"Too young to understand" - Ex-WCW star on whether Goldberg had issues losing
Kevin Sullivan believes Bill Goldberg was too inexperienced to understand the importance of his WCW World Heavyweight Championship loss to Kevin Nash at Starrcade 1998.
The WWE Hall of Famer built up an undefeated streak of 173 matches heading into the memorable event. The finish saw Scott Hall shock the former football player with a taser gun, allowing Nash to record an unpopular victory.
Sullivan, who used to work as a booker in WCW, recently spoke about the match on his Taskmaster Talks podcast. Asked if Goldberg had any problems losing, the wrestling legend clarified that his former WCW co-worker did not create issues backstage:
"Bill was too young to understand. It’s a very difficult thing. After two months, Bill was on top, which was unheard of, right? He was a babe in the woods that drew money. He’s still drawing money today."
The current WWE Superstar's only WCW World Heavyweight Championship reign lasted 174 days. He went on to win the WWE World Heavyweight Championship in 2002 before capturing the Universal Championship in 2017 and 2020.
Kevin Sullivan does not think Kevin Nash benefited from beating Goldberg
23 years ago today, Kevin Nash defeated Goldberg to win the WCW World Title, ending Goldberg's undefeated streak 🤘🏻 https://t.co/6klETBPz5u
Although Kevin Nash won the WCW World Heavyweight Championship at Starrcade 1998, he only held the title for eight days. The following week, Hulk Hogan controversially defeated Nash on WCW Nitro in a moment that became known as The Fingerpoke of Doom.
Due to his questionable post-Starrcade booking, Kevin Sullivan believes Nash was not completely sold on the idea of beating Goldberg:
“The truth of the matter is, I’m not so sure that Nash wanted to do it, because I’ve seen some interviews and Kevin never gets excited when things are brought up, except that. He had to know he was gonna drop the belt in eight days. That didn’t help him at all.”
Sullivan added that Nash’s streak-ending victory did more to hurt the nWo member’s career than help it.
Please credit Taskmaster Talks and give a H/T to Sportskeeda Wrestling for the transcription if you use quotes from this article.