When Goldberg appeared on stage for the final segment of Raw last night (Jan. 23) he was bleeding from the forehead.
Michael Cole, Corey Graves & Byron Saxton explained it as the result of headbutting the door during the backstage part of his entrance. It’s a staple of his “pre-game” ritual, and the announce team played it off as evidence of his intensity. But by the time he was in the ring with a microphone in his hand, it seemed the 50 year old Superstar may have done more than just bust himself open.
It took Goldberg three takes to get out a standard line about the road to WrestleMania running through the Royal Rumble. After that, he regained the thread and his segment with Paul Heyman, Brock Lesnar and, eventually, the Undertaker went off as planned.
But it was pretty weird for a minute or so, and it makes this sound like a really good decision on Goldberg’s part:
The blood-averse WWE probably doesn’t want to have to be ready to cut to black and white every time Goldberg comes out, and nobody wants to see the guy who’s supposed to be a wrestling superhero show symptoms of a concussion, so, yeah, let’s put the “pre match headbutt on the shelf”.
Now, make “for now” mean “for the rest of your life” and I think we’re good.