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Mike S.

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DISSECTION OF THE SUPERSTARS

Welcome to my first column. Within these sacred (huh huh huh...) paragraphs, in addition to my own little rants and raves on whatever I feel like talking about, you'll get to look at a superstar of the wrestling world in a totally new light. What I'm going to try to do is this. Every week, I'll pick a superstar (feel free to e-mail requests, if you want), and I will talk about everything relating to him. His history, push, current angles, gimmicks, past gimmicks, and anything else concerning him. Plus, you'll read my own humble predictions on what I think should happen next with this star. Confused? Just read on, it'll make sense.

Before I get started, I got to send out a request. If any of you have heard of an Anime film called Venus Warriors, please e-mail me anything you have/know on this film. I REALLY want to see this flick.

Ok, here we go:

THIS WEEK'S SUBJECT = GOLDBERG

The 'next big thing' according to many a mark. And in some ways, he became this. Within two years' time, he has gone from an opening-card wrestler to a superstar who has held the WCW championship. He went for almost 200 matches and never lost once. Pretty impressive, right?

On the surface, yes? But below the surface...

Let's look at this a bit closer. Goldberg was brought in originally to (I think) show the WWF how to properly use a shootfighter. And it seems that WCW did what they set out to do. WCW instantly made Goldberg one of the most feared men in the business. A merchandising campaign that was the equivilent of Hogan's in the eighties was started that put out nothing but Goldberg stuff. Kids everywhere loved him. Even when his perfect record and world title were taken away by Kevin Nash this past Starrcade, all it did to Goldberg's popularity was help to increase it, since once people began to realize that Goldberg was human after all it made him a bit more likeable. When he returned on Nitro a few weeks ago from taking a break to nurse an injury, the fans in the arena cheered as if Goldberg was the second coming of Jesus.

And then Goldberg got lumped into the whole DDP/Hogan/Sting/Sid mess and it all became boring. Now, Goldberg is feuding with Sid in one of the most boring feuds that I have ever watched. How is this feud built on from week to week? Sid ruins good matches just to prove something, I guess. Hell, it's WCW, who can say? I just hope that Goldberg doesn't start trashing good matches to counter-act Sid or something like that.

Overall, there seems to be one big problem with Goldberg. Now that the RED AND YELLOW GOD OF ALL THINGS CONNECTED WITH WRESTLING has once again become the main-eventer and immersing himself in 80's WWF angles that are so predictable it's scary, Goldberg's mega push is drawing to a close. So what will happen to him after he squashes Sid at Halloween Havoc (and really, does anyone NOT see Goldberg trashing Sid? I don't think so)? In my opinion, one of two things.

1.Goldberg turns heel, goes up against Hogan as WCW tries to book a Hogan/Warrior III, and is beaten by Hogan and rides out into the sunset with fans hating his guts for turning on the ORANGE ROIDED IDOL and forgetting about his reign over WCW as top face for 1998.

2.Hogan's new reign as top face fizzles and dies, the new WCW manage- ment realizes that Hogan no longer has any business in wrestling, and Goldberg is once again pushed to top-face, where he then feuds with Sting in a series of good/great matches (hey, they work well together).

Either way, I hope Goldberg isn't allowed to wallow in silly bullshit like his program with Sid for long. I think I'm one of the few online fans out there who like/respect Goldberg, and I would hate to see someone with his charisma, work ethic, and talent be turned into a midcard bitchboy. If used right, I think Goldberg could turn the tide against the WWF. I also think Goldberg could stand to wrestle a few matches with Saturn, Benoit, and Malenko, so that way he can learn a few more moves. Goldberg's always struck me as someone with loads of potential talent who was hampered by his gimmick. And maybe...just maybe...he should be given some creative control. There's a good mind behind all that muscle and brain, and it wouldn't hurt to try.

Any comments or requests for future dissections, e-mail me at alexanderwright@yahoo.com

Till next week.

Mike S.
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Guest column text copyright (C) 1999 by the individual author and used with permission