He was the most dangerous guy to work with. He hurt everybody he worked with. I remember Kurt Henning being in in pain all the time from the matches they had.
And even when I worked with Bill, I always think with the last words I said to Bill before we went out and had that match where he injured and ended my career. I said, "Bill, whatever you do out there, don't hurt me. We'll do whatever you want.
We can do anything. We just don't go nuts. " When you step into a ring with Bill Goldberg, you're not dealing with a sports entertainer.
You're dealing with a former NFL defensive tackle who went 173 and0 in WCW, steamroll through an entire roster without blinking, and left a trail of broken bodies and genuinely terrified human beings in his wake. He didn't work matches. He ran through people.
And every single person who stood across from him in that ring knew really knew what was coming. But don't just take our word for it. the wrestlers who actually had to be in there with him.
They've talked a lot and what they have to say is genuinely wild. Let's start with one of the greatest technical wrestlers who ever lived. A man who went into a match with Goldberg and never fully came out the other side.
Brett the Hitman Hart is considered by a massive portion of this industry as the best there is, the best there was, and the best there ever will be. five-time WWF champion. A man so technically gifted he could carry anyone to a great match.
And Bill Goldberg ended his career, not in a storyline, for real. At WCW Starcade 1999, Goldberg and Brett Hart headlined in the main event. During the match, Goldberg threw a kick that connected flush with the side of Hart's head.
He blocked Johnny and Johnny the referee standing side kick a severe concussion. Brett kept going because that's what Bret Hart did. But he flew home afterwards and sat in a specialist's office who told him the back of his skull felt like hamburger and his career was probably over.
Talked about or explained to me, "I do this move where I kick guys in the head as hard as I can. " Bret Hart later gave one of the most honest breakdowns of what it was actually like to face Bill Goldberg. How do you fight Bill Goldberg?
He's like a gorilla slamming guys right through the mat. I would pull him aside and say, "I want to teach you how to actually not hurt guys. " And in a separate interview, Hart said this.
One of the last things I said to Bill before I walked out to the ring was, "Don't hurt me. I wish he heard me a little better. The greatest technical wrestler of all time.
Career done. " Now, Bret Hart talks about how dangerous Goldberg was, but nobody, and we mean nobody, has described what it actually physically feels like to absorb Goldberg's offense better than the next person on this list. Stevie Richards has been around this business for decades.
ECW, WWE, TNA. He's had thousands of hard nights and worked with some of the stiffest, most physical performers in the history of the sport. He knows exactly what rough feels like.
And when Goldberg was on the other side of the ring, he said it was unlike anything else. On his YouTube podcast, Stevie broke it all the way down. Everything football related, requiring his body to make contact with yours.
Shoulder blocks, power slams is about as real as you can feel. Then he described the first time Goldberg speared him without warning. and he speared me and his chin or the top of his head came under my chin and I hit the back of my head pretty hard and I probably felt Goldberg's every bit what Brett says he is.
Goldberg is reckless, hurts himself every bit if not more than his opponent. A veteran of this industry said that. And if the physical damage wasn't terrifying enough on its own, Goldberg's effect on people extended well beyond the ring, too.
[music] because one of the most fearless and outspoken performers in wrestling history had a very real, very physical Goldberg encounter that he still talks about to this day. Chris Jericho has done it all in this business. WCW, WWF, WWE, AEW.
He has six world championships. Has gone face to face with Steve Austin, The Rock, and Brock Lesnar. And has never been known as someone who backs down.
But his history with Goldberg is one of the most famous real confrontations this sport has ever produced. And the way Jericho tells it, even he thought he was going to get killed. The heat between them went back to WCW where Goldberg refused to work with Jericho because he felt Jericho wasn't a big enough name.
The bad blood carried all the way into WWE. And on Goldberg's very first Raw in 2003, things came to a head. In a May 2025 interview, Jericho laid out exactly what went down backstage about and something where Goldberg was involved.
So, so he puts his hand on my throat like raw like does this sort of a thing and I used to be a bouncer in a bar and another thing you could do is you could grab someone by the head and if you push their chin but I was like man like I can't let go he's going to kill me. Even while he had Goldberg locked up, Jericho was terrified of what would happen when Goldberg got loose. That is the effect this man had on people.
Even in the middle of a real physical confrontation, the fear was still there. Now, you want to talk about a match that perfectly captures just how physically unique and genuinely scary Goldberg was at his absolute peak. Look no further than Halloween Havoc 1998.
Diamond Dallas Page, the WCW World Heavyweight Championship, and a night that DDP has called one of the most physical and exhausting experiences of his career. DDP actually laid the match out himself, came up with the structure, convinced a hesitant Goldberg to work longer than he ever had before, and got one of the best matches WCW ever produced out of him. But here's the part that blows people's minds.
During the actual spear, Goldberg crashed into the ring post and knocked himself unconscious, concussed mid-match in front of a soldout arena. Goes for the spear. Oh, Paige avoided it.
Goldberg hit the post. That could be it. This could be the turning.
And he still got up, hit the jackhammer, won the match. Goldberg himself talked about it. I speared him and knocked myself out.
Then I was able to get him up in the jackhammer and finished the match off. I think for that reason alone, I'm pretty proud of that one. And I pretty much dispelled the rumor that I couldn't go more than 2 minutes in the ring.
In DDP's own verdict that night, I challenge anyone to find a better match than me and Goldberg at Havoc98. There are few matches that were as physical, exhausting, and psychological as that one. Knocked himself out cold and still won the match.
That is not a wrestling character. That is a different kind of human being operating on a completely different level. And it takes a different kind of human being to walk through a Goldberg match and have something truly terrifying to say about it on the other end.
Because if there is one story that brings this whole thing home, one account that captures what Bill Goldberg in a wrestling ring actually felt like, it belongs to the most legendary performer in WWE history, the Undertaker. A man who has been through everything this business has to offer. And even he wasn't ready for what a Goldberg match would become.
At WWE Super Showdown 2019, Goldberg and Undertaker stepped into a ring together for the very first time. It was 98° at midnight in the Saudi desert. He sleberg has him where he wants him.
Goldberg there with another spear. A second one. Goldberg got concussed early.
The match fell apart and the Undertaker, a man who made his entire career out of never losing his composure, opened up about it in a way he almost never talks about anything. The match that I had with Goldberg, there was never a time in my career feel [music] like no matter what happened that I couldn't figure out a way in me physically anymore to make things [music] right. He said the six words that stopped the wrestling world.
It was a scary match to be in. He's a legend with a 30-year career [music] known for brutal matches like Hell in a Cell and Buried Alive and for his iconic undefeated streak at WrestleMania. And the match that genuinely rattled him was a Goldberg match.
That alone tells you more about Bill Goldberg than any statistic, any highlight package, any street graphic ever could. But what do you think? Where does Goldberg rank in your all-time GOAT debate?
And which Goldberg was scarier? the 173 and0 WCW machine or the monster who kept coming back in WWE? Let us know in the comments below.
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