[Kane Knight]

Originally Posted by Class Act Carl Not true. They were mostly deflated by the way it happened (and to whom the loss occurred) but all the while it was an inevitability he would eventually lose; it wasn't really a surprise that the streak ended, just the nature in which it did. They didn't capitalise on the "former champion seeking revenge" bit, they slung him straight into a midcard feud with Hall and turned Hogan face again, stealing all Goldberg's thunder.

They didn't really have anywhere to go with Goldberg. They had built him up solely around the premise. While they could have capitalized, it was a short-term fix for a long-term problem.

Many people see the night Goldberg lost the title as THE night WCW sealed its own fate.

Many people believe that we never landed on the moon, too.

And anyone who says "all WWE really did was expose Goldberg as not being able to work" or words to that effect... well yes, more fool WWE for exposing him, because WCW kept up the illusion for 18 months with no problem.

All WWE really did was expect him to suck about as much as their usual powerhouse types. It's not even about exposing his weakness. It's about the fact that it was a sinking ship. Goldberg couldn't be inflated forever, especially without WCW's stream of endless jobbers.

You can't throw a powerhouse demolition man like Goldberg into 25 minute matches because it doesn't work.

And if that were the only problem.

You wouldn't put The Rock in a lucha libre match, because it doesn't play to his strengths. You wouldn't put Dean Malenko in a hardcore falls count anywhere brawl; aces in their places.

The Rock could put on a good match in almost any format. Dean could play hardcore. The fact is that Goldberg lacked the versatility to do anything beyond something which the door'd been shut on.

You can't knock Goldberg because WWE put him in situations he couldn't live up to: that is the WWE's own fault for not knowing how to accentuate the strengths and hide the weaknesses of their own roster.

While I could knock WWE for not knowing the strrengths and weaknesses of their own roster, and not working with them, they managed to make a bunch of limited guys look decent. Goldberg was special because....?

Pushed correctly ie. the way WCW did for a year and a half, Goldberg could have been huge, and his short but exciting style of match would be tailor made for the crash-bang-wallop short-attention-span TV that WWE produces on Monday nights.

Again, it sounds nice, but that doesn't make it sustainable. It doesn't make it a good plan, or a long term strategy.