By the spring of 2001, the professional wrestling landscape would forever change with the closure of one of the sport’s largest promotions, World Championship Wrestling. With options limited in the United States, former WCW talent would be left to either ride out the remainder of their contract, wrestle on the independants, or be swallowed up by the WWF as supplemental talent. For Bill Goldberg, there was really only one place in pro wrestling he had yet to conquer… “Da Man” had his sights on Japan.
With the closure of WCW in March of 2001, Goldberg’s wrestling career hit a roadblock. He still had plenty of time left on his contract with WCW (now held by AOL Time Warner) and the agreement positioned him as one of the highest-paid wrestlers that would no longer be featured on a weekly television show. With a substantial financial payout clause intact, the WWF was not prepared to buy Goldberg’s multimillion dollar contract out at the time. So, with nothing but time and money on his hands, Goldberg rested up, repaired a nagging shoulder injury, and prepped for the next phase of his career.
By May of 2002, enough time had elapsed and money had been paid up in the eyes of AOL Time Warner, so a buyout agreement was reached. With the old Turner well finally and officially running dry, it was up to Goldberg where he’d end up next.
“I like the fact that it was a totally different place, you go where nobody knows you, and you try to make a name for yourself.” – Goldberg on Nothing Left Unsaid, March 2024
By the late summer of that same year, Goldberg would find himself in talks to appear for All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW), a Japanese puroresu company that was then headed by a familiar face to Goldberg. Keiji Mutoh was poised to become AJPW President officially in September of 2002 following his defection from New Japan Pro Wrestling in August. One of his first presidential acts of business? Get Goldberg to Japan… and by the end of August, “Da Man” had arrived.
It would come to be announced that on August 30th, 2002, Bill Goldberg would make his Japanese debut against the well-established, fan-favorite, Satoshi Kojima, for Mutoh’s All Japan Pro Wrestling. The pay-per-view event to home this featured match, AJPW Royal Road 30 Giant Battle in Budokan, 2nd Battle, would be held inside Tokyo’s world-famous Nippon Budokan in front of nearly 15,000 fans.
So, the stage was set and the competition would be fierce, two things Goldberg was most excited about. Discovering the ‘Strong Style’ of puroresu was something that had reportedly entice Goldberg during his days in WCW. The impactful, hard-hitting, fiercely competitive nature of Japanese puro was something Goldberg naturally gravitated toward. So, competing in Japan and succeeding there, like so many great foreigners before him, had been planted in the back of Goldberg’s mind for a few years prior.
Considering this being his Japanese debut and return to pro wrestling in general (after being away for over a year), Goldberg had to make a statement… and he would do just that.
In around four minutes, Bill Goldberg would defeat one of Japan’s greatest stars. Incorporating his deep respect for MMA, Goldberg would switch up his iconic moveset in Japan slightly. For a few examples here, Goldberg busted out a lighting-fast, roll-through knee bar and finished the bout with a snappy, modified twisting neckbreaker.
If Bill Goldberg had anything to prove here, he definitely proved it.
With his new-found rhythm, Goldberg would march into the following night’s pay-per-view, AJPW Royal Road 30 Giant Battle in Budokan, 3rd Battle, set out to repeat the same results. Though, this time, it would be in the main event of the show and he’d be up against Taiyo Kei. Kei was a star for AJPW and had main-evented in a twenty-minute match against Mutoh the night before. With an upset defeat against Kojima, the deck was shaping up to be a little more stacked against Goldberg for his second match in Japan.
For a victory even more surprising than his first the night before, Goldberg was able to put Kei away quicker than Kojima! Yet again, he made use of his roll-though knee bar, but this time, the finish came via a leg capture into a one-handed, lifting slam. The crowd lost their minds here and Goldberg ate it up as Kei was helped to ringside by a few AJPW young boys.
Following the match, Goldberg was welcomed backstage by former WCW Cruiserweight competitor, Último Dragón, who had also been helping Goldberg get back into ring shape at this time. Alongside Dragón, in a quick post-match interview, Goldberg was asked why he didn’t use the Jackhammer for the second time tonight, to which Goldberg simply replied, “I didn’t need it, did I? Good things come to those who wait.” Goldberg then put Dragón over strong here as a long-time friend, saying how important he had been to Goldberg’s comeback. In closing, Goldberg stated clearly, “I’m not here to be in the ring long. I do my job and leave. No wasted movement.”
In regard to who was next, “Whoever wants to be. Whoever gets in my way is next. Wait until I come back… you haven’t seen anything yet.” Goldberg went on to mention how that when he finishes healing up a few injuries, he is returning to Japan and bringing ‘the real Goldberg’ back with him.
Three months later, in November of 2002, Goldberg would be back and much healthier looking than Japan had seen him in August. He had returned just in time for an interpromotional event hosted by AJPW, K-1 (a professional kickboxing organization), and Dream Stage Entertainment (parent company of PRIDE Fighting Championships) in Yokohama arena for over 12,000 fans. This crossover pay-per-view, titled WRESTLE-1, provided an interesting mix of kickboxers, pro wrestlers, and MMA fighters up and down the card. Set up for the semi-main event, was Goldberg’s return bout, where he’d be squaring off against friend and former WCW star, Rick Steiner.
On November, 17th, 2002 “Da Man” was back and seemingly at one-hundred percent physically, looking to further establish his name in the Land of the Rising Sun.
In a slightly less impressive match that still only lasted a handful of minutes, Goldberg and Rick Steiner had a much more ‘Americanized’ brawl here. With Steiner, who was in the twilight of his in-ring career, Goldberg probably wasn’t able to show off as much as he maybe would’ve liked to moveset-wise… but his Spear and Jackhammer had finally crossed the Pacific! The fans in attendance reacted hugely to both classic moves, as Goldberg picked up a third straight win Japan.
After the success of the first installment, the second AJPW / K-1 / DSE crossover pay-per-view, 2ND WRESTLE-1, came around rather quickly. Here, on January 19th, 2003, Bill Goldberg would finally get his chance to wrestling inside the Tokyo Dome in front of over 45,000 fans, as part of this show’s semi-main event. In his highest-profile AJPW match to date, Goldberg would tag up with the man that brought him to Japan, Keiji Mutoh, to take on the team of Brian Adams and Bryan Clark (the duo formerly known as KroniK in WCW).
A big dance for Goldberg in Japan had finally come… Tokyo Dome: YOU’RE NEXT!
After a Spear through a table in the corner to Brian Adams, Bryan Clark fell victim to Goldberg’s Jackhammer moments later to close out this tag match. Mutoh did a lot of the dirty work in this one, allowing Goldberg to come in and be his cleanup. Nonetheless, it was obvious to me at this point that in conjunction with AJPW, Dream Stage Entertainment (DSE) was pushing to shift Goldberg into a major, special attraction star in Japan.
Then, the WWF-turned-WWE came calling.
Partly due to Goldberg’s reignited buzz in Japan and partly due to him being well in the clear from old WCW / Turner / Time Warner contract baggage, the WWE now had a vested interest in signing Goldberg. Debuting to great fanfare the night after Wrestlemania XIX, he’d face-off with The Rock on television, kicking off his year-long run with the WWE.
However, this wouldn’t end Goldberg’s story in Japan.
In a rare arrangement upon signing with WWE, “Da Man” was able to make any final, contracted appearances in Japan while employed stateside by the WWE. This was relatively unheard of at the time for WWE. That said, overseas, Goldberg only worked exclusively for DSE, making non-wrestling appearances for both PRIDE Fighting Championships and HUSTLE. That was, until Goldberg was challenged by MMA athlete, Naoya Ogawa.
Just weeks after losing the WWE World Heavyweight Championship at WWE Armageddon in December of 2003, Goldberg would be cleared to wrestle for HUSTLE on January 4th, 2004, inside the Saitama Super Arena in Saitama, Japan. With an attendance of over 12,000 strong, Goldberg would be slated to meet Ogawa in the main event of the HUSTLE-1 pay-per-view.
With a year in between Japanese appearances and such a congested current schedule, could Goldberg prove he still had what it takes to make it big in Japan? This would be the test.
In perhaps Goldberg’s most competitive match in Japan to date, he was able to squeeze out a win against Ogawa with a Spear and Jackhammer on this night, regardless of the air of interference on the outside by Giant Silva. The match still saw plenty of holds and technical wrestling, things very much unseen by WWE fans from Goldberg at this time on the other side of the Pacific.
Goldberg would go on to leave the WWE in April of 2004, further clearing his schedule for more potential dates with Dream Stage Entertainment’s HUSTLE promotion. In fact, by the time the HUSTLE-3 pay-per-view was being finalized that same month, Goldberg was the frontrunner to challenge Toshiaki Kawada for the AJPW Triple Crown Heavyweight Championship.
“I was a huge fan of martial arts and I worked for a company who owned PRIDE Fighting Championships and so they did a little cross-promotion. It was, I can honestly say, the best time in my wrestling career… being over in Japan.” – Goldberg on Nothing Left Unsaid, March 2024
A severe infection in Bill Goldberg’s hand would keep him from making it to the show and the match between he and Kawada would never come to fruition. Instead, DSE swapped in Mick Foley to face Kawada for the match on May 8th, 2004.
Following his loss to Brock Lesnar at Wrestlemania XX and his HUSTLE-3 date falling through, Goldberg would quietly retire from professional wrestling for over a decade. His match against Ogawa at the start of 2004 would mark his very last match in Japan.
In a run that would easily fly under the radar of most casual fans, puroresu fans (and hardcore Goldberg fans) were sneakily treated to some of the most interesting, creative, and unique in-ring work presented by Goldberg in his whole career. It seems to be a time he looks back fondly on and one can’t help but to think what may have come next for him in Japan. Could he have gone on to be a Triple Crown winner? Would he have returned to All Japan Pro Wrestling while it was still run by Mutoh, or stuck around with HUSTLE until it got weird? I guess we’ll never know…
In my opinion, Goldberg’s work in Japan is more than worth a look, or a second look. He isn’t often credited enough for what he was able to accomplish in pro wrestling and I’d say the lack of discussion about his work for AJPW and DSE in the early 2000’s are just further proof of that. The time Bill Goldberg spent in Japan from 2002 to 2004 helped effectively restart his career, all the while simultaneously placing him right back on top of the pile as a white-hot pro wrestling talent in the United States.
His run in Japan proved to the rest of the wrestling world what Goldberg probably already knew… though the wrestling landscape looked a little different, nothing had changed since WCW’s closure for him. He was still going to show up, mow somebody down, and get paid well to do it.
Whether it is stateside, overseas, or somewhere in between, they didn’t call him “Da Man” for nothing!