Anatomy of a Disaster: Bill Goldberg vs. Steve Regal

ANATOMY OF A DISASTER: STEVE REGAL vs. BILL GOLDBERG:
-This is one of the more infamously strange matches in wrestling- one where the guys look like they’re not on the same page, with one claiming the other was shooting on him. Both guys have different stories, and the match ends up a fascinating display of two dudes having two different matches. While it’s not exactly super-famous in that it’s just a Nitro match early in Goldberg’s run, it’s been talked about ever since, with both guys weighing in (Regal expecting a typical “carry job” match and being annoyed at the backlash he got, while Goldberg accuses Regal of taking liberties and stiffing him when he was a rookie).

THE STAGE: WCW Monday Nitro (Feb. 9th 1998)

THE PERFORMERS:
Steve Regal: Regal was a who growing up doing shoot-ish stuff in carnivals in England and ended up in WCW, using his particular European style and toughman tactics while playing a fussy English nobleman. With some of the best facial reactions in the business and some quality technical stuff, he was a highly entertaining act, despite usually only getting 5-8 minute matches on Nitro and never moving above the TV Title level, and with a style so unique that it clashed with nearly everyone else’s. At this point he was already a 12-year veteran. However, he was also a giant mess behind the scenes, with an admitted drug issue resulting in a 7-week suspension. He’d just briefly returned from it before getting this match.

Bill Goldberg: Goldberg was on the run of a lifetime in WCW, debuting beating jobbers but getting enough momentum that after quickly shuffling away from a Steve McMichael feud (where Goldberg was KO’d by a haliburton briefcase at one point, which was one of the last time he’d look so weak), he was terrorizing guys weekly on all the TV shows. Unlike most “up & comer” wrestlers, he wasn’t treated like a rookie who just happened to be good- he was a monster who would often no-sell opponents, rip them in half with the Spear, and finish with the Jackhammer (a vertical suplex lift into a powerslam). He had incredible physical presence, and became a memetic badass to the point he was getting some of the best reactions in wrestling. This would lead him to the US and World Titles in short order. But for now, 231 days into his run, he was still belt-less and moving up the card.

According to Regal in his book, “Those were my orders for the match, to go out and have a competitive six-minute match with him. He was to win in the end. We laid out this match in front of the people in charge.” Given how tightly TV was produced in those days, I can’t imagine this was going over time or anything like that. This was almost certainly not gonna be the “Typical Goldberg Squash”. Regal, an established veteran, is expecting to do a British-style match, though Goldberg has only done 90-second squashes for the most part, and in WCW’s style where he takes some stuff, no-sells strikes and eventually counters something to his Spear and then finishes.

BILL GOLDBERG vs. STEVE REGAL:
* Regal is back after a break, and is pretty big and hefty, wearing a maroon singlet over his usual trunks. Goldberg’s in the usual black trunks and is massively over, but not all the act has formed yet- he walks out several feet AHEAD of the sparkler spray instead of breathing it in like some god of war, and he’s doing the twitching without full-blown screaming. Regal had already done TV jobs to Curt Hennig on WCW Pro and Booker T the previous Nitro, so the outcome here wasn’t remotely in question, though Mike Tenay calls it “The stiffest test yet for Bill Goldberg”.

Goldberg with a headlock to start, but Regal does an odd double-handed snapmare and then CRACKS him with a kick to the back (that sounded, uh, loud), then hits a soft one and a European uppercut, but stuffs Goldberg when he’s about to do his fired-up “OH YEAH?” sell that he usually did to strikes, and single-arms him. Regal steps on the back of his knee to put him down and crossfaces him, but Goldberg reverses to a wristlock and this is actually looking very interesting in that Euro-style. Like every move is realistic and being fought for all the way instead of the usual “magically applied holds” you often see. Regal eventually gets behind him and Goldberg looks a bit stiff and unready before rolling down for his leg-grab. Regal quickly makes the ropes and they square off, the fans pretty silent and just… watching this, not sure what to make of it.

Regal clubs him out of a break and hits Eurocutts (again ignoring Bill’s attempts to no-sell) and just grabs a leg and they hop there for a second before trading wristlocks and Bill does a go-behind into a rollup- Regal immediately grabs the ropes and that position swats Goldberg in the head a couple of times and then BOOTS him and that clearly had no air between foot and face, if you catch my drift. Goldberg keeps holding that part of his head, unsure of what to do, then hits the “hands on thighs” ready pose and snarls at Regal. Regal promptly headlocks him into a stiff takeover (getting a full lift in because Bill isn’t really going over straight away). Goldberg counts with a headscissors as Regal slowly pulls his head out and they kind of keep a bit apart as they grapple themselves up, Regal hitting a front facelock and resisting Goldberg’s movement. Goldberg wristlocks out and throws knees (neither of which are sold much) into the corner, Regal palming his face but getting judo flipped to the mat in a pretty cool spot.

Heenan goes “oof” at that spot as Goldberg holds the arm but Regal AGAIN pops him with a foot to the face, then picks an ankle and Goldberg resists him before going down at an awkward angle (landing on his ass and falling back)- Regal again facelocks him and hits the headlock to set up a backdrop suplex. A grumpy-looking Goldberg tries to whip him off the ropes, but Regal stops on a dime (!! you can DO that?) and headbutts him in the chest to stop him AGAIN. Regal actually puts himself in a headlock before just pushing Goldberg to the ropes because he’s not trying anything and shoulder-checks him in the knee to bring him down.

Regal throws Eurocutts and high knees in a clinch, but Goldberg throws a terrible swinging neckbreaker (he has no grip and Regal phantom-spins off it). Goldberg whips him off the ropes for his first consecutive move of the match via a leaping shoulderblock. Goldberg throws a big forearm in the corner, but Regal blocks a kick with a cross-block and palm-thrusts him in the chest then puts him in the corner and throws a Eurocutt, palm thrust and two big forearms, then a belly-shot and straight headbutt, but Goldberg knees him and reverses a whip to the other corner and FINALLY hits the Spear! He just looks around and smiles like “yeah, that’s right” before hitting the Jackhammer and the pin at (5:02) of a very, very unusual match.

As a match, this is actually a fascinating contest because of how they’re wrestling for every little bit of ground, countering stuff almost like it was real (it ain’t, but you know what I mean). Regal fighting intelligently by countering Goldberg every step of the way and popping him with every opening is GREAT tactics and looks very smart. The issue of course is how awkward some of it ends up being, because it runs contrary to Goldberg’s entire “Thing”, which is to eat offense then pop back and destroy the guy. So the fans sit there semi-uncomfortably wanting to get into it but not really seeing any moments. Goldberg of course is getting legitimately stymied by Regal repeatedly hitting snug shots or stuffing his movements, but it’s coming off kind of well in context. The main issue is, this match is booked and designed to GET GOLDBERG OVER, and instead it makes him look slower and able to be one-upped by a midcard veteran repeatedly until he finally gets an opening.

Rating: **1/2 (a pretty high rating for this column, but I actually dig this kind of match, as much as it plays to none of Goldberg’s strengths)

So what looks like is happening here is Goldberg gets flustered pretty quickly, and is wrestling a style he has no ability in so is more or less doing shoot-ish stuff to escape things if he can (not like he’s actually shooting, but trying to get out of things the real way instead of a “pro wrestling” way). The early stiff kick to the back might have startled him, and getting stuffed as soon as he starts getting fired up may have made it even worse, as he’s probably like “WTF?” and in totally unfamiliar territory. Never mind when Regal gets taken down into a pin but grabs the ropes so it doesn’t even get a count, then swats at him stiffly. Goldberg doesn’t no-sell like he normally would and appears unsteady before doing his posing and then getting taken down AGAIN.

So all the “chain-wrestling” is happening while Bill looks hesitant and unsure, as he’s completely out of his depth- he’s following Regal’s lead and doing stuff, but is so unsure of what he’s doing that he’s seemingly afraid to even try his own stuff for fear of looking stupid, leaving Regal to do everything and dominate the entire match. However, it kind of helps the match a bit because it looks very much like “shoot-style” because guys have that real-life unsteady “fight and scrap for every move” thing going on, being unwilling to overcommit.

Regal claims that he gave Bill a ton of openings, none of which were taken. He even says he TOLD Goldberg to take many shots, but the bewildered guy did little. Regal: “I had to keep attacking him to keep the match going. I was opening myself up for him to retaliate, and he wasn’t taking the openings. I was even telling him to do this or that, and he just wasn’t doing it. I don’t know what his excuses were for the match. All I know is that he’s blamed me publicly for it.” To be fair to Bill, I’m seeing more instances of Regal countering Goldberg and stuffing any attempts at his typical comebacks than leaving himself opening, and there are a few times he leaves himself open and Goldberg DOES nail him with something.

Goldberg remains resentful. On the Steve Austin Show podcast, he exclaimed “The office didn’t tell him to go out there and try to take advantage of me and beat up a guy who had no idea what the fuck was going on! Dude, ask Regal. I have no idea. I just know he tried to kick my face in a couple of times, and I was just giving him my face. At the end of the day, I still don’t know. It’s all good. He’s a shooter. If that made him feel better, then fine, but I don’t get it. I’d love to fucking scrap with him right now. It’d be beautiful. I’d have loved to at the time, too, had I known what he was going to do, but at the end of the day, it was resentment.” He comes off still pretty annoyed and felt taken advantage of, while also being kind of a mark for himself. And like, Regal did a clean job to Hennig & Booker T recently- slow your role a bit about how resentful he is, big guy.

If Goldberg is unready in the ring then I can buy Regal having to “keep attacking him to keep the match going”… but he’s doing it so quickly it just looks like he’s cutting off Goldberg’s attempts to get himself over. Like, if he’s trying to leave himself open, why stop himself on a whip and headbutt-charge Goldberg before he can even try anything, then awkwardly trip him from the FRONT off a whipt to the ropes? At least right after that he puts himself in the headlock and THEN I can kinda see him having to take the lead again because Goldberg doesn’t do anything. But again, if I’m Goldberg, I’m thinking I’m 2/3 of a year into the business and am clueless about what to even do anymore.

Now Goldberg’s a bit whiny here and saying Regal’s trying to “kick his head in” is a bit ludicrous because neither of those kicks, while stiff, left a mark at all. I mean you kick a dude flush in the head and he’ll be in worse shape than THAT. When Regal explained this to Austin on the podcast, Austin just goes “You were SNUG… You were protectin’ the business!”. It was stiff, but not these shoot-strikes or anything like Goldberg is complaining about.

HOWEVER, I can’t give Regal the sheer benefit of the doubt here- he’s up against a guy who had been wrestling less than a year- NO KIDDING he needed to be talked through some stuff, but he was so new that Regal was clearly stymying him for real, and Regal probably should have noticed that. At least grab a hold and talk him through spots when it was clear that Goldberg wasn’t sure how to proceed. And for someone that new, having Regal do all these counters and pop him every time he has an opening is probably really flustering, especially if you’re having one of your first matches over 2 minutes long in your life and are letting the veteran have his way.

That said, if the bookers okayed a match like this, then it’s kind of on them. At least run this on a house show or something first so Bill knows what he’s getting into. Throwing them on live TV and making it five minutes long (way longer than the typical Goldberg match) was just asking for it- I would buy a WWF-style heel like Curt Hennig or someone to be ideal for this kind of spot, as they can do very basic things and sell for simple moves while not throwing out anything weird that the kid wouldn’t be ready for.

The Fallout: This one was immediate- Regal was dressed down by a furious Eric Bischoff- “You made him look like an idiot out there!” or something like it. Regal wasn’t long for WCW, wrestling only one more match over a week later, as the Steiner Brothers beat Regal & Dave Taylor on WCW Saturday Night. Regal ended up going to the WWF (the infamous “Real Man’s Man” push), but flamed out there for his addiction issues as well.

Mitigating Factors: Goldberg was incredibly green and unprepared for a match like this. Being dominated by technical stuff and stiff counter-strikes wasn’t anything he’d done at this point, and really would have been odd for the match in any case- it’s typical for power guys to launch submission-wrestling heels around for the early going, and to be no-selling strikes from dudes, or just taking a few before coming back. Stuff like what Regal was doing was pretty advanced-class and I think even if Bill had been a better worker, he’d have been in way over his head here. Regal, for his part, was probably not in his best mind from his drug abuse- his career was looking to have a really tragic turn before he turned it around, and that took a WHILE.

Overall: Honestly, as a whole this match just looks like two different guys having two different matches, and running against each other because of that. Goldberg keeps trying to fire himself up and do his “nail the guy and then SNAP!” thing, while Regal is trying to wrestle smart and tactically and constantly stuff the big guy, as he would typically do against other powerhouse opponents. Except Goldberg is too inexperienced, so Regal’s kayfabe attempts to stymie him are ACTUALLY stymying him, as he has no idea how to proceed at points.

And really, most damning is this isn’t a match that benefits Goldberg AT ALL. He’s the big Power Guy who ignores shots and comes back and it’s SPEAR SNAP JACKHAMMER and the guy dies. He’s best off no-selling and going “OH YEAH?” when someone’s popping him with strikes, then hucking guys around. And Regal knows god damn well how to bump, fly around, eat a move and then hit the floor while looking like a grump who’s unable to handle this guy’s power… not stuff him for 5 minutes and dominate the entire match until the very last second. THAT’S a “competitive match”. I’ve seen Regal wrestle Fred Ottman and do more to put over his strength. While Regal wasn’t exactly humiliating him (he doesn’t get so much as a one-count all match long, nor hit anything finisher-adjacent), this just made Goldberg look kind of unsteady and inexperienced when it should have been putting him over.

I can see why both guys are a bit annoyed over the match, and really, the bookers could be at fault- who knows exactly what they were told about the match, or what advice each guy was given? Regal was probably wrestling Goldberg exactly how he’d wrestle say, Chase Tatum or another Power Plant dink, except giving him a couple of moves in the end to do the job. Maybe he wasn’t given proper information? Goldberg isn’t exactly the most mature out of this situation and he’s still bitter about it, but man he was in so over his head here. Regal probably should have known better, but who knows where his head was at this point? He was not in a good place at the time and it’d only get worse.

All in all, it’s one of the weirdest Nitro matches you’ll see- one famous for costing a dude his job and making a rookie monster seem human. It’s a good match, but not the right one for the time. I can’t absolve Regal of this completely, but for all I know it’s bad booking and bad advice/instructions before the match.