Goldberg On Where "Who's Next" Came From, Hulk Hogan, Backstage Resentment, Who He Rode With
Recently on The Steve Austin Show, Bill Goldberg talked about his WCW run, including how his epic entrance, win streak, and catchphrase came to be, whether he faced resentment in the WCW locker room, who he traveled with, and what his relationship with Hulk Hogan was like.
According to Goldberg, his entrance and streak came about organically and the company just went with them.
"The cool thing is, and this is no bulls–t, man, I mean, and I've said it a million times, is that it was all organic." Goldberg recalled, "it might have been [Doug] Dillinger's idea [to have security guards in the entrance]. I don't remember whose idea it was. [Tony] Schiavone had a lot to do with the streak itself and I know [Bobby] Heenan had a lot to do with it. I mean, it was all organic. He helped me tremendously."
As for Goldberg 'who's next?' catchphrase, apparently, the idea came to him at a restaurant.
"I'm in San Bernadino [California] and we were doing TV tapings and this is before anything, right? I think it was dark. It was just for me to train kind of like down in Orlando [Florida] at Universal Studios. And I can't remember the name of the restaurant, so I won't get into any legal trouble. So I'm sitting down with one of the producers of the Love Boat and my brother, Steve. And we're about to order and the producer looks at me and he says, 'you know, you have to have a gimmick; you have to have a saying; you have to have a slogan; you've got to get people behind you' and I said, 'you know what? You're right.' You know where I'm going, don't you? So the waitress comes up, and she looks, and she goes, 'who's next?' and that was it. I swear to God, I looked at them, and I went, 'that's it! Who's next?' because after I beat the first guy, it's open f–king season! So it's perfect! It's plain, it's simple, it's straight to the point. I don't like to be wordy. It gives to many options to people to tear you down."
Goldberg acknowledged that he always experienced resentment in the WCW locker room.
"I mean, there's always the resentment. There's always the Steven Regal match. How can you paint anything other than resentment on that match? I mean, the office didn't tell him to go out there and try to take advantage of me and beat up a guy who had no idea what the f–k was going on! Dude, ask Steve. I have no idea. I just know he tried to kick my face in a couple of times and I was just giving him my face. At the end of the day, man, I still don't know. It's all good, man. He's a shooter. He and the other dude who was there at the time, Dave Taylor. It's all good. If that made him feel better, then fine, but I don't get it. I'd love to f–king scrap with him right now. It'd be beautiful. I'd loved to, at the time, have known what he was going to do, but at the end of the day, it was resentment."
Goldberg recalled that he used to travel with Curt Hennig, the Steiner Brothers, Kevin Nash, and Rick Rude while on the road for WCW.
"I traveled with Hennig. I traveled with the Steiners, man. I traveled with Nash. Hennig, God rest his soul, was one of the coolest human beings. Rick Rude, I traveled with Rick Rude. So now you know these guys, they didn't give a s–t about taking advantage of me, man. The Steiners, they knew I was a hard ass football player. I was a jock, okay? Hennig appreciated me because I was that jock, but I had a huge sense of humor and appreciated the [professional wrestling] business and would help people out. And inherently, I'm a nice guy because at the end of the day, I care about the kids. Rude, he was just a man's man."
On the subject of Hulk Hogan, Goldberg claimed that he learned a lot from observing Hogan, though the two never had a very close relationship.
"Hogan helped me out a lot because, through osmosis, in that it was not what he told me, it's what he did and I watched. 'Less is more' is the biggest thing I learned from Hogan. Period. End of story. Less is more. Throw out every bit of the rest. My relationship with him was superficial in that I was the guy and I was money. But I like Hogan, man. I mean, there's something about those Florida guys, man. He, [Brian] Knobbs, and all those goofs, there's something wrong with them."
In addition to these topics, Goldberg discussed the possibility of moving to Canada like Brock Lesnar, his brief heel run in WCW, and much more on The Steve Austin Show. Click here to check out the interview. If you use any of the quotes that appear in this article, please credit The Steve Austin Show with an H/T to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.
Source: The Steve Austin Show