The thing with Starrcade 1999 is, it’s a lot more nuanced than anybody that retroactively narrates likes to get into.
Bret Hart has acknowledged in some interviews and then not others that Goldberg plainly calls the spot and Goldberg has done the kick in every match before and he’s done it in every match virtually since, but the problem is Bret put his hands up too late he actually wind up, sliding Goldberg’s leg higher up then it was supposed to go and if you slow it down, there’s a video on Stevie Richards’ channel when he actually shows you the Goldberg was looking directly at Bret’s chin, and that’s where his foot would’ve went if it wasn’t for Brett accidentally being out of position and putting his hands up the way he did.
Now, here’s where some of the nuance comes in though because it’s not even Bret’s fault that he wasn’t completely aware of how to take the kick because I am like 99% positive Bret Hart was already concussed before this even happened. The kick is what tore the muscle off the back of his neck, but the man actually was already concussed and if you go back earlier in the match Bret does that famous figure four spot on the outside around the ring post but Bret falls mid spot and cracks his head hard on the concrete. You can tell from that point forward Bret is dazed and he’s constantly rubbing his eyes and looking into the lights. This is why the kick spot was miscommunicated. Bret received two severe concussions in the span of 20 minutes.
And the most troubling thing is he never saw a physician so he wrestled for two more weeks and definitely got a third concussion taking a Powerbomb from Sid Vicious after a match with Kevin Nash. Bret says he saw a million stars because his head bounced off the mat from the Powerbomb. Bret isn’t as sure but he probably also received a fourth concussion from a hardcore match with Terry Funk.
If Bret wasn’t blindly like swallowing painkillers and still continuing to wrestle. He probably would’ve only needed to take a couple months off or maybe a half a year because the kicked did mess up the back of his head pretty bad, but it was the four concussions in row, that gave him post concussion syndrome.
