The Undertaker Addresses Goldberg’s Jackhammer Botch From Their 2019 Match

The match between Undertaker and Goldberg at Super ShowDown 2019 is widely regarded as one of the worst in recent WWE memory.

There was a decent amount of hype around this match. It was the first (and only) meeting between the two WWE legends. Furthermore, it would be Goldberg’s first wrestling match since WrestleMania 33 — 26 months earlier.

Unfortunately, the match came nowhere close to reaching expectations. Goldberg and Undertaker each performed several notable botches throughout the brief match; the former suffered a concussion early on which notably affected his performance.

There was a scary moment where Goldberg botched his Jackhammer finisher on The Undertaker, who fell directly on his head. Thankfully, The Phenom avoided serious injury. The match mercilessly ended when Undertaker performed a not-so-convincing Chokeslam on the Hall of Famer to pick up the victory via pinfall.

The Undertaker addressed Goldberg’s dangerous Jackhammer botch during an appearance on the True Geordie Podcast (h/t WrestleTalk), noting that his part-time schedule and inexperience in working with Goldberg played factors in the match quality:

“Yeah, that was one of those things that happened. I mean he’s done that move a million times and, I think, I don’t know if he was concussed at that point yet, and part of that is, because I’m not working a full schedule at that point. I’m not kicking on all my cylinders where I can recognise the fact that like ‘okay maybe we shouldn’t do this’. I’m working off of, people are expecting big things because it’s Goldberg and it’s Undertaker and it’s the first time we’ve ever fought, and that’s what I’m thinking right. I’m just thinking ‘I’ve gotta pay this off’ and maybe if I was working more often I would have recognised the fact that maybe we shouldn’t.”

As fans saw in the WWE Network series, Undertaker: The Last Ride, the 2022 WWE Hall of Fame inductee was highly critical of his performances in some of his last matches. This included his WrestleMania 33 bout with Roman Reigns, which closed out the show. Undertaker admitted he “was so disappointed” in the match and felt as though he “let a lot of people down.”

Fortunately, The Undertaker would close out his career on a high note. His final bout took place against AJ Styles — a cinematic “Boneyard” match — at WrestleMania 36. The Phenom defeated Styles in a match that was well-received by fans and prognosticators, and he announced his retirement from in-ring competition soon after.

Goldberg Also Bounced Back

Goldberg would return to WWE programming two months later for a program with Dolph Ziggler. The former Universal Champion squashed Ziggler at SummerSlam to redeem himself over the forgettable match with Undertaker. Just over six months later, he would defeat Bray Wyatt to become the new Universal Champion.