Rock v Goldberg at Backlash 2003
Apr 9, 2021 17:15:14 GMT -5
Squirrel Master, Magic knows Black Lives Matter, and 1 more like this
Post by Deleted on Apr 9, 2021 17:15:14 GMT -5
What a strange match this is. On paper it’s an absolute mega match but it just felt completely flat. They only had a couple of weeks/segments to even build the match and a lot of it was comedy with Goldust putting a wig on Goldberg and Rock doing a concert and bringing out Gillberg. Business wise it did terrible too, doing over 50,000 buys less than the previous years Backlash and somehow Bad Blood two months later with Goldberg’s second PPV match (essentially a midcard bout with Chris Jericho) and a Kevin Nash/Triple H hell in a cell did way better. How is your booking of a sure-thing so terrible that a Kevin Nash main event in 2003 is outdrawing Goldberg’s first WWE match against a megastar in The Rock?
The match also had a mini Hogan-HBK feel to it with how comical Rock’s overselling for Goldberg’s offense was. His gesticulating at the end before he took the final spear was hilarious. I don’t think for a second Rock did this maliciously or to be a dick like Michaels did though. Quite the opposite, he was just trying to entertain and he did the same in the Austin match at Wrestlemania the month before, putting on Austin’s jacket, etc. It just wasn’t the way to go for Goldberg’s first match. Rock should have been cocky and funny at first but then Goldberg runs him over in 5 minutes as Rock is one of the few main event guys who would have agreed to that. Instead it’s a slow-paced 15 minute match with Goldberg selling most of the way looking like a run of the mill guy and Rock’s interactions with the crowd are so entertaining they start cheering him and chanting Goldberg sucks before he can begin his big comeback.
His WWE run was off to the worst possible start and pretty much nothing in that first run lived up to the hype from this match to the Jericho feud to the HHH feud and obviously the Lesnar match. I would say WWE only got Goldberg right twice in that entire year. The elimination chamber match when he destroyed everyone before they ruined it by having him lose in the end and his MSG debut when he squashed Rodney Mack and had the same New York crowd that would boo him out of the company 9 months later going absolutely crazy for him.
The match also had a mini Hogan-HBK feel to it with how comical Rock’s overselling for Goldberg’s offense was. His gesticulating at the end before he took the final spear was hilarious. I don’t think for a second Rock did this maliciously or to be a dick like Michaels did though. Quite the opposite, he was just trying to entertain and he did the same in the Austin match at Wrestlemania the month before, putting on Austin’s jacket, etc. It just wasn’t the way to go for Goldberg’s first match. Rock should have been cocky and funny at first but then Goldberg runs him over in 5 minutes as Rock is one of the few main event guys who would have agreed to that. Instead it’s a slow-paced 15 minute match with Goldberg selling most of the way looking like a run of the mill guy and Rock’s interactions with the crowd are so entertaining they start cheering him and chanting Goldberg sucks before he can begin his big comeback.
His WWE run was off to the worst possible start and pretty much nothing in that first run lived up to the hype from this match to the Jericho feud to the HHH feud and obviously the Lesnar match. I would say WWE only got Goldberg right twice in that entire year. The elimination chamber match when he destroyed everyone before they ruined it by having him lose in the end and his MSG debut when he squashed Rodney Mack and had the same New York crowd that would boo him out of the company 9 months later going absolutely crazy for him.
