Post by Jindrak Mark on Aug 6, 2022 17:33:53 GMT -5
I've heard various reasons over the years for this.
1. HHH got injured and couldn't work a 1 on 1 match at Summerslam and they wanted Goldberg's title win to come in a singles match so they had him get screwed him over at Summerslam then win the next month at Unforgiven in an attempt to get two big buyrates instead of one. It kind of worked as Unforgiven got a much bigger buyrate than the Smackdown No Mercy PPV around the same time but in terms of live crowd reaction his win at Unforgiven had nowhere near the excitement there would have been at Summerslam.
2. They had a big Australian tour a few weeks before Summerslam. Goldberg was on a limited dates contract and wasn't scheduled for any of the 3 shows. HHH picked up his aforementioned injury and was pulled from the tour. They didn't want the tour to have no world title matches plus no top face Goldberg or top heel HHH so they asked Goldberg to work the tour but he refused and in the end they had to draft in Shawn Michaels at the last minute to add some star power. Goldberg not "doing them a favor" and refusing to do the Australia shows pissed management off so they scrapped his planned win at Summerslam basically as punishment.
3. Kind of connected to 2 but people backstage just didn't like Goldberg. He got into a fight with Jericho, was constantly butting heads with creative, would lash out at fans who booed him, the Australia tour thing and they didn't think he had been drawing well enough to justify the big money contract he had.
4. Goldberg was on a 1 year contract and most were under the impression even by summer 2003 that he wouldn't be re-signing so they were weary of putting the title on him at all if he was leaving soon.
5. It simply didn't work for HHH, brother.
What do you think ultimately was the reason? Even if he was a pain to work with there's no doubt he never had more momentum than he did in that chamber match and the crowd that night would have went crazy if he won.
1. HHH got injured and couldn't work a 1 on 1 match at Summerslam and they wanted Goldberg's title win to come in a singles match so they had him get screwed him over at Summerslam then win the next month at Unforgiven in an attempt to get two big buyrates instead of one. It kind of worked as Unforgiven got a much bigger buyrate than the Smackdown No Mercy PPV around the same time but in terms of live crowd reaction his win at Unforgiven had nowhere near the excitement there would have been at Summerslam.
2. They had a big Australian tour a few weeks before Summerslam. Goldberg was on a limited dates contract and wasn't scheduled for any of the 3 shows. HHH picked up his aforementioned injury and was pulled from the tour. They didn't want the tour to have no world title matches plus no top face Goldberg or top heel HHH so they asked Goldberg to work the tour but he refused and in the end they had to draft in Shawn Michaels at the last minute to add some star power. Goldberg not "doing them a favor" and refusing to do the Australia shows pissed management off so they scrapped his planned win at Summerslam basically as punishment.
3. Kind of connected to 2 but people backstage just didn't like Goldberg. He got into a fight with Jericho, was constantly butting heads with creative, would lash out at fans who booed him, the Australia tour thing and they didn't think he had been drawing well enough to justify the big money contract he had.
4. Goldberg was on a 1 year contract and most were under the impression even by summer 2003 that he wouldn't be re-signing so they were weary of putting the title on him at all if he was leaving soon.
5. It simply didn't work for HHH, brother.
What do you think ultimately was the reason? Even if he was a pain to work with there's no doubt he never had more momentum than he did in that chamber match and the crowd that night would have went crazy if he won.
