Eric Bischoff Refutes Claims That Goldberg Was A Rip Off Of Steve Austin

On the latest episode of his 83 Weeks podcast, Eric Bischoff discussed the belief that Bill Goldberg modeled himself on Steve Austin during the hight of The Attitude Era. Bischoff denied claims from Bruce Prichard that Goldberg was a rip off of Austin. Check out the highlights below, courtesy of 411Mania.com.

Physical similarities between the two:

“You know, I mean I can understand why fans and Bruce [Prichard] would feel that way. And you know, some of that is very obvious, but I can also say Bill Goldberg looked the way Bill Goldberg looked the first day I talked to him before he even joined WCW. Now, maybe Bill Goldberg had a Steve Austin fetish, and you know, was trying to shape and frame himself to walk around Atlanta looking like Bill Goldberg [likely meant to say Steve Austin]. But every image I’ve ever seen of Bill Goldberg, even when he was playing in the NFL, he kind of looked the same way. So I think a lot of that is inherent, just coincidental I should say.”

On the rest of Goldberg’s look being very similar to Austin:

 “Now the black boots and the black tights, that’s also kind of an obvious thing. And I’m not gonna deny that they’re very, very similar if not identical. But from my perspective at least, nobody sat around a room and said ‘Okay, how can we make Bill Goldberg, who already looks like Steve Austin’ — you know, that was God’s work, not mine — ‘how could we make him look even more like Steve Austin?’ That didn’t happen. Bill showed up wearing black boots and black tights. I mean, that’s how he walked through the curtain the first time, on his own in a dark match. It wasn’t by design. Nobody sat in a room and created that look for him.”