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When the big takeaway from your WrestleMania equivalent pay-per-view is what went wrong with the main event... hey, that is kind of like the last WrestleMania!
No matter, WWE can’t be thrilled that backstage chaos and the sloppiness & dangerousness of Goldberg vs. Undertaker are the two talking points coming out of Super ShowDown in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia last Friday (June 7). But here we are.
And we’ve heard a lot of criticism of what went down between 54 year old Taker and 52 year old Goldberg, but a couple of legends are here to defend their match. Well, kind of...
Chris Jericho was short and to the point with this tweet comparing the two to aging rockers who can still rock:
Both @undertaker & @Goldberg are once in a lifetime, TOP LEVEL performers and money draws. And even though they might not be at their peak & had an outing that wasnt perfect, they are still better than most. I think @MickJagger & @OzzyOsbourne would agree. #Respect
— Chris Jericho (@IAmJericho) June 11, 2019
So the match wasn’t good, but even a not good Taker/Goldberg match is epic cause it’s Taker/Goldberg. Fair enough. There are a lot of people who’d agree with that.
Ric Flair was a bit more discursive when talking about Super ShowDown on Sirius XM’s Busted Open, and that led to something of a backhanded compliment for Goldberg:
“They opened up hot, I loved it, and I loved the match up until the last minute-and-a-half. And here’s the deal - whatever you want to say about anybody in this business, he is gonna be on Mount Rushmore if there is one.… you can say no wrong about The Undertaker. He is a talent of a lifetime... and Bill Goldberg had arguably the greatest run of anybody for years and has still never had anybody spend more than a half-hour with him learning the fundamentals of the business. And he pulled it off, and I’m sure, you know, that he’s brokenhearted, but ... it’s tough, and it’s not factored around age. When I was doing this stuff, I was still - they had me back in the ring on a regular basis. It’s just so hard to come in and work two or three times a year. It’s hard.”
Naitch is kinder than Matt Riddle, but this “Taker’s a legend and what Bill’s done is amazing considering he doesn’t know what he’s doing” is closer to the King of Bros take than it is to Jericho’s.
All in all, Goldberg, Undertaker & WWE are probably glad the internet’s given us all short attention spans and the Super ShowDown news cycle should be wrapping up any minute now.