Chad Fortune On Technically Being The First To Beat Goldberg, Goldberg’s Heyday In WCW, More
Chad Fortune broke the streak.
In professional wrestling, sometimes there are historic moments that are left undocumented only to be recalled in the minds of those who lived them. Ric Flair has had many “phantom” title switches, only live audiences saw Shawn Michaels face Razor Ramon in a Ladder Match in the month leading up to WrestleMania 10,
A similar case can be found with Chad Fortune defeating Bill Goldberg. Goldberg had a Monumental rise to the top of WCW from 1997 through 1998. The major talking point of his run was his undefeated streak which lasted all the way up until December of 1998, when Kevin Nash defeated him in the main event of Starrcade.
However, this was not the first time Bill Goldberg was defeated in a match.
During an appearance on the Two Man Power Trip of Wrestling podcast, Chad Fortune, perhaps best known as a member of Tekno Team 2000 in WWE discussed being told by Arn Anderson to defeat Bill Goldberg in a practice match at the WCW power plant and what he thinks about Bill Goldberg’s ascent through the ranks of professional wrestling.
The following quotes were sent to Fightful by the Two Man Power Trip team.
Being the first to beat Bill Goldberg:
Goldberg and I would work on a bunch of different things together in the (WCW) Power Plant. So we wrestled in a dark match and the booker was Arn Anderson. He said to me ‘Chad youre going over tonight’. Arn knew that we were pretty good friends at that time. We had a pretty decent match, he and I. I hit him with my finish, pinned him and we got the hell out of there. I didn’t think much of it until Bill said it in his book years later that I was his first loss.
The Streak:
No one would really know that Goldberg lost except Bill, Arn Anderson, and myself. One day about a year or so later, we were at Nitro, and they were trying to figure out his record for the Streak. So they are counting the guys, and I go up to them and say, ‘Well he didn’t beat me’, and we would have a good laugh about it. Bill is a great guy and he knows where he came from. He always remembered I beat him, even till this day, but its just something we laugh about. He keeps my friendship and while we haven’t spoken in a while, whenever we do speak we pick up right where we left off. He is a good friend.
Goldberg’s meteoric rise:
We all were getting a bit frustrated in WCW that we weren’t going to get a shot. Then Bill Goldberg came out of nowhere and was really getting over with the crowd. I think the office began to really take notice and the Hulk Hogan’s and the other guys in the locker room took notice too. He won everyone over by getting over, he basically forced WCW to push him. He had a great formula that was working. He literally came out of nowhere and really won over the crowd.
Other topics include his WWF run, working for Vince McMahon, Being in the Techo Team 2000 with Erik Watts, Monster Truck racing, his WCW run, working for Eric Bischoff, and more.
Goldberg is still a major attraction in wrestling today preparing to face Drew McIntyre to the WWE Championship at the Royal Rumble this Sunday, January 31.
