fellow legend. Unfortunately, no one views it as an impressive win since it is remembered for the embarrassing moments.
7 Should Have: Bret Hart
The feud between Bret Hart and Goldberg was one of the final money feuds left in WCW. Hart scored a few victories over Goldberg through controversial means. At one point, WCW even formed the New World Order 2000 rebranding with Hart, getting the help of Kevin Nash and Scott Hall to beat Goldberg.
A clean win would have done more for Hart and the WCW Championship. The title win felt meaningless whenever Hart won or defended against Goldberg due to the cheating tactics behind the referee’s back or with the help of the referee.
6 Beat Goldberg Clean: Scott Steiner
One of the few decisive wins for a wrestler over Goldberg came when Scott Steiner defeated him at Fall Brawl 2000. The lack of rules in a No Disqualification match allowed Steiner to use a steel pipe as a weapon legally in the match.
Steiner would knock Goldberg out with the pipe and used the pipe as part of the Steiner Recliner submission hold. Goldberg was knocked out, leading to Steiner getting the win by referee stoppage. It helped Steiner get to the next level as a top star, and he would later become the WCW Champion.
5 Should Have: Sting
Sting was the heart and soul of WCW given the fact that he was one of the few big names to never leave for WWE in the '90s. The loyalty to WCW made fans appreciate Sting even more as a natural babyface that won the WCW Championship six times.
Goldberg had one of his best matches against Sting in the main event of Nitro, successfully defending the WCW Championship. Sting being the one to defeat Goldberg for the title could have been the most viable way to create a new rivalry. Fans would have bought it since they respected Sting even more than they did Goldberg.
4 Beat Goldberg Clean: Booker T
One of the biggest wins of Booker T’s career came on Nitro when he successfully defended the WCW Championship against Goldberg. This was during the short run of Goldberg playing a heel character, as Booker was now the rising top face.
There was some controversy involved with a steel chair, but this was a No Disqualification match that made it legal. Booker hit the Book End on Goldberg using the chair for extra help before getting the pinfall victory. Goldberg got up quickly after the loss and attacked Booker to regain his heat, but Booker still secured the important win.
3 Should Have: Kevin Owens
Kevin Owens suffered the most from Goldberg’s return to WWE in 2016-2017. The original plan for WrestleMania 33 was going to see Owens defend the Universal Championship against Chris Jericho. Plans changed with Vince McMahon enjoying the return of Goldberg.
Owens would take the embarrassing loss from Goldberg within seconds to end his reign in disappointing fashion. The downfall of Owens would start after this loss, as he’s never returned to the world championship level since. Owens beating Goldberg in that match would have cemented him as a new top star for many years, but WWE instead opted to sacrifice him for a few months of Goldberg.
2 Beat Goldberg Clean: Triple H
Goldberg did not like the way he was booked in WWE during the 2003-2004 run specifically due to his feud with Triple H. This was likely due to Triple H scoring two huge victories over Goldberg within the rules of the two matches.
Triple H pinned Goldberg at the end of an Elimination Chamber match when using a sledgehammer to knock him out. Goldberg would get his win back later to become the World Champion. However, another clean win for Triple H would end the reign in a triple threat match. He pinned Goldberg after the third member of the match, Kane, hit a chokeslam.
1 Should Have: Kevin Nash
The decision to have Kevin Nash end Goldberg’s undefeated streak and become WCW Champion at Starrcade 1998 has been met with criticism for two decades now. Nash did have a lot of momentum, with fans falling in love with his face act as the charismatic leader of the nWo Wolfpac group.
The biggest reason this flopped was due to how they went about having this story play out. Scott Hall used a taser to help Nash defeat Goldberg in controversial fashion. Nash’s title reign only lasted a few weeks before the finger poke of doom loss to Hulk Hogan. If Nash just beat Goldberg clean to have a credible run, WCW might have benefited from the streak ending.