Stone Cold vs Goldberg: the match that never happened
In 1998, the two biggest acts in American wrestling were both bald, both wore black trunks, both finished matches with explosive power moves, and both were treated as unstoppable forces by their companies. Stone Cold Steve Austin was the face of the WWF's Attitude Era. Goldberg was WCW's undefeated monster. The comparison was made constantly at the time, and it has never gone away, partly because the two men never had a singles match.
Austin's rise
Austin had a solid but unremarkable WCW career as Stunning Steve Austin in the early 1990s before being let go in 1995. After a short ECW run where he cut promos mocking WCW, he joined the WWF as The Ringmaster, a character that went nowhere. The change came when he shaved his head, became Stone Cold, and won the 1996 King of the Ring tournament. His promo after beating Jake Roberts in the final created the line Austin 3:16. In 1997 his WrestleMania 13 submission match against Bret Hart, where Austin passed out in the Sharpshooter while covered in blood, turned him into the most popular wrestler in the company. He won the WWF Championship from Shawn Michaels at WrestleMania XIV on 29 March 1998, with Mike Tyson as the enforcer, and his feud with Vince McMahon drove the WWF past WCW in the ratings.
Goldberg's streak
Bill Goldberg debuted on Nitro in September 1997 and was booked as a monster from day one. Matches were short, he speared and Jackhammered everyone in his way, and WCW counted his wins on screen. On 6 July 1998, on Nitro at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta, he beat Hulk Hogan for the WCW Championship in front of a crowd reported at around 40,000. The streak, billed by WCW as 173-0, ended at Starrcade on 27 December 1998, when Kevin Nash pinned him after Scott Hall used a taser. Many fans still think WCW ended the streak too early and for the wrong reasons.
Why they never met
During their peak years, Austin and Goldberg were on rival companies. When WCW collapsed in 2001, Goldberg's contract was with AOL Time Warner, and he did not join the WWE until 2003. By then Austin's career was at its end. Neck injuries, which went back to a botched piledriver from Owen Hart at SummerSlam 1997, forced him to retire from in-ring competition after his match with The Rock at WrestleMania XIX on 30 March 2003. Goldberg debuted on Raw the very next night, 31 March 2003, and faced The Rock, not Austin, at Backlash a few weeks later.
The closest the two came was WrestleMania XX in March 2004, when Austin was special guest referee for Goldberg against Brock Lesnar. Both Goldberg and Lesnar were leaving the company, the Madison Square Garden crowd knew it, and Austin gave both men a Stone Cold Stunner after the match. It was the last time Austin and Goldberg shared a ring at a WrestleMania in that era.
Styles: how a 1998 match would have worked
This section is our opinion. Goldberg's matches were built on being short. Austin's were built on brawling, crowd heat and comebacks. The obvious way to book it is to let Austin take the opening, absorb the spear, and survive in a way nobody else had, which would have made the crowd lose its mind. Austin was a far more complete wrestler at that point, and he knew how to make an opponent look like a threat while still looking tough himself.The risk would have been Goldberg's inexperience in long matches. In 1998 he had rarely gone more than a few minutes. A main event against Austin would probably have needed to be 12 to 15 minutes, built around a few big spots rather than a long technical sequence.
Who wins?
Opinion. This is the hardest dream match of the era to call, because both companies would have refused to let their man lose. If it had happened on WWF pay-per-view in 1998, we think Austin wins with a Stunner after kicking out of the Jackhammer, which ends the streak in a way that makes Goldberg look great. On WCW pay-per-view, Goldberg wins after Austin is distracted, keeping the streak alive. A tie or a no contest would have been the most honest booking, and the most frustrating.The legacy
Both men's runs have aged well. Austin is usually ranked as the biggest draw of the Attitude Era, and Goldberg's 1997 to 1998 streak is still the template for monster booking. The fact that they never met only makes fans more curious. In Invasion Draft, a WWF 1998 face spin can give you Austin and a WCW 1998 face spin can give you Goldberg, but you will only see them meet if you and your opponent both put them in the World Title slot.