There's an old saying that goes: you never really retire from professional wrestling. Sure, performers will hang up their boots and say goodbye, with The Undertaker famously riding off into the sunset at the end of his Boneyard Match with AJ Styles, “Machine Gun” Karl Anderson, and Luke Gallows, securing one last win in what many consider the best cinematic match of all time, but even he has remained a part of the WWE Universe, with his 1 deadMAN SHOW becoming a fixture of Premium Live Event weekends and a few appearances on WWE television for good measure too like at RAW XXX.
Discussing his life after professional wrestling in a special interview with The Independent to help promote his show at the end of June in England, Taker was asked if he ever misses getting in the ring. Unsurprisingly, Taker noted that he does, and even gave a specific example of when he really wanted to hop the proverbial rails and get back to business.
“I’ve got to the point now where if I’m home, I’m fine. It’s when I do show up at a WWE event I get that ‘I should be getting ready’ feeling,” Taker said via Cageside seats. “At WrestleMania 39, I was there, and I had my family and friends up in a suite watching the show, and I kind of found myself rocking in my chair like, ‘Oh, my gosh, I should be down there.’ So in those instances, it’s there. It’s still in my heart, and it’s in my brain.”
Asked if there were any performers he would specifically like to throw down with in the ring right now, Undertaker overachieved again, noting not one but two of WWE's top stars as guys he'd like to take to the mat.
“I would love to be healthy enough to have a match now with Roman Reigns,” Undertaker said. “When we worked at [WrestleMania 33], I was on my last legs. And he wasn’t he wasn’t nearly the performer that he is now.
“And then another guy that I would love to have worked with would be Seth Rollins. He’s just an incredible in-ring talent. And now he’s got this really flamboyant character, which would have been a really interesting contrast between the doom and gloom of The Undertaker and his over-the-top character.”
Would 2023 Undertaker be a good opponent for either “The Tribal Chief” or “The Visionary?” In a word, yes; Taker called out WWE's two World Champions, and arguably its two biggest stars, and as a result, either could add a massive notch in their belt with a win over The Deadman. Will it happen? I mean, probably not, but then again, if Reigns is still the Undisputed WWE Universal Champion at WrestleMania 40, he's eventually going to need some new opponents, even old opponents who haven't wrestled in a few years.
Undertaker comments on the mixed reactions he's received from his live show.
Turning his attention to the One deadMan Show, this time in an interview with The Manchester Evening News, Undertaker noted that while most fans seem to really enjoy his show, it hasn't been universally approved, as some really don't like him breaking Kayfabe to talk candidly about his career.
“It’s so funny, because I was the last guy that put that kind of effort into protecting the business and protecting a character,” Taker said. “It’s so funny the amount of hate that I’ve got, from people now, you know, they hear my normal voice, and me talk about normal things,” Taker said via Wrestling Headlines.
“The hate that I get because people feel like I destroyed their childhood, and I’m like, ‘me!?, me!? I was the last one. I was the last one, I’m the guy you’re gonna take you’re heat out on?'”
Noting one area in particular that really seems to get on fans' bad sides, Taker mentioned his voice, which isn't the same spooky one he used on television over the better part of three decades, comparing it to a Hall of Fame speech he gave a few years back.
“Once I gave the speech at Hall of Fame, that’s when we figured that we might have something as far as a show or the ability to connect with the audience a different way,” he said. “Because I had two options, if I want to stay involved in the industry, I’ve got to evolve, what does that Undertaker character bring if you don’t get into the ring?” Undertaker said.
“Either I completely remove myself and let the legacy of the character move on. Or, I have 30 plus years of life experience, stories, funny stories, sad stories, insight on things that had happened to me through the years, and I wasn’t really ready to be done with the business.”
Though Kayfabe is dead, to some fans, seeing an iconic character like The Undertaker step out of his signature mystique to talk turkey, wearing a buttoned-up shirt and khakis is a step too far. Fortunately, that just leaves a few more tickets for the rest of the fans who do want to hear what Mark Calaway has to say.
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