The Undertaker vs. Goldberg was a dream match for many fans, but when the two pro wrestling icons squared off at Super ShowDown in 2019, it was more like a nightmare for the competitors.
Considered one of the worst wrestling matches of all-time by many fans, Goldberg concussed himself early on and very nearly broke The Undertaker's neck when he was unable to successfully perform the Jackhammer. The Undertaker was visibly annoyed during the bout, and quickly wrapped things up with a Chokeslam for the 1-2-3. Clearly, he wasn't impressed by the WCW Legend.
Now, former WWE referee Mike Chioda has revealed that the match was nearly called off!
"I almost had to call an audible during the Undertaker/Goldberg match at Saudi Arabia," he revealed in an interview with Metro. "It went downhill after Goldberg got gashed open in the turnbuckle, got concussed. He was badly concussed and he got through the match, but barely. That's when I was kinda worried because I thought, 'Oh my God!' After the suplex, they almost broke their necks. 'Oh my God, let's get this done,' he was so concussed. I was waiting to hear back from somebody to say, 'Should I call this match or not because he's not doing good at all?"
"They just let them go. When you were an old school wrestler, you didn't care if you were bleeding – you got through the match, whatever it took, you got through it," Chioda continued. "You wouldn't see too many guys just saying, 'Oh I can't wrestle no more,' or 'I broke my finger,' or 'I tore my knee out.' They still get through the match. These days are a little bit different because we take concussion protocol a lot more serious - we are taking it much more seriously now, in wrestling. That's it, let it play out. Unless Taker's gonna tell me something. Then I would've done it. That was it."
"Taker tells me something, I'm doing it. I don't care if the office in the back didn't like it or not!" he concluded. "Taker is one of the bosses, that's for sure."
It was have been even more disastrous to end the match early, but the safety of both The Undertaker and Goldberg, it might have actually been for the best. A rematch is never going to happen at this stage, so this dream match...well, it is what it is. We would say it could have been worse, but that would be a lie! Do you think the match should have been called off?