This anniversary slipped up on me. Honestly I could not tell you what month this match even happened. What I can tell you is how incredibly electric the Georgia Dome was that night.
To this day across all the events I’ve attended such as the Iron Bowl (Alabama vs Auburn in college football), and even WrestleManias (27 in ATL and 33 in ORL) I have never been in an environment as unhinged as this one when Goldberg put WCW Champion Hollywood Hogan down for the 1, 2, 3.
Funniest thing is that I was a pretty “smarky smark” fan as I like to say so I didn’t really love Goldberg. I thought guys like Raven, and Saturn among others needed bigger pushes. Because of that I was not really all that fired up about Goldberg and his Streak.
On the flip side, I hated Hollywood Hogan. I mean in storyline I was a tradition first fan so I was firmly Team WCW. Beyond that I was just absolutely sick of Hogan being in WCW and being on my television.
Hogan was my original “Triple H’s reign of terror” is what I’m saying.
I saw Goldberg winning the WCW Title as the better outcome because I could not fathom watching Hogan retaining. While I was firmly in Goldberg’s camp that night I was shocked how excited I was when he Jackhammered Hogan to win the belt.
Part of it was just being caught up in the wave of positive energy with 40,000 Goldberg fans, but when he hit that Jackhammer I turned to my buddy and we did a double high-five.
To recap, “smarky smark” me went from being sour about Goldberg getting this push to completely losing my composure and high-fiving a pal when he captured the top title in the promotion. It was legitimately a magical moment, and one I will never forget.
Even watching clips of it now it’s hard not to get excited/emotional about it because of how palpable the electricity was in that building that night.
When pro-wrestling is done right there’s nothing like it. When WCW got it right there was nothing like it. On July 6, 1998 both of those things happened, and I’m glad I was there to witness it.
40+ years old and grew up on Saturdays at 6:05 on TBS and Joe Pedicino’s wrestling block in Atlanta, Georgia. Collects toys and talks all types of pop culture in a variety of places. Husband and father of 2.