To the shock of the wrestling world, Bill Goldberg defeated The Fiend at Super Showdown to become the WWE Universal champion. No rematch is in the cards, as both Goldberg and The Fiend had their WrestleMania matches set up immediately on the following episode of Smackdown, with Goldberg squaring off against Roman Reigns and The Fiend setting his sights on John Cena.
Goldberg's stunning Universal championship win at the age of 53 is shocking enough, but he also pulled off an unprecedented accomplishment. Although the overall total time Bill Goldberg spent as a full-time wrestler is less than five years, he's now the first wrestler to win a major championship in four different decades.
Of all the wrestlers in history, Goldberg seemed the least likely to achieve this incredibly difficult feat. During his WCW run, he received criticism for being a green, inexperienced wrestler who thrived on squash matches and could have a ten-minute match at best.
Goldberg wasn't even in WCW for that long, either. He debuted around the fall of 1997, where he began his incredible winning streak that lasted until Starrcade in 1998. Goldberg had a white-hot following in 1998 as WCW's answer to Stone Cold Steve Austin, which culminated with defeating Hollywood Hogan to win his first WCW World Championship in the Georgia Dome. Goldberg continued throughout 1998 as the undefeated World Champion, the high point being his match against Diamond Dallas Page at Halloween Havoc, regarded as the best match of his career at the time. Of course, Goldberg's streak inevitably got stale and a change had to be made. Unfortunately, that meant getting tazed by Scott Hall and dropping the belt to Kevin Nash at Starrcade. Nash beats Goldberg, loses it to Hogan with The Finger-Poke of Doom, and WCW would be dead two years later.
Despite still being one of the faces of wrestling, Goldberg was never really the same after the end of his streak. He went through typical WCW story-lines that obviously didn't work (including a disastrous Heel turn) and surprisingly never recaptured the WCW championship. His four year run in WCW included a six-month absence in 2000 and recovering from shoulder surgery when the company disbanded.
With WCW disbanded, the opportunity to thrive in a functional wrestling business like WWE made perfect sense. Goldberg joined WWE the night after WrestleMania XIX, spearing The Rock to make his presence known. His lone year with the company was mostly disappointing, but he did score another World Championship reign when he ended Triple H's nine-month reign at Unforgiven. That reign lasted just three months before dropping it back to Triple H. Goldberg would leave the company after his original one year contract expired, exiting the company with a victory over Brock Lesnar at WrestleMania XX.
Few ever really thought Goldberg would come back, but you can never say never in WWE. Goldberg returned in 2016, riding a wave of nostalgia and lauding his 2004 victory over Brock Lesnar. Goldberg and Lesnar's rematch at Survivor Series stunned fans. The entire affair lasted less than two minutes bell-to-bell, with Goldberg decimating the previously unbeatable Brock Lesnar. Goldberg went on to eliminate Lesnar at the 2017 Royal Rumble, and then defeated Kevin Owens to become the WWE Universal Champion at Fastlane. Lesnar would get his win back, though, pinning Goldberg for the Universal Title at WrestleMania.
And now, in 2020, Goldberg has captured a World Championship in a fourth decade by defeating The Fiend for the Universal Championship at Super ShowDown. It's tough to be the main event draw for an extended period. Some wrestlers make it big, but the physical toll leads to early retirement. Others are fully committed and may even come into power within the company. Even with all that, none of the great wrestlers most would think could have pulled off Goldberg's achievement didn't come close.
Ric Flair won his first of 16 Pro Wrestling championships in 1981 and his last in 2000. Hulk Hogan's first title over The Iron Shiek was in 1984 and his last in 2002. Sting was very close to pulling this off but didn't win his first NWA championship until The Great American Bash in 1990. Currently, The Undertaker and Triple H have the best chance of pulling off this feat, both having won World Championships in the '90s, '00s and '10s. Of course, AEW's Chris Jericho is hot on their heels, having won World Championships in the '00s and '10s.
With all that said, Goldberg is and will always be the first to pull off this feat in men's wrestling. Similar records still exist elsewhere, such as Fabulous Moolah holding the WWF Women's Championship for four decades. Even then, it's still surprising that of all the wrestlers to show off such longevity, it's not someone Vince McMahon made but rather WCW's icon, Goldberg.