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Worst in the World: The Undertaker vs Goldberg-Super ShowDown 2019

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Anyone who's kept up with this series long enough knows that I usually wait until after a match wins Worst Match of the Year in the Wrestling Observer Newsletter Awards. However, the reaction to this match was so negative when it happened (and the fact that someone commented on my last Worst in the World saying this match should be next) I figured there's no point in waiting until almost a year to get this out there. So here it is; the Undertaker vs Goldberg from Super Showdown 2019. Despite the fact that both men were over 50 at the time and that neither had wrestled in over seven months (Goldberg having not wrestled in two years), WWE trotted them out in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia for their third show as part of their 10-year blood money deal with the country's General Sports Authority. What resulted was a match so bad that Goldberg felt like he had to apologize for his performance afterward. But with that all out of the way, let's get to it.
So, just like at Crown Jewel, Taker and Goldberg both get absurdly long entrances for the main event. Goldberg isn't too bad, clocking in at under 4 and a half minutes. However, Goldberg does bust himself open a bit right at the beginning of his entrance from smashing his head on his locker room door.
If you remember, the same thing happened two years ago when he cut that rambling promo about the Royal Rumble. That is not a good sign. Like I said, long entrance, but not too bad.  But the Undertaker...good god. Taker is known for his long, elaborate entrances, but good god, this was insane. After over a minute of chanting and torch-bearing druids, the Undertaker rises out of the stage. Three minutes in and Taker just starts walking down the ramp. By the time he gets to ringside, he's already surpassed Goldberg's time. Six minutes total for the Undertaker. It doesn't end there, though. Add a minute of ring introductions and the time between Goldberg's music hitting and the bell sounding is 11 AND A HALF MINUTES! Insane. Also, Michael Cole calls Taker "the Pale Rider" during his entrance. That doesn't extend the time or anything, that's just a horrible nickname.
The two quickly go face to face and Goldberg does Taker's signature throat slit, so Taker clocks him right in the face. Goldberg responds with an instant spear. Taker gets up, so Goldberg spears him again and makes the cover, but Taker kicks out and sits up. Taker gets to his feet and goes for a chokeslam, but Goldberg blocks it and locks in a kneebar. Taker breaks the hold by grabbing the ropes and gets to his feet. At this point, Renee Young says Goldberg "looks like a million bucks tonight." That is a bad omen. Goldberg whips Taker into the corner and goes for a spear, but Taker dodges it and Goldberg hits the turnbuckle, causing him the bleed A LOT.
It's at this point that Goldberg concussed himself and is pretty much out of it. So far the match has been fine, but that is about to change.
Taker beats down Goldberg in the corner before hitting Old School and calling for another chokeslam. Goldberg can barely stand at this point, leaning against the ropes for a long time before finally getting in place for a chokeslam. Taker calls for the Tombstone Piledriver and connects, legitimately dropping Goldberg directly on top of his head.
And this is where I feel like I need to say something. A lot of people (including a certain "bro" in NXT) have been highly critical of Goldberg in this match because of all the botches he had throughout and not throwing any criticism at the Undertaker. Now, I love the Undertaker...but acting like he did a flawless job in this match is just an absolute lie. This moment, in particular, is jarring, as he could've seriously injured Goldberg with that. The fact that people like Matt Riddle can call Goldberg unsafe, then watch this match and this moment and not have a bad thing to say about the Undertaker is beyond hypocritical.
 So after THAT Tombstone, Taker makes the cover, but Goldberg kicks out at two and gets to his feet before Taker does. I don't know if that's horrible no-selling or just Goldberg being out of it. Both men go down off a double clothesline before they get back to their feet. The two trade blows before Taker hits a corner clothesline and hits Snake Eyes, only for Goldberg to rebound with another spear. Goldberg calls for the Jackhammer, but barely gets Taker up and drops him right on his head.
Goldberg makes the cover, but Taker kicks out at two. Goldberg decides to go for a Tombstone Piledriver of his own but loses his balance and he and Taker fall down to the mat.
It looked like they were going for the "Tombstone into a Tombstone" reversal they tried at WrestleMania 33 with the Undertaker and Roman Reigns, but that failed big time. Taker calls an audible and picks Goldberg up for a chokeslam so bad only Hulk Hogan could rival it.
You be the judge of that. Taker makes the cover, gets the three, and the win in a mercifully short 8:31. The entrances were longer than the match. Taker's face after the bell says it all.

The Verdict

Like the one at Crown Jewel, this match didn't need to happen. Neither Goldberg or the Undertaker needs to wrestle anymore. Still, while this match is definitely bad, I can't say this is one of the worst matches ever. The botches were bad, but a lot of them can probably be attributed to Goldberg knocking himself loopy early in the match, and while it was still grating to watch, the fact that it was under nine minutes made this much easier to watch than the DX-Brothers of Destruction's 27-minute match at Crown Jewel. So yeah, it's bad, but there's a lot worse.

Rankings (Best to Worst)

  1. Rick Rude vs Jake Roberts-WrestleMania IV
  2. Too Much vs Al Snow & Head-King of the Ring 1998
  3. Randy Orton vs Bray Wyatt-WrestleMania 33
  4. Vampiro vs Sting-Great American Bash 2000
  5. T&A vs Head Cheese-WrestleMania 2000
  6. Triple H vs Sgt. Slaughter-D-Generation X: In Your House
  7. Konnan vs One Man Gang-SuperBrawl VI
  8. Ultimate Warrior vs Hercules-WrestleMania IV
  9. Rick Rude vs Hawk-Clash of the Champions XXV
  10. Shelton Benjamin vs Viscera-New Year's Revolution 2006
  11. Steve McMichael vs Reggie White-Slamboree 1997
  12. The Tag Team Fatal 4-Way Match-WrestleMania 13
  13. Tag Team Battle Royal-WrestleMania XIV
  14. The Chamber of Horrors-Halloween Havoc 1991
  15. The Natural Disasters vs Money Inc.-WrestleMania VIII
  16. Ivan Koloff vs Paul Jones-Clash of the Champions IV
  17. ODB, Taylor Wilde, and Roxxi vs The Kongtourage-Genesis 2009
  18. Ivory vs Tori-SummerSlam 1999
  19. Nikita Koloff vs Bobby Eaton-Bunkhouse Stampede
  20. Alex Wright vs Steve McMichael-Halloween Havoc 1997
  21. Savio Vega vs Crush vs Faarooq-Ground Zero: In Your House
  22. Total Divas vs Other Divas-Survivor Series 2013
  23. The Oddities vs Kaientai-SummerSlam 1998
  24. Hulk Hogan vs Sid Justice-WrestleMania VIII
  25. Paul Ellering vs Teddy Long-Capital Combat
  26. Dusty Rhodes vs Big Boss Man-Saturday Night's Main Event (10/31/1989)
  27. Tyson Tomko vs Stevie Richards-Unforgiven 2004
  28. Hollywood Hogan vs The Giant-Hog Wild
  29. Hollywood Hogan vs The Giant-Souled Out 1997
  30. Dustin Rhodes & King Kong vs Awesome Kong & The Equalizer-Battlebowl
  31. Finlay & Little Bastard vs The Boogeyman & Little Boogeyman-No Way Out 2007
  32. Jake Roberts vs Andre the Giant-WrestleMania V
  33. Yokozuna vs King Mabel-In Your House 4
  34. Dusty Rhodes vs The Honky Tonk Man-SummerSlam 1989
  35. Sting & Hawk vs Meng & Kurasawa-Clash of the Champions XXXI
  36. Hulk Hogan vs Randy Savage-Uncensored 1998
  37. Al Snow vs Big Boss Man-Unforgiven 1999
  38. Mickie James vs Ashley-Royal Rumble 2006
  39. Christy Hemme vs Big Fat Oily Guy-Against All Odds 2007
  40. Stevie Ray vs Konnan-World War 3 1998
  41. Vampiro vs The KISS Demon-Bash at the Beach 2000
  42. Team WCW vs nWo Wolfpac vs nWo Hollywood-Fall Brawl 1998
  43. Vampiro vs Oklahoma-Starrcade 1999
  44. Hulk Hogan vs Andre the Giant-WrestleMania III
  45. Van Hammer vs Terrance Taylor-Clash of the Champions XVI
  46. Junkyard Dog vs Moondog Spot-Wrestling Classic
  47. The Undertaker vs Goldberg-Super ShowDown 2019
  48. Hiroshi Wajima vs Tom Magee-All Japan Pro Wrestling 1988
  49. Jim Duggan vs Big Boss Man-Royal Rumble 1990
  50. Meng vs Jim Duggan-Uncensored 1995
  51. Jim Steele vs The Equalizer-SuperBrawl IV
  52. D-Generation X vs Brothers of Destruction-Crown Jewel
  53. Wendi Richter vs Leilani Kai-WrestleMania
  54. Edge vs Triple H vs Vladimir Kozlov-Survivor Series 2008
  55. Kevin Sullivan vs Dave Sullivan-SuperBrawl V
  56. Steve McMichael vs Brian Adams-Road Wild 1998
  57. Scott Hall vs Roddy Piper-SuperBrawl IX
  58. PN News & Bobby Eaton vs Steve Austin & Terrance Taylor-Great American Bash 1991
  59. Scott Steiner vs Sid Vicious vs Jeff Jarrett vs Road Warrior Animal-Sin
  60. Hollywood Hogan vs Roddy Piper-SuperBrawl 1997
  61. Batista vs The Great Khali-SummerSlam 2007
  62.  Sable vs Tori-WrestleMania XV
  63. Super Invader vs Todd Champion-WrestleWar 1992
  64. King Kong Bundy & Jim Neidhart vs Yokozuna & Jake Roberts-Heroes of Wrestling
  65. Sid Vicious vs The Nightstalker-Clash of the Champions XIII
  66. The 8-Divas Tag Match-Survivor Series 1999
  67. The Fabulous Freebirds vs The Renegade Warriors-Halloween Havoc 1990
  68. Rick Rude vs Masahiro Chono-Halloween Havoc 1992
  69. Mike Awesome vs Vampiro-Halloween Havoc 2000
  70. Bray Wyatt vs John Cena-Extreme Rules 2014
  71. Brothers of Destruction vs KroniK-Unforgiven 2001
  72. Mabel vs The Undertaker-King of the Ring 1995
  73. Wendi Richter vs The Fabulous Moolah-The Brawl to End it All
  74. David Flair vs Kimberly Page-Mayhem 1999
  75. The Truth Commission vs The Disciples of Apocolypse-Survivor Series 1997
  76. The Bushwhacker vs The Fabulous Rougeaus-WrestleMania V
  77. The Beverly Brothers vs The Bushwhackers-Royal Rumble 1992
  78. Teddy Long vs Eric Bischoff-Survivor Series 2005
  79. Greg Valentine vs George Steele-Heroes of Wrestling
  80. Abdullah the Butcher vs One Man Gang-Heroes of Wrestling
  81. Major Gunns vs Miss Hancock-New Blood Rising
  82. Bradshaw & Trish Stratus vs Christopher Nowinski & Jackie Gayda-RAW (7/8/2002)
  83. Triple H vs Scott Steiner-Royal Rumble 2003
  84. Hollywood Hogan vs The Warrior-Halloween Havoc 1998
  85. Mr. T vs Roddy Piper-WrestleMania 2
  86. The Royal Family vs Clowns R' Us-Survivor Series 1994
  87. The Blacktop Bully vs Dustin Rhodes-Uncensored 1995
  88. Pat Patterson vs Gerald Brisco-King of the Ring 2000
  89. The Four Doinks vs Team Bigelow-Survivor Series 1993
  90. Sting vs Jeff Hardy-Victory Road 2011
  91. Oz vs Tim Parker-SuperBrawl
  92. Ultimate Warrior vs Andre the Giant-Saturday Night's Main Event (11/25/1989)
  93. The Doomsday Cage Match-Uncensored 1996
  94. Kane vs The Undertaker-Judgement Day 1998
  95. Rebel vs Shelly Martinez-One Night Only: Knockouts Knockdown
  96. Kaitlyn vs Maxine-NXT (10/19/10)
  97. Sabu vs The Sandman-November to Remember 1997
  98. The Bushwhackers vs Iron Sheik & Nikolai Volkoff-Heroes of Wrestling
  99. James Storm vs Chris Harris-Lockdown 2007
  100. John Laurinaitis vs John Cena-Over the Limit 2012
  101. Ultimate Warrior vs Goldust-In Your House 7
  102. Los Villanos vs Los Psycho Circus-Triplemania XXIII
  103. Jenna Morasca vs Sharmell-Victory Road 2009
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