When it comes to true blue wrestling gimmicks, The Undertaker is in a class of his own.
A spooky concept, a funeral undertaker turned living “Deadman” who haunted performers across multiple angles over parts of four decades – including his time as the “American Bada**,” which was scary for a different reason – Taker has transcended the job gimmicks that flew fast and free during the golden age of WWF and became a cultural icon all his own.
But now, as time inches further and further away from Mark Calaway's final match in the Boneyard against AJ Styles, Luke Gallows, and Karl Anderson, could The Undertaker – the character, not the man – return to the WWE Universe moving forward, with the potential for 10 years, 20 years, or even longer as a major player in the WWE Universe? Jeff Jarrett certainly thinks so, as, on his My World podcast, he suggested that it's only a matter of time.
“Buddy, timing is everything, and creative is subjective. But can you imagine, and again, when I say timing, I'm not talking about the mechanics of a match. I'm talking about the whole essence of a storyline and the build, and again, you have, I'll just use… can you imagine the right set of circumstances, the gong go off, the Undertaker's gong? Look, Mark's doing one-man shows now, and he's very active, [he has a] podcast and all that. So maybe today the time isn't right, I don't know. But do I think it's a real possibility? I think it's almost a guarantee [that someone else does the Undertaker character],” Jeff Jarrett asked via Fightful.
“It wouldn't be possible, in this case, without Mark's incredible run. Same with, there's multiple situations and instances in Mexico with this. It's the nature of the beast. As a creative guy, man, that would be fun to write and book and everything that goes with it.”
On paper, if WWE really wanted to bring back The Undertaker character, they do actually have a very recent example from which Paul Levesque could take inspiration from, as The Great Muta reproduced via mist spray in Pro Wrestling Noah, with his daughter, The Great Sakuya, now continuing the gimmick her “father” perfected over a similarly lengthy run across global professional wrestling. If WWE wanted to do another Undertaker – which they shouldn't – all they would need to do is have someone else pick up the earn and have its magical powers passed along to them, be that an unknown performer fresh out of the PC or an established star like Alexa Bliss looking for a massive gimmick change.
Jeff Jarrett isn't ready to call it a career just yet.
Elsewhere on his My World podcast, Jeff Jarrett discussed the end of his professional wrestling journey, and whether or not he'd like to go out in a major way like Sting, his fellow professional journeyman-turned-AEW coworker. While that day will inevitably come for Jarrett, as it does for everyone, he isn't thinking about it right now, as he's simply having too much fun in his current role.
“Honestly, I have not. I don't, I truly don't. We've said this. Rewind to even 2018, when I did the Royal Rumble and did a couple of things before I went into my full-time with those guys. I even thought in my head, I thought okay, that's probably it. Maybe a cameo here and there, but I thought that. That's six years ago. It's crazy. So I would have never dreamed, Ric's Flair's last match, how all that rolled out. Would have never dreamed that. So I definitely have no idea. Don't give it any thought. I used to take things one year at a time. Now I just kind of take it a day at a time,” Jeff Jarret said via Fightful.
“I'm enjoying the h*ll [out of] what I'm doing. I think we, the group, it is an unusual group that has a dynamic that I've really never been a part of. Satnam, he is truly one-in-a-billion, and Jay's skill set, Karen's skill set, Sonjay's skill set, it's a unique package. We can be in a single, you can take any three of us, Jay was in the Continental Classic tournament just fine. You can take Satnam and give him a single run. You can give me the one-offs like I've done against Orange Cassidy or the Texas Chainsaw. You can tag me and Jay up, and I think you can tag me and Satnam up, or Jay and Satnam up and let me manage. Just the climate in 2024, I think we're diverse and can plug and play just about anywhere. We did a flaming tables match on Collision. So no, I really don't give it any thought.”
When AEW initially signed Double J, it was predominantly for a non-wrestling role, helping to get shows together as Tony Khan's Director of Business Development. Since then, however, Jarrett has found a niche with his merry band of weirdos, a crew that isn't exactly popular but does fill a niche within the AEW Galaxy. All in all, it was an interesting development for a performer who thought he was done over a half-decade ago.
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