Goldberg was a "2000 Futuristic SUV" monster truck owned by PACE Motorsports and Team Meents, and primarily driven by Tom Meents from 2000-2001. The truck was named after professional wrestler Bill Goldberg as part of Monster Jam's cross-promotion with World Championship Wrestling (WCW) with the truck's design being inspired by Tom Meents' Bulldozer truck. In 2002, the truck was rebranded to Team Meents, before becoming Maximum Destruction in 2003.
History[]
1999[]
The truck is originally meant to debut near the start of the season, but is not completed, resulting in the debut being postponed, with Tom Meents continuing to drive Bulldozer.
2000[]
Goldberg makes its debut at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta, Georgia, the home of Bill Goldberg and World Championship Wrestling, on January 8th. Bill Goldberg himself makes a special appearance to announce the debut of the truck. Tom Meents campaigns Goldberg on Goldberg 1 during its first show.
Tom and Goldberg dominate the entire season, winning almost every event and consistently sporting the checkered flag. Tom caps off his incredible season by winning the racing championship at the very first Monster Jam World Finals, by defeating Scott Hartsock in Gunslinger. Tony Farrell drives the truck on the Sting chassis in Salinas.
In late 2000, Tom debuts a second Goldberg truck on a new chassis, which was also known as Max-D 1, which he would keep as his main truck for ten years, all the way up to 2010.
2001[]
Tom drives Goldberg on the new chassis as the main truck for the stadium shows, while Eldon DePew and Steve Reynolds both campaign the original Goldberg truck for non-televised and smaller events throughout the season.
During said season, both Goldberg trucks would experiment with different suspension setups, with both briefly running rear swaybars and Eldon's truck even running nitrogen shocks in the rear for a time, these setups were short-lived, however. Once again, Goldberg wins most of the events during the season.
At World Finals II, Goldberg runs a special gold flake paintjob and Tom doubles down by winning both the racing and freestyle championships for 2001.
In Hagerstown, Charlie Pauken temporarily drives Goldberg for the Friday freestyle competition, due to Tom suffering from a shortage of breath after getting the wind knocked out of him during racing. Tom was able to recover and returned the next day.
Despite being a truck sponsored by World Championship Wrestling, the truck continued to compete after the company is bought out by its competitor, World Wrestling Entertainment, this is due to Bill Goldberg's wrestling contract being separate from WCW, hence the name continuing to run.
In September, Tony Farrell drove the truck at a Special Events event in Canfield, Ohio.
The truck competes in its final show in Moline, Illinois (also styled as Quad Cities) driven by DePew.
Afterwards Bill ends his sponsorship with Monster Jam and moves to Wildfire Motorsports, debuting a new Goldberg truck under his name. The original Goldberg is retired, but Tom keeps the body style and paintjob, switching the name of the truck to Team Meents, which bore similarities to Goldberg, but features Tom's face and likeness instead of Goldberg's. The truck was replaced by Maximum Destruction in 2003.
(Known) events competed in[]
| 2000 | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Date | Event | Driver | Notes |
| January 8th | Atlanta, GA | Tom Meents | Event and TV debut Won racing |
| January 15-16th | San Antonio, TX | Won: Racing, show 1 Freestyle, show 1 | |
| January 22nd | Indianapolis, IN | Won Racing and Freestyle | |
| January 29th | New Orleans, LA | Won Freestyle | |
| February 5th | Anaheim, CA | Won Racing and Freestyle | |
| February 11-12th | Oklahoma City, OK | Won Freestyle, both shows | |
| February 18-19th | Peoria, IL | Won:
| |
| February 26th | Orlando, FL | ||
| March 4th | Jacksonville, FL | Won Racing | |
| March 11th | Pontiac, MI | Won Racing and Freestyle | |
| March 25th | Las Vegas, NV (World Finals I) | Won Racing Championship | |
| April 14-16th | Fresno, CA | Won:
| |
| April 28-30th | Santa Rosa, CA | Won:
| |
| May 21st | Salinas, CA | Sky Hartley | |
| July 20-21st | Hagerstown, MD | Tom Meents | Won Racing, show 2 |
| August ?? | Louisville, KY | Won:
| |
| September 1-3rd | Sunrise, FL | Won:
| |
| November 4th | Houston, TX | Won Freestyle | |
| November 25th | Minneapolis, MN | Won Racing and Freestyle | |
| December 30th | St. Louis, MO | Won Racing and Freestyle | |
| 2001 | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Date | Event | Driver | Notes |
| January 5-6th | Lafayette, LA | Eldon DePew | |
| January 6th | Houston, TX | Tom Meents | |
| January 13th | Atlanta, GA | Won Racing and Freestyle | |
| Phoenix, AZ | Eldon DePew | Won Racing | |
| January 20th | Indianapolis, IN | Tom Meents | Won Racing and Freestyle |
| Houston, TX | Eldon DePew | Won Racing | |
| January 27th | New Orleans, LA | Tom Meents | Won Racing and Freestyle |
| Orlando, FL | Eldon DePew | Won Racing and Freestyle | |
| February 3rd | Houston, TX | Tom Meents | |
| February 9-11th | Hartford, CT | Won:
| |
| Philadelphia, PA | Eldon DePew | ||
| February 16-18th | Rosemont, IL | Tom Meents | Won:
|
| Uniondale, NY | Steve Reynolds | ||
| February 24th | Minneapolis, MN | Tom Meents | |
| March 3rd | Jacksonville, FL | Won Racing | |
| March 9-10th | Calgary, AB | Steve Reynolds | Won Racing, show 2 |
| March 10th | Pontiac, MI | Tom Meents | Won Racing and Freestyle |
| March 16-17th | Reno, NV | Steve Reynolds | Won Racing, show 1 |
| March 24th | Las Vegas, NV (World Finals II) | Tom Meents | Won Racing and Freestyle Championships |
| April 27-29th | Santa Rosa, CA | Won:
| |
| May 4th | Roseburg, OR | Competed on Friday only due to engine issues
Won Racing, show 1 | |
| May 17-19th | Englishtown, NJ | ||
| May 20th | Salinas, CA | ||
| June 2-4th | Syracuse, NY | ||
| June 15-17th | Pueblo, CO | ||
| June 23-24th | Springfield, IL | ||
| July ?? | Franklin, PA | Steve Reynolds | |
| July 13-15th | Bloomsburg, PA | Tom Meents | |
| July 16-18th | West Lebanon, NY | ||
| July 20-21st | Hagerstown, MD | Tom Meents/Charlie Pauken | Charlie Pauken filled in for Meents in freestyle on Friday. |
| August 4-6th | Stafford Springs, CT | Tom Meents | |
| August 18th | Concord, NC | Won Freestyle | |
| September 14-15th | Canfield, OH | Tony Farrell | |
| September 21-22nd | Moline, IL | Eldon DePew | Won:
|
World Finals appearances[]
| Year | Driver | Results | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2000 | Tom Meents | Qualifying: N/A | Racing: Final round win by defeating Gunslinger | Freestyle: 4th (37) |
| 2001 | Qualifying: 2nd (16.23) | Racing: Final round win by defeating Blue Thunder | Freestyle: 1st (38) | |
Video game appearances[]
Trivia[]
- Goldberg was one of the original four die-cast Monster Jam trucks from Hot Wheels, and the body of the real truck was based on the original concept art for the toy.
- The Sting chassis was used in place of the normal chassis for one show in Salinas.
- A display version of the truck was featured at some events as well, being on both Sting and Iron Eagle.
- The display chassis was previously Iron Eagle. Compared to PACE and Team Meents co-owning the main chassis, the display chassis was owned by Dennis Anderson as he had bought it in the late 1990's.
- The die casts were infamous for having defective plastic around the axles, which caused wheels to break off very easily, so finding one in mint condition, even in the package is very difficult.
- The truck was originally meant to debut in 1999, but it was delayed until 2000.
- The truck's base is exclusively made out of the tribal design that makes up the Goldberg logo.
- Despite the truck being retired in 2001, Tom Meents appeared to have kept at least one of Goldberg's wheels. This is evident in Tampa 2006, where Hot Wheels sported a wheel with a slightly faded, but noticeable gold hub, meaning this originally was one of Goldberg's wheels.
- The truck would make occasional appearances on WCW programming.
- In 2015, fourteen years after the truck's last appearance, a golden livery Maximum Destruction, driven by Morgan Kane, competes at Monster Jam World Finals XVI as a throwback to Goldberg, as well as Team Meents.
Gallery[]
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