Former WWE official Mike Chioda recalled refereeing the “scary” match between The Undertaker and Goldberg in 2019.
The main event of WWE Super ShowDown in 2019 saw The Undertaker go one on one with Goldberg for the first time in history in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. While heavily-anticipated, the bout did not go as planned when Goldberg suffered a concussion.
Longtime veteran Mike Chioda was the referee in the match, and speaking on a recent edition of Insight with Chris Van Vliet, he opened up about the experience, noting that after a brutal day of travel to get to Saudi Arabia during the hottest time of the year, the bout took place late at night.
“We get to the arena. We’re there all day. Taker, I believe we went on at like midnight. I remember going through the locker rooms it’s like 9 10 o’clock, you know, the show was going on for a while. Everybody was sleeping in the locker rooms passed out because of the jetlag. Everybody was tired, man. So I know we were exhausted. Totally going into midnight. I was, Taker, I’m sure of it.
“But Taker and some people were always saying, Goldberg came out of dressing room. He was hitting his head on it on the thing, but I was in the ring at the time. I didn’t see [it], they showed a little gash when he came out. But Goldberg was fine to me because when he came in the ring, he called the whole match back to me, when he got in the ring, because Taker had this phenomenal entrance. It was an awesome entrance. Of course, it takes like 10 minutes. That’s one of the best entrances in wrestling my opinion.
“He called me and he goes, ‘Hey, let me call this back to you.’ I’m like, okay, cool, and he just gave it was one of the best spots, two spots and it was cool. I wanted to hear it too. So I made sure I had everything straight. Nothing changed before the match. So everything was good until he hit that turnbuckle and in the post. Then it just went on down from there.”
Mike Chioda Says Undertaker Went “Out Of Character” During Match With Goldberg
In the middle of the match, Goldberg hit his head on the turnbuckle post after Undertaker dodged a spear, and he suffered a concussion as a result. According to Chioda, the situation was terrifying.
“That was scary, real scary, man. If you watch that match back again when Taker at the finish on the end of that match, he’s just sitting up looking around pissed, like just kind of looked upset [and] frustrated because I know Taker got jammed up a little bit too. It [was] almost like he went out of character right there. It wasn’t in his normal Undertaker character. He just had a lot on his mind. He was just looking around.
“I’m just sitting on the outside of the ring going, ‘Oh, sh*t, man he’s pissed.’ Thank God, everything worked out, everything we got through that night.
“I remember trying to talk to Gorilla going, ‘What do I do? Do I stop it? He’s getting worse. He’s getting worse.’ Billy’s like, ‘Standby, Chioda. I’m like, ‘Guys, let me know. He’s just he’s getting worse.’ Because he didn’t come off the rope. He was on that rope one time he wouldn’t come off. When he first asked me it’s like, ‘I’m okay. I’m okay.’ But then he just started getting worse as the concussion really kicked in.”
In the end, Chioda made the decision to continue the main event match, revealing that both men were paid huge amounts of money to participate.
“I didn’t hear anything from Gorilla at that point. I’m thinking, ‘Holy shit.’ I know, they paid us a lot of money to be here. I know. They paid the talent I think a lot of money. I think Goldberg got a couple million. This one got this. I got my 200 You know, you know, but it was like, you know, they paid us a lot of money. I gotta finish this, like the old-school way. He did finish it, barely. That man’s leader of the ring, man, he’s The Godfather of [the] business. So anybody to be in there with? It would be Taker, that’s for sure.”
In 2021, Goldberg opened up about the Super ShowDown match, admitting that he never should have done what he did. The Undertaker has also addressed the bout in the past, detailing the terrifying Jackhammer spot that almost ended in disaster.
h/t Fightful