The Hollywood Byte #58: Bill Goldberg

Mar 16, 2007

Wrestling fans know Bill Goldberg on a last-name basis. For years, he dominated the ring in World Championship Wrestling (WCW). He also took a stab at Hollywood with the movie Universal Soldier: The Return. These days, Goldberg is working on a new SpikeTV series called "Bullrun," which is like a reality show version of the popular '80s flick Cannonball Run. The new TV series, which airs Tuesdays at 10 p.m., follows 12 teams of two drivers who use their own cars in a cross-country rally.

"It's something different," said Goldberg. "It's an eclectic group of people and their cars. They go on a rally for 4,000 miles. The kick is that they really have no communication and only $2,000 cash for the entire trip. It's a really diverse group of cars and even more diverse group of people. The interaction between the cars and the people is really what drives the show."

Goldberg believes the TV show could spawn its on videogame. He said the concept is perfect for a racing game. He also hopes the show will warrant subsequent seasons. "I think it'd be great to come back and do this show every year," he said. "Hopefully, this thing is a huge success and I can work on changing the setting of the race and come up with more interesting cars and more interesting drivers. There's a lot of potential there."

Goldberg has been a gamer all of his life. He really got into games back when John Madden Football debuted on Sega Genesis and he was playing linebacker for the Atlanta Falcons.

"When I was in the NFL, during training camps, we had a lockdown curfew situation where we couldn't go out," said Goldberg. "One of the ways we kept ourselves sane was beating the hell out of each other on the videogames. It was pretty cool to be able to play your own team. I don't know if I was ever on there, because I was a backup, but it was pretty cool to play guys in the videogame that you were actually playing against. It was pretty fun."

Nowadays, he's not nearly the gamer he used to be because he has a new nine-month-old baby boy to take care of. He said it's hard to find the free time to waste away and play videogames.

"I have an Xbox 360 and I have a big high definition 52-inch flat screen," said Goldberg. "I get away when I can and play Fight Night Round 3, FEAR and some of the racing games, the NASCAR games. It's awesome. One of the coolest things I heard is that NASCAR drivers play the game and get better prepared for a track they've never been on before by playing the videogame. These guys have every edge they can ask for with NASCAR."

One thing he doesn't play is the wrestling videogames, but he never has--even when he was the Heavyweight World Champion. "It was great to see myself in the wrestling videogames," said Goldberg. "I never played them. I tried to shy away from gloating in my glory. I never tried to hunt down magazines I was on the cover of and I never read any stories that I was the focus of. My boy, when he grows up, will get a kick out of those videogames and I'll be playing with him, so I'll probably get a kick out of it. But at the time, I had other things to do."

Although he's still recognized by fans, Goldberg has kept his distance from pro wrestling since he retired. "Wrestling's definitely changed, there's no question about that," he said. "Probably the wrestling videogames are more entertaining than the wrestling itself. Since I got out of it I've stayed as far as way from it as humanly possible. Except for the fans. I probably wouldn't be talking to you today if I never got into a wrestling ring."

Goldberg feels a bit old when he sees people playing games that he grew up on, like Pong and Pac-Man, on cell phones. "I played Pac-Man back in the day," he said. "If they're not talking on their cell phones enough, they're playing videogames on it and watching videos in it. It's a different day. It's amazing to see how far they've come, no question."

Being a gamer, even a part-timer, Goldberg understands the lure of next generation videogames. "It's just a good escape," he said. "Technology's gotten to a point to where it's kind of like you're in the game. It's a great source of entertainment."

Videogames serve as not only an escape from reality, but a good way to get rid of some stress. "It's wild, man," said Goldberg. "You never thought videogames would command so much time from all of the above generations. It's a mindless way of entertaining yourself and not hurting yourself or anybody in the meantime. It's good to be able to go into a videogame and shoot people and not have to suffer the consequences of reality. It's definitely borderline true-life realism on these videogames nowadays."

Goldberg is happy spending time with his wife and child, gaming when he can, and thinking up new ways for "Bullrun" to drive across the country.

The Hollywood Byte makes a weekly visit to the converging world of video games and traditional media.