Even The Undertaker was nervous to pitch certain character ideas to Vince McMahon.
On a recent episode of Six Feet Under with Mark Calaway, WWE Hall of Famer The Undertaker spoke about the evolution of The Deadman to the American Badass.
“That was what I was probably the most nervous about,” The Undertaker admitted. “[Not just] the night that I would debut it, but the actually telling Vince that what do you think about this? Right? And I was shocked because I worked myself to a — like my stomach was upset because I knew I was gonna have to go to him and say, ‘Hey, this is what I would like to do.’ And I was totally expecting him to go, ‘There’s no damn way. I don’t want my Undertaker’s — no, you’ll be fine. Yeah, screw all those guys talking and cutting those great promos.’ That’s what I’m expecting.
“And I finally have a meeting with him, and it’s like, ‘Boss, this is what I’m thinking.’ And I explained my reasoning for it, and it was like, ‘God damn, that’s good. That’s great.’ And I’m thinking it’s a rib, right? I’m like, okay, here comes the punch line, right? He’s about to pull the rug right out from underneath me. But he felt it too.
The Undertaker considers himself to be a storyteller
“And it’s crazy because we kind of had the same vision, knowing the vintage aspect of it. And I’ve never really considered myself from the time I became Undertaker. I never considered myself really a professional wrestler or a sports entertainer. I’m a storyteller, man. Everything that I did was about telling the story and being able to switch The Undertaker character into this more human character.
“And also knowing in the back of my mind that something somewhere along the line is going to happen, and I’m going to have to go back to that guy, and it’s going to be brand new all over again. That was my whole vision from the beginning. And that’s the way that it ended up working out.”
When asked if it was always his intention to return to The Deadman character down the line, Taker believed there would be a storyline at some point that would bring the character back.
“I felt like that it would,” The Undertaker said. “I didn’t have like, okay, I’m going to do this for a certain amount of years, and then I’m going to flip the switch. [But] I always knew that something along the way was going to happen storyline-wise that would bring me back to that character.”
READ MORE: The Undertaker Reflects On Scary Pyro Accident At Elimination Chamber 2010
What do you make of The Undertaker’s comments? Did you enjoy The American Badass character? Let us know your thoughts by sounding off in the comments section below.
If you use these quotes, please credit Six Feet Under with a link to this article for the transcription.
