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Morning Glory #20: The
Goldberg Generation (Part 3)
So, carrying on from Part 1 HERE
and Part 2 HERE,
my look at WCW’s touted ‘Goldberg’s Generation’ continues. From what
we’ve seen so far, only Eddie Guerrero, Chris Benoit, and Rey Mysterio have really
had the success that August 1999’s WCW Magazine predicted, and even then, it’s
somewhat debatable. Will the final four men prove any more successful than the first ten?
Let’s find out.
DEAN MALENKO
A leading wrestling publication proclaimed Malenko to be the best wrestler in the world
– and that was two years ago! It’s not hard to be impressed with a man as solid
and technically sound as this second-generation star. He obviously has learned from the
best: he was a Horseman and he is the son of a legend (Boris Malenko), he has a wrestler
brother, and even a sister who competed as a pro! Obviously, pro wrestling is in Dean
Malenko’s blood. After becoming a star in Japan, Germany, and in independent
federations, Dean has beaten the odds by becoming a member of the pro elite from the
moment he entered WCW. The frightening part is, like Benoit, he hasn’t seemed to hit
his career stride yet!
After a final spell in WCW that wasn’t really noteworthy besides his fuck-up against
Kidman (a ‘Catch-As-Catch-Can’ match, where the loser was the man to touch the
floor – Malenko forgot, and slid outside the ring) Malenko, like Benoit, Guerrero and
Saturn, jumped to the WWE in January 2000. While he was the first one of the
‘Radicals’ to gain WWE gold (the then-Light Heavyweight Title), Malenko did not
share the success that Benoit and Guerrero had in their tentative WWE months. One of
Malenko’s major problems, was that despite his phenomenal in-ring talents (seriously,
Malenko was one of the best technical wrestlers I’ve seen in WWE), he was rather
boring outside the ring. Rather than ignore this, however, the WWE decided to try to give
him a gimmick – that of a James Bond-esque ‘ladies man’.
While the gimmick didn’t really get Malenko over too well, there’s no denying it
was entertaining. Malenko really dived into the part, and although the character never
seemed to fit him, he gave it his best shot. I wouldn’t ever call Malenko
charismatic, but he was certainly one of the bright spots on WWE TV in late 2000 –
especially in his angle with Lita, in which he took her on a date, desperate to get her
into bed (where, judging from the scene, he wears his socks!), and was finally beaten up
by the Hardy Boyz. Sadly, as quickly as the angle began, so it ended, and in mid-2001,
after a short-lived team with Perry Saturn expired, Malenko disappeared from WWE
televison. Malenko is now a road agent with the WWE. So, do I think he was misused? Not
exactly. The WWE’s world is one where characters and charisma talk louder than
ringwork, and sadly, Malenko, despite his efforts, was never the most charismatic guy. He
had some great matches (especially with Scott Taylor at Backlash 2000), and the ladies man
gimmick was entertaining. He did well, considering in the WWE, he was like a fish out of
water.
WRATH
He sometimes is overlooked, but Wrath is nonetheless one of WCW’s brightest new
stars. He long ago shed his odd image to become a truly feared and amazingly admired
competitor. In addition, it’s already not hard to picture Wrath and Goldberg standing
nose-to-nose, both comparing favourably with each other in size, strength, and experience.
Wrath surely has the size and power to take on everyone from the Lugers and Nashes to the
smaller cruiserweights, and account for himself well against all. He’s streaky –
he went undefeated in 1998 for more than five months – but as soon as he gains the
confidence and consistency, WCW promoters will have no choice but to award Wrath main
events and top matches….just as they did with another young, burgeoning superstar by
the name of Goldberg.
I’d say Wrath was one of the biggest ever droppings of the ball by WCW. The
comparisons in the magazine to Goldberg would’ve been apt, except the magazine was
published in 1999, a year after Wrath was ruined by Kevin Nash. You all know I like Nash
– but he can never be forgiven for killing Wrath’s heat in late 1998. Wrath was
incredibly over – almost like a second Goldberg – and had WCW considered a
Wrath/Goldberg main event at that point, it probably would’ve gone over hugely.
However, unlike Goldberg, who went over top guys, when Kevin Nash faced Wrath, he defeated
him quickly and with little effort. Bryan Clark’s Wrath character never really
recovered, and he floated around for a while before joining Brian Adams in
‘KroniK’.
After WCW went under, KroniK surfaced in the WWE in September 2001, to feud with their
real life good friends Undertaker and Kane. The feud did not go down well at all, as their
match at Unforgiven 2001 was one of the worst matches in memory, and they were released
soon after. Unlike Brian Adams though, Bryan Clark is/was actually a good worker when
motivated – especially for his size – and he has a phenomenal look. You may
count this down to my ‘hoss-love’, but I think if the ball had not been dropped
along the way so many times, Clark could’ve been one of the huge stars of the
90’s. Sadly, he never lived up to his potential – or the potential suggested in
this magazine. I don’t know what Clark’s doing now, but if I were NWA-TNA,
I’d strongly suggest picking him up – without the excess baggage of Brian Adams
weighing him down.
BOOKER T
Booker T has more than enough talent, charisma, and power to become the World
Heavyweight Champion. Will he ever get his opportunity? Right now, he seems to be in a
love/hate relationship with his equally talented brother, nWo Black & White leader
Stevie Ray. These men need to go have a cup of coffee and either talk out their
differences or make sure they truly are enemies, because at this writing, Booker T
doesn’t really know what to do when he sees Stevie walking in his direction. Despite
this controversy, it’s high time that Booker T begins his push towards the World
title. There are few WCW superstars with his skills, and amazingly enough, he continues to
improve with each appearance. The next five years are his for the taking.
To begin with….the above paragraph is incredibly full of shit when it comes to Stevie
Ray, as he doesn’t have anywhere near the talent that Booker does – although WWE
ought to pick him up as an announcer. However, WCW did recognize Booker’s talent
– albeit a little to late, when they put the WCW Title on him in 2000. Booker was
consistently pushed as WCW’s top face, right until the company went under. The WCW
champion at the time of the end, Booker came into the WWE during the InVasion pushed as
WCW’s biggest star. However, although he got over well as a heel during his feud with
The Rock, he was pushed as being inferior to the WWE stars, such as Undertaker, Austin,
Angle and Kane. When the InVasion ended, Booker was brought back onto WWE TV by Vince
McMahon, and again enjoyed a moderate run as a heel. It was clear that he was hugely over
by this point though – the ‘spinaroonie’, his ‘Sucka!’
catchphrase, and his general look, with the crazy dreadlocks were really catching on with
the crowd.
Booker was then turned face in mid 2002, and although, along with Rob Van Dam, he was the
most over face on RAW, for some reason he wasn’t pushed as such, ending up in the
shoddy tag divison with Goldust. Finally, Booker was pushed as a contender to HHH’s
World Title, earlier this year going into Wrestlemania. The feud was built around
HHH’s sublime racism, where he said things like “your kind of people” in
reference to Booker’s black heritage, and the way the feud went, Booker really
should’ve gone over and become the World Heavyweight Champion. Of course, HHH beat
him in the match, and since then, Booker has been relegated back to the mid card. So
– why has a hugely over face, especially one with as much potential to draw as
Booker, been misused in the mid card for most of his WWE career? My opinion on this is
simple – he’s been misused because he is ‘WCW’ through and
through….but more on this in the final conclusion.
PERRY SATURN
Much like Raven, Kidman and Mysterio, Perry Saturn represents sort of a new wave in
WCW, a competitor who merges the best of an old-time brawling style with new maneuvers
that are truly outstanding. Following his wars with men such as Chris Jericho, Raven, and
Ernest Miller, Saturn, despite his outlandish appearance, has slowly and surely, week by
week, watched his star rise higher and higher. He, like the others, could be a World Title
contender if he so chooses, either as a tag team member or a solo star. There are truly
few flaws in his ring style, but he’d be well advised to stay out of
career-threatening feuds if he wants to stay healthy enough to be in the top 10 in the
coming years.
Saturn, the fourth ‘Radical’ to jump to the WWE in January 2000, was the one who
was met with the least success. After the group’s initial run, he struggled to find a
break as a singles star while Guerrero, Benoit, and even Malenko ended up with gold, and
good angles to boot. Saturn hooked up with Terri in mid 2000, and while this added some
heat to his character, he was still never really over. Following this, in 2001, Saturn was
involved in one of the worst angles seen in the WWE in living memory. During a routine WWE
Metal match with a jobber named Mike Bell, Saturn snapped after the jobber botched an easy
hip toss. He beat the hell out of Bell in one of the most stiff, vicious displays seen in
the ring, and finished him with the Rings Of Saturn submission hold. While Saturn’s
behaviour WAS bad, the WWE could’ve capitalized on this by pushing him as a legit
badass – which, as a former Army Ranger, he was.
Instead, Saturn was punished by taking a stiff powerbomb from the APA. Rather than just
have him go back to his JTTS ways though, this signalled the beginning of a new angle for
Saturn. The powerbomb supposedly triggered mental problems, which ended up in an angle
where Saturn chose a mop (known as ‘Moppy’) over Terri. While the angle was
funny, it was truly a travesty to have someone as talented as Saturn in such an angle.
Granted, Saturn never got over in his WWE tenure, but that was mainly down to his
treatment in the company. With a dope look, and a reputation as a legitimate badass, with
the right push, Saturn could’ve been huge. As it was, the lasting memory of
Saturn’s WWE career will be him running around the ring holding a mop. A true waste.
FINAL CONCLUSION
Of the 14 men listed in ‘Goldberg’s Generation’ as can’t-miss
prospects for the future, only Chris Benoit, Rey Mysterio, Booker T and Eddie Guerrero
have gotten anywhere near the potential they were touted with in this article. Even the
success of those four has been limited by poor booking in the WWE. Men like Kidman, Scott
Steiner, Goldberg himself, and Raven, men who could’ve been huge stars if used right,
have been misused by both companies until this day, while equally talented stars such as
Konnan and Wrath have simply fell off the wrestling map. The question is, why? Why have
none of the men really become the stars they should’ve been? Is ‘Goldberg’s
Generation’ cursed?
I think the first thing that must be taken into account is the ineptitude of WCW’s
booking team in the late 90’s. These 14 men alone could’ve provided an extremely
entertaining roster, and coupled with talented veterans such as Bret ‘Hitman’
Hart, Diamond Dallas Page, Ric Flair and Sting, WCW had the potential to put up a strong
challenge to the WWE, much, much stronger than they actually did. However, for as much as
the company touted ‘Goldberg’s Generation’ in this magazine, it was clear
that they were way behind in the pecking order, behind has-beens such as Hulk Hogan, Roddy
Piper, Kevin Nash and Lex Luger, and even never-beens like Meng, Scott Norton, and Bryan
Knobs. Not one of the group, even Goldberg himself, received a push that their talent
deserved, and by the time WCW woke up and did push two of their younger stars – Scott
Steiner and Booker T – it was too late. Raven, Malenko, Benoit, Saturn and Guerrero
had jumped to the WWE, while the others had been so badly buried by that point that they
meant nothing.
However, we’ve all heard the story of WCW’s poor treatment of their young stars.
The question that really remains is why have they not lived up to their potential after
the death of WCW? The answer to that question lies with Vince McMahon, chairman of the
WWE. 12 of the 14 wrestlers have been, or are on the WWE roster, and not one of them has
really been used properly. Disco Inferno, one of the two who hasn’t been part of the
WWE, has arguably had the most success of all of them. So what is the WWE’s problem
with these ex-WCW stars? The key word, for me, is ‘Ex-WCW’. Vince McMahon’s
hatred of WCW is long documented, and so is his obsession with pushing something he has
created over something that is better, but has been created by another company. It’s
the reason we see World Champion Brock Lesnar today, instead of World Champion Rob Van
Dam. The reason for the misuse of ‘Goldberg’s Generation’ by Vince McMahon
can be summed up by saying that Vince is determined to prove that he, and he alone creates
the best wrestlers, and if this means wasting the talent that WCW created, then so be it.
However, I believe it goes even deeper than that. While WCW and WWE fought for years for
the right to call themselves the dominant wrestling company in the world, to compare them
would be like comparing chalk and cheese. WCW was much more a wrestling-orientated
company, where foreign cruiserweights could get over by putting on a phenomenal match, and
not speaking a word, whereas WWE has always been more character-driven. While the lines
were blurred when Hulk Hogan and other WWE stars jumped to the WCW in the mid 90’s,
the difference between the companies was blatantly clear, and was shown up perfectly in
the case of Bret Hart. Bret, a huge star in the WWE, winning five World Titles, was
totally misused by WCW, never pushed as a marquee star, and floated around the mid card
for most of his tenure. Maybe that was the case with ‘Goldberg’s
Generation’ in the WWE – that the WWE didn’t, and still don’t know how
to use WCW’s marquee talent. Whatever the reason, I find it a truly sad state of
affairs that such a talented group of wrestlers have been so wasted, in some cases by two
different companies. In reality, if they’d have used these stars as they
should’ve been used, WCW may still be alive and well today, competing with the WWE
for the title of the world’s #1 wrestling company. Sadly, for many factors, it was
not meant to be.
Scott Newman:
scott.newman@ntlworld.com
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