On this day in Pro Wrestling history on December 19, 1999, Ted Turner’s World Championship Wrestling aired ‘WCW Starrcade 1999’ LIVE on PPV from the MCI Center in Washington, DC.
This was the 17th annual Starrcade event out of 18 that aired between 1983 and 2000 with the first 5 being promoted by Jim Crockett Promotions, before Turner bought the company.
During the main event, WWF / WCW Legend Bret Hart suffered a concussion after getting superkicked by Goldberg. This eventually resulted in Hart’s in-ring career coming to an end in 2000.
You can watch it below:
On the episode titled “Nature Of The Business” on Confessions Of The Hitman podcast, Bret talked about Goldberg hurting him in the ring and the kick that resulted in the end of his career.
Bret noted that Goldberg’s kick resulted in him losing $15 million:
“The kick was the work of a total – like, somebody who had absolutely no skill at all. He literally threw me into the ropes and tried to kick my head off my shoulders. Like, there was no working aspect to it. There’s no way you can do it without hurting somebody, and the thing with Bill was that all the ‘I’m sorries’ in the world don’t mean anything when you hurt somebody for real.
It ended my career, and one of the things that always bothered me about Bill was about a year after he hurt me – which he never called me and he never talked to me about it. He never called to see how I was doing or anything like that, but he did say when I saw him about a year after I got hurt, in fact a few weeks before [WCW] terminated my contract, I remember he said to me, ‘it’s the nature of the business – we all know what can happen out there. It’s the nature of the business.’
I’m like, ‘naw, it’s not the nature of the business. The nature of the business is to not hurt the guy you’re working with. That’s your first priority.’
If I hadn’t got hurt when I did – they ended my [contract]. I hung on ’til it wasn’t quite a year; I hung on for 10 months and then they sacked me. But [WWE] bought out WCW and the guys that both got paid out where Goldberg and [Hulk] Hogan. They both got paid out in full in their contract what was owed to them by Ted Turner as part of the deal.
I would have been part of that deal. I would have been paid out in full. I wouldn’t have to go back and work for WWE. I wouldn’t have to have had to work for anybody. I would have cashed in and made $15 million. But because Goldberg’s kick ended my career, they terminated me 10 months after I got hurt and I never got anything. My contract was null and void.
If I couldn’t wrestle within six weeks, you’re done. And it’s one of those loopholes in my contract, but my contract was always with Ted Turner – not with WCW, and that was the key. That’s what Hogan had and that’s what Goldberg had. They had their contracts with Ted Turner.
So that little clumsy kick by Bill Goldberg cost me $15 million in like, 10 seconds. And not only that, I mean, I was in a really serious concussed state for almost two years. And a little over two years later, or in that two year span, I suffered a stroke while riding my bicycle and I took an innocent tumble off my bike on the grass. But it was all tied in. I’m sure it was all tied in to the kick in the head. I never had any problems with my head.
I had to sue Lloyd’s Of London for my settlement, which they did everything humanly possible to not pay me. I don’t think that’s something common to all insurance companies, but they just flat out refused to pay me and said I had a history of concussions that I had kept secret from them, which was actually never the case.
I was never diagnosed with a concussion, nor do I remember ever having any.
In [pro] wrestling, you’re not allowed to kick somebody in the head as hard as you can; nobody’s going to last. There wouldn’t be any wrestlers. If everyone wrestled the way Bill Goldberg did, there wouldn’t be enough people for the show the next week.
When Bill Goldberg kicked me, I could see stars. Then, when I had my stroke, lying on the grass 100 feet from The Pumphouse Theatre on the Bow River there, on the bike path, I remember lying on the grass and I could see just out of my left eye, not the right one. The right eye was fine, but the left eye, it was the same thing. It was a million stars in my left eye, and I remember going, ‘the concussion’.
[Goldberg] was a gorilla. [Goldberg] was a guy that nobody seemed to have taught how wrestling really works. He seemed to think he could just pick a guy up and just slam him through the mat as hard as you could and that was good wrestling. But I always liked Bill as a person. His wrestling, his work rate was 0/10. Like, everything he did hurt – everything! He could tie up with you and hurt you. He’d tie up with himself and hurt himself!
Bill was one of those types of guys that I don’t think understood ever that it’s supposed to look like it hurt but it’s not supposed to really hurt. And he had so many people praising him because he’d run you over like a car. Like, he’d football tackle you with no pads on.
He’s all jacked up and roided up, and he’s about 280 lbs. You might as well have a real car just drive over top of you. He’d line up and just run you down, knock you down, and hurt guys. I asked, ‘how does he do that without hurting everybody?’ And everybody he worked with would come to the back holding their ribs. Guys would have tears in their eyes from how much pain they were in, and he was a really reckless and a dangerous guy to wrestle.”
Also Read: Bret Hart Made Late WWF Legend Tap Out In A Real-Life Wrestling Match
Below are the results from the PPV:
– The Mamalukes defeated Disco Inferno & Lash LeRoux
– WCW Cruiserweight Championship: Madusa defeated Evan Karagias (c)
– WCW Hardcore Championship: Norman Smiley (c) defeated Meng
– The Revolution defeated Jim Duggan & The Varsity Club
– Vampiro defeated Steve Williams via DQ
– Vampiro defeated Oklahoma
– Creative Control & Curt Hennig defeated Harlem Heat & Midnight
– Bunkhouse Brawl: Jeff Jarrett defeated Dustin Rhodes
– Crowbar on a Pole: Diamond Dallas Page defeated David Flair
– Sting defeated Lex Luger via DQ
– Powerbomb match: Kevin Nash defeated Sid Vicious
– Ladder match – WCW United States Heavyweight Championship: Chris Benoit (c) defeated Jeff Jarrett
– No DQ – WCW World Heavyweight Championship: Bret Hart (c) defeated Goldberg
WATCH: Scarlett Bordeaux’s Super Hot Buns:
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