Why Goldberg Never Impressed Ted DiBiase

In his prime, Bill Goldberg brought the intensity like no other, elicited crowd reactions like very few, and — at one point — joined the echelon of Steve Austin and Hulk Hogan as the biggest box-office draw in the business. Despite his undeniable impact on the industry, a lot of his peers have continued to discredit Goldberg — citing his in-ring work rate and refusal to wrestle at house shows, among other reasons. Among those who closely observed his meteoric rise in WCW, Ted Dibiase believes Goldberg was a beneficiary of the wrestling boom of the late '90s, and did not have the ability to warrant his massive push. 

"I can't blame Goldberg for anything," Dibiase said on "Everybody's Got A Pod." "It was like, he was at the right place, at the right time, and it was a great opportunity — but you're talking about a guy that they pushed, from the get-go, that had no earthly knowledge about what the hell he was doing. I mean, he was such a novice in terms of being a wrestler. It wasn't his fault. He was the right guy, with the right look, at the right place — That's how I look at that whole thing." Dibiase implied that he's always had pleasant conversations with Goldberg, referring to his fellow WWE Hall of Famer as "a great guy." That said, Dibiase refuses to put the former WCW Champion on the shortlist of the greatest "performers" in pro wrestling history.  

"I have never considered him, like — I won't put him in the top 5 maybe not even the top 10, of like, performers," Dibiase said. "He came out of football, and that was his way in, and there's nothing wrong with that, either. I was just never impressed with his wrestling ability."