What’s the story?
It has been revealed by WrestleTalkTV that Vince McMahon was reportedly furious and upset backstage with Goldberg’s “bleeding” promo on RAW this past week. Although there might not be any repercussions for Goldberg considering his current booking, the fact still stands.
Vince McMahon, being the owner of the WWE, takes the company’s commitment to providing family-friendly PG content very seriously and has also previously expressed his disappointment with similar incidents.
Here’s the complete promo by Goldberg, which also featured appearances by Brock Lesnar and The Undertaker:
In case you didn’t know...
Goldberg appeared on the 23rd January 2017 edition of Monday Night Raw in the closing segment of the broadcast. As he made his entrance, Goldberg could be very clearly seen bleeding from his forehead. The bleeding continued throughout the promo of his that followed.
Not only was Goldberg bleeding from his forehead, but he also appeared to not completely be in his senses as he slurred his lines and had to collect his composure before he could go on with his promo.
Goldberg even jokingly blamed the audience for not being in sync with their chants and causing the debacle.
The heart of the matter
The WWE produces all of their television programming under the TV-PG guidelines. Under the said guidelines, the display of blood on live television is disallowed and frowned upon. WWE’s sponsors and partners, too, continue to associate themselves with WWE due to the child and family-friendly nature of their programming.
Goldberg was seen bleeding from his forehead during his live appearance on the 23rd January 2017 edition on SmackDown.
With no cause to explain the possible origin of the injury, commentators Byron Saxton, Michael Cole and Corey Graves attributed it to Goldberg’s pre-match ritual of headbutting the locker room door on his way to the ring.
Goldberg started his promo and slurred a few of his lines before finally gaining his composure and carrying on with the promo as planned. Despite this, however, Goldberg’s forehead continued to bleed and he was only able to fix it up with some vaseline when the cameras panned to Brock Lesnar making his entrance.
A video of the act, which was taken by a fan can be seen below, the video also includes footage from what happened in the ring after the show went off-air:
Vince McMahon, as we’ve previously explained in this article, is very particular about keeping the content on WWE Television as family and child-friendly as possible, in line with the TV-PG rating of their shows and the company’s association with their sponsors.
According to WrestleTalkTV, not only was Vince McMahon unhappy with Goldberg being busted open on live television, but it was reported that Vince McMahon wasn’t very high on Goldberg’s mic skills in the first place.
McMahon’s lack of faith in Goldberg’s mic skills goes all the way back to Goldberg’s first run with the company. However, since Goldberg has returned on WWE television, he has been getting a lot of time on the mic, with the majority of his appearances coming by the way of promos.
What’s next?
Goldberg will be taking on 29 other competitors at the Royal Rumble to try and secure his road to Wrestlemania as a challenger for one of the World titles.
Being a past favourite to win the match, Goldberg certainly has what it takes to be able to walk away with the win at the Rumble. With the WWE Universe firmly behind him and his popularity currently being off the charts, the Rumble match could have some other favourable outcomes for the veteran Superstar as well.
Vince McMahon, on the other hand, will be focusing his energies on ensuring that WWE’s second biggest event of the year goes without a hitch.
Sportskeeda’s take
Wrestling and blood used to go hand in hand before the PG-era of the WWE came along. People might argue that bleeding was what made wrestling believable and intense enough to warrant a watch in the first place, but it is not to say that the practice didn’t have its’ shortcomings.
The unsafe “blading” practices, which wrestlers would partake in, in order to make themselves bleed, have had several severe health consequences for several wrestlers. Including the mass transit incident with New Jack and with Canadian wrestler Hannibal getting an HIV infection from Abdullah the Butcher as a result of blading.
While the opinion on the practice of blading and blood, in general, remains divided when it comes to professional wrestling, it is safe to say that not having blood on live television is probably in everyone’s best interests, as far as the health and well-being of the performers is concerned.
To wrap it all up, however, here’s what the big man Goldberg himself had to say about the incident, in an Instagram post:
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