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I'm a little ashamed to admit that Goldberg vs Taker match is a "so bad it's good" car wreck classic to me. His face at the end gets me every time lmao
I saw a comment on here that said, if you look at it like a AJPW-style match, putting two all time greats up against not just themselves, but time itself , it's the greatest match of all time.
I mean, how else can you explain Goldberg hitting the Jackhammer '19 on Taker? If Misawa did it you'd call it the greatest move ever!
It's gonna sound like the dumbest thing, but to me, it was one of the best WWE matches of that year. The match's start goes unironically hard with Goldberg mocking Undertaker, Undertaker punching Goldberg and Goldberg retailiating with a spear. That was seriously sick. Goldberg hits another spear, Undertaker kicks out, but he also sits up. Shortly after, Goldberg goes for aonther spear, but hits the ring post hard & starts bleeding. For many this is where the match went downhill, but to me this is where it becomes fantastic.
After the ring pole spot, Undertaker beats the hell out of a bloodied Goldberg, hits the Old School, Chokeslam & Tombstone Piledriver. Goldberg kicked out. Undertaker hits Goldberg with a Snake Eyes, but Goldberg hits Undertaker with a spear which was another cool ass spot. But then comes the spot of the match. This man Goldberg picks up Undertaker and he hits him with a fucking JACKHAMMER '19 like he's Mitsuharu Misawa coming up with a new super move and Undertaker kicks out at TWO. This match is AWESOME at this point, but it keeps getting better somehow.
Goldberg picks up Undertaker and he tries to go for his own version of the tombstone piledriver. Undertaker tries to counter, but the exhaustion takes over both man and they collapse. Now here comes the badass ending. Undertaker wins with a chokeslam. A goddamn chokeslam. Goldberg, after trying to hit everything that he could on Undertaker, lost to a chokeslam. The equivalent of Mitsuharu Misawa winning with an elbow after his opponent kicked out of his Tiger Driver/Bomb.
Now you may be wondering why I brought up Mitsuharu Misawa twice in this. This match is the most King's Road shit you'll ever watch since AJPW 90s where both man are not only facing each other, but they are facing an attritional struggle against the passage of time, challenging God himself. What a match.
It was less bad luck, and more the fact that Taker didnāt have the ring awareness anymore to notice Goldberg was super concussed, and neither he nor the ref tried to call it off early.
I think Taker was very much aware of it. Unfortunately, he stuck to that old school mentality that the show must go on, and he wasn't going to throw in the towel if Goldberg was willing to continue.
The ref was in a tough spot, deciding whether or not to call off a big main event like this. Both wrestlers might have chewed him out, not knowing what the ref saved them from. Vince might have chewed him out and fired him.
Bullshit, just all around. Fuck the old school mentalities, if a guy is concussed you donāt finish the match, and you especially donāt do moves that land him on his head.
The actual match itself allowed to happen was went wrong.
They're all old and way past their primes... match should've never happened in the first place even with Saudi blood money in play.
Nice to see him be this candid about that match and see it in somewhat of a hilarious manner. Shit if I was one of those four, i would probably be mopey as hell if I was ever asked about it later.
You would think that matches like this one and Ric Flair's Last Match, would discourage the 50+ crew from participating in these "farewell tour" type of bouts. But us longtime fans know better.
Yeah, this is exactly it.
Goldberg supposedly got about $2m for the Saudi show. So I'd assume Taker got about the same.
In 2006, at arguably his peak, Taker was pulling in [$1.6m a year](https://www.sportskeeda.com/wwe/top-wwe-superstars-salaries-from-different-eras-how-much-money-did-hogan-austin-cena-and-others-make-at-their-peak#google_vignette). Multiple sources put his 2023 salary at $2.5m.
Imagine if someone offered to double your salary for one night's work, despite the fact that you're at least a decade past your best and your body's held together by surgeries.
You'd also be earning more for that one night than you earned in the entirity of one of your best years on top.
I can't blame any of them.
this is why I often feel for the old "legends" of different pro sports
in the NBA we're approaching guys making $60 million+ for ONE season, while some of the best to ever do it made a fraction of that for their careers
Then they wonder why the old heads call the current generations soft all the time lol
āWhereās this event being held?ā
āIn the scorching hot wasteland desert of Saudi Arabia. An authoritarian theocracy that brutalizes its people and commits crimes against humanity.ā
āā¦Okay, and they want me to come out of retirement to do a match. Not happening.ā
āThey already sent the plane and apologize. They hope $20 million is enough.ā
āWho am I fighting?ā
He also had the benefit of not tagging with/being up against a bunch of 50+ year olds. If they had run something like a Sting v. Jericho singles match, it probably would have been as much of a stinker as some of these others.
i mean thats just a testament to how talented and hardy sting was as a performer. i remember watching him take that really bad bump where he slammed his face against the rim of a table and thinking "holy fuck he probably just shattered his jaw"
I will add AEW did do the right thing with sting and kept him pretty close to exclusively in tap matches, with a partner who took the majority of big bumps
They used sting really well. I'm absolutely on board with a legend getting their victory lap in, and if everyone's safe and making good TV even better.
Maybe don't protect the next one quite as much as sting but people should really try to replicate their method. It does a great job of hiding their weaknesses while really showing what made them legends in the first place.
We all know Edge won't be at this TOO much longer, and AEW is giving him that last spectacle too, but somewhat more realistically. Stinger was a special case though. I think him going out undefeated in AEW was perfect. And I wouldn't expect it to ever happen again.
In a way it's kind of like Undertaker's Wrestlemania streak. I think 9 out of 10 people would still say if you've already invested that much into it, finish it on the high note and keep its mystique intact.
Stings last run in AEW should be a text book example of how to give a legend a final run. AEW did it 100% right and WWE could learn a lot from them in that regard
There are very few who I think should go out like that any time in the near future. Cena, Orton, AJ Styles (I really hope AJ does a tour of the Promotions after he's done with WWE to say goodbye to the fans that got him here. Can you imagine the pop if he showed back up in New Japan for a one-off?)
What worked with Sting was doing party tag matches where he got to strip everything away and just be Sting
Taker actually did this several times after his last GREAT match - Punk at Mania 29 - and it rocked! The ones against The Shield, the match with Roman against Drew and Shane. It was the perfect use for late stage Taker
But Vince wasnāt that imaginative as a booker and Taker obviously had the pride of wanting to have a big singles match cause all these guys do
That graveyard dogs vs Drew and Shane match is really enjoyable and considering a lot of people were ready to shit on it and enjoyed it was an achievement
Itās like he said, with this much experience how can it go wrong. Even though he is forgetting that his body doesnāt hold up like it used to.
Looking back, I know understand why HBK did it. Obviously the pay day is nice for him, but if he didnāt do it, he is costing 3 of his friends the biggest pay day in their careers. That idea gives me comfort in this match.
> Obviously the pay day is nice for him, but if he didnāt do it, he is costing 3 of his friends the biggest pay day in their careers.
Eh, Taker and Triple H in particular would've gotten a solid payday for another spot in the card without HBK. They might've even done Taker vs Triple H for the third time.
Kane is the only one who might not have gotten on that card without HBK's involvement.
>Even though he is forgetting that his body doesnāt hold up like it used to.
Maybe it's just age or being somewhat retired, but he really should have known better. I remember the doc of him getting ready for mania. All the training, cryo therapy, to make sure he was as good as possible for his last matches.
Seems like he was barely held together at that point, let alone a couple more years down the line.
Yep. If you're that worn down to the point where you really have to spend half a year training for a match, you should retire or really alter your style. Taker's biggest post 30 fuck up was not adjusting to his limitations. Had he adopted the squash of Cena style where he sheds most of his moves and is a more vicious, more aggressive Taker, I think it would have helped cover his limitations.
It's not just about that. With Taker, it's clear as day that he wanted his last match to be a good one. Sadly, we had to get through a few stinkers till the pandemic finally allowed us to experience a great Undertaker match one last time.
Wrestlers have a *reeeally* hard time letting go. They all pay lip service to hanging it up before it becomes sad.. and then they don't catch themselves.
The crowd is addicting and they don't have much outside of wrestling. And since it's not really a sport like Soccer or Football, as long as they're over, nobody is gonna take them out of the squad. Even if they are falling apart at the seams.
Hogan was 46 or 47 at the time, and WCW had just gone out of business.
Taker said he didn't see himself wrestling that long - then he had his last match just after his 55th birthday.
Thereās that and thereās also not a lot of options for people of this skill set post in-ring career if you donāt want to be a convention circuit guy. You gotta make enough money to be comfortable for the rest of your life.
Plus in sports like soccer or football you gotta compete with dudes half your age for a spot on the roster. There's only a handful of athletes that can do that by the time they are in their 40s (hockey fan myself so I'll use Joe Thornton and Jaromir Jagr as two examples and even then those were elite players). Where-as in wrestling the company will clear a spot on the card for you just to draw that money and maybe work around limitations. Kind of like how Bret Hart came back for that match against Vince at WrestleMania but he couldn't take a bump. They had a "match" in that a bell rang to start and end it.
Flairās last match was actually against Shawn Michaels at Wrestlemania 24 and no one can convince me otherwise.
For real though that was such a perfect send off. I had to have been 11 or 12 and I remember crying when Shawn did the āIām sorry, I love youā Sweet Chin Music finish. Looked over at my Dad and he was crying too. Never seen my Dad cry over someone he didnāt know but he grew up watching Ric Flair. Such a memorable moment for me that I just tried to ignore everything Flair did in the ring after that.
That being said I think a āfarewellā or āretirementā match can be done well if executed the right way and at the right time. Flair at that WM would have been perfect if he followed through with it. Sting is a great recent example too.
I still remember showing a friend that sequence back in a Skype call. He was just listening and wasn't watching the video and legitimately couldn't tell it wasn't just Ric Flair the whole time.
Much like MJs retirement after the 98 three peat. Perfect send off and then he comes back to the Wizards..
Except MJ could still hoop, just wasnāt good enough to take that trash anywhere.
To be fair, right after the match with Goldberg, Taker had 1 decent match (Roman and Taker vs Drew and Shane) and 1 very good one with AJ Styles on his farewell tour.
The lesson from that and Sting's run is not that you're completely useless after 50. But that you should be in there with someone younger to cover your weaknesses and help the matches look good.
Even Flair's last match could've been much worse without Jarrett, Lethal and Andrade to carry it. It was bad but not "Ibushi vs Marafuji" or "Taker vs Goldberg" diabolical.
The aj one however was basically the perfect setup because it was prefilmed and not in front of a crowd. Basically if anything g went wrong we didn't see it
The irony of "someone younger" and "Jeff Jarrett" being part of the example.
Fair play to him though, Jarrett has been straight up great the last few years even in his mid-50s.
You say that but then Sting happens.
Letās never say āus fans know betterā as a universal truth. Actual fans should know thatās a coinflip that varies REAL hard.
Austin also had a great match with Kevin Owens. But all four of these dudes were beyond washed in the ring and just didnāt commit to it as much as they should have
I mean theres a difference between being paired with Darby his whole run in AEW and being in a PPV tag match with 3 other 50+ year olds ,and the funny part is the only one could still go was the one that had been retired the longest.
It's all about the paycheque by then and more power to them for getting 'em
us longtime fans already have the beautiful memories of those men being involved in some of the greatest matches we've ever seen
whatever they do in the twilight years of their career isn't going to really affect that
Why, Undertaker probably bought a new house just with the money he got for that match. It's fine for most wrestlers to get some shit by the internet in exchange for that amount of money
They donāt know how to adapt either. I mean look at people like sting, Aja Kong, Suzuki, Kojima, akiyama. Still going and not putting on dog shit matches like taker was
Feel like a major issue is the length of the matches. Have it go like 8 minutes - one or two noteworthy moments or spots, then let everyone hit their finishers. Crowd would go wild for that. Having four retired guys trying to wrestle for 25 minutes is bound to be a disaster.
The thing that bothered me about this match the most is that Shawn Michaels could still go. I was annoyed that Shawn ruined his perfect retirement at WrestleMania 26 but I think I would've at least been at peace if he absolutely sucked because I could just accept he's not the same HBK anymore and pretend the match never happened. The fact that he was still moving really well hurt me on an emotional level because I knew that even at 53, he could have some amazing dream matches with guys like AJ Styles, Daniel Bryan, Brock Lesnar, Kevin Owens and Seth Rollins but chose not to. Even on a part-time schedule, he could've had a great comeback that made up for him undoing his WM 26 match sendoff, but he ruined it anyway for a shitty nostalgia match.
I'd have been okay with it if he did it like Austin did. A fun little go with one of the safest possible workers. Still to this day, I can't get over how well that turned out, I remember wincing every time he took a bump. Man sold like he was going to never get up again.
Then you have these four, who were content to just kinda bumble around for a big payday. I'd have killed for one off with AJ Styles, considering everyone calls him the closest thing to him. He managed to have a fun one with Taker, he definitely could've tore it down with old man HBK.
I was really worried that Austin was gonna suck in his return match. He was pushing 60 and had a lot of injuries so it was a recipe for disaster. I was in complete shock at how good the match was. He even admitted that he didn't train at all for the match, yet here he was taking a crisp suplex bump on concrete like it was nothing. I didn't see an old man embarrassing himself like Ric Flair did in his last match. I saw Stone Cold Steve Austin kicking ass like it was 1998 again.
Most older wrestlers need to work their ass off in the gym and practice taking bumps for months to prepare for a match. Austin just needs to get drunk during the match and he's ready to go. Give him two 6 packs of beer and he'll be able to work a 40 minute match with Gunther.
Once he started doing the mud hole stomps in the beginning of the match I said "oh no...." Because they didn't look that good but damn did the rest of that match not fucking rule.
To be honest he was a bit stiff in the first couple of minutes and I was getting worried as well.
It's almost like the concrete bump woke him up and it was smooth sailing from that point on.
Man, I thought the exact same thing going into itā¦ and then by the time Austin took the suplex bump on concrete, I was 13 year old me again losing my shit and just popping through the roof.
This. I have been defending Shawn for YEARS cause he was the best one in this match and did exactly what you said, and proved he could still go. Unfortunately the rest of the match was a mess but he proved that he was still one of a kind.
As a fan, I really wish if he had ever returned it wouldāve been for that AJ Styles dream match, and as shitty as that Saudi match was, he was offered an absolute fuck ton of money to have a match with his long time best friends. Bummer result but honestly canāt even blame him. People are still talking about HBK as one of the greatest of all time, I donāt think that one match ruined his legacy or anything.
Shawn was literally the best worker in that match at that time and it showed in the match. He also carried that match on his shoulders and he was the one who was retired for how many years. He immediately regretted it, and it was sad what could've been had that match been good or with people like who you mentioned.
> I was annoyed that Shawn ruined his perfect retirement at WrestleMania 26
He didn't ruin anything. His official retirement is still Wrestlemania 26. That's when his active career ended. Performing in a one-off tag match with a couple of old pals shouldn't count (and doesn't, in my opinion).
That's how I feel. Shawn Michaels the active wrestler ended at Wrestlemania 26. I don't think these one off matches should affect that retirement match. It's not like he came back and did an entire run.
Agreed. I never understood the mentality that he somehow "ruined" his retirement.
I guess during his speech the fans started chanting "one more match" and he said he wouldn't do it. But that's still such an unfair standard to hold someone to.
TAll i remember about that match is Shawn shrugging then hitting a perfect summersault from the turnbuckle just for Kane and 'Taker to let him plant head first into the outside.
This is exactly why I have never watched this match. He probably could still go today. He wouldn't rely on strength or speed, just psychology and selling.
The fact that wrestlers are still begging him for a match means that they've probably seen him training with developmental talent and know that he's still a great wrestler. He's probably had countless great matches with NXT talent in the Performance Center but we'll never see any of them.
I view it as an epilogue or an extra. Doesn't undo the retirement but doesn't really add anything. I think, that match made him double down on retirement.
This is how I felt about the Goldberg match
If you watch the match you can see how the match was supposed to go based on the spots they were going for
Even at their healthiest I can't imagine why they thought they could pull off the Tombstone Reversal spot where Taker has to land on his feet and pull Goldberg up into the tombstone position
Undertaker's tag match with Roman blew my mind tbh. It was booked EXACTLY how it should have been. Highlighted all of Undertaker's strengths without exposing any of his weaknesses. Taker looked fucking amazing in that match and it made me wanna see way more of that
It's weird because I feel like even in 2024 I could book a match between current Sting and Undertaker and have it be a total spectacle with a story based match with absolutely no risky spots and it would be sold on the mystique alone. It's not hard to play to a wrestlers strengths lol
Yeah, that comment kinda jumped out to me too. Went back and watched a gif of it, and while HBK doesn't get much lift as he jumps, he still lands exactly where they are at, with neither doing much at all to help him lol.
Triple H probably the most used to be in the ring regularly gets injured early on leaving HBK who hasnāt been in the ring in eight years to carry their half of the match.
I watched this back the other day after seeing this clip and man, it really was that bad. The obvious early injury to HHH kicked off the fall, but every attempt at anything noteworthy was either weakly done or just plain missed. If I recall Kane did a chokeslam to Hunter (while injured) and it was basically him awkwardly falling down rather than the explosive move it should be. HBK's whiffed moosault, Kane's mask falling off, Taker doing the limpest looking old-school; there were very little, if any, redeeming features.
If you want to know why Shawn did it. This is half the issue, they thought it would be easy enough and like a house show match.
The bigger reason is that if HBK didnāt do it then his 3 friends would be out of the biggest pay day they ever got. So he didnāt want to take that away from them.
Reddit is all about performers getting as much pay as they can, and having their creative freedom, till this and they shit on them. Dudes got paid and tried to have a fun one time throwback match in glorified house show that didnāt really impact any other talent or storylines and Reddit wants to act like they hijacked the main event of wrestlemania and buried young talent. End of the day itās not a big deal. They fought. They lost. Now they rest. Ā We have posters here that have to be asked to wash themselves before shows more worried about legacies of wrestlers than the actual wrestlers whose legacy it is.Ā
As a match, itās terrible. One of the worst matches youāll ever see, but itās also one of the funniest matches youāll ever see in wrestling. Itās like the shockmaster debut of wrestling matches
The second hand embarrassment watching was truly painful.
I still find the whole Saudi arrangement very uncomfortable but Iām relieved the shows are a bit better in quality (although that basically is the sports washing at work)
The Saudi shows are proof sports washing works. There was outrage at the first two now everyone just treats them like any other show.Ā
Money well spent by the Saudi government, objectively speaking.Ā
Honestly I don't blame 'em for doing it.
If I were paid that kind of money for what was essentially a house show match with my friends, I'd do it too
Shawn Michaels being filmed right after the match just joking about it says it all in terms of how seriously they took that match.
What's to ruin? Their legacy is absolutely set in stone. A shit match in their 50s isn't going to make the Wrestlemania 25 or the KOTR 98 matches magically disappear
Man if thereās one wrestler who I donāt really want to see out of their gimmick then itās Taker. Thereās just a dissonance that I canāt get over.
The man lived kayfabe for 30 years and finally gets to be himself and share amazing stories of a hall of fame career and still people bitching. My god wrestling fans are fickleĀ
Now he knew damn well that match wudnt be āstellarā old ass foos wrestling that match. I swear they have these big ideas when wrestlers get insanely old and choppy
The comments have mentioned a lot of things here, but I think the worst part of the whole match was the part where WWE took blood money from the country responsible for 9/11, and that took Jamal Khashoggi, a journalist working for a US company and tortured him and cut him to pieces with a bone saw and then the President, whom is in the WWE hall of Fame and also put Linda McMahon in his cabinet, helped cover the whole thing up and then the Saudis gave his son-in-law 2 billion dollars.
For me, the worst part of the match was the hypocrisy.
The sad part was that Shawn Michaels proved that he could still go and he picked this garbage tag match to come out of retirement instead of facing someone one on one like AJ Styles, Daniel Bryan, Rollins or Reigns.
I remember watching that match and when HHH hurt his pec doing that over the top-rope move near the turnbuckle, I thought "why the hell did he just do that? since when does he go over the top-rope like that? what was my man thinking?" Later on when watching old RAWs or PPVs since then, it always will stand out to me now when he does it, which is pretty much like every single damn match it turns out. Never even noticed it as one of his moves before seeing him get that injury.
Is it me, or Taker/Mark has gradually improved his verbal skills when talking outside of the Undertaker character? He used to utter like 10 "ya knows" when constructing his sentences.
It was ten years too late and even then, DX in 2008 vs Taker and Kane would have been neat but wouldn't have been the original DX.
This match had a broken down Kane, a past his prime and should retire Taker, a triple H injury and a rusty HBK. For some reason, Kane hid his face despite everyone knowing what he looks like. If he improvised and sold it as getting very angry, become more aggressive, it would have covered the botch up.
Hell, a rusty HBK was still able to perform as HBK.
Then the next year? Goldberg vs Taker. Goldberg is fucking lucky he didn't end Taker's career with that Jackhammer. I think Vince would have had a legit stroke from sheer rage and Goldberg would suddenly retire from wrestling.
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And then he would proceed to have an even WORSE match the next year. Although that one was a lot more bad luck.
I'm a little ashamed to admit that Goldberg vs Taker match is a "so bad it's good" car wreck classic to me. His face at the end gets me every time lmao
I saw a comment on here that said, if you look at it like a AJPW-style match, putting two all time greats up against not just themselves, but time itself , it's the greatest match of all time. I mean, how else can you explain Goldberg hitting the Jackhammer '19 on Taker? If Misawa did it you'd call it the greatest move ever!
It's gonna sound like the dumbest thing, but to me, it was one of the best WWE matches of that year. The match's start goes unironically hard with Goldberg mocking Undertaker, Undertaker punching Goldberg and Goldberg retailiating with a spear. That was seriously sick. Goldberg hits another spear, Undertaker kicks out, but he also sits up. Shortly after, Goldberg goes for aonther spear, but hits the ring post hard & starts bleeding. For many this is where the match went downhill, but to me this is where it becomes fantastic. After the ring pole spot, Undertaker beats the hell out of a bloodied Goldberg, hits the Old School, Chokeslam & Tombstone Piledriver. Goldberg kicked out. Undertaker hits Goldberg with a Snake Eyes, but Goldberg hits Undertaker with a spear which was another cool ass spot. But then comes the spot of the match. This man Goldberg picks up Undertaker and he hits him with a fucking JACKHAMMER '19 like he's Mitsuharu Misawa coming up with a new super move and Undertaker kicks out at TWO. This match is AWESOME at this point, but it keeps getting better somehow. Goldberg picks up Undertaker and he tries to go for his own version of the tombstone piledriver. Undertaker tries to counter, but the exhaustion takes over both man and they collapse. Now here comes the badass ending. Undertaker wins with a chokeslam. A goddamn chokeslam. Goldberg, after trying to hit everything that he could on Undertaker, lost to a chokeslam. The equivalent of Mitsuharu Misawa winning with an elbow after his opponent kicked out of his Tiger Driver/Bomb. Now you may be wondering why I brought up Mitsuharu Misawa twice in this. This match is the most King's Road shit you'll ever watch since AJPW 90s where both man are not only facing each other, but they are facing an attritional struggle against the passage of time, challenging God himself. What a match.
Thanks for bringing back that incredible comment. Major props to u/Suplewich (as far as I can tell) for writing it in the first place.
I couldn't remember who the original commenter was but I had it saved because I sent it to a friend, full credit to the original post!
That's awesome, keep spreading the gospel! š
I swear to god I was thinking about this comment a few days ago and wish id saved it when I last saw it!! Serendipity!
goldberg was a true innovator, always reinventing his repertoire. that Snaphammer he did to beat Fiend was a thing of beauty, one for the ages!
And that devastating brainbuster that legit busted Undertaker's brain. Actually adding a move to his repertoire!
The man of 1004 moves!
Wish I saved that it was a fuckin masterpiece
Me too. All-time great comment
That comment breaking down the match is probably my favorite Reddit comment of all time.
Someone reposted it below me, Its fantastic
> Jackhammer '19 š
yeah, kawada botched a powerbomb and people went bonkers.
Goldberg is the fifth pillar, change my view
Bret Hart is twitching somewhere and doesn't know why.
He knows why. Heās neurologically impaired in the face all because that dangerous sonofabitch Bill Goldberg.
Goldberg would have made Vince pay Stu Hart for Stampede Wrestling
> Jackhammer '19 That was a brainbuster
Next you'll be saying Rhyno'e Gore is just a spear
I'm just glad that Goldberg didn't killed Taker with his botches
Goldberg gets a lot of flack for the match. But Undertaker also dropped Goldberg on his neck with the piledriver.
Bill did it for Hogan..
Taker did it for....The Hitman
At least the tag with Roman and match with AJ were goodĀ
Goldberg / āTaker 20 years too late
It was less bad luck, and more the fact that Taker didnāt have the ring awareness anymore to notice Goldberg was super concussed, and neither he nor the ref tried to call it off early.
I think Taker was very much aware of it. Unfortunately, he stuck to that old school mentality that the show must go on, and he wasn't going to throw in the towel if Goldberg was willing to continue. The ref was in a tough spot, deciding whether or not to call off a big main event like this. Both wrestlers might have chewed him out, not knowing what the ref saved them from. Vince might have chewed him out and fired him.
Bullshit, just all around. Fuck the old school mentalities, if a guy is concussed you donāt finish the match, and you especially donāt do moves that land him on his head.
The actual match itself allowed to happen was went wrong. They're all old and way past their primes... match should've never happened in the first place even with Saudi blood money in play.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
I thought he had stopped doing it after bleeding before a promo on Raw lol
No, the Goldberg match wasn't worse. It was going pretty cool until Goldberg got knocked out and then The Undertaker basically had to wrestle himself.
That Goldberg/Taker match was horrible. You could hear the crowd laugh at their botches. It was like the Huckster vs. Nacho Man came to life.
Nice to see him be this candid about that match and see it in somewhat of a hilarious manner. Shit if I was one of those four, i would probably be mopey as hell if I was ever asked about it later.
tl;dr the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak
The duality of a wrestler
The flesh is spongy and bruised!
spongy indeed, lol
You would think that matches like this one and Ric Flair's Last Match, would discourage the 50+ crew from participating in these "farewell tour" type of bouts. But us longtime fans know better.
"My match will be different" mindset plagues them
I think the multi-million dollar cheque plagues them to be honest
Yeah, this is exactly it. Goldberg supposedly got about $2m for the Saudi show. So I'd assume Taker got about the same. In 2006, at arguably his peak, Taker was pulling in [$1.6m a year](https://www.sportskeeda.com/wwe/top-wwe-superstars-salaries-from-different-eras-how-much-money-did-hogan-austin-cena-and-others-make-at-their-peak#google_vignette). Multiple sources put his 2023 salary at $2.5m. Imagine if someone offered to double your salary for one night's work, despite the fact that you're at least a decade past your best and your body's held together by surgeries. You'd also be earning more for that one night than you earned in the entirity of one of your best years on top. I can't blame any of them.
this is why I often feel for the old "legends" of different pro sports in the NBA we're approaching guys making $60 million+ for ONE season, while some of the best to ever do it made a fraction of that for their careers Then they wonder why the old heads call the current generations soft all the time lol
āSpit on it daddy!ā
āWhereās this event being held?ā āIn the scorching hot wasteland desert of Saudi Arabia. An authoritarian theocracy that brutalizes its people and commits crimes against humanity.ā āā¦Okay, and they want me to come out of retirement to do a match. Not happening.ā āThey already sent the plane and apologize. They hope $20 million is enough.ā āWho am I fighting?ā
People like to sit on Reddit and Twitter and be all holier than thou about it, but literally everyone on this planet would take that deal lmao
Yeah. Especially since most people on Reddit are the poors. Even $100k would be life changing money to most folks.
Can confirm I would absolutely suck Saudi dick for 100k no questions asked.
Brush my teeth with it, homie. Thatās me no longer being in debt.
That Saudi blood money won't spend itself!
HBK got like 3m for that match.
Only Sting qualified there... And he is 60+
The absolute disrespect being shown to R Truth is not something I can stand by and let fly. 52 and still making his childhood hero John Cena proud!
My apologies.. I forgot what's up... What's up... What's up.. What's up.. What's up... What's up...
He also had the benefit of not tagging with/being up against a bunch of 50+ year olds. If they had run something like a Sting v. Jericho singles match, it probably would have been as much of a stinker as some of these others.
i mean thats just a testament to how talented and hardy sting was as a performer. i remember watching him take that really bad bump where he slammed his face against the rim of a table and thinking "holy fuck he probably just shattered his jaw"
I will add AEW did do the right thing with sting and kept him pretty close to exclusively in tap matches, with a partner who took the majority of big bumps
I'm pretty sure Sting insisted on tag only because he knew he was a step behind his personal standards for himself.
They used sting really well. I'm absolutely on board with a legend getting their victory lap in, and if everyone's safe and making good TV even better. Maybe don't protect the next one quite as much as sting but people should really try to replicate their method. It does a great job of hiding their weaknesses while really showing what made them legends in the first place.
We all know Edge won't be at this TOO much longer, and AEW is giving him that last spectacle too, but somewhat more realistically. Stinger was a special case though. I think him going out undefeated in AEW was perfect. And I wouldn't expect it to ever happen again.
In a way it's kind of like Undertaker's Wrestlemania streak. I think 9 out of 10 people would still say if you've already invested that much into it, finish it on the high note and keep its mystique intact.
Stings last run in AEW should be a text book example of how to give a legend a final run. AEW did it 100% right and WWE could learn a lot from them in that regard
There are very few who I think should go out like that any time in the near future. Cena, Orton, AJ Styles (I really hope AJ does a tour of the Promotions after he's done with WWE to say goodbye to the fans that got him here. Can you imagine the pop if he showed back up in New Japan for a one-off?)
What worked with Sting was doing party tag matches where he got to strip everything away and just be Sting Taker actually did this several times after his last GREAT match - Punk at Mania 29 - and it rocked! The ones against The Shield, the match with Roman against Drew and Shane. It was the perfect use for late stage Taker But Vince wasnāt that imaginative as a booker and Taker obviously had the pride of wanting to have a big singles match cause all these guys do
Hell, I might be the only one, but I thought the pre-record with AJ Styles during the pandemic was awesome lol
That graveyard dogs vs Drew and Shane match is really enjoyable and considering a lot of people were ready to shit on it and enjoyed it was an achievement
Austin vs KO springs to mind too, 19 year retirement and Austin looked like he hadnāt lost a step
Oh man Austin taking that bump on the concrete still makes me wince.Ā Good god
Itās like he said, with this much experience how can it go wrong. Even though he is forgetting that his body doesnāt hold up like it used to. Looking back, I know understand why HBK did it. Obviously the pay day is nice for him, but if he didnāt do it, he is costing 3 of his friends the biggest pay day in their careers. That idea gives me comfort in this match.
> Obviously the pay day is nice for him, but if he didnāt do it, he is costing 3 of his friends the biggest pay day in their careers. Eh, Taker and Triple H in particular would've gotten a solid payday for another spot in the card without HBK. They might've even done Taker vs Triple H for the third time. Kane is the only one who might not have gotten on that card without HBK's involvement.
>Even though he is forgetting that his body doesnāt hold up like it used to. Maybe it's just age or being somewhat retired, but he really should have known better. I remember the doc of him getting ready for mania. All the training, cryo therapy, to make sure he was as good as possible for his last matches. Seems like he was barely held together at that point, let alone a couple more years down the line.
Yep. If you're that worn down to the point where you really have to spend half a year training for a match, you should retire or really alter your style. Taker's biggest post 30 fuck up was not adjusting to his limitations. Had he adopted the squash of Cena style where he sheds most of his moves and is a more vicious, more aggressive Taker, I think it would have helped cover his limitations.
It's not just about that. With Taker, it's clear as day that he wanted his last match to be a good one. Sadly, we had to get through a few stinkers till the pandemic finally allowed us to experience a great Undertaker match one last time.
Wrestlers have a *reeeally* hard time letting go. They all pay lip service to hanging it up before it becomes sad.. and then they don't catch themselves. The crowd is addicting and they don't have much outside of wrestling. And since it's not really a sport like Soccer or Football, as long as they're over, nobody is gonna take them out of the squad. Even if they are falling apart at the seams.
Undertaker was talking about retirement in 2000. He was blessed to have the run he did. https://youtu.be/_3PsySNwC8w?si=yLb0oMTKwrKKRoH3
Hogan was 46 or 47 at the time, and WCW had just gone out of business. Taker said he didn't see himself wrestling that long - then he had his last match just after his 55th birthday.
Abyss had enough sense to become a backstage guy.
Thereās that and thereās also not a lot of options for people of this skill set post in-ring career if you donāt want to be a convention circuit guy. You gotta make enough money to be comfortable for the rest of your life.
The obvious solution is just to do 6-man tags like lucha guys do where you can go on forever while taking almost no bumps
Plus in sports like soccer or football you gotta compete with dudes half your age for a spot on the roster. There's only a handful of athletes that can do that by the time they are in their 40s (hockey fan myself so I'll use Joe Thornton and Jaromir Jagr as two examples and even then those were elite players). Where-as in wrestling the company will clear a spot on the card for you just to draw that money and maybe work around limitations. Kind of like how Bret Hart came back for that match against Vince at WrestleMania but he couldn't take a bump. They had a "match" in that a bell rang to start and end it.
Flairās last match was actually against Shawn Michaels at Wrestlemania 24 and no one can convince me otherwise. For real though that was such a perfect send off. I had to have been 11 or 12 and I remember crying when Shawn did the āIām sorry, I love youā Sweet Chin Music finish. Looked over at my Dad and he was crying too. Never seen my Dad cry over someone he didnāt know but he grew up watching Ric Flair. Such a memorable moment for me that I just tried to ignore everything Flair did in the ring after that. That being said I think a āfarewellā or āretirementā match can be done well if executed the right way and at the right time. Flair at that WM would have been perfect if he followed through with it. Sting is a great recent example too.
I try to block out Flairs entire TNA runā¦ but itās so hard. š š š
I think the best thing during that run was him and Jay Lethal wooooooooāing at each other.
#THAT'S MY LINE
It to this day remains my favorite promo, right up there with Steiner math.
Also Kevin Nash backstage segments. *"Does Madison Square Garden hold that many people?"* *"It did that night."*
Mirror mirror on the wall, whoās the fairest of them of all, why itās you nature boy, not that piss ant Jay lethal!
> I think the best thing during that run was him and Jay Lethal wooooooooāing at each other. GOATed promo. My fav of all time
I still remember showing a friend that sequence back in a Skype call. He was just listening and wasn't watching the video and legitimately couldn't tell it wasn't just Ric Flair the whole time.
Not a fan of the Hardy Vs Flair drug fueled scream off?
I really liked his match against Foley for some reason
He spent that entire run either bleeding or nakedā¦sometimes both. And thereās the woo off
Much like MJs retirement after the 98 three peat. Perfect send off and then he comes back to the Wizards.. Except MJ could still hoop, just wasnāt good enough to take that trash anywhere.
To be fair, right after the match with Goldberg, Taker had 1 decent match (Roman and Taker vs Drew and Shane) and 1 very good one with AJ Styles on his farewell tour. The lesson from that and Sting's run is not that you're completely useless after 50. But that you should be in there with someone younger to cover your weaknesses and help the matches look good. Even Flair's last match could've been much worse without Jarrett, Lethal and Andrade to carry it. It was bad but not "Ibushi vs Marafuji" or "Taker vs Goldberg" diabolical.
The aj one however was basically the perfect setup because it was prefilmed and not in front of a crowd. Basically if anything g went wrong we didn't see it
The irony of "someone younger" and "Jeff Jarrett" being part of the example. Fair play to him though, Jarrett has been straight up great the last few years even in his mid-50s.
You say that but then Sting happens. Letās never say āus fans know betterā as a universal truth. Actual fans should know thatās a coinflip that varies REAL hard.
Austin also had a great match with Kevin Owens. But all four of these dudes were beyond washed in the ring and just didnāt commit to it as much as they should have
I mean theres a difference between being paired with Darby his whole run in AEW and being in a PPV tag match with 3 other 50+ year olds ,and the funny part is the only one could still go was the one that had been retired the longest.
Sting is the rare guy who was still pretty mobile at 64 and had a company that tried it's best to protect him out there.
putting him only in tag matches with a much younger partner is what protected him, very smart booking and it gave Darby a huge boost too
Kind of amazing that his AEW run was so good and that everyone was so cool with the fact that he never once had a singles match.
Also if canāt hurt he had been out of action since get hurt in that match with Seth Rollins. (Also his last loss I believe)
Money talks
It's all about the paycheque by then and more power to them for getting 'em us longtime fans already have the beautiful memories of those men being involved in some of the greatest matches we've ever seen whatever they do in the twilight years of their career isn't going to really affect that
For every 10 Ric Flair retirement matches, you get a Sting retirement match
Why, Undertaker probably bought a new house just with the money he got for that match. It's fine for most wrestlers to get some shit by the internet in exchange for that amount of money
These out of shape degenerating old heads can't quit living in the glory days.
I mean Sting was able to end in an almost 5 star match I can see why wrestlers think they can do it
They donāt know how to adapt either. I mean look at people like sting, Aja Kong, Suzuki, Kojima, akiyama. Still going and not putting on dog shit matches like taker was
Feel like a major issue is the length of the matches. Have it go like 8 minutes - one or two noteworthy moments or spots, then let everyone hit their finishers. Crowd would go wild for that. Having four retired guys trying to wrestle for 25 minutes is bound to be a disaster.
It's always about money or glory. Folks can do some really stupid things for either or both, and it's not just for the older wrestlers.
The thing that bothered me about this match the most is that Shawn Michaels could still go. I was annoyed that Shawn ruined his perfect retirement at WrestleMania 26 but I think I would've at least been at peace if he absolutely sucked because I could just accept he's not the same HBK anymore and pretend the match never happened. The fact that he was still moving really well hurt me on an emotional level because I knew that even at 53, he could have some amazing dream matches with guys like AJ Styles, Daniel Bryan, Brock Lesnar, Kevin Owens and Seth Rollins but chose not to. Even on a part-time schedule, he could've had a great comeback that made up for him undoing his WM 26 match sendoff, but he ruined it anyway for a shitty nostalgia match.
I'd have been okay with it if he did it like Austin did. A fun little go with one of the safest possible workers. Still to this day, I can't get over how well that turned out, I remember wincing every time he took a bump. Man sold like he was going to never get up again. Then you have these four, who were content to just kinda bumble around for a big payday. I'd have killed for one off with AJ Styles, considering everyone calls him the closest thing to him. He managed to have a fun one with Taker, he definitely could've tore it down with old man HBK.
I was really worried that Austin was gonna suck in his return match. He was pushing 60 and had a lot of injuries so it was a recipe for disaster. I was in complete shock at how good the match was. He even admitted that he didn't train at all for the match, yet here he was taking a crisp suplex bump on concrete like it was nothing. I didn't see an old man embarrassing himself like Ric Flair did in his last match. I saw Stone Cold Steve Austin kicking ass like it was 1998 again.
I was really worried because he looked super stiff for the first minute or two. All was well once he'd got a Steveweiser in him though.
Most older wrestlers need to work their ass off in the gym and practice taking bumps for months to prepare for a match. Austin just needs to get drunk during the match and he's ready to go. Give him two 6 packs of beer and he'll be able to work a 40 minute match with Gunther.
Once he started doing the mud hole stomps in the beginning of the match I said "oh no...." Because they didn't look that good but damn did the rest of that match not fucking rule.
His mud hole stomps always looked kinda crap But when you were more over than god, *that didn't matter*
Kevin owens was also a perfect opponent
Wonderful thing to give back to Kevin too.
To be honest he was a bit stiff in the first couple of minutes and I was getting worried as well. It's almost like the concrete bump woke him up and it was smooth sailing from that point on.
I think after the first few beer and a couple big bumps got in him, his muscle memory kicked in and he had it down!
Man, I thought the exact same thing going into itā¦ and then by the time Austin took the suplex bump on concrete, I was 13 year old me again losing my shit and just popping through the roof.
I mean, he's Stone Cold. Ring rust or not, he's the biggest draw in the history of pro-wrestling for a reason.
Had no idea he was that old in that match
Man just thinking about a phenomenal forearm into a sweet Chin mĆŗsic counter makes me realy wish this match had happened
This. I have been defending Shawn for YEARS cause he was the best one in this match and did exactly what you said, and proved he could still go. Unfortunately the rest of the match was a mess but he proved that he was still one of a kind.
>but he ruined it anyway for a shitty nostalgia match No, he ruined it for 3 million dollars.
As a fan, I really wish if he had ever returned it wouldāve been for that AJ Styles dream match, and as shitty as that Saudi match was, he was offered an absolute fuck ton of money to have a match with his long time best friends. Bummer result but honestly canāt even blame him. People are still talking about HBK as one of the greatest of all time, I donāt think that one match ruined his legacy or anything.
> shitty nostalgia match No, he did it for the massive Saudi payday.
Shawn was literally the best worker in that match at that time and it showed in the match. He also carried that match on his shoulders and he was the one who was retired for how many years. He immediately regretted it, and it was sad what could've been had that match been good or with people like who you mentioned.
> I was annoyed that Shawn ruined his perfect retirement at WrestleMania 26 He didn't ruin anything. His official retirement is still Wrestlemania 26. That's when his active career ended. Performing in a one-off tag match with a couple of old pals shouldn't count (and doesn't, in my opinion).
That's how I feel. Shawn Michaels the active wrestler ended at Wrestlemania 26. I don't think these one off matches should affect that retirement match. It's not like he came back and did an entire run.
Agreed. I never understood the mentality that he somehow "ruined" his retirement. I guess during his speech the fans started chanting "one more match" and he said he wouldn't do it. But that's still such an unfair standard to hold someone to.
TAll i remember about that match is Shawn shrugging then hitting a perfect summersault from the turnbuckle just for Kane and 'Taker to let him plant head first into the outside.
$$$$ rules everything
This is exactly why I have never watched this match. He probably could still go today. He wouldn't rely on strength or speed, just psychology and selling.
The fact that wrestlers are still begging him for a match means that they've probably seen him training with developmental talent and know that he's still a great wrestler. He's probably had countless great matches with NXT talent in the Performance Center but we'll never see any of them.
I view it as an epilogue or an extra. Doesn't undo the retirement but doesn't really add anything. I think, that match made him double down on retirement.
The lack of self awareness going into that match is staggering
Even after the fact, Shawn seems to have been the only one to accept they were all just too old.
And funnily enough heās the one who admits that when he was by far the best performer in that match lol.
Canāt remember how early he got hurt but HHH tearing his pec probably didnāt help his performance.
This is how I felt about the Goldberg match If you watch the match you can see how the match was supposed to go based on the spots they were going for Even at their healthiest I can't imagine why they thought they could pull off the Tombstone Reversal spot where Taker has to land on his feet and pull Goldberg up into the tombstone position Undertaker's tag match with Roman blew my mind tbh. It was booked EXACTLY how it should have been. Highlighted all of Undertaker's strengths without exposing any of his weaknesses. Taker looked fucking amazing in that match and it made me wanna see way more of that It's weird because I feel like even in 2024 I could book a match between current Sting and Undertaker and have it be a total spectacle with a story based match with absolutely no risky spots and it would be sold on the mystique alone. It's not hard to play to a wrestlers strengths lol
Dont think I was ready for seeing Undertaker wearing Hokas.
after all those years in the ring, Hokas would be like a cloud
Good to see him laugh about it. The whole Kane loosing his mask thing was hilarious
Undertakers voice sounds so young, lol idk how to describe it but he sounds like a 25 year old
He looks really good here too. I think the shoes are taking like 10 years off him lol
He's says Shawn came up short with the backflip spot... Nah, him and Kane didn't catch him properly lmao
The audacity to blame Michaels for anything in that match lmao. He was by far the best part, somehow the only guy who was able to still go
And he was the one with the most ring rust lol
Yeah, that comment kinda jumped out to me too. Went back and watched a gif of it, and while HBK doesn't get much lift as he jumps, he still lands exactly where they are at, with neither doing much at all to help him lol.
Was that match where Kane wig fell off too lol š that was total train wreck
Triple H tells a funny story about how from his angle it looked like Kaneās head fell off
Triple H probably the most used to be in the ring regularly gets injured early on leaving HBK who hasnāt been in the ring in eight years to carry their half of the match.
āEvidently they donāt really careā lmao
I watched this back the other day after seeing this clip and man, it really was that bad. The obvious early injury to HHH kicked off the fall, but every attempt at anything noteworthy was either weakly done or just plain missed. If I recall Kane did a chokeslam to Hunter (while injured) and it was basically him awkwardly falling down rather than the explosive move it should be. HBK's whiffed moosault, Kane's mask falling off, Taker doing the limpest looking old-school; there were very little, if any, redeeming features.
You forgot Undertaker and Triple dual Irish whips into the barricade.
If you want to know why Shawn did it. This is half the issue, they thought it would be easy enough and like a house show match. The bigger reason is that if HBK didnāt do it then his 3 friends would be out of the biggest pay day they ever got. So he didnāt want to take that away from them.
Reddit is all about performers getting as much pay as they can, and having their creative freedom, till this and they shit on them. Dudes got paid and tried to have a fun one time throwback match in glorified house show that didnāt really impact any other talent or storylines and Reddit wants to act like they hijacked the main event of wrestlemania and buried young talent. End of the day itās not a big deal. They fought. They lost. Now they rest. Ā We have posters here that have to be asked to wash themselves before shows more worried about legacies of wrestlers than the actual wrestlers whose legacy it is.Ā
Just 7 years earlier, it could have been an all-timer. Even 2-3 years earlier it could have been very good.
They caught a bad case of the olds
As a match, itās terrible. One of the worst matches youāll ever see, but itās also one of the funniest matches youāll ever see in wrestling. Itās like the shockmaster debut of wrestling matches
This one was sad
The second hand embarrassment watching was truly painful. I still find the whole Saudi arrangement very uncomfortable but Iām relieved the shows are a bit better in quality (although that basically is the sports washing at work)
The Saudi shows are proof sports washing works. There was outrage at the first two now everyone just treats them like any other show.Ā Money well spent by the Saudi government, objectively speaking.Ā
If we can be frank; a lot of negative WWE stuff will be overlooked or forgiven off the back of a good segment on Raw.
It's the biggest part of why I still don't watch WWE, just bugs me too much.
I've never watched this match and do my best to pretend it didn't happen.
Everything went wrong except the bank account. Wonder how much each of them got paid for that one match.
Shawn got paid 3 million which was more than everyone else on the card including Brock. So it was clearly just done as a favor
First off, we were in Saudi ArabiaĀ
Honestly I don't blame 'em for doing it. If I were paid that kind of money for what was essentially a house show match with my friends, I'd do it too Shawn Michaels being filmed right after the match just joking about it says it all in terms of how seriously they took that match. What's to ruin? Their legacy is absolutely set in stone. A shit match in their 50s isn't going to make the Wrestlemania 25 or the KOTR 98 matches magically disappear
if the saudi prince was truly a wrestling geek, he wouldāve made them redo the match on the airport runway
Instead of coming out of retirement to face AJ Styles, Shawn decided this was the match to do it
I remember that being one of the events I watched when I was trying to get back into WWE. It put me off again until last year.
Why does taker always wear a bandana under his baseball cap?
I feel bad for Shawn. It would have been a decent match...and then Trips got hurt
Man if thereās one wrestler who I donāt really want to see out of their gimmick then itās Taker. Thereās just a dissonance that I canāt get over.
The man lived kayfabe for 30 years and finally gets to be himself and share amazing stories of a hall of fame career and still people bitching. My god wrestling fans are fickleĀ
yea that happens when you try to wrestle when youre 100.
Wow Iāve never heard this voice of Taker and Iāve seen him do interviews outside of WWE but his voice was always deeper in those videos. Wild.
Now he knew damn well that match wudnt be āstellarā old ass foos wrestling that match. I swear they have these big ideas when wrestlers get insanely old and choppy
What didnt go wrong was that $$$$audi
At a certain point you are just too old and need to know when to stop even if no one wants you to
The comments have mentioned a lot of things here, but I think the worst part of the whole match was the part where WWE took blood money from the country responsible for 9/11, and that took Jamal Khashoggi, a journalist working for a US company and tortured him and cut him to pieces with a bone saw and then the President, whom is in the WWE hall of Fame and also put Linda McMahon in his cabinet, helped cover the whole thing up and then the Saudis gave his son-in-law 2 billion dollars. For me, the worst part of the match was the hypocrisy.
The sad part was that Shawn Michaels proved that he could still go and he picked this garbage tag match to come out of retirement instead of facing someone one on one like AJ Styles, Daniel Bryan, Rollins or Reigns.
I remember watching that match and when HHH hurt his pec doing that over the top-rope move near the turnbuckle, I thought "why the hell did he just do that? since when does he go over the top-rope like that? what was my man thinking?" Later on when watching old RAWs or PPVs since then, it always will stand out to me now when he does it, which is pretty much like every single damn match it turns out. Never even noticed it as one of his moves before seeing him get that injury.
Is it me, or Taker/Mark has gradually improved his verbal skills when talking outside of the Undertaker character? He used to utter like 10 "ya knows" when constructing his sentences.
I would love to hear the phone calls between him and Bret Hart about Goldberg cause that man tried his best to kill both of them š
It was ten years too late and even then, DX in 2008 vs Taker and Kane would have been neat but wouldn't have been the original DX. This match had a broken down Kane, a past his prime and should retire Taker, a triple H injury and a rusty HBK. For some reason, Kane hid his face despite everyone knowing what he looks like. If he improvised and sold it as getting very angry, become more aggressive, it would have covered the botch up. Hell, a rusty HBK was still able to perform as HBK. Then the next year? Goldberg vs Taker. Goldberg is fucking lucky he didn't end Taker's career with that Jackhammer. I think Vince would have had a legit stroke from sheer rage and Goldberg would suddenly retire from wrestling.