Worth the wait? Now that he has made his WWE debut, will Goldberg prove to be worth his weight in, err, gold?

Wrestling Digest, August, 2003 by Kevin Eck

VINCE MCMAHON PUFFED OUT his barrel chest and flashed a sly grin as he stood in the ring during the historic simulcast of "Raw" and "Nitro" on March 26, 2001. After the World Wrestling Entertainment chairman crowed about his company's purchase of rival World Championship Wrestling, he began asking the live crowd which WCW stars they would like to see in WWE.

McMahon called out the names of several WCW stars, asking fans to give them the thumbs up or thumbs down. Without being further prompted by McMahon, the crowd spontaneously began chanting a name.

"Gold-berg! Gold-berg! Gold-berg!"

McMahon seemed shocked to hear the familiar WCW chant at a WWE event. "All right, what about Goldberg?" McMahon asked somewhat rhetorically. The crowd erupted, and as the cameras panned the audience, some hopeful fans already were waving "Goldberg" signs.

It was a surreal scene that was especially surprising since the first rule of promoting is never to promise anything you can't deliver. Surely when McMahon was caning out the names of WCW wrestlers he knew where it was headed. At that point, however, McMahon also knew that he was unable to deliver Goldberg, who was still under contract to AOL Time Warner.

Fast forward two years later to the last segment of the March 31 episode of "Raw." The Rock stood in the ring, gloating about his victory over "Stone Cold" Steve Austin at WrestleMania XIX The "People's Champion" declared that he had beaten every top star in wrestling and he had nothing left to prove, similar to the way McMahon had boasted about officially winning the wrestling war two years earlier.

Once again, the chants began.

"Gold-berg! Gold-berg! Gold-berg!"

Only this time, Goldberg was there to answer the call. Clad in a black and red Harley-Davidson leather jacket and black jeans, Goldberg made his way down the aisle and into the ring. Always a man of few words, the former WCW phenom simply told the Rock, "You're next," and then leveled him with a spear.

Finally, Goldberg, who became an overnight success in WCW in 1997, had come to WWE. And now that he is there, the question is: After two years of rumors, speculation, and anticipation, will Goldberg's presence be worth the wait?

Just a few months into Goldberg's WWE tenure, it's too early to tell. There seem to be two contrasting schools of thought regarding Goldberg's fate in WWE. One is that he will boost ratings and buy rates and make professional wrestling cool again. The other is that he will be exposed as a guy with limited skills who just happened to be in the right place at the right time in WCW.

The reality of the situation is that Goldberg, 36, represents the last in WWE's series of big surprises--and if he doesn't have a positive affect on business, the company should give serious thought to making major changes in its creative process.

Then again, had Goldberg been on board in 2001, the invasion storyline wouldn't have been such a resounding disappointment and WWE wouldn't still be searching for that one big angle to turn things around. After McMahon teased on that simulcast of "Raw" and Nitro" that WCW stars such as Goldberg, Sting, and Scott Steiner would soon be part of the WWE roster, he instead delivered mid-card wrestlers such as Buff Bagwell, Lance Storm, and Bill "Hugh Morrus" DeMott. The fans quickly caught on that they weren't going to be seeing their dream matches anytime soon.

Perhaps WWE underestimated how difficult it was going to be to acquire Goldberg. Like most of the big-name WCW wrestlers, Goldberg had a lucrative deal with AOL Time Warner that WWE was unwilling to match, and he was content to sit at home and collect his money. Beyond the economics that prevented WWE from signing him, Goldberg had been very outspoken about his contempt for the sometimes-racy content of the company's programs and seemed to have little interest in ever working there.

"I personally believe that everything I've stood for when I got into the ring would be compromised and succumbed to the circus-like atmosphere that's out [in WWE], and that's putting it mildly," Goldberg told The Palm Springs Desert Sun in February 2002. "I would be an imbecile if I gave up half my money to work for a company that I didn't respect."

Goldberg's contract was to expire sometime in 2004, but AOL Time Warner decided to pay him the remainder of what he was owed in a lump sum last year. Just like that, Goldberg was a free agent But instead of rushing to sign with WWE, Goldberg reportedly didn't even return its calls. Rather, he accepted an offer to work for All-Japan. Goldberges first bout since January 2001 took place on August 30, 2002, when he defeated Satoshi Kojima at Budokan Hall in Tokyo.

At that point, it seemed possible that Goldberg really wouldn't ever sign with WWE. Supposedly having no desire to work WWE's demanding schedule, he could earn a lot of money just making several trips a year to Japan.

In the months leading up to WrestleMania XIX, however, the buzz on the Internet and in the dirt sheets was that the Rock had taken it upon himself to help bring Goldberg into the WWE fold. Envisioning a match between the two larger-than-life figures at Wrestlemania XIX at Seattle's Safeco Field, the Rock reportedly met privately with Goldberg and also arranged for a series of meetings between Goldberg and McMahon.