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When it comes to talks of WWE Mount Rushmores, The Undertaker's name is usually a pretty safe bet to come up in the conversation.
A dynamic, durable, dedicated “Deadman” who had one of the greatest gimmicks of all time, found a way to reinvent himself successfully despite being tied to said gimmick and even earned praise for winning every WrestleMania match he appeared in for the better part of 30 years, an incredible feat that will probably never be replicated.
And yet, just because fans consider Taker an all-timer doesn't mean he can't have his own Mount Rushmore of WWE Superstars, too, as his insight into the inner workings of the business are top notch, as are his experiences working against some of the biggest names in professional wrestling history.
Discussing his Mount Rushmore on his Six Feet Under podcast, The Undertaker explained why Andre The Giant, Hulk Hogan, Ric Flair, and “Stone Cold” Steve Austin all deserve a spot on his list, but, interestingly enough, he also took some time to explain why a few other Superstars, including one of his biggest rivals ever, Shawn Michaels, didn't make the cut.
“So that's how I come up with my Mount Rushmore because people always ask me, “You love Shawn Michaels, working with Shawn Michael. You say Shawn Michaels.' Shawn Michaels was great. There's nobody in the ring better than Shawn Michaels, but Shawn Michaels didn't have as big an influence on the industry as a whole and an impact,” Undertaker said via 411 Mania. “Same with Bret Hart. Bret Hart in the ring, I mean nobody better than Bret Hart in the ring, but you, it's just what your impact is on the industry. That's how I come up with mine and that's why — I think that's the same with with Jake. You know if you give me, if you narrow my Mount Rushmore down like give me the Mount Rushmore of heels or something like that, yeah, then you're going to put a Jake The Snake in there, or you just need to be a little more specific, but if you go to Mount Rushmore, that's the way I think about it. It's not skill or what you can do in the ring. It's what your influence over the whole industry was.”
Is The Undertaker correct that HBK wasn't influential enough to be considered for a spot on Mount Rushmore? Maybe, but come on, when you consider Michaels and Taker wrestled not one but two of the greatest WrestleMania matches of all time together, he probably deserves a little more consideration than Hart or even Roberts based on personal history alone.
The Undertaker reflects on his feud with Mick Foley.
Elsewhere on his Six Feet Under podcast, The Undertaker reflected on his WWE pairing with Mick Foley during his time under the Mankind moniker. While some fans will remember that feud for the big matches and brutal spots like being thrown off of Hell in a Cell, for Taker, the feud was more about psychology, as the matches needed to make sense to really “work.”
“With Mick and Mankind always, my image and my understanding of it is like, ‘I will do this to myself. Just so that I can do this to you.' That was Mick's mentality, right? That was the story that he was telling. I'm going to endure this much pain, which is going to be… it's going to be monumental pain, just to inflict a little bit of pain on you,” The Undertaker noted via TJR.
“When you started thinking about that kind of mindset, how deranged an individual does he have to be to do those kind of things? I would wear him out. And then he would get on the apron and take a stick or a pencil and jabbing into his leg and he'd pull his hair out. That's just next-level commitment.
“But it all made sense into his tormented mindset and that's what made it so believable. Then you have this indestructible force called the Undertaker. Like this guy is going to kill himself. This guy will torture himself to torture this person.”
You know, if we're going to make a Mount Rushmore of The Undertaker's personal feuds, Foley would probably have to be on that list alongside HBK, Kane, and… either Randy Orton or Triple H due to that Hell in a Cell match alone. Factor in everything else the duo did together, and honestly, Foley deserves more credit for helping to make Undertaker the legend he is, was, and will forever be.
