A pre-match headbutt to the dressing room door and a head-first sprint into the ring post turned the main event of WWE’s Super ShowDown in Saudi Arabia into a dangerous mess of bloody scalps, accidental head drops, nearly broken necks. A bout between a 54-year old man and a 52-year old man doesn’t get better when you add concussions, for which wrestling legend Bill Goldberg has already apologized for on social media.
The latest wrinkle in the story is fan footage showing Goldberg being so badly concussed that he’s unable to leave the ring under his own power, and is seen collapsing at ringside. You can see the short video below.
Goldberg has a strange history of concussing himself with door and locker headbutts dating back to his time in WCW, to the point that for most of his run he had a tiny trickle of blood on his forehead whenever you saw him. The most famous incident is probably from an episode of Raw only a few days before the 2017 Royal Rumble, wherein he badly concussed himself during his pre-match ritual, bled on television without provocation, and cut an incoherent promo because, you know, he’d smashed his brains into a door.
Afterward, he announced on Instagram that he was “putting the pre-match headbutt on the shelf,” with an unfortunate, “for now,” modifier.
“Going out a limb …. but I’m putting the pre match headbutt on the shelf for now… kinda made me a bit loopy out there. #learnfromurmistakes #whosnext #every1isnext #royalrumble”
Let’s hope the pre-match headbutt goes on the shelf forever now, for everybody.
